Widely published over many years in various countries in numerous magazines, journals, anthologies, newspapers, and competitions, most recently first prize in the Brian Nisbet award. His last book was ‘History Doesn’t Die’
A LEADER JUSTIFIES WAR
Our tanks are just temples
moving their language
among those who are lost.
Our soldiers are voices
persuading the disbelievers
ours is the promised land.
We know the cause is just,
our way of life confirms it,
their weakness is our strength,
casualties we leave behind
rise into a single statement
explaining our strategies.
The families at home
are on a learning curve
as they pick over daily news,
while these young men
are marching to a future
they dare not name.
Out there is so close.
Our justice will prevail,
signal a new conscience
for the other side to memorize.
IF THE NAME FITS
The charge was electric,
the pounce a show
that should have been X-rated.
A cat, inevitable as his genes
had caught the robin.
Too late I accepted involvement,
voiced horror chasing the animal.
The bird, several transplants
short of a life,
blood outshining his breast,
was clearly dying, suffering,
needed a quick exit.
I couldn’t do it, walked away,
screaming in silence.
Later the bird had vanished.
But I saw the incident
for a few days afterwards,
ghosting through my mind
like an accusatory stalker
determined to shout my shame
and guilt was fitting me
with a new unpleasant name.
Life is always a sick joke
but the robin’s death
was a terrible punchline.
FOX
Pinned to the roadside,
a red mat secreting
his remains away,
staining the surface
in crimson silence.
It tells the story
of someone’s choice
that ignored his presence
and left him to be
an advert that says
man is a measure of all things.
Any faith I had in people
is diminished by behaviour,
and he persists there
like an accusation,
deserted and ignored,
too late for any sorrow
we can pretend is ours
that has no place left to hide.
His presence suggests
what a silent scream
would look like
to a world passing
without time to care,
that would live happily
without him.
It’s dark fate
is more than a farce,
more than a sick joke,
but we’re still the punchline.
impspired 