Gondola was prepared to welcome you
You desired the white clouds instead
A void settled on the palm of my hand
The bird too couldn't unfold its wings
________________
6 September 2025
Can we do it together?
“Hi! How are you?” an Indian lady asked me.
After work, I left the building of my workplace.
She also worked there. Just in a different department.
This company is in Greenford. Very nice. It is in London.
“Do you have children? Do you have a family?” she asked.
“No, I haven’t”, I answered. “Can we do it together?” she asked.
I laughed and then walked to the bus stop. It happened many years ago.
She was very young. Innocent. She lived in Hayes, and I lived in Wembley.
I often think of her honest, pure glaze and beautiful black eyes. Hmm.
But I don’t know where she is now. Hmm. Too late. I was very stupid. Live alone
Start it, like only you can
Say it, like only you can
Sing it, like no one else can
Write it, like only you can
Teach it, like no one else can
Listen to him/her, like only you can
Love him/her, like no one else can
Live it, like only you can
Play it, like no one else can
Pray it, like only you can
Preach it, like no one else can
Finish it, like no one else can
We think that by keeping busy
and having a million and one things to do,
the Grim Reaper will walk on by and forget us.
By keeping our nose close to the grind,
our eyes won't meet and lock on his,
meanwhile ignoring the bell that sounds
for other unsuspecting souls.
In the meantime we keep on keeping
our nose to the grind and our eyes
locked on the targets of tasks at hand.
No end in sight to jobs to do
No time to die today
We're way too busy
Plans are endless
The list grows longer when
it should be winding down
It's a race to the finish line
and time is the stopwatch
with a fickle trigger finger
AP: 2nd place 2025
What a joke, to live in the foreign land
Can’t go from here, and I can’t stay
Still I can enjoy to a great extent
Little wonders of this beautiful day
Beneath the lilac trees in full bloom
I sit near home on the bench, idly gazing
At the sunlit lilacs, inhaling their perfume
Oh the bittersweet note feels amazing
How exciting that moments of peace still come!
What a thrill to get some contraband sun!
I can beat an imaginary snare drum
Without efforts required for the real one
I’ve a loophole to slip into secret life
In your pleasant country or anywhere else
I won’t make any kind of political strife
Won’t throw my coins in the wishing wells
I’ve got a shopping bag at my foot
In a moment I’ll get up and go upstairs
Maybe I haven’t done the best I could
Do it better, and let me know if you care.
DO IT, because it's right
DO IT, because it's time
DO IT, before it's too late
DO IT, even if it hurts
DO IT, even if it makes you cry
DO IT, even if it makes others laugh
How do we do it? How do we go on
when the ones that we love are no more?
How do we face it, when each day is done
and there’s no footsteps crossing the floor?
When the house is so empty, and so is your heart
and the silence can drive you insane
When the memories of love lost, are all that we have
and the night’s filled with nothing but pain
When your arms are just empty and nobody’s there
when you sit down to breakfast each day
and the tea pot stands idle, as now there’s just one
and there’s tears on the bed where you lay
And the days stretch away into meaningless haze
Because all that you lived for is gone
There’s no one to care for and nothing to do
and you can’t find the strength to go on
Old photos remind you of all that you had
that now has been taken away
and you know in your heart that you just can’t go on
There’s just no more reason to stay...
For what is the point of a hollow existence
Where every day turns out the same
and the pain never goes, because nothing can heal it
and the darkness just whispers their name
2/4/2025
in a world where goodness may seem pointless
where kindness may seem but a drop in the sea
karma is a concept that won't get old
for peace of mind it is the master key
AP: 3rd place 2025
Dad’ll Do It
Tom Wright
As a young man my heart was stained.
In the things of the world I was trained.
As I ran from the answer,
I was smitten with cancer,
And now Jesus in my heart is ingrained.
I've been attentive.' Aware of passive hostile directive
eu implied power.' The titans of 'this hour?' Hmm.' As
One who does know God.' I offer Some thought?
In respect.' In amity; in response.' To the actions odd.'
Of the wimpish, and woke ones.' Euro-phile joke broke ones
If I were the leader, of America into free air.' Free speech
And freed power.' Col, Doug Mc'Greggor would i empower
Let him deal with zelensky..Bring it down to where things
Should be.' Will that be grimaces? Or smiles? On eu leaders
Dials? And they must be made to cheer.' As they are kicked
Up..Well you know where.' Lets see poetic justice right there.'
We
Run through the street
Did I get hit?
No, let's repeat
We
Run through the street
Did you get it?
Under your feet
He
Nothing like me
Nothing like you
Thought I could be
Rent
always feels due
New house new job
Do it for you
Space
always need more
Where will I fall
Same as before
Moon
up in the sky
Least you're still there
After I die
was this text part of an ancient scroll?
the meaning was clear to no one
the beauty is in the ambiguity of the piece
I stared at the other archeologist
what did he mean by this?
Was he covering his ignorance?
I figured this might be it
we need another Rosetta Stone my companion said
then we would understand
I did not think that would do it
not only was it ambiguous, it was unclear and cloudy
perhaps written by a person with a mental illness
I kept this to myself, feeling a bit superior to them
Somehow it seems the poems do not pass muster
The words a swirling dance that will not cluster
They deem themselves alone to be the fulcrum
That lets the lever lift them from the hum-drum
And midst the overflowing verse – coerce
The pen to change its ever-destined course
And drop a not so nearly rhyming line
Though Shakespeare dropped one in from time to time
Thus, do I sit like Howdy’s Mister Bluster
Grumbling in metronomic fluster
Tapping out the pentagrams iambic
Trembling beneath my use-less panic
Thus do I shout: “Damn Shakespeare’s sonnet”
Were I a dog I think I’d pee upon it
We've not come here to stay forever
Neither are we in a hurry to go either
We've not come to exist and exit
Neither have we come to disrupt earth
But to thrive and live with integrity
Leaving a legacy behind for the next.
Everyone have their purpose on earth
Our footprint are paths for the next
Be the change you want in the world
What you resonate to align with you
Don't give energy you won't accept
What you give you will get doubled.
Be patient for it's a virtue
What you do the next elumate
Without hesitating or pondering
Leave a legacy to make them wonder
If humans did or aliens did
In all your dealings do it wholly.
Put on your shoes and socks.
Now, go outside and play.
Take off your shoes and socks,
and take a nap.
It's such a happy day.
In the morning, go to school.
Read all your books and then
you can learn the golden rule
and make a friend.
Now, do it all again.
Stand before your friends and God
as she walks down the aisle.
Soon you'll raise a little squad
of children bright,
and once again you'll smile.
Sail to heaven in the breeze.
Breathe a contented sigh.
To have such times as these,
you are lucky.
It's time to say goodbye.
Related Poems