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Gentle sway and vicious jerk
As shared expressions ebb and flow
Upon the crowded upper deck
We, homeward bound, together plough
Toward what goals to us remain
Each counting landmarks, old and new
And lulled to dullness by the rain
Take comfort in familiar view

Lost in The City

When all alone and lost at sea
Amidst the suited scowling fray
I picture fields with peace for me
And trees to keep them all at bay.
I pass them by, these blinkered hordes
And wonder at them as I go
Who register a life, of course,
But have no wish to watch it grow.
Their view of man disturbs me so
That I confess myself amazed.
They barely see me as I go
And hurry in their daily daze.
If I were dressed as prince, or king,
Rather than humble pauper here
They’d scramble fast to kiss my ring
Instead, they wish I’d disappear.
I don’t fit in here, never could.
Nor see I why I should or would
Be wishing such a life for me
As suited, booted, clonedly
They all appear to want to lead.
And barely living, stumble forth,
Motivation: only greed
And what the Joneses have, of course.

Lean on me

A mystery it is to me
Why people can’t more friendly be?
Tho’ time anon ’tis proven so
We need a friend in times of woe,
We fear to trust, we hesitate,
Until ’tis almost grown too late,
Then jealously, with scant affect,
We let our love peep out a bit.
A heart upon a sleeve do we
All mock in abject misery
Then wondering at loneliness
In modern times – we are a mess!
I wish, yet fear I wish in vain
To have my time over again.
The things I’ve done, I would undo,
That I could show more love to you
That I don’t know – we have not met,
But I would share that I might yet
Receive again that which is gone
The love I gave adieu, anon.
And so the world – less worldly might
Be given over to delight,
As gentles all we do agree
Our need for care is all you see.
If loneliness you would defeat,
Be kind to others that you meet,
For you may find greater return
In giving, ere it comes your turn.

A fair-weather wish

Jenny fair did bake and share
A loaf of bread with Mohammed
But no more neighbourly will she
Towards his fam’ly choose to be.
For men are fools and in their woe
Have chosen sides, writ where to go
And who to like, and when to care,
No more with ‘them’ may ‘we’ now share.
Thus ‘fraternizing’ as it seems
With ‘enemies’ gives way to dreams
And nightly terrors do invoke
Those friendships we of late, revoke.
Yet those of conscience among men
Know full well there’s no ‘us’ or ‘them’
And ‘gainst the tide their friends have kept
While others, cowards, hid and wept.
Fair-weather friends, no man does need,
Yet caution, people, do take heed:
If mankind turns upon its own,
And ties of old to winds are thrown,
We risk more than we know, I fear,
And all mankind may disappear.
These winds of change, that blow no good
Are swiftly killing brotherhood.