MANIFESTO

Draw out discontent,
Emphasise the negative,
The past is a manifesto,
A platform from which trains of thought
Leave every second of every day,
All stations to the future,
Wherever that is......

CARRY THE CROSS

We have no special licence
Nor trophy of privilege
To assume we have a right to be here,
To claim our plots of land,
To breathe our share of air,
To leave our footprints in the dust,
To suppose time will care.

We have no legitimate claim
Nor permit of a beating heart
To demand titles and riches and status,
To anticipate equal chances,
To expect every key to every door,
To imprint ourselves in archives,
To be remembered for evermore. 

Our place in this life,
Our challenge on this earth,
Our struggle through the act of birth
Is to carry the cross of being human.

SORROW

Sorrow is a frost that envelops the soul,
Chills the blood and numbs the mind.
Forgiveness is as hard as a granite heart - 
I am not a natural forgiving kind.

There are those with erasers poised and ready
To wipe the sins of the past away,
But the lifelong grief of the ones that remain
Might not allow their salvation day.

Some with guilt on their bloodied hands
Who pushed us closer to the grim abyss
Are still not worthy of a handshake grip
Nor the warm embrace of a Christian kiss.

LEAF

I hold the dry leaf,
crush it in my fist,
then clap the dust from my hands.
As the leaf vanishes into thin air,
I shrug and fail to care,
oblivious to nature's grief.

CELEBRATE THE FOOL

January jokers
February feckless
March morons
May maniacs
June jesters
July jerks
August asses
September simpletons
October oafs
November nincompoops
December dunces

Every month we see them
But it seems it is the rule
That April is the only month
To celebrate the fool.