Vote Vote Vote - Donald Keyman

We’re on the slippery slope oh yeah
To a Marxist Utopia
Equality for all sounds nice
But it comes at a huge price

The back of an envelope oh yeah
Holds the plan for the Marxist Utopia
No time must be lost
Before we all count the cost

It’s money for old rope oh yeah
To peddle that Marxist Utopia
And slowly bankrupt the place
So it can no longer wash its face

Surely there’s still hope oh yeah
That we reject the Marxist Utopia
Head off those eco-fascists
With their sackcloth and ashes

So get out and vote oh yeah
But not for a Marxist Utopia
Vote for the people who care
Not to leave the cupboard bare

Donald Keyman

There’s A World Outside - Lyndon Queripel

Flash through my window
Sunlight slipstream
Drivers swearing
While tyres scream
Red stop bus queues
All running late
Old man walking
He won’t wait
Young girl with sad eyes
Baby on her arm
Life seemed so calm
Back on the farm
Why won’t she turn away
From all this madness
She thought her kiss
Would mean success

There’s a world outside
Of the dreams you store
Take steps, don’t hide
You could lose much more

Now the day is dying
And the night is bare
City lights don’t shine
They can only glare
Freedom is counted
Between nines and fives
Punch card wrist job
And time table lives
So buy your ticket
And ride your rail
Letter your tall stories
Where all diaries fail
Why don’t you turn away
From all this madness
Before you change
More than your address

There’s a world outside
Of your four walled door
Have you joined the slide
Leading to the floor

Park bench prophets
With embankment shrines
Dark dustbin treasures
And cardboard goldmines
Down in subway hotels
Beneath concrete streets
Cold pillows of wind
And old newspaper sheets
But in centre circle
There’s a missing link
A face in space
It’s me I think
Why don’t I turn away
From all this madness
I’m just the same
As all the rest I guess.

Lyndon Queripel

In Memory of Dr. Li Wenliang - Kathy Figueroa

In memory of a good doctor in China
Who, about the new virus, sounded an alarm
He was aware that people were becoming ill
And wanted to inform folks, to save them from harm

December 30th, he posted a message
Using the Chinese messaging service, “WeChat”
Which riled local Communist Chinese overlords
Authoritarians who didn’t stand for that

Days later, he was called to the police station
And “reprimanded for spreading rumours online”
Forced to say he’d committed an “unlawful act”
And threatened with “detainment,” rather than a fine

He had to go back to work at the hospital
And on January 10th caught the dire disease
The brave doctor’s condition worsened steadily
To a state not even critical care could ease

Over twenty-eight thousand folks are now sickened
Because the courageous doctor’s words weren’t heeded
And the government didn’t advise the public
About health precautions that were sorely needed

Exponentially, the tragic death toll rises
From this virulent and mysterious new flu
Today, Wuhan, China, news is even sadder
For now good Dr. Li Wenliang has died, too

Kathy Figueroa

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I Pick Up The Phone - Trudie Shannon

I pick up the phone.
I dial your number.
And I wait for the message
That says the real you
Will call me later.
I don’t leave my name.
I don’t leave my number.
The real you has already left me.
Later
I pick up the phone.
I dial your number.
And I wait, knowing that if
The real you picked up the phone
I’d hang up.
In the meantime
I just wait in hope
Of the answerphone
Which tells me in your real voice
That if I’d like to
You will call me later.
A trite game.

Trudie Shannon

St Valentine Was A Bloody Man - (A Feminist Rhyme) - Sally Forth

Valentines Day, some lecher sent
a bunch of roses, rotten swine.
The cheek of it! Without consent,
he also sent a crate of wine.
I was, of course, shocked and aghast.
How dare he. I won’t be harassed.
Next thing, the brute will want to chat.
I really would not care for that.
Romance is dead, he’s bound to scoff.
Like chivalry, it’s been killed off.

Sally Forth

Viral News (2019-nCoV) - Stephen A. Roberts

The bible was right, vegans too
Eating some meat is really bad for you
Draw the line at pork, and especially bats
It’s wrong to stir fry those flying rats

It seems they used to wash them down
With cups of rice-wine in old Wuhan town
For culinary reasons that still remain vague
It’s now unleashed a vampire plague

Like that creature it would not stay there
And restless, hungry it came by air
The same insatiable need for blood
Too late now to nip it in the bud

The world is waiting, the world is scared
Is this the judgement we all feared
Or will the scientists manage to make
An anti-viral wooden stake?

Stephen A. Roberts

Entwined - Ian Duquemin

I never dreamed that I would see you there
With eyes as clear as glass 
I never thought that you would come my way
I thought you may have passed 
But you came in my direction 
Brushed your sweet lips over mine
And I fell in love so easily 
As you stopped the hands of time

I saw the smile upon your pretty face 
I think I even read your mind
You and I… We were destiny 
Two lonely souls entwined 
When you took me in your healing hands
All the damage slipped away
And I know this sounds ridiculous 
But you helped me light the way

Ian Duquemin

Conundrum - Richard Fleming

What’s worse, abandonment or else
the guilt of breaking someone’s heart?
I’d rather that my heart be stabbed
by some beloved’s dagger-blade
than do the wounding bit myself
and have remorseful feelings start:
dark nights when restful sleep is grabbed
as though by muggers, sins are weighed,
self-condemnation swamps the brain ...
that’s when you feel another’s pain
and long to take it back again.

Richard Fleming