Split

To die alone
In our society
Is becoming more
Of a normality

Families split
And we live apart
We remain that way
Until our souls depart

So where's the love?
And the friendship bonds?
The community
To which our heart responds?

We are not islands
We need one another
Parent to child
Sister to brother

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34943805

Fallacy

What has happened to democracy

When they commit this kind of fallacy

They don’t realise they only represent

The people; The one’s they’re trying to circumvent

And a process which attempts to find

Opinion; The state of the public’s mind

They’d prefer to dictate like the King’s of old

When serf’s had to do as they were told

But they bring themselves into disrepute

When they should be a little more astute

If they listened to what the public deem

Then they might be held in higher esteem

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/29/labour-split-on-bombing-syria 

Blotted

Dreams of scorpions
As large as inky lobsters
Scuttle through my
Cloud blotted daylight brain.
Murky morning pervades all
As the Sun is tucked up
In bed awaiting solstice
In a new light year's dawning
Winter beckons; It's cold touch
Gutters the candle
Dripping wax
And sounding it's death; The raven croaks
Alongside rumbling engines
Under coal-dust skies

Fight

Every generation
Has to fight anew
For rights clawed back
By the powerful few

For each victory brings
It's own decade's defeat
The battle of the classes
Remains on repeat

Some say there's progress
Some say it's worse
But opinion is relative
To the size of their purse

Aren't we all human?
Can't we see we're the same?
And in the end there's no winner
To this pointless game

Rage

Where is the rage?
Where is the bile?
The poorest are suffering
And all of the while
The bankers get richer
Who created this mess
And politicians collude
To greater excess

Food banks are growing
Low pay is the norm
Benefits are cut
But the press misinform
They're not shirkers or scroungers
At least no more than the Royals
But as stereotyped villains
All our charity recoils

So where is the sympathy?
Our instinct to care
Where's the compassion?
Or do we not dare
To give into humanity
Let the ills flood in
Lest we get confused
As to where to begin

So we'll hide in our homes
We won't take to the streets
We'll stick on our SKY Box
And brand them all cheats
Let the Tories run roughshod
Over society as a whole
Until we're owned completely
Mind, body and soul

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/23/ken-loach-benefit-sanctions-jeremy-corbyn-food-banks

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/23/austerity-robbing-poor-george-osborne

Prayer

The cinema is no place
For any propaganda
And we should not feel
The need to pander
To the Church of England's
Cries of "Shame"
For it's not as benign
As they might claim

If anyone wants
To hear this prayer
They can go to a church
And hear it there
We go for the film
Not to be bombarded
By an institution
Archaic, retarded.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/cinema-chains-ban-advert-featuring-lords-prayer

Change

When the land is flooded
By the rising tide
And the deserts
Grow out from the fields

The animals perish
From lack of a water supply
And crops
See diminishing yields

When we've seen the destruction
Of fossil fuels burned
And results
Of deforestation

When we've been through hunger
And battles for supplies
In the liquefaction
Of civilisation

When our grandchildren's hopes
Are crumbled to dust
When their futures
Are arid, in drought

When humanity's survival
Hangs by a thread
Will there still be
Those who doubt?

And do the MP's
Who don't turn up for debates
Believe their descendents
Will be spared?

Or will they regret
Their neglect and their scorn
When they realise
That they should have cared?

Plague

Will we all be killed
By the common cold?
Will plagues once more
Worldwide take hold?

Have overused drugs
Condemned us all?
A pestilent beginning
To mankind's fall

Will societies cope
With swathes of the sick?
Will those who survive
Be the strong and the quick?

A brand new start
Or the end of mankind?
The death of a species
Or Homo Sapiens streamlined?

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34857015

Future

To see you smile
To see you play
Takes the nastiness
Of the world away

To see you happy
And to see your wonder
I forget society
Has been torn asunder

And if in your joy
You make a mess
The tidying helps to
Ignore global stress

And despite the tantrums
You still give me hugs
To swaddle my thoughts
From terrorist thugs

When fear and violence
Makes it hard to cope
With you as the future
There is still hope

So thank you my darling
And all children out there
For lifting us adults
Out of sinking despair

Bombs

What will the bombs solve
But for the sating
Of a desire to lash out

A reactionary counter punch
Which does nothing
But prolong the fight

Being suckered into their war
Will generate sympathy
And generate recruits

Ratcheting up the fear
And the destruction
On an already wounded planet

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/17/france-launches-fresh-strikes-on-isis-as-pentagon-chief-calls-for-global-coalition

Human

Is there some hole that with hatred you’d fill?
Does the fear and panic give you a thrill?
You’re human like the rest of us, and yet still
You have no compunction over wanting to kill

Hundreds have died in the name of what cause?
Did their screams or terror ever give you pause?
You’re human; And yet your brain just ignores
The sanctity of life when pursuing your wars

How is it that your conscience will abide
These deaths; Do you have God on your side?
We’re both human, yet it was I who cried
When I read how many innocent people had died

Iceberg

We are drifting
Aimlessly on a current
Of destruction

Burning the products
Of geological forces
Creating forces of our own

We are the iceberg
Calved away from nature's shelf
Heading for calamity

With eyes above the water
We cannot see the behemoth
That floats beneath

Our Titanic continents
Will be on the front line
To be sunk

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/12/collapsing-greenland-glacier-could-raise-sea-levels-by-half-a-metre-say-scientists

Unseeing

He's like a man in a very tall tree
Keeping his eyes tightly closed
Making his declarations; His policy
Without seeing how they are imposed

By being high he keeps his distance
From the ordinary; The hoi polloi
Unseeing peepers help to neglect
The lives that he would destroy

So let's take an axe or a chainsaw
And fell his eyrie to the ground
Force his gaze on the truth in the world
Proving his beliefs are unsound

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/11/cameron-hypocrisy-cuts-letter-oxfordshire-council

Remember

You may not like my lack of silence
But then we all remember in different ways
The wars and the undemocratic violence
In past years and in our current days

You can wear a poppy, or visit a grave
Write a poem or sign a petition
Lay your wreaths, but don't be slaves
For if it's personal to you, ignore the derision

So I'm not being rude, I'm not willing to conform
I'll ponder and think on what I stand for
I'll not stand in line for the cultural 'norm'
And remember to never forget there's no glory in war

Poppy

We stand by these flowers
The colour of blood
Who grew from deaths
And decay in the mud

They rain and reign over
The fear in the sand
But still pointlessness of war
We don't understand

To kill is to lose
A part of our soul
And with deaths in our name
The nation loses as a whole

We all have the stickiness
Of blood on our hands
And attached to our lapels
Which convention demands

So let's bleach these flowers
Like the bones of the dead
Let's send out a signal
For something else instead

Not the glory of war
Honour of death in a fight
But for solidarity in peace
Wear a poppy that is white

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/

Astray

When my shoulders stress

        In the struggle of the day

I find I write less

        My mind won't stay

On topics or themes

        It wanders astray

And by the end it seems

        That creativity's gone away

Patience

My patience is turning negative
I'm pissed off in anticipation
Even the taking of a few breaths
Won't rid me of this sensation

My patience is turning negative
At all these tantrums and complaints
It won't help to invoke the Devil
Or even God and all his saints

My patience is turning negative
Turning red in a darkened room
Waiting for the whining to come to an end
Or for my brain to explode. Kaboom!

Fizzle

There's no money for entertainment
For flashing lights in the sky
The cash for Catherine Wheels has gone
The Rocket fund run dry

No sparklers lit for tiny hands
Out of toffee apples on sticks
We can no longer afford to celebrate
There's no one to pay for our kicks

As a country it seems we've fizzled out
With no spark to light a fuse
As the age of austerity bites harder and harder
You wonder what else we'll lose

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/05/fireworks-displays-bonfire-night-uk-austerity

Exist

It's almost as if they don't exist
In the minds of these powerful men
Though you wonder how they could be missed
They crop up again and again

Throughout the world's history
There are women playing their part
But to ignore them is more than a tragedy
And it goes right down to the heart

Women aren't given consideration
Whatever you might want to believe
And we should be embarrassed as a nation
That there's no equality in what you achieve

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/03/new-uk-passport-design-features-just-two-women

Strike

Gawping at the electronic boards
As if they might suddenly change
To say a DLR is going towards
Their destination

Shouting to those who are crammed inside
To cram and squeeze themselves a little more
All because of the dent to his pride
At being a little late

Cyclists stacked up waiting in a queue
For the lift to take them down
Despite the signs there still will be a few
Who cycle in the tunnel

When a strike comes these are the looters
Who take advantage when rules break down
Making life harder for other commuters
We are all just trying to get to work

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34700179

Mist

Sunshine is like bathing
In the warm glow of love
Blustery winds are the epitome
Of forces out of our control

Heavy rain belies bitter sadness
Of loss or of death
Snow provides the chill, cold blanket
Of loneliness and lost memory

But mist is the most human
Beguiling us to believe what we wish
Our own prejudices forming distant shapes
Drawing conclusions from the fuzzily half-seen

Clouding out our judgement
And letting us live within our hopes and fears
Keeping us fogged from danger and precarity
So we can dream beyond those opaque borders