"Kindness is like snow-It beautifies everything it covers."-Kahlil Gibran
I pressed my face against the cold back glass,
While Nana Sue walked him through the frozen grass.
She wrapped him in a quilt to block the chill,
And helped him climb the drifting, snowy hill.
I stayed inside to watch them work alone,
They piled up mounds of white on garden stone.
Not three round balls, but something strange and new,
A shape that only he and Nana Sue knew.
He handed her a stick to make a horn,
An alien upon the lawn was born.
She held him up so he could place the eye,
Beneath the gray and heavy winter sky.
I saw him laugh despite the fever's heat,
A memory that snow makes bittersweet.
A woman was known as a 'broad' in the U.S.
and I'm more broad-minded when there I confess
a woman was called a 'bird' in the U.K.
so when in Blighty as for me
altho' there's a pecking order
in the bird-watching hierarchy
I'm an eagle-eyed if not avid avian attendee
and yet Ol' Blue Eyes
should have paid more attention
for when he said, 'Let me be frank with you,'
and went on to sing, 'Egrets, I've had a few
but then again too few to mention,'
he proved to be a poor ornithologist
as there were not a lot of birds
(or broads) on his watcher list
that
i will never understand
why
he is called the watcher
he don't watch
nor move
speak
or
whatever
they say
he's guarding
the equipment against
the expensive playground equipment
against
the children
they don't know children
they don't know
our children
poor watcher
poor modern
scarecrow
we will always try
to protect him
Atop the edge where silence leans,
A figure stands — the dusk between.
No name, no face the canvas shows,
Just wind that hums what no one knows.
The sky explodes in molten fire,
A final gasp of day's desire.
It stains the clouds in crimson breath,
A masterpiece that flirts with death.
Does he await or does he grieve?
Or dream of flight he can't achieve?
The brushstroke speaks, but not too loud —
He’s part of sky, yet not a cloud.
He watches time with open chest,
The sun, the fall, the endless rest.
Yet still he stands, the final spark—
A question burning through the dark.
(A lone voice whispers)
I live in The Great Casum
The in-between place
No one knows me as I watch you all race
Some of the blind call me god
Some don't
But you know
Good for them all
For I watch and wait
You'll soon know my name when you walk through my gate
Copyright John Duffy
Casum is the accusative singular of the Latin word casus, which means "a fall; falling down; accident, occurrence, chance event; end, termination; case".
as long as I see the sky and rainbow arcs, I’m very much alive
Mirror
Mirror hung on the kitchen wall
Lit by the daylight’s shifting dance,
Alluring watcher over all
Mirror hung on the kitchen wall.
Enchanted by its enticing call,
Reflections caught by passing glance,
Mirror hung on the kitchen wall
Lit by the daylight’s shifting dance.
Barry Stebbings
Nov. 2024
A shadow shrouded hawk
as inert as stone
perched.
The fence is a claw
some dead hand
has hammered into
the moonlight.
Clouds,
if only there were clouds
to blur this stark glare.
That silent raptor
bores burrows
into my thoughts.
On this frozen night
there's not a feather
or whisker of cover,
nor
no other way
to hear, hide
or see.
As you watch the
Sunset goes down
I'm watching you.
I often watched the clock on my job
Which caused my heart to throb
It made me slack on my work
I was called a dumb jerk
I was said to be just a fat slob
They call them the watcher
They observe day and night
They call them the watcher
They say peace wins the fights
They call them the watcher
For they’ve seen our lives
But no eyes on the watcher
For they be blinded by light
in the darkest recesses of the cave
a buffalo faded into the wall
wanting nothing else to do with the world such as it was
waiting as a knowing watcher
Laborare Estorare in obscure ANON-ymity
Though to do as they must they'll know nothing but pain
In this richly owned world, self appointed divinity
The righteous still toil in God's Holy Name
We're but offal to corporate greed
In a long chain of man-made disasters
Like a freight train unleashed at full speed
They queue to bow down to their masters
Their exorbitant memberships paid
They gather like rose-stem pricks
As cold as a steel switchblade
Schwabs Great Reset on their lips
Information is media controlled
A cleverly designed social narrative
We're cautioned to do as we're told
Compliance, the crucial imperative
Like corporate ships, overwhelming
A psychopars hands on the rudder
Towards the edge of destruction We're sailing
Big Pharma's in league with Big Brother
Though Big Brothers race is being run
Sometimes his plans they get botched
By a fly in the ointment Anon
They know now the Watchers being Watched
One moment is a do-over for another,
we are chained to on-going trains of thought,
yet the mind is an ever diminishing cloud
let it disappear into clarity.
What am I saying?
Let clouds pass, be an observer.
Soon the watcher
will be the one you watch.
Keep watching
soon you will disappear.
Eyes in the grass
Stalking me as I walk pass
Will they kill me or leave me be
Either way I'll be set free
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