The Terrorist
I lived in a block of service flats
Right next to a power grid,
The endless hum made my mind go numb
And infected all I did.
I couldn't sleep as the hum grew loud
At night, in the wind and rain,
Even the walls vibrated, and
They rattled the window-panes.
I pulled the pillow up over my head,
I tried sleeping upside down,
I rammed thick towels under the doors
Lay wide awake, and frowned.
I tried complaints to the Power Co.
Who laughed, and said, 'We'll see...
If anyone else complains, we might
Build a whole new facility! '
He grinned, and I took a poke at him
Right over the counter top,
They called the guard and he tossed me out,
And threatened to call a cop.
My life was falling apart by then
I staggered back to my pad,
I hadn't slept for a month or so,
I thought I was going mad!
I'd just got back to the balcony
When I stopped myself, mid-stride,
For out from the next door flat, a man
Peered out, then went inside,
He slammed the door in a hurry then
As soon as he saw me there,
I heard him whisper as I walked by
In Arabic - I declare!
A swarthy man with a big black beard,
Dressed in a chequered shirt,
There'd never been anyone living there,
I knew that for a cert,
I wondered if he was squatting there,
Remembered to lock my door,
I didn't want midnight visitors calling
Waiting for me to snore.
Late that night I heard his footsteps
Out on the balcony,
I peered on out through the blinds, and saw
He stood with his back to me,
But in his hands was a strange device,
With wires and a dial, I swear,
A bomb, I thought, and began to tremble
'What if he puts it there? '
The grid was next to the balcony
Supplied this side of town,
The power to the local Army Base
Would go, if the grid went down,
As in a flash, I realised
The man was a terrorist,
'You never can trust a man with a beard'
I'd read in the yellow press.
For days I saw him come and go,
My eyes hung out of my head,
I wasn't thinking too straight, or I
Would have phoned the police, instead.
But I thought I could catch him unawares,
And maybe, get a reward,
I'd be in the papers - 'There's the Man -
Put a Terrorist to the Sword! '
I crept about, disguised myself,
Peered in through his window there,
Three men were sat at the table,
They were all dark skinned, not fair,
They each had a big black bushy beard
And the table was covered in tools,
Some copper wire and a big black box -
'They think that we're bloody fools! '
'They think that we're bloody fools, ' I said,
As I turned to walk away,
I hid at the end of the balcony
'Til the sun went down that day,
They came on out, just after dark,
Leant over and touched the grid,
Fitted some wire and a big black box
Then went somewhere, and hid.
I waited 'til all was quiet there,
Then ripped off their copper wires,
Picked up their big black box and smashed it,
Down on the concrete tiles,
It was then that I heard an alarm go off
And lights were flashing blue,
An army of cops said - 'Down on your knees!
That's right; we're talking to you! '
They drove me down to the station then,
And took my fingerprints,
They wouldn't tell me the charges, just
Stood round me, dropping hints,
'You're going down for a long, long time,
We've had you on our list,
You're a trouble-maker, born and bred,
A typical terrorist! '
I caught a glimpse of myself just then
In a mirror on the wall,
I hadn't shaved for a month or so,
So bearded, gaunt and tall,
I wore my dirty chequered shirt,
I think that did me down,
They thought that I was the culprit
Not the saviour of the town!
The three guys were technicians, so
They said, when they'd simmered down,
Indian Techs who worked for them,
The Power Co. in town,
They'd had a complaint about the grid
And had come to check the hum,
They'd brought some special meter box -
I felt myself go numb!
I copped six hundred hours in court,
And a fifteen thousand fine,
That box was worth a million quid
They told me at the time,
I wear a beard and sunnies now
So nobody sees my face,
I live in a new apartment and
I've given up complaints!
15 January 2009
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Swan Dive
The windows were open
The night air was cold,
The curtains were blowing
Like ribbons of gold,
We stood there forever
Both Henry and me,
The night his wife dived
Off the balcony.
We looked at each other
We each shook our head,
And waited to hear if
The poor girl was dead,
I looked at my watch
It was just after three,
When Gwendoline dived
Off the balcony.
I waited a moment, then:
'What did I say?
Was that a faux pas about
You in Calais?
Or did she take umbrage
When I poured the tea?
Is that why she jumped
Off the balcony? '
'Don't think for a moment,
Old chap, ' he had said,
'I thought she had mumbled
And stumbled to bed!
She'd said she had someone
Tomorrow to see,
So why would she dive
Off the balcony? '
We walked very gingerly
Out through the door,
And peered on down from
The fifty-sixth floor,
I thought I could see a small
Splat by a tree,
Just where she had dived
Off the balcony.
Could that be your Gwendoline,
There on the ground?
That's funny, she dived all
That way, made no sound!
Not one little scream -
Did you hear? ' - 'Not me! '
When Gwendoline dived
Off the balcony.
The police galloped up
By the lift, through the doors,
'That splat in the courtyard, sir,
Could it be yours? '
Then Henry admitted that
It could well be,
His wife, who had dived
Off the balcony!
They made us go down with
A bucket and mop:
'Clean up every vestige,
Remove every drop!
You can't go round leaving
Wives haphazardly,
Whenever they dive
Off the balcony! '
They made us feel humble,
We lowered our heads,
I picked up her armpits,
He mopped up her legs,
But bits of her weren't where
In truth, they should be,
When Gwendoline dived
Off the balcony.
Much later he told me that
Wives one and two,
Had left in the very same way,
I said, 'True? '
It seems Gwendoline had been
Wife number three,
Who'd taken a dive
Off the balcony.
Now Henry has married
Again, number four,
He's moved his apartment down
To the ground floor,
He locks all his windows
And tells Stephanie,
'Don't ever you dive like
Wives one, two and three! '
3 June 2009
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Tattooed Man
He looked like a common sailor
As he wandered up from the port,
Carried his swag on his shoulder,
Wore a cap of the jaunty sort,
His eyes were livid and bloodshot,
Staring, under a tattooed brow,
And on his cheeks, a scatter of stars
As seen from an old ship's prow.
He stopped at the Mariners Arms
And bought a room on the upper floor,
Went out and stood on the balcony,
And stared on down at the square,
He'd left his shirt in the tiny room,
His torso, full in view,
There wasn't an inch of his sailor skin
Untouched by a bright tattoo.
His arms were covered in serpents
Writhing up, and under his chin,
His shoulders, Chinese Characters,
Of Ports, where he might have been,
His sides were covered in fungi
Found in tropical forest glades,
And down on his muscular midriff
The ubiquitous Queen of Spades.
And there on his chest in colours
Very subtle, and so refined,
There lay a naked woman
Baring all as she lay reclined,
Her lips were coloured in scarlet gloss
And pursed in a sensual pout,
Her eyes a searching, brilliant blue
That would find her lover out.
He turned away from the village square
And rested back on the rail,
So now the tattoos across his back
Could be seen... a Schooner's sail,
With storm-filled clouds and a rising swell
As the breakers slid on by,
And over the top, above it all
A piercing, staring eye!
For every passer-by that stared
The eye had stared them back,
Had stared right into the guilty soul
Where every sin was black!
And hairs rose up on the back of the neck,
And shivers ran down the spine,
As guilt drove men to the 'Man of War'
To drown their fears in wine!
And I... I came to the Mariners Arms
And I saw the tattoos there,
And the woman, bared on the sailor's chest
Made me quake and shake in fear,
For the face was unmistakable,
I had left her safe at home,
That face of lust was the woman I trust,
Was the wife I knew as Joan.
For days the sailor prowled the streets
And he peered through windows there,
But he never wore a shirt nor coat,
And he kept his torso bare,
The tattoos seemed to come to life
As he moved, they moved with him,
I saw the serpents flickering tongues
Reach out, and under his chin!
And from his back, the eye stared out
Made strong men weak and quail,
Their knees gave way as it stared them down
And they felt their courage fail,
Then Joan saw him in the market place,
And stood there, hypnotized,
As she stared at the face on the sailor's chest,
And he pierced her, with his eyes.
I saw her enter the Mariners Arms
And I tried to call her back,
But she walked like one in a crazy dream
And I heard her call him, 'Jack...'
They disappeared up the stairway,
Made their way to the upper floor,
I had raced to the top of the stairs when they
Went in, and locked the door.
Out in the street, the clouds rolled in
And the sea beat up on the shore,
The rain came down in a torrent,
Lightning flashed at the old Inn door,
Then he came out on the balcony,
Turned round, and showed his back,
Clung to the mast of the Schooner
There was a woman, dressed in black!
I followed the sailor down the street
In the wind and the pouring rain,
As lightning lit the storm on his back
And the woman screamed in pain,
But on his chest was an open space
And the eye had stared me down,
As he boarded a battered Schooner,
And then sailed away from the town!
24 August 2010
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Strangers in Time
I'll ever remember the day she left
In a storm, I was so unkind,
I'd hurled the dinner right over her head
At the wall, and it blew her mind!
‘That's it! ' she muttered, and grabbed her bag
Went sailing out of the door,
With never a backward glance at me
Or our lives, forever more!
I sat for a week, just waited, thinking
Soon she'll be coming home,
Sat in the dark and hated, loved,
Then thought I'd better atone,
So I took to the streets, her mother's house
But of her, there wasn't a trace,
I tried her sister and brother's homes
And they slammed the door in my face.
Louise had walked right out of my life
And she wouldn't be coming back,
My world collapsed in a fit of tears
But I had to accept the fact,
I walked unthinking into the road,
Was hit by the local bus,
I vaguely remember the ambulance bell
And waking up in a truss.
There was something odd in that hospital,
I couldn't quite pin it down,
The ward was the long, old-fashioned sort
In a seedy part of town,
I noticed the nurse's uniforms
Were odd, like they used to wear
Back in the fifties, as a kid
I'd had tonsillitis there.
There was more than plenty of time to think
And I went back through my life,
Went back to every decision I'd made
Right up to losing my wife,
If I'd just done this, or just said that
I'd have taken a different tack,
So many ways I'd mishandled things
With no chance of going back.
And there, behind each second of time
Was a choice that we'd have to make,
Two paths had always been open to us
What path did the other path take?
Could there be a parallel universe
Where the other half of me,
Had made those different decisions,
Was alive, but happy and free?
It took three months for my wounds to heal
Then I found myself in the street,
It wasn't the town I remembered, though,
It had changed, perceptively,
And I was feeling much younger
So much fitter than before,
A glimpse of my face in a mirror, caught
And shocked me to the core!
I went to the university
And there I saw Louise,
Just as I'd seen her years before
And she waved and smiled at me,
Or I thought she did, but she passed me by
Went up to another man,
Kissed him there in the quad, and then
Walked off with him, hand in hand.
I was back in a parallel universe
Before she'd become my wife,
And now I remembered, Andy Cole
Had caused me a lot of strife,
We'd both gone after the same Louise
In the end, she'd chosen me,
But not before he had done with her,
Walked off, and set her free.
I followed them at a distance to
The place where they shared a flat,
I noticed she wore a wedding ring
And I thought that that was that!
I'd come too late in this scheme of things
That had taken another line,
I walked by her, but she knew me not,
We were simply strangers in time.
Then suddenly I was back at home
And closing the old front door,
I could smell Louise's cooking, it
Was a dish I'd come to abhor,
I took my place at the table and
She handed me the plate,
I said, ‘It smells delicious, dear! '
I'm the master of my fate!
7 October 2012
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Toxic Assets
'I have to go to town, ' she said,
'We'll catch the early bus.'
She'd overdrawn her credit card,
I knew - she always does!
I groaned and then I moaned a bit,
I'm just a country clod,
'I hate the crowds in town, ' I said,
'I'll stay here, on my tod! '
'You'll come with me, ' she said again
And used that piercing look,
The one that gets her everything
She wants, by hook or crook.
So there I was, adrift in town
While she went to the Bank,
To sort out her finances with
Some guy she knew as Frank.
I hung about outside, and watched
Her enter through the door,
Like some black hole in space, I thought,
And shuddered, like before.
I hated banks, and managers,
And credit cards and schemes,
They'd offered me a credit card
But I said - 'In your dreams! '
I wouldn't touch them with a pole,
I just believe in cash,
But wives are like some aliens
Straight from the planet, 'Splash! '
They love to shop, and flash the card
And buy their nicky-nacks,
While we just moan and humour them
Then pay the money back.
And so I stood and waited there,
My patience growing thin,
She seemed to take forever in
That bank, so dark within.
I always knew she'd be a while
She talks a lot, my wife,
She likes to tell the tellers all
The story of her life.
I stood for twenty minutes there
Just hung outside the door,
I thought, I'll give her half an hour,
Then just a minute more.
So that I did, and half an hour
Just wasn't quite enough,
I counted off a minute then
And thought, 'I'll call her bluff! '
I charged head down on through the door
Just like a rampant bull,
Ready to jump and yell and curse,
I thought the bank was full.
But when I raised my head to see
There was nobody there,
Just a row of grinning tellers:
'Can we help you, sir? '
'Where's my wife? ' I yelled, irate,
There was no other door!
The tellers said in unison:
'Go see the manager! '
I did, and he was sitting there
All plump behind his desk,
With dollar signs in both his eyes,
I nearly went beresk!
'So where's my wife, ' I yelled at him,
'She came to sort things out; '
But he just pointed to a chair:
'Sit down - no need to shout! '
'We had to bundle her, ' he said,
With all the other debts,
'The time has come, ' he said, 'we have
To dump our toxic assets.'
'She's just a liability,
Is always overdrawn,
She's bundled, will be auctioned off
To some poor sap, at dawn.'
I staggered off in quite a daze,
Just what was I to do?
I'd have to cook the evening meal
But just for one, not two! '
And then the paper said next day
That Wall Street had collapsed,
The world economy was sick,
And gasping, had relapsed.
And like a pack of dominoes
Each country bit the dirt,
They said that they'd lost billions
With debt, the world was girt.
And then, it seemed, they traced it back
To some small Aussie town,
One woman, always overdrawn
Had brought it crashing down.
I found her planting veggies in
Some old guy's vegetation,
He'd said she had to make it up,
His superannuation.
She got the bill last week, and cried,
She said she'd pay it back,
Two thousand billion dollars she
Has hanging round her neck.
And so I had to part with her
I know just who to thank,
I'll always see her entering
That black hole, called 'The Bank.'
29 March 2009.
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Strip Jack!
We'd been caught out in the yacht that day,
A storm blew up in the lee,
The clouds had gathered at four o'clock
In the wake of a rising sea,
'It's looking grim, ' I had said to her
As we spun the bows around,
And headed in to the distant shore
As the first of the rain came down.
The sun went in and the sky was black
As I reefed the sail in short,
While Linda pulled in the spinnaker,
And clung to the rail's support,
She made her way to the cabin then
As my phone began to ring,
I heard, 'It's done! ' and my mind went numb,
It was time to do my thing!
She stood with her back toward me as
I lunged with the marlin spike,
She dropped like a faded butterfly
In search of its last midnight,
I dragged her out to the afterdeck
And bound her up in the chain,
Then sent her down with the anchor where
She never would wake again!
I cast off the anchor chain and then
I retched all over the deck,
It had to be done, I told myself,
And I thought of her cousin, Beck,
She'd done the deed we'd agreed upon,
Had seen off her husband, Ben,
So Beck would be mine to have and hold
As I'd dreamed and I'd schemed, back when.
We'd always been close, the four of us,
Had holidayed in the snow,
We'd sat in a dark secluded bar
In the aftermath of a show,
We'd played Strip Jack in the garden 'til
The women were stripped to the waist,
Then each of us swapped, and went to bed,
And woke to a different face!
We thought we could get away with it,
Old friends, just casual sex,
We'd been together so long, we had
No clue what would happen next,
I thought that Linda was furtive,
Making eyes at Ben in the dark,
And I was caught in a whisper then,
With Beck in our local park.
Then Ben and I found the silences
Embarrassing, hard to bear,
Where once we'd laughed and we'd joked
That camaraderie wasn't there,
Then Beck had told me he'd soured on her,
And Linda, too, went strange,
So when we swapped, we schemed and planned
With our partners out of range.
'I think he's planning to murder me, '
Said Beck, on a tearful night,
When she curled up tight in the sheets and cried,
And seemed in an awful plight,
'I wonder what they're planning now, '
She said, in the early dawn,
Then I thought of Linda's silences,
And Ben, and I felt forlorn.
Then Beck had told me she loved me so,
And drove me out of my mind,
I knew that I'd do most anything
For the wife of my former friend,
She said one day that she had a plan,
To rid herself of Ben,
'But you must do what you have to do
When I phone, and tell you when! '
I tied the yacht to the outer Quay
Drove homeward, just as we'd planned,
I thought to report the following day
That she'd left for another man,
But when I opened the old front door
I saw them sitting there,
Both Ben, alive, in the dining room,
And Beck with a frightened stare!
'Where's Linda, ' Ben was the first to speak,
And I just froze - he knew!
But Beck said, 'I tried phoning her,
I thought she was with you.'
And then she showed me the frosted cake
She'd worked on all day through,
'It's for your anniversary,
She'd planned a surprise for you! '
I pulled the cell phone out, and stared,
The phone had been my wife's,
My own I'd left in the den downstairs,
That message cost her life.
'It's done! ' meant the anniversary cake,
I hadn't said a word,
Now Ben looked long and hard at me,
'Where's Linda? ' - then he stared!
I said that she must be out somewhere,
Then opened a cask of wine,
Sat back, as Ben filled the tumblers full
I knew, for the final time.
'Here's to your anniversary, '
He said, as we drank the toast,
And I thought I could see by the window there
The shape of my Linda's ghost.
But Beck had choked on the wine, and gasped,
Her mouth a purple hue,
She stared and sighed in a faint surprise
As the truth came into view.
'She's dead, my friend, did you think I'd lend
My wife for the sake of yours?
I knew the play and it ends today,
Where's Linda - Dead? Of course! '
There wasn't another word to say,
We sat and drank in the dark,
With Beck spread over the table like
Some rag doll, left in the park.
I read the anniversary card
That Linda had left for me:
'To the only man I have ever loved...
On our anniversary! '
14 February 2010
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Waiting For The Day
It was only for a fight
That I asked you to come in
But you brought me tumbling down
And the walls came caving in
Wont you help me dry my tears
Help me roll away the years
Then perhaps I will forgive you
And the hurt will disappear
But in a fit of blind arrogance
You stood up and walked away
If youd given me half a chance
Ill be waiting for the day
For the day that you come back to me
Come on back to me
You come back to me
So forget the long goodbye
You never really tried
Threw the keys down on the table
Youve got your sense of pride
Then you had to tell the world
Your story must be heard
Slammed the door behind you
Without a single word
But in a fit of blind arrogance
You stood up and walked away
The day that you come back to me
Come on back to me
You come back to me
Come back to me
You come back to me
No I never had a single thought in my head
No I never had a single thought
Oh for the day that you come back to me
Come on back to me
You come back to me
Come on back to me
You could be my life long friend
You could be the light of dawn
You could keep me close at hand
You could keep me safe and warm
I will be your fantasy
If you come and stay with me
I will try to give you all
Waiting for the night to fall
You could be the light of day
You could be my life long friend
You could keep me close at hand
Waiting for the day to end
I will be your fantasy
If you come and stay with me
I will try to give my all
Waiting for the night to fall
song performed by by Erasure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Miracle for Breakfast
At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,
waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb
that was going to be served from a certain balcony
--like kings of old, or like a miracle.
It was still dark. One foot of the sun
steadied itself on a long ripple in the river.
The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river.
It was so cold we hoped that the coffee
would be very hot, seeing that the sun
was not going to warm us; and that the crumb
would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle.
At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.
He stood for a minute alone on the balcony
looking over our heads toward the river.
A servant handed him the makings of a miracle,
consisting of one lone cup of coffee
and one roll, which he proceeded to crumb,
his head, so to speak, in the clouds--along with the sun.
Was the man crazy? What under the sun
was he trying to do, up there on his balcony!
Each man received one rather hard crumb,
which some flicked scornfully into the river,
and, in a cup, one drop of the coffee.
Some of us stood around, waiting for the miracle.
I can tell what I saw next; it was not a miracle.
A beautiful villa stood in the sun
and from its doors came the smell of hot coffee.
In front, a baroque white plaster balcony
added by birds, who nest along the river,
--I saw it with one eye close to the crumb--
and galleries and marble chambers. My crumb
my mansion, made for me by a miracle,
through ages, by insects, birds, and the river
working the stone. Every day, in the sun,
at breakfast time I sit on my balcony
with my feet up, and drink gallons of coffee.
We licked up the crumb and swallowed the coffee.
A window across the river caught the sun
as if the miracle were working, on the wrong balcony.
poem by Elizabeth Bishop
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In the Waiting Room
In Worcester, Massachusetts,
I went with Aunt Consuelo
to keep her dentist's appointment
and sat and waited for her
in the dentist's waiting room.
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
lamps and magazines.
My aunt was inside
what seemed like a long time
and while I waited and read
the National Geographic
(I could read) and carefully
studied the photographs:
the inside of a volcano,
black, and full of ashes;
then it was spilling over
in rivulets of fire.
Osa and Martin Johnson
dressed in riding breeches,
laced boots, and pith helmets.
A dead man slung on a pole
"Long Pig," the caption said.
Babies with pointed heads
wound round and round with string;
black, naked women with necks
wound round and round with wire
like the necks of light bulbs.
Their breasts were horrifying.
I read it right straight through.
I was too shy to stop.
And then I looked at the cover:
the yellow margins, the date.
Suddenly, from inside,
came an oh! of pain
--Aunt Consuelo's voice--
not very loud or long.
I wasn't at all surprised;
even then I knew she was
a foolish, timid woman.
I might have been embarrassed,
but wasn't. What took me
completely by surprise
was that it was me:
my voice, in my mouth.
Without thinking at all
I was my foolish aunt,
I--we--were falling, falling,
our eyes glued to the cover
of the National Geographic,
February, 1918.
I said to myself: three days
and you'll be seven years old.
I was saying it to stop
the sensation of falling off
the round, turning world.
into cold, blue-black space.
But I felt: you are an I,
you are an Elizabeth,
you are one of them.
Why should you be one, too?
I scarcely dared to look
to see what it was I was.
I gave a sidelong glance
--I couldn't look any higher--
at shadowy gray knees,
trousers and skirts and boots
and different pairs of hands
lying under the lamps.
I knew that nothing stranger
had ever happened, that nothing
stranger could ever happen.
Why should I be my aunt,
or me, or anyone?
What similarities
boots, hands, the family voice
I felt in my throat, or even
the National Geographic
and those awful hanging breasts
held us all together
or made us all just one?
How I didn't know any
word for it how "unlikely". . .
How had I come to be here,
like them, and overhear
a cry of pain that could have
got loud and worse but hadn't?
The waiting room was bright
and too hot. It was sliding
beneath a big black wave,
another, and another.
Then I was back in it.
The War was on. Outside,
in Worcester, Massachusetts,
were night and slush and cold,
and it was still the fifth
of February, 1918.
poem by Elizabeth Bishop
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Hey Now
I hitched a ride with my soul
By the side of the road
Just as the sky turned black
I took a walk with my fame
Down memory lane
I never did find my way back
You know that I gotta say time's slipping away
And what will it hold for me
What am I gonna do while I'm looking at you
You're standing ignoring me
I thought that I heard someone say now
There's no time for running away now
Hey now! Hey now!
Feel no shame - cos time's no chain
Feel no shame
The first thing I saw
As I walked through the door
Was a sign on the wall that read
It said you might never know
That I want you to know
What is written inside of your head
And time as it stands
Won't be held in my hands
Or living inside of my skin
And as it fell from the sky
I asked myself why
Can I never let anyone in?
I thought that I heard someone say now
There's no time for running away now
Hey now! Hey now!
Feel no shame - cos time's no chain
Feel no shame
I hitched a ride with my soul
By the side of the road
Just as the sky turned black
I took a walk with my fame
Down memory lane
I never did find my way back
You know that I gotta say time's slipping away
And what will it hold for me
What am I gonna do while I'm looking at you
You're standing ignoring me
I thought that I heard someone say now
There's no time for running away now
Hey now! Hey now!
Feel no shame - cos time's no chain
Feel no shame
song performed by by Oasis from (What's The Story) Morning Glory
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Gravedigger
I was leaning on my shovel, in a hole
As black as pitch,
With a plug of fine tobacco in my pipe
To scratch my itch,
But I hadn't even lit it when
I heard the voices clear,
'You'll be married on the morrow,
We'll be rich within the year! '
I sat down and there I rested at the
Bottom of the grave
I'd been digging for a friend of mine,
Whose life I'd tried to save,
I could see the figures dimly, talking,
Plotting in the dark,
Then they kissed, and he went one way
While she tripped across the park.
It was not that they were strangers;
Her I knew as Anne Morrell,
And she cut a pretty figure with
Her bustle and her veil,
While the man was Terence Morgan,
He was just a local lout,
But he had a way with women, 'til
They found the beggar out!
So I clambered out the hole, and made
My way into the church,
And I looked for where the banns were posted,
There, inside the porch,
I saw that Ann Morrell was set
To marry Graham Pugh...
The local Ironmonger who
Was known as 'well-to-do.'
He was more than well-to-do, I thought,
He owned a string of shops,
And he sent goods to the colonies,
In fair exchange for crops,
His house was like a mansion in
Our tiny little town,
Where it sat up on the hill, where he
Could stand, and look on down.
So his bride-to-be was plotting, she was
Marrying for greed,
She had worked on Graham Pugh,
Worked on his loneliness and need,
He was in his middle forties,
Hadn't strayed across the line,
In amassing all his wealth, he said,
He'd never had the time.
So I thought I'd better warn him that
They'd sworn to take his life,
That they'd sealed it with a kiss, the
Local blackguard, and his wife,
That I'd heard them both conspire about
The wealth they thought he had,
If he married her tomorrow, knowing this,
He must be mad!
So I walked on up the hill, and strode
Right through his fancy gates,
Up the drive that went forever,
Past the poplars in my haste,
And I beat upon the knocker, thinking
He'd invite me in,
But he kept me standing on the step;
'Your story's rather thin! '
I'm quite ashamed of what I did, but this
Was life or death,
I stayed awake all night that night,
Could scarcely catch my breath,
So many things to do and plan,
The morning came at last,
The wedding party turned up late,
They all wore party masks.
I'll have to dig that grave again, I
Somehow filled it in,
And Terence Morgan quit the town,
He's not been seen since then,
While Graham Pugh woke up, I think
En route to Aberdeen,
Quite safe from plotting women, and
Unmarried, it would seem.
While down the aisle the bride had swept
In ribbons, veil and lace,
The veil so thick, she couldn't see
Her hand before her face,
I wore my collar high that day,
Top hat and tails, you see,
And when I turned to kiss the bride...
She found she'd married me!
17 June 2010
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Joshua
Well a good ways down the railroad track
There was this little old rundown shack
And in it lived a man Id never seen
Folks said he was a mean and a vicious man
And you better not set foot on his land
I didnt think nobody could be that mean
So I took me out walking down the railroad track
I was a-gonna go down to that little old shack
And just find out if all them things Id heard was true
There was a big black dog laying out in the yard
And it growled at me and I swallowed hard
And I heard somebody say well who are you
Oh and there he stood in the door of that shack
His beard and his hair was long and black
And he was the biggest man Id ever seen
When he spoke his voice was low and deep
But he just didnt frighten me
cause somehow I just knew he wasnt mean
He said what you doing snooping round my place
And I saw a smile come across his face
So I smiled back and I told him who I was
He said come on in and pull you up a chair
You might as well since you already here
And he said you can call me joshua
Joshua joshua
Whatcha doing living here all alone
Joshua joshua
Aint you got nobody to call your own
No no no no
We talked til the sun was clean out of sight
And we still talking when it come daylight
And there was just so much we had to say hey
Id spent my life in an orphans home
And just like him I was all alone
So I said yeah when he asked if Id stay
Oh we grew closer as time went on
And that little old shack it was a happy home
And we just couldnt help but fall in love
That big black dog and that little old shack
Sitting down by the railroad track
Its plenty good enough for me and joshua
Joshua joshua
Why youre just what Ive been looking for
Joshua joshua
You aint gonna be lonesome anymore
No no
Yodel-a-he-ho
Me and joshua
Me and joshua
Me and joshua yeah yeah
Me and joshua
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A True Story l
At a quarter past the hour there came a knock at the door-
it was Giorgio, late as usual.
'Giorgio, you're late', I yelled from my chair.
I knew it was him. He had a very personal knock.
Besides, I was expecting him.
It was getting dark. That's not true-it was dark already.
Traffic on the Avenue was jammed. Horns were wailing.
Head lights, street lights, on, on.
What excuse would he give this time?
Giorgio was what we called a 'space cadet',
come from what you might well call 'generation text',
as any my age would readily agree.
Brooklyn-born and bred, his name despite,
Giorgio was ultra-likeable, if distractible,
but I was unprepared for what came next.
'Doc, there was this fascinating show on TV-
I mean FAS-cinating. I couldn't stop watching.'
'Oh', I said, without much interest,
irked to be undone by a re-run.
'It was called 'Grimm's Stories'. On channel 31
There's lots. Have you heard of them? '
'uh-huh, I replied, looking at my notes,
I think I've heard of the Grimm's things-
somewhere along the line.'
'Well, this one was about a little old guy with a long beard.
Him and this chick made a deal.
He'd do all her work for free
if she could guess his name.
And she did! '
'Sure, ' I said, sitting back,
'I remember that one.
It's called....
-So one night...
poem by Morgan Michaels
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Reckoning
My mother was carried to heaven
On the day that I turned six,
She died of tuberculosis
Spitting blood in a coughing fit,
She'd been so ill for a long long time
That I couldn't recall her smile,
My father, he just grumbled, said:
'Your Ma will be gone for a while.'
'She's gone to sing in a choir up there,
Who knows how long she will be? '
But I saw the coffin that carried her out,
The hearse and the burial tree,
I watched as it sank down into the ground
And my father just left it there,
Went off to visit my 'aunt', he said,
A woman with long, blond hair.
I stayed at home, such a lonely child,
And went to a place in my head,
Where mother was fit and without a care
She laughed at the things I said,
My father left me alone a lot
So mother would tell me, 'Shush! '
We'd laugh and giggle when he went out
But talk in a sort of hush.
I played outside at other times
Where the grass grew long and wild,
I'd catch the skinks as they darted past,
I was always a curious child,
I'd bring the Sleepy Lizards home,
My father didn't mind,
He said I could keep the pets I caught,
I thought he was being kind.
But then one day he came on home
With this 'aunt', who moved right in,
He said they were married now, so I
Should call her 'Mum', not Jen.
I scowled, and went to my room to cry,
My mother was looking sad,
She said, 'just do what your father says,
I'm your Mother, but he's your Dad.'
This Jenny, she was all right at first
She tried to make me smile,
But I was feeling rebellious then,
And turned my back for a while,
I kept my rabbits and guinea pigs
And fed them out in their hutch,
But Jenny came out to look at them,
And she didn't like them much.
I knew, she wrinkled her powdered nose
And said, 'Oh pew! They stink!
We'll have to find you a hobby, one
That's pure and clean, I think.'
I heard her talking to father, say
That she thought I was rather slow,
She wanted the garden tidied up
So my animals had to go.
It was just about that time, I think
That my mother said goodbye,
She couldn't stay in that house, she said,
It was time for her to fly,
She left me alone in a great big world
So I brought a Lizard inside,
And put it under my bedclothes
Thought it a perfect place to hide.
When Jenny made the bed, she screamed
And shook me like a rag,
She went and got a kitchen knife
And a plastic shopping bag,
She made me put the Lizard in
Then she took the bag outside,
And stabbed and stabbed 'til the Lizard bled,
'Til my Lizard friend had died.
'Now bury it! ' she said to me,
'And don't you ever dare
Bring filthy animals into this house,
For if you do, I swear...'
At this she put the knife to my throat
And stood and watched me scream,
I saw the hate in her powdered face
It was like an awful dream!
Whenever my father left the house
She'd always scream and shout,
Knock me around for the slightest thing
Then drag me, throw me out,
Lock the door so I couldn't get in
And give me nothing to eat,
She said if I told my Dad on her
It would only get me beat.
She killed my rabbits, cooked them up
And served them from a pot,
She gave me a crooked, evil grin:
'You'd better eat the lot! '
I found myself in a black, black rage
Inside, at the things she'd done,
And hoped that my father would go on out
And buy himself a gun.
He never knew what she did to me,
I never would dare to say,
I knew that she'd get me on my own
And then there'd be hell to pay,
So I stayed outside in the barren fields
And found me a hessian sack,
Then went for a hunt with a long, forked stick,
It was time to get her back!
I waited until he'd gone away,
Was gone two days or more,
Then bit my tongue as she raved at me,
Spat hate from the kitchen door,
The morning came, and there wasn't a sound
To come from that angry head,
And I will never regret the day
I put a snake in her bed.
10 March 2009
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I Must Have Been Sleeping
'Where are you going, ' I heard her say
As the dream took me straight to the core,
We parked at the side of a very long road
And I got out the driver's door;
'I've never known that, ' I replied, and she sat
On her hands, with the pain of surprise,
'So what you've been saying has never been true! '
The tears rose up in her eyes!
'The road has been long, the road has been wide,
I never knew where I could turn.'
'I thought you were happy with me, ' she said;
There was nothing to say in return.
'I must have been sleeping for seventeen years, '
My voice sounded foreign and coarse,
But I couldn't handle the sighs and the lies,
Or the terrible sound of - 'divorce! '
I walked to the wood at the side of the road,
And followed the pathway around,
I couldn't look back now I'd made up my mind
Though I walked unfamiliar ground,
The clearing was quiet, the birds didn't sing,
A mountain rose up in my view,
I suddenly saw there was no going back
To the comfortable life that I knew.
I cast off my shackles and took a deep breath,
To breathe in both freedom and pride,
My strength was returning, and clearer my eye,
I walked with a bounce in my stride,
The years fell away, I was thirty again,
I stopped then, and sat on a stone,
For darkness was gathering there in the gloom
With that terrible feeling - alone!
I thought of the woman I'd left on the road,
Who'd always been faithful to me,
The tears that she'd shed for a love that was dead
Made me sad, and ashamed to be free,
I thought of the comfort she'd given me when
All my world started going insane,
She'd cooked and she'd cared, and she'd loved and she'd shared
And I'd given her nothing but pain.
I turned on the track, and I made my way back
But I couldn't see where I had been,
I stumbled through thickets and walked into trees
And I fell on my knees on the green.
'I am lost, I am lost, ' I cried into the night
Then I heard her voice, dim, by a tree
And woke to her stroking my face and my brow
As I cried… She was waiting for me!
9 March 2008
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The House of the Scarlet Moon
I fell in love with a Chinese girl
Her name was Chen Xiao Fei,
We worked together in Middle School
In the Province of Anhui,
She'd join me in my apartment when
The working day was done,
But never would take me to home to meet
Her mother, Chen Shaojun.
Xiao Fei was going on thirty, which
Had meant, in Chinese terms,
That she was a spinster, on the shelf,
She had no marriage plans,
I asked her once if she'd marry me
But she laughed and said, 'No way!
My mother would jump from the balcony
If I married an old Yang Wei.'
I called in once to the family home
To win her mother round,
She glared at me as I paced the floor,
Her father sat and frowned,
She wouldn't sit at the table while
I stayed there, under her roof,
But screeched at her daughter, in Chinese,
Some slang that was quite uncouth.
She came one day to say, Xiao Fei,
The wedding date was set,
I asked her who was the lucky man -
But she'd not even met him yet!
Her mother had schemed and arranged it all
To thwart what plans we had,
She cried a bucket of silent tears
But would do as her mother said.
She stayed away for a month or two
To let things settle down,
Then married the man that her mother chose
From a village, out of town.
When a month had passed, I was feeling lost
'Til there came a knock at my door,
It was Chen Xiao Fei in some deep dismay
So I sat with her, down on the floor.
She clung on tight to my shoulder, sobbed,
And cried, wouldn't let me go,
The man she'd married was such a brute
As the marks and the bruises showed,
But worse than that, she looked at me
As her eyes had begun to mist,
'I'm having a child, and I don't quite know
If the baby's yours, or his! '
I sat quite shocked in the evening gloom,
And I felt a sudden chill,
'You'll know as soon as the baby's born, '
I said, but my heart stood still.
If she should deliver a foreign child
She'd be left in a deep disgrace,
And her family then would turn their backs
From the horror of 'losing face'.
Our fears were proven a few months on,
The child was a baby boy,
At first the father and parents danced,
They couldn't conceal their joy,
In China, there is the one child rule,
One chance is all that you get,
So girls go missing there all the time
If the father's mind is set.
For sons are valued as girls are not,
A boy can work on the farm,
A girl will grow to be someone's wife,
Will travel away from home.
So often, just when the child is born
The father will wait outside,
The judge and the executioner,
It's often a question of pride.
A boy is swept up in loving arms,
A girl will wait on the thumb,
If the thumb goes down then the baby drowns
Or is dumped in the cinder drum.
If a boy is born with a fatal flaw,
His fate is the same as hers,
Or he may be sold to a heartless soul,
They call it the Chinese Curse.
The boy was fine 'til he opened his eyes
And they saw that his eyes were blue,
His skin was yellow, his hair was black
But the eyes... the eyes... They knew!
Not even a day had passed before
The baby had paid for our sin,
He was sold to a beggar for ten yuan,
A beggar named Sun Lang Lin.
The birth, already forgotten there
Was marked - 'delivered but dead! '
The Doctor was paid a forgetting fee,
As Xiao Fei cried in her bed,
She told me, when she returned to work,
What they'd done with our beautiful son,
She looked aside, avoided my eyes,
Pretended they'd done nothing wrong.
It took me a month to discover the name
Of the beggar, Sun Lang Lin,
I haunted the areas beggars haunt,
But could find no sign of him,
Then just by chance, a crippled child
Who begged by a streetside bin,
Cowered away when I asked her the way
To the beggar called Sun Lang Lin.
She raised a hand to protect herself
At the sound of his hated name,
She said that he'd kicked and he'd beaten her
Had crippled and brought her to shame,
This child was one of a dozen he had
Who begged for him, night to noon,
She whispered his place of ill-fame in my ear,
'The House of the Scarlet Moon'.
I couldn't find anyone willing to talk about
Where this old Tavern was,
I knew it was out in the countryside,
Beside a deserted Mosque.
I travelled by day and I slept rough at night
As I searched in the dusk and the gloom,
Then finally, there in the distance I spied
The House of the Scarlet Moon.
Sun Lang Lin lay in his dirty rags
On a bed on the floor at the back,
I waited 'til midnight, picked up a rock
And I worked out my plan of attack,
Children were crying in fitful sleep
In a room in that dark old den,
I crept through the dark to the crying there
To look for my blue-eyed son.
Around the walls were earthenware jars
And each with a child within,
He'd jammed them in tight, where nothing could grow,
Their legs would be twisted and thin,
This house of horrors and nightmares kept
Its secrets all wrapped in gloom,
My son lay there on a coverlet,
In the House of the Scarlet Moon.
I seized my son, I smashed the jars,
The children fell to the floor,
They each were maimed and deformed, I knew,
They'd never be able to walk,
They'd spend their lives in the gutters for him,
Set up with a begging bowl,
I wondered how people like Sun Lang Lin
Could open the doors to the soul.
He woke, came running right into the room,
And he pulled out a long, sharp knife,
I laid my son on the coverlet
And prepared to fight for my life,
He lunged just once, I stepped aside,
I hit him just once with the rock,
He fell and he didn't get up again
So I picked up my son, and took off.
Once well away in the undergrowth
I stopped and I turned, to see,
A flame was flickering through the roof
Of the Tavern that used to be.
It all went up with a mighty roar
As I hugged my son in the gloom,
There's no more babies, or cripples made
At the House of the Scarlet Moon.
2 December 2008
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Living In A Haunted Heart
I stumbled in and I fell straight asleep in the chair
Swear I did
Woke with a start and I thought I saw you floating by
Swear I did
The fixtures and furnitures the same
As the second you walked out the door
But here in my head you put a ghost train
And I cant go round any more
And I hear the passengers scream
Im living in a haunted heart
And I tell myself its all a bad dream
Im living in a haunted heart
Too proud to beg you to come back
One more drink, the fairground fades to black
Every night
Days last for years til the dark, like a bear,
Puts his claws around my brain
Smack! bang on time, with your laugh, you walk in
Through the walls around my brain
The curtains and carpets are the same
As the day you dissolved in thin air
Now here I go queueing for the horror ride
Knowing I dont have the fare
And I hear the passengers scream
Im living in a haunted heart
And I tell myself its all a bad dream
Im living in a haunted heart
Too proud to beg you to come back
As the ghost train rattles round its track,
Every night
I cant exorcise you or cause you to reappear
But if you want to know what nothing looks like
Well just peel back my chest and take a look inside here
The fixtures and furnitures the same
As the second you walked out the door
But here in my head you put a ghost train
And I cant go round any more
And I hear the passengers scream
Im living in a haunted heart
And youre shaking me apart at the seams
Im living in a haunted heart
My reality is pushed past extremes
Im living in a haunted heart
And I tell myself its just a bad dream
Im living in a haunted heart
Too proud to beg you to come back
One more drink, the fairground fades to black.
song performed by by Xtc
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lightning Farms
Strikes of light across the sky
Thrown long and far to see
Awesome forces play their hand
Thrown power flying free
Rips with cracks to see a flash
Across the chilling sky
Power gathered all around
Across from way up high
Time to time it hits a vein
Dropping the power down
With a wire as the guide
Dropping into the ground
How can I steal this power
And take to make it mine
I’ll rap a copper coil
And bind it to the line
But there is so much to take
I’ll never take it all
Since it will fry my copper
I’ll make a rubber wall
And cover it in rubber
To rap it good and tight
The EMI is flowing
To shine and steal its might
So let it roll on downward
I’ll take it from the air
And let it fall through wires
I’ll take what I can bear
poem by Paul Moosberg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The King’s Beard
There lived a king with beard so long
And scalp with scarcely hair!
He used a comb and sang a song
And groomed it with great care.
The king was proud of his long beard
That made him look so wise!
The queen, his wife knew he looked weird
And cursed him for its size!
The queen was therefore always sad;
His lip got hid by hair!
But one day, she was rather glad;
She told him, she couldn’t bear!
One day, the king slept while he read
A book that was folklore!
He had a dream asleep in bed;
“His beard had grown some more! ”
A burning candle-stick fell down
And lit the curtain-blind;
His beard had caught the fire sown!
The king was off his mind!
His nose smelt smoke: he woke in fright;
His beard was all aflame!
He shaved the stubs of hair by night
And took on him all blame!
The next day when the people saw
The king, they couldn’t believe
Their eyes and gazed at him with awe!
“Could eyes of dawn deceive? ”
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Lourdes 2006
Jimmy opened his suitcase in the room
at Lourdes and said Oh no there's molasses
all over the clothes and shoes and I've got
a whole week here and he sat down in a chair
his head in his hands saying What have I done?
What am I going to do for clothes now? you
went over and looked in and sure enough
the molasses were over his clothes and shoes.
What am I going to do? he said and you said
Leave it to me Jim I'll sort it and you went through
the clothes taking out the items untouched
by the molasses and set them aside on the bed
and then carried the suitcase of black sticky items
Into the washroom and there one by one you carefully
washed them through with soap and water until
they were clean and smelt of soap and fresh air
and all the while 94 year old Jim sat in a chair
watching with his eyes watery and jaw hung loose
seeing the black water run down the wide plughole
and once it was done you wrung the clothes out
like your mother used to do when you were a kid
and hung them out on the balcony on the small
clothesline and placed the washed out black shoes
by the outside wall to dry out in the hot afternoon
sun and Jimmy came over and stood on the balcony
with one hand on the rail and the other on his stick
looking over at the Pyrenees in the distance and he
said That was real good of you. I owe you big time
and you stood next to him feeling the hot afternoon
sun on your face and arms and felt good and you
said You owe me nothing Jim I just did what some
good guy would and his watery eyes swept over you
matching the French sky's watery afternoon blue.
poem by Terry Collett
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Captain Teach alias Black Beard
Edward Teach was a native of Bristol, and sailed from that port
On board a privateer, in search of sport,
As one of the crew, during the French War in that station,
And for personal courage he soon gained his Captain's approbation.
'Twas in the spring of 1717, Captajn Harnigold and Teach sailed from Providence
For the continent of America, and no further hence;
And in their way captured a vessel laden with flour,
Which they put on board their own vessels in the space of an hour.
They also seized two other vessels snd took some gallons of wine,
Besides plunder to a considerable value, and most of it most costly design;
And after that they made a prize of a large French Guinea-man,
Then to act an independent part Teach now began.
But the news spread throughout America, far and near,
And filled many of the inhabitants' hearts with fear;
But Lieutenant Maynard with his sloops of war directly steered,
And left James River on the 17th November in quest of Black Beard,
And on the evening of the 21st came in sight of the pirate;
And when Black Beard spied his sloops he felt elate.
When he saw the sloops sent to apprehend him,
He didn't lose his courage, but fiendishly did grin;
And told his men to cease from drinking and their tittle-tattle,
Although he had only twenty men on board, and prepare for battle.
In case anything should happen to him during the engagement,
One of his men asked him, who felt rather discontent,
Whether his wife knew where he had buried his pelf,
When he impiously replied that nobody knew but the devil and himself.
In the Morning Maynard weighed and sent his boat to sound,
Which, coming near the pirate, unfortunately ran aground;
But Maynard lightened his vessel of the ballast and water,
Whilst from the pirates' ship small shot loudly did clatter.
But the pirates' small shot or slugs didn't Maynard appal,
He told his men to take their cutlasses and be ready upon his call;
And to conceal themselves every man below,
While he would remain at the helm and face the foe.
Then Black Beard cried, "They're all knocked on the head,"
When he saw no hand upon deck he thought they were dead;
Then Black Beard boarded Maynard'a sloop without dismay,
But Maynard's men rushed upon deck, then began the deadly fray.
Then Black Beard and Maynard engaged sword in hand,
And the pirate fought manfully and made a bold stand;
And Maynard with twelve men, and Black Beard with fourteen,
Made the most desperate and bloody conflict that ever was seen.
At last with shots and wounds the pirate fell down dead,
Then from his body Maynard severed the pirate's head,
And suspended it upon his bowsprit-end,
And thanked God Who so mercifully did him defend.
Black Beard derived his name from his long black beard,
Which terrified America more than any comet that had ever appeared;
But, thanks be to God, in this age we need not be afeared,
Of any such pirates as the inhuman Black Beard.
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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