You Call This A Golden Handshake! - Lester Queripel

A golden handcuff, a golden handshake
Surely there’s been some kind of mistake
I’m only fifty five
I’m still very much alive
Yet I’m being shown the door
They don’t want me anymore
I’ve still got a lot to offer
Yet I have got to suffer
I have to stand in the unemployment line
Wait my turn…………………and sign
They’ve dispensed with all my knowledge
I will now have to summon all my courage
I don’t know how long I can cope with the indignity
We’ll have to wait and see

Lester Queripel

Snow On My Wall - Andrew Barham

Listening to Dad's old Jazz recordings on my iTunes folder after a nice breakfast of pancakes and Maple Syrup and looking after my fish while watching the snow come down outside my window …

Snow is peace and tranquility

And it makes everything, so pretty
Covering up all the ugliness outside …

I think I'm writing a poem on my wall

Can snow cover the ugliness inside?

Soft falling snow
So cold, so pretty, a blanket
Protecting everything
Cover my heart with snow

Andrew Barham

Looked After Girls - Shannon Shell

Image: Shannon Shell

Shannon Shell is 16 and is now living in a residential home for indepndent living 16+ leaving care.

Looked After Girls - Shannon Shell

Sweet as Heaven, hot as Hell.
The baddest babes as you can tell.
Wanted by some and hated by many.
Invited by most, envied by plenty.
Diamonds and pearls are so nice.
But they aren’t anything like us looked after girls.
Why do they hate us?
Why is there all this fuss?
We’re not going to stop until we see police lights,
It’s really getting out of control, too many fights.
Don’t treat us like we don’t know.
That comment was below the belt, way too low.
We’re the ones in and out of care.
Someone tell us how this is fair.
When you’re a looked after girl, all pretty and nice.
We don’t want a fight just some advice.
We don’t want a lecture no big deal.
We have feelings too, we are real.

Shannon Shell

Resolutions! - Jenny Hamon

Christmas is o’er and the New Year has come
We’ve eaten too much and had our fun
But that’s all over, it’s time we paid
So resolutions have been made.

Maybe pie in the sky or just a thought
Because we felt that we ought
But why do we think these resolutions will last
Because they never have in the past.

Maybe it’s good to try and be
The person that we’d like to be
With all our morals still in tact
And persuing values that we lacked.

Oh goodness me, I can’t do this
I’ve tried before but sadly missed
Attaining any resolute things.
That too much food and drinking brings

My resolution I think, will be
Not to resolve, just to be me
Not try and live by someone else’s aim,
So there’s nothing to break and no one to blame.

Jenny Hamon

Sonnet For Newtown - Andrew Barham

Suffer little children come unto me
But not so young for their Maker to see;
Cut down when their lives are just beginning –
What evil hour here is Evil winning?
Madness speaks, and Death untimely answers –
Get thee hence, Death! Cast elsewhere thy grim lures.
Children so young, so fragile filled with hope
For a bright future they will never see;
Through these dull days of endless night we grope;
Our pleas beseech whatever gods there be
Demanding answers from this tragedy:
From meaningless horror, we seek meaning,
Plunged as we are in Grief's bottomless sea –
Instead we hear only children screaming.

Andrew Barham