Bad Sports - Donald Keyman

They’ll take the knee but not the needle
As on the pitch they whine and wheedle
They like to think that they’re the best
Above being jabbed like all the rest

A vaccination ref? - it’s so unfair
I’d rather go and style my hair
I’ve no time to get that appointment in
I’m gonna take my Bentley for a spin

With everything that we have learned
You’d think that they would be concerned
About the deadly threat of the viral strain
When a gentle tap has them writhing in pain

Donald Keyman


Image : Pixabay - shauking

Recluse - Richard Fleming

All scattered to the winds and ways,
like blushing cherry blossom blown,
the friends, he knew when not full-grown,
have vanished from his elder days.
The carelessness of childhood meant
that friendships were a thing to find
then let escape. No contract signed.
No deal. A currency unspent.
If friendships had been coins or gold,
he might have locked inside a cage
all he had gathered to assuage
the loneliness of growing old.

Richard Fleming

Image : Pixabay - michaelform

Immortality Is Overrated - Lyndon Queripel

I tried to write a poem
About how I’d like to be remembered
Well believe me I tried
But all I could think of was
I’d like to be remembered as
The man who never died
But there again you see
Who would remember me
If I just lived on
And you and everyone
That I knew too
Would all be gone ?

Lyndon Queripel

Image : Pixabay - Juhele

Head Space - Diane Scantlebury

Cooped up together,
We bicker,
We snap,
We cry,
No reason why,
There’s no space,
No place,
For our thoughts,
We laze,
In bed
Too long,
Without purpose,
No need to rise
We close our eyes,
Every hour
Merges seamlessly
Into the next,
Without plans,
Without dreams,
Nothing’s achieved,
And the day passes
At a pace,
When there’s no space,
No place,
For our thoughts.

Diane Scantlebury

Image : Pixabay - mohamed_hassan

People - Sarah Alexander

We are miracles of creation, supposedly in God’s image
We have evolved over the millennia to become the dominant species
From the golden age of Athens to the imperialism of Rome
We have created creeds, cults and deities
To satisfy our needs and wants

We have built monuments in stone to last for all eternity
Paintings and words so inspirational they span the centuries
We have invented instruments to torture, weapons of destruction
Given guns into the hands of children
And slaughtered without a conscience

We are lovers, we are killers
We are passionate, we are demonic
But the worst crime of humanity is the raping of this planet

Sarah Alexander

Image : Pixabay - byrev

September 11th 2001 New York - Theresa Le Flem

American flags hang dismally
like forgotten laundry slung across balconies
dirty and betrayed
A grey skin of steam
plumes by the Hudson River
It echoes the smoke in our memory
Something to fill the gap
Where the twin towers stood like brothers
proud against the skyline
mothers search for sons
There is no looking
only seeing, disbelieving

American flags in tatters torn
like skin like someone waving at the moon
It’s so unreachable untouchable
this enemy of life
No amount of kindness or forgiveness
seems enough

When hate itself becomes the sword
that pierces every word and thought
What can dilute the poison draught?
Who can achieve a goal in life
if death itself is the task?

Two cylinders of buildings
where people starting work
carrying coffee, filing letters
are ignited by a spark
Death such as this
makes history itself unworthy
of the task of recording
so many lives lost senselessly

We have this hole in Manhattan to fill
It aches, it kills us still
they all belonged to us you see
now we’re loosed from it
but we don’t feel free
Our question lies uncomfortably
Why not me?
Why not me?


Image : Pixabay - Armelion

From Theresa Le Flem's collection 'Meet Me at Low Tide' available here.

Romance - Oscar Milde

Young love’s romantic that’s for sure
it’s dewy-eyed, intense and pure,
emotional to wild extremes,
hot-blooded too, the stuff of dreams.

Old love is different, of course
it’s like a voice that has gone hoarse
from too much talking. Old love must
celebrate contentment, trust. 

Oscar Milde


Image : Pixabay - sabinevanerp

O Shining One - Ian Duquemin

How you have fallen, O shining one
When once like a star you so beautifully shone
Son of the morning, from heaven you fell
To dwell in the darkness, and fires of hell
Lucifer, you were the bringer of light
Angelical Venus that burned in the night
Rebellious angel, who tried to save Man
And alter the wrath of a heavenly plan

Ian Duquemin

Image : An engraving by Gustave Dore from Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Cell By Date - Lyndon Queripel

There was a strange fellow called Queripel
Whose driving was really so terrible
When a police car gave chase
He thought it was a race
Now he’s driving up the walls of a prison cell.

Lyndon Queripel


Image : Pixabay - diegoparra