There’s starvation in Africa,
In other parts there’s drought,
Putin’s still in the Ukraine
Throwing his weight about.
The Barista in this cafe
Is really annoyed with me.
I’ve ordered a black coffee,
Apparently that’s not PC.
Global temperatures rising,
Polar ice is melting down
America has a President
Behaving like a clown.
I can have coffee without milk
Or a thing called Americano
But by the look on his face
He’d much rather I just go.
Just across the road
A lad was killed with a knife,
A bloke got seven years
For battening his wife.
I’m the despair of a Barista
And others such of his ilk.
I asked a simple question.
What colour’s coffee without milk?
North Korea’s still being bolshie,
China’s threatening Taiwan.
Half the country’s under water,
Way over there in Pakistan.
In Hull I’m causing trouble
By not being sufficiently PC.
To ease an awkward situation
I ordered a pot of tea.
A school of whales beached in Florida
A few more species went extinct
And, here, honours being even,
They at last served me a drink.
drifting
drifting off
to sleep
going down
the Nile
once
when now
it seems
i was
a child and
childishly
these
dreams
were
real
never making it
to Luxor at least
by boat because
a wall of wonderment
was approaching
from the north
and as so suggested
docking and battening
down the hatches
before going below
i looked up to see
the only sandstorm
i've ever seen
but it blasted
my mind into
a glass
memory
Batten down the hatches –
A storm is on its way.
Don’t know when it’s comin’
Or how long it’s gonna stay.
Every market’s crowded –
People gathering supplies.
No one wants to be caught short
Or taken by surprise.
Plans are being canceled,
Dates all rearranged –
Phones and laptops busy as
New info is exchanged.
We’re ready for the tempest –
We’ve got flashlights, candles, matches.
I’m prepared to do some battening,
But what the hell are hatches?
Here it sits
Squarely in my heart
Enfolded in the petals of a coronary black rose
Withered and piteous
A cloying weight
Heavy
Grief-sodden
Perforated with bewilderment
It rests below my collarbones
Stifling each beleaguered breath
Damming my apprehensive blood
It clings
Battening down the hatches
An anchor spiraling down into a murky abyss
The fathomless chamber of my soul
Where it came from no one knows
Not I nor god nor the ruthless demons that made it
But it is within me now
A hulking black shadow of despair
Restless
Hungry
Doomed and longing to take me down with it
To drag me under the swirling inky waves
Until all that is left
Is a pale ivory hand
Fluttering helplessly above the surface
Waving the white flag of surrender
Before the murky weight swallows me whole
Drawing me down and down and down
To where the shadows sleep
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