Reddit nights

Show me a meme

Something droll

Make me laugh

Cringe, groan

Feel something

Other than fear

And that faint sense of

Malaise born of

Too many days

Spent staring at a screen

Show me a meme

I don’t want to think

Of the horrors outside

Of queueing for food

Huddled in coats

Hats, gloves, scarves

Lonely and crowd-shy

Among faceless strangers

Who were once

On neighbourly

Nodding terms

Show me a meme

Bernie’s gloves

A party-favour

Orange forty-five

Something exotic

As new underwear

Pizza and beer

On a cold, wet

Soulless Tuesday

I really don’t care

Show me a meme

Or I will get up

And leave

My cold-coffee cup

On the windowsill

Ice-cream spoon stuck

To the carpet

By your easy chair

Climb the stairs

And head for bed…

Oh, kittens!

A Head in the Clouds

How ironic it seems
That a selfie of Jen
Has eclipsed other headlines
Of conflict again

It’s as if through a lens
Entertainment appears
To be focused on comments
By anchor and peers

Though our hungriest, game
For a laugh as may be
Under clouds and on Sky
Must disrobe for TV

Where it leads if it bleeds
All depends on the dress:
The front cover of Vogue
For a dazzling temptress

Or a reddit thread, late
Where true fans would agree
Little more than click bait
Will be all that you see

There’s a choice for the viewer
And it’s moral – how quaint!
Pick which story to follow
To see through the paint

While there’s Isis; the Syrian
Conflict goes on
And shells still fall on Gaza
All through Libya’s Dawn

Civil war slowly creeping
Through Ukraine and East
As the whole world sits, watching
Awaiting the feast

We have crackers and hackers
Stampeding both scenes
And celebrities dropping
Like the flies of their jeans

We may be quite discerning,
Pick a view to a kill
Or an intimate evening
With a very cheap thrill

When the freest of thinkers
Chooses girls in the buff
Over lifting their blinkers
To examine the rough

I’m amazed readers make it
This far through a poem
Without pictures explicit
To lighten the tone

So the best we may hope
For a future of peace
Is a world that’s too broke
To afford to release

All the weapons still stored
Under ground, as above
Though it’s MAD to assume
That when push comes to shove

Such assurances mean
There’s a soul in the flock
Still refusing the fruit
That’s created to shock

Here’s an uncivil liberty
Waiting to pounce
While the government votes
For less private accounts