The Salt Force

(source)

we skate across the surface of the salt flats

hexagonals imprinted mind and feet

puzzling horizons boundless buoyant

at altitude where earth and heavens meet

we skate for love for countries for our children

olympian with gods encountered there

wreaths of crystal flavoured tessellations  

our crowns with cubic thorns atop frail hair

bonded to the brittle dessicated

in parched seas that mirror clouds and question why

perception plays its mind games at all tangents

while we skate and build the pillars merchants buy

steel-capped toes with buckled belts and braces

dungaree’d to toil and till to max

salaried in coarse and fine thrown pinches

cellars stocked elsewhere evading tax

a pocketful of salt o’er willing shoulders

a world within a world forced to believe

a conundrum geometric in equation

gliding on salt plains we must perceive

beneath the surface tension ionising

cellular components energy

minds must mine mutations magnifying

scale of operations ill-conceived

miners of the salt flats query skylines

skate for country, kids, to flavour fare

but be wary of illusions, thin-iced mirrors

turn and look, the salt force, be aware

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Whose Army

By angelic proclamation, the fearless dared to tread

Called upon the living and all those unjustly dead

Rise upon the morning, there are fools to fill with dread

To save the children suffering and ensure that all are fed

With shields and swords the angels adorned themselves with flame

Faces quite anonymous and no one knew their names

Led an army galvanised, none before the same

The flag unfurled, a pennant, brightest white and deathly plain

Marched they into vestibules of chambers far and wide

None could halt their access though they tried, oh how they tried

Quivering, unbowed, the brazen culprits did not hide

Believing still the rights of kings, protecting those inside

Inside corrupted corridors, ashen faces turned

Aghast at blazing bravery, afraid they would be burned

While all around, the voices cried, maybe now you’ll learn

And, as one, they clashed and flashed their swords, system overturned

By seraphic proclamation, a message to the fools

Do not tread where angels fear nor alter godly rules

Children first, the kingdom, woe betide who bleed their souls

An army forms to vanquish you, to crush inhuman goals

Fear the retribution of the soldiers who are fed

By hosts from heaven sent to purge corruption of undead

No crypt shall hold the army upon whose stones they bled

Arise, they shall, the innocent, by angels, justly led.

Shocking!

(source)

Nightly promenade around the circuitry and wires

Checking risked connections for fuses blown and fires

Testing polar opposites and pressing home their points

Renewing sheaths and casings and taping up loose joints

Rectifying amps and watts and voltage when at rest

Balancing the batteries, conducting biased test

Transforming operations, converting cathode rays

Charging the controller, continuous, it says

Bonding different ions and metering the score

Electrifying, terrifying, an isolating chore

Don’t know what I’m doing while I prod and poke and probe

Blanket at the ready, though, to smother overload

Quantifying currents in the grid lines of my brain

Hair-raising the experience. I’ve shocked myself again!

Leverage

could he row back time through ancient channels

oars heaving on the drag where stillbirth weeps

splinters edged their way, his leathered hands held

damp muscles moaned and begged unending sleep

the doldrums drugged him, nudged defiant nuance

come rest, they said, forget and bide ye here

amid false calm to dark tumult hereunder

relax, lay back, your haven it is near

mesmeric waves of stillness poured upon him

narcotic song of sirens far beneath

to drift in waves of opioid rhythmic cadence

temptation in surrender, weapons sheathed

yet he rowed, in shards of pain and fury

the rasping on his skin a testament

endurance, no mere word, in life’s still waters

muscled memory hoved though strength near spent

miles or more he moved in arcs of fruitless

or so it seemed as fog around still lay

plied, exerted, all he had within him

lone figure, chloroformed, in shadowed day

a mirror watched his progress, paid his passage

unknown to him, it glanced on waters dark

slivers sliced and pierced his skin, world weathered

weary palms saw nothing of their spark

determination drove his lone resistance

persistence plied in dogged dips and heaved

cleared the stagnant sludge that hindered leverage

worked his way towards something he believed

Thinking In Colour

I thought I saw a rainbow with its lights on

it glittered through the dark

all multi-hued

I thought I saw it, people sliding on it

laughing as they sped

it felt so good

I thought I saw you there among the others

head thrown back

a twinkle in your eyes

I smiled to see you happy, that made me so

I thought I saw it

behind dreaming lies

I think I thought that dreaming was believing

I think I thought

you slid on rainbows too

I think tonight I’ll dream in black and white so

I never think those thoughts

of light and you

Trouble is that rainbows come unbidden

arcs of promise

beckoning, come on

sliding on its curves

the light self-risen

coloured realm that always draws me in

See you on the rainbow, silver’d lining

promissory arch

as each day dawns

slide awhile with me, it costs us nothing

just words of love

and thoughts, fresh coloured, every morn.

Happy New Year, everyone! May your days be filled with light and colour. Thank you so much for your continued support. I appreciate every visit and comment. All the best to each and everyone for 2016. Hugs and love. You’re a grand crew!xox

Lath And Plaster Lockets

(source)

Lath and plaster crumbled mid the rafters,

Dust and debris hung by aged cobwebs,

Linked by shadows lingering hereafter,

Secret lives suspended by their threads.

Here’s a year when someone else once lived here,

There’s the time they opened casket, found

Chains of bones, forgotten that once held cheer,

Dust to dust, they loiter, still around.

Cemented, covered over, for duration,

Detritus has held them fastened tight,

Awaiting such a moment, reparation,

Motes of souls, now drywalled, from all light.

There are memories you can’t see, in these lockets,

Hidden in the eaves, behind the walls,

Lath and plaster hold them, in dry pockets,

Residing there till this old building falls.

PVC’d

Take one piece of plastic, just one fragment,

Stretch it so it’s longer, wider, thin,

Saran-wrap the life that you are leading,

Protected from invaders, nought let in.

Cling it onto self and tightly bind you,

Around, around, around, with overlaps,

Nothing from the outside will now taint you,

Filmed against all troubles and mishaps.

No seepage, spillage, no contamination,

Insulated from all life, preserved so much,

Now ask yourself if breathing is an option,

Covered head to toe, devoid of touch.

Feel it where it films in all its winding,

Around, around, around, to laminate,

Unhearing ears, unseeing eyes, unbreathing,

Distorting face and features, plastic fate.

Gasps ungasped, inhale, inhale, it’s useless,

Pants unpanted, panic rising fast,

Underwater world of drowning mastic,

Soldered, sealed by self, in moulded cast.

Uncommon bonds, hermetic, manufactured,

Around, around, around, to isolate,

Boxed up when all breathing has abated,

Bubble-wrapped in melted pellets, lie and wait.

Pallets ready, stacked outside the warehouse,

Conveyor-belted parcels, undiseased,

Thrown aboard for final distribution,

PVC’d, protected, but deceased.

The Dragon-Keeper

(source)

Protect him, please, he keeps a dragon,

A fire-breathing beast that sears his soul,

A scaly scavenger that wears his flesh down,

Haunts and follows everywhere he goes,

---

Ruptures like a lava-filled volcano,

Scorching every inch of him exposed,

Erupts whenever he is least expecting,

He hides it well, but everybody knows.

---

They fear him like they fear the freak inside him,

Misunderstand the monster, miscreant,

Flee whenever breath is scented sulphur,

Offer tokens, castigate, repent.

---

They run away and seek a place of shelter,

Peeping from their hideouts till he’s passed,

No one questions, no one knows his ego, altered,

The depths of his deluded torment, no one asks.

---

Protect him, please, he needs a mission,

Something to slay the dragon that he keeps,

A maiden, manifest as self-perception,

Upon a white horse, so the dragon sleeps.

Lay Love

Lay love, if honestly, for who needs petals,

petals wilt and die,

as so they must,

lay love upon the earth, where life is buried,

love returns to source,

as all, to dust.

Lay love where’er we visit, who needs roses,

flowers fade away

like coloured time,

lay love upon each head, before the tombstones,

‘ere the death, lay love,

most potent sign.

The legacy was love, who mentioned flowers,

flowers are forgotten,

turn to seed,

lay love, upon each passing, before passing,

love’s wreath is all t’was asked for,

all we need.

Workers For The Kingdom

(source)

How she danced upon resistance across the silken threads,
Lighter than a touch of air on downy feathered heads,
Gliding as a skater while ravelling her tales,
Doomed by pride, but reconciled, to weaving as she sails.

Circumnavigation from the centre to a ledge,
Round again, rotating, with a pivot, to the edge,
Godliness decreed it so, to scuttle, words her theft,
Alas, Arachne’s fall from grace continues until death.

Delicately balanced as she looms and pirouettes,
Vestigial veracity in the web she weaves, and yet,
Fine interlace, in gaps of truth, reveals her potency,
In need, she purloins captives, with her poison sets them free.

Spinneret fandangoes, unknotted in prowess,
Gossamer to gild the lines, the fabric of her dress,
Fascination’s failte, with her welcome, bids you come,
Fealty to the widow, to her mourning, now succumb.

Denigrated damsel by belittled deity,
Resuscitated for her skill, the likes of you and me,
Workers for the kingdom, in the balance as we step,
Tailors to the weavers to repay a single debt.