Holiday

The August bank holiday

And it’s teeming down with rain

There’re rivers by the roadside

Gurgling down the drains

Each garden blade of grass

Is soaked with glistening drops

And you run the puddle gauntlet

When you go out to the shops

The freezer’s full of burgers

Salmon fillets and chicken wings

The fridge’s relish and coleslaw chocked

Along with other salad things

You wonder what you were thinking

When you had to go and say

Let’s all have a B-B-Q

On the August bank holiday

Smell

A death smell lingers
From the abandoned truck
The putrid remains
Of desperation
Of bad luck

We can never know
That raging belief
To gamble so much
On fate
On a thief

Their tragedy is silence
Unknown and unspoken
Showing fractures
In a world
That is broken

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34083337

Arms

A tragedy encased in gunmetal
It's a slippery subject
Like gunoil
As the sliding parts
Of each side
Work themselves
Into an explosive fury

For some, each event
Is a warning shot
That says there should
Be more control
For others
A national safety catch
Is a restriction,
A stripping down
Of their rights and freedoms

Whatever the firearm future holds
The residues of murder
Of premature deaths and suicides
Remain upon the fingertips
Of administrators
As each calamity
Rings out and echos
Across a nation

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/opinion/lessons-from-the-murders-of-tv-journalists-in-the-virginia-shooting.html?_r=0

Human

What special apes we are
The powers we hold
With our minds
The ideas we store
In our hands

Lives we can transform
And fates redirect
We could call ourselves Gods
If not for humility

And one wonders
What we can and will achieve
When we finally realise
How incredible
Each and every one of us is

Up

Maybe I am a romantic fool
But surely you should take pride
In what you do
Have a goal you want to achieve
Or you might as well get up...
And leave

Maybe by hoping you become ripe for a fall
Thinking the best of others like banging
Your head to a wall
If enthusiasm won't pick them up in the flow
Then you might as well get up...
And go

Maybe life is there to make you weep
Positivity is a hard frame of mind
In which to keep
And if you can't feel the joy and fun
Well, you might as well get up...
And run

Maybe these feelings will drift away
That somewhere down the line
Is a bright sunny day
But if the present won't keep you satisfied and alert
Then you might as well get up...
And desert

Atmosphere

Sultry sensation
Of humid, breathless, mornings
Thickened atmosphere

Edgy mutterings
Within uneasy quarters
Pressure unrelieved

And as it lingers
With potential storm building
Raindrops are required

Accusation

From out of the blue, an accusation
A lightning fork from the sky
And with it there is no explanation
No reason to tell you why

Words on a screen that make you shake
Upset and emotions take hold
Lying in bed, worried, awake
With replies that're best left untold

So now you wait for it to be resolved
Say your piece when given a chance
You might find out how the matter evolved
And whose tune is leading this dance

Fictions

Do they truly despise the poor
Or have they spun a web of lies
To deceive themselves into a war
Which they could not have fought
If ever they attempted
To spare a thought for their victims

Fictions cannot be strange to them
Evidenced by their depictions
Of the so-called-lazy, and work shy
Simply caricatures dreamed up
By crazy, swivel-eyed loons
But it's them it lampoons

And so to their latest foray
Showing that nothing
Will get in their way, not even
Double speak and misrepresentation
To sneak in a story
To deceive and distract
In which can be found no basis or fact

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/18/dwp-admits-making-up-positive-quotes-from-benefits-claimants-for-leaflet

Needed

Isn't an opposition supposed to oppose?
To disagree, to sometimes propose
An alternative way, a different route
And sometimes, when needed, to stick in the boot

To stand up for those who didn't vote for the victor
To show how the policy can be both looser and stricter
Not simply to abstain, or acquiesce
Bu when needed, to shout, and make a protest

They don't have to be at odds with everything said
But neither to jump in and share the same bed
Those wielding power have an obligation
While opposition is needed for the good of the nation

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gordon-brown-wades-into-labour-leadership-race-and-urges-them-to-become-a-credible-party-once-more-10457922.html

Jobswap

Rather than sending
These out of work teens
On courses to fill forms
They should start the reforms
On the House of has-beens

It'd be so much cheaper
To pension them off
Giving work experience
For very little difference
Between job-seeker and toff

Neither of them work
But some out of choice
And though it might sound crazy
It's not the poor who are lazy
They just don't have a voice

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/17/unemployed-young-people-work-boot-camp-tory-minister

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33947758

Begin

When will we begin
To see the humanity
In each other
When will we call
Our fellow life travellers
Sister and Brother

When will we choose
To give our help
To those in need
When will we end
Prejudice and discrimination
Suffering and greed

When will we learn
To share our little world
In love and peace
When will we stop
War and conflict
Let aggression cease

When will we build
A safe home
Of which we can be proud
When will the future
For our children
Be endowed

Despair

The waking hours are salt packed
Dried out and conserved
Bittersweet like tears
That won't run for the reserved

The nights drawn out and endless
A charcoal riven streak
Colours your brain like black lung
Rigidly antique

The cycles becoming spirals
Dragging you despairingly down
You've been peddled an event horizon
An ill-fitting black hole gown

Clouds

These black tinged
Grey puffy
Billowing fluffy clouds
Seem intent
On smothering us
In our sleep
Stifling our lungs
With their closeness
Like crowding bullies

They threaten
To drown us
With their drip dropping
Chinese water torture
Raindrops
Hovering with a weight
Of airy mountains
Ready to spill
Their baggage
Like overweight travellers

And as they brood
Like sultry teenagers
Or squabbling lovers
Their brows
Could darken further
Into a furrowed storm
Or their cares
Could disperse
With the breeze
Into a sun-tinged
Blue skied smile

Flies

You smile and you shriek
When you see me
We play hide and seek

With legs going pump
You run in a circle
Then you decide to jump

There is so much glee
In your face
I can't help feeling happy

Then you make my day
When you reach for a hug
And the world flies away

British

We are becoming
An island fortress
Of barbed wire coasts
Border police and violence
Arrest and discrimination
Living in constant fear
Of a never ending unknown
A threat that fingers its way
Into our privacy
Where everyone else
Is a potential enemy
And source of danger
While as individuals
We develop prickles
To keep the world at bay
Firewalls disconnect
From our personality
And our humanity
War-fleeing refugees
Are marauding swarms
While the sick and vulnerable
And victims of violence
Are the feckless workshy
Thus our fabled British values
Can be summed up
"Hold what you have
Fight to keep it
And damnation
To the rest of the world"

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/09/african-migrants-threaten-eu-standard-living-philip-hammond

Upset

A tantrum from nowhere

From out of the void

Something I’ve said

Has got you annoyed

Probably that simple word

That all parents know

The opposite to "Yes"

So you stamp on my toe

Or pull at my clothes

Take a bite of my arm

When a few moments ago

You were happy and calm

The tears now are streaming

You scream and you shout

With a whine that continues

As you run about

But because I love you

I set down my mug

Put out my arms

And reach for a hug

You sigh at my shoulder

Bury your head in my neck

Holding me tight

Leaning back for a peck

Though still I’m confused

There’s no reason or rhyme

For most of these upset’s

There’ll still be a next time

Survival

It's the monetisation
Of survival
And of health
Where those allowed to live
Are those
With the wealth
If you're too poor to pay
I'm afraid
You'll have to die
The excuse
"We can't afford it"
The reason why
So isn't it time
To have diseases defeated
To say whoever
And wherever you are
You'll be treated

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11788507/NHS-accused-of-shambles-as-dying-cancer-sufferers-denied-drugs.html

Courses

We should all set up camp
On the golf course.
At least the ones who see
The ramping up
Of rental fees.
While the old-timers
Swing to their hearts content.
Oh! To own a tent
And our bit of green.
If all the golf courses
Were paved over
With more than just good intentions.
Then a saved deposit
Might be worth more
Than just an iron
In the overheated
Housing market furnace.

http://blog.shelter.org.uk/2013/11/a-fair-way-do-we-prioritise-golf-or-homes/

Grey

We all have our dark places
The black-as-night holes
We descend into
Feet and minds trapped
In pitch and tar
Ears clogged with treacle
To avoid a semblance of truth

Nothing is really
Black or white
And to vacillate between the two
Is to self-defeat ourselves
Into beaten disappointment
There is only grey
In shades of elephants and concrete
Bleak and beautiful in one