Let me exhale 

Wait a minute

Let me exhale

I have been hurt 

Mentally, physically and emotionally

I have been ridiculed

Called names 

Shot at 

For what, because of my skin?

Take a look 

Yea in the mirror 

Now take a look 

This time at me

Tell me 

What do you see

Two hands, two feet, two eyes 

They are no different than mine

Separated by ...

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The past is held in the un-cut clearing
all the way to the other side of the cricket ground
and past the greenhouse
which you reckoned must have had a few balls
smashing through it over the years
and the nearby college,

drawing a line between the future
and what lies beyond the other side of the gate
leaving nothing but shadows
and rattling doors
of the boarded up club house
retracing...

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in my dream

I follow a Shepherd

without a flock

to a far away land

beyond the blue remembered hills

we do not speak

l'm guided along

with signals made with his crook

I obediently follow

there appears before us

a foreign place

bathed in golden light

I saw no human habitations

stretched out in front of us

countless mounds of earth

neat...

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Leaving Home

I kicked off my shoes in disgust

as I had more time to waste and wait

I was impotent because of my age

bound by the law to adhere and acquiesce

I stood and fumed barely able to conceal my anger

I wanted to smash something, a nearby fish bowl caught my eye

The word livid was beneath the surface of my soul

I was about to explode at any moment

I ...

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The children
stuck there at the top of the ferris wheel 
swaying between this view and that
spying
an open boat comfortably settled in the sand
decide on further investigation 
it's only at the end of the day
exhausted and entering sleep
the children
aware water follows every path down
know
they'll run a proud hand along 
the smooth gunwales of their own little skiff
thought they...

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I believe firmly
that all shards
no matter
how small and fragile
no matter
how fractured and forgotten
no matter
how long ago
they broke
can be mended
can be reassembled
into the vase they once formed
and that this vase
can be as strong
and as beautiful
as it once was

I firmly believe
that nothing
is beyond repair
nothing
can´t be mended
it just takes
more and more work
th...

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Some men only aim to please 
They constantly beg and plead

For you to answer their call
For they need you before they fall

Much deeper into a low
Where all it takes is just one blow

Job into a thousand highs
Or a long sorrowful goodbye 

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Forgetting such moments are not a cinch

Wow factor is a life free of glitch

Those moments are just dreadly screams

Even so, they are just dusky dreams

Panting, whimpering, yearning and lamenting deep

Hark! wake up before they engulf your luminous tinge of last beam...

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Your work lacks suffering
I hear the happily satisfied 

Middle class tones underlying
Everything you say

And there’s not enough space
In our collective hearts for it

After a hard day it doesn’t 
Ask the right questions

Or provide the right
Solutions

And I’m happy you’ve found love
But if you write about it

It just might fly out from under 
Your pen and then your songs

M...

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A man gets on a plane and sits in first class,

He was approached by the stewardess,a friendly lass.

"Sorry sir you'll have to vacate your seat,

And move to economy to rest your feet."

The man was adamant he was going to stay,

Even though first class he did not pay.

"I'm going on holiday to Torbay and I'm staying here !"

"First class you didn't pay sir,you'll have to move ...

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Filey England 1960 something. 

The shed smells of shit

Its not a shed its a chalet

Its boxed happiness

Its freedom

From desolation

Its a summery

Destination

With a swimming pool

Full of polio

Cold shivering 

skinny kid

Its the place

We leap

Like national sheep

Laughing in unison

Drunken fornication

Shimmering castigation

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Hand Count

Sixty times a minute

I have travelled round this face

Three thousand six hundred times an hour

I have faithfully kept pace

Eighty six thousand four hundred times a day

I’ve ticked along

Six hundred and four thousand eight hundred times a week

Always right and never wrong

Eighteen million one hundred and forty four thousands times an average month

Relen...

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A hundred days since lockdown began, stockpiling days seems so long ago.

Rationing of pasta, toilet rolls, hand sanitiser, the empty shelves full of woe.

Non essential shops closed along with gyms, restaurants, bars and schools.

Only two persons allowed together, was just one of the new lockdown rules.

A tired nurse went to the shop and broke down, she cried in sheer desperat...

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The only place

that my hair grows

is in my ears

and in my nose,

the consequence

of growing old

is hair grows where

it's not supposed!

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I was fine in my bubble

just some Moses in my own parting

and yes, you ruined my thoughts

and spun me in antonyms

I always wondered

why I prayed for apocalypse before sleep

and waking up, still whatever,

whatever, was always

outside

whispering planets secretly in my ear

you left me jungles and deserts,

you handed me worlds I never knew

what to do with

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I've seen one like a rose,
Permit to pluck thee
First sight I doze,
Thanks be thou who made me see

This breed is special,
Thou made of meek and honey
What could be more vital,
If thou isn't a journey 

Permit to make thee a garden,
Where birds would be guards 
There none would be stolen,
Thy fairness told with regards 

A being stunning like snow,
With thee I sow!

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Every morning when the birds are singing . They answer my calls and sing me a Song . You feel all is well . What ever they are saying . What ever they feel you can tell . They bring joy . And happines for all . When whistling there tunes . From near or far . What a reaction . O what a Joy .

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For my women you are Successfully Amazing.
Successfully Amazing at its best.
A walking human of love.

As natural as can be don't let the demons in the world take that from you because you are
Successfully Amazing.

Potential of Success and Ambition
Amazingly Beautiful to human recognition.

Hey do you see the way she walks.
Tall and straight with confidence.
She's Successfully Amazing...

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No more masks(Revised 2)

A poetic drama (One Scene)

( Egypt’s parliamentary farce)

(The spokesperson on the presidium strikes the table with a wooden hammer and asks for order. Participants become quiet.
Raise your hands and reflect your views on today’s point of argument— The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD ) on Blue Nile. Various people representatives raise hands,
The spokesman...

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#facebook,#friendship,#loss of friendship,#Social media, #lockdown

You don't have time and so

You're fading slowly from my life

Messages left hanging

Like smoke rings in cyberspace

But the fading is masked

By a feeling of liking and being liked

Which I tend to persist in

Because you still 'like' my stuff

As I do yours

And that seems to be a close enough equivalent

...

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~PROMISES~

From this point on,

I promise to be strong.

I promise to put my babies first, and be a good mom.

I promise to do my best in righting my wrongs.

I promise to remember the word patience...even on days that seem long.

This I promise to you:

I promise to always be true.

I promise to always love you.

I promise to always be your best friend. 

I promise that for t...

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Ankles crossed and

toes waving I

sigh at the clouded

light that creeps

across the kitchen,

through its windowed

permission,

its walls ignored

my jailed stare.

Tomorrow will

welcome frustrating

sunshine.

I look at my stilled toes.

Words and image Tommy Carroll

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after all these months

I may have decided to let you go

because we both know we never belonged to each other

but deep down I still crave for your touch

your fingers carefully moving around my body

your smokey lips on mine

my head laying on your chest, your hands caressing my hair away from my eyes

your arms embracing my tiny body and you saying sweet things in my ears till I f...

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I refuse to let you go!... although you are not mine to claim.

Even more so after every stolen moment together.

My soul feels as though it's occupying my body for the first time.

I can feel and hear my laboured breathing while the sweat created from the explosion of passion runs down each temple.

I hear nothing else but that sound...dragging me back to the moments before when you enter...

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The place that reside

Million neurons alive

Foramen Magnum leads the way

To many chambers that lay bare

Bare I say

For there is nothing that stays

Except for one

The chamber that contains

The memories to hold

The memories that haunt 

The memories that form 

The shadows of our brain

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Cryptic  9 down 1 across – after Malika Booker

Poem inspired by “The Golden Shovel” technique - A Parable of Sorts by Malika Booker the line used was “Us black rats with our rouge swagger that spoke.”

The title is taken from the number of lines in the golden shovel but also based upon the fact that black people are 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched in this country.

We knew th...

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'What's for dinner, chef?' said the house fly,
From his perch on the roll of kitchen towel.
He wasn't to know.
'Nothing you'd like.' I sighed
'Surprise me!' he replied.

It is summer, and last night,
Mosquitos robbed me of blood and sleep.
So when cooking a pasta sauce,
Zoroaster's recourse
Is a creed that I heed.

'Go on, surprise me!'
So I did. And I was right.
He didn't like it.

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I ain't a puppet, and don't wish to be one

This life is mine, I wish to live and have some fun

The way I want to live in city or wilderness 

It ain't anyone's task to see what I don't want to see

I ain't a puppet, so let me be what I want to be

I have my dreams and wishes so help me achieve these

I do wish to help you with your wishes too 

But for that don't bury my dream...

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Criminal deceit is out on the street

Along with its partner in crime called conceit.

The far right's in plain sight,

The far left's more discreet.

.........................................................................

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MALICE

The little scavangers,
At the school fence,
Piercing the school window
With a look tense.

A boy of ten,
And of five,
Accompanied with a girl,
Little bit a knaive.

Oh my God!

They're entering into the fence,
All the boys and girls inside,
Looking at them,
With great malice.

Somebody says, "Call the guard."
While some suggest, 'police'
But I'm at my wits end to know,
...

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The story is the same

It’s always the same

Escape from wall to wall people

Festivities, trivialities

Desiring a different experience

Hear my heart beat

Truly breathe

Solitude where are you?

For once to be truly alone

Ways to seek

Seek and you will find

New Year’s Day finds me in a forest

Far from the moderate crowd

Rain lashes down and I care not

The ...

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My girlfriend's always gossiping about something or other,

That's why I haven't told her that I'm sleeping with her mother,

She'd only go and spread it round till everybody knew

And her father would go crazy as I'm sleeping with him too.

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A flash of remembrance on a start again day
The crumbling of memory, times fade away,
The dominant discourse is undoubtedly drear
The rolling of thunder, the future unclear. 

.......

Mesmerised masses accept the news of the day,
Never question the legitimacy of those who hold sway,
This woke intelligentsia virtue-signal it's true
They tear up the debt that we owe to the few.

......

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There comes a time 

when the tiny sapling will be a tree

ignoring all sighs,wounds and strom.

If you wish ,come and sit

under its shade.

There will be time when

we tide over the vortex.

There must be a time when

live to the fullest extent again.

Hold you fist tight and welcome 

the sobs and pains now.

Tomorrow we shall sing again.

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One Life is not enough

For those who are optimistic

those who have positive thinking and progressive mind

To create things, to implement ideas

To explore all colors of life

Life is like an ocean of opportunities

to explore talent,

to see the whole worldwide,

to discover new aspects of life by connecting things with ideas

which can’t be grabbed at a time

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(This might come across as a bit dewy-eyed.  In fact, although I made a good living out of it for more than 20 years, for the sake of the planet and my grandchildren, I don't mourn the loss of the coal industry)

Around the town of Barnsley there were 30,000 men

In hey-days of their glory; that was when

They worked the local mines for coal,

Descending down a half mile hole

To sc...

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I love you like an atheist makes the sign of the cross; out of reflex, with no real hope of finding salvation or heaven.

I watch you like I’m a firefly trapped in a jar, sometimes envying the finality of the moth that was free enough to find its own flame to ride into peace.

I find you in the lines of love stories, the clink of a knife upon a glass, in proclamations left unsai...

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Before I'm put to rest.

There's some life lessons I've learnt.
Never betray your own heart.
Even when you fall in love

Before I'm put to rest.

Take heed in the advise of others.
Because life is so uncertain.
So focus, don't wonder

Before I'm put to rest.

Do good in your life and take care of your people.
The blessings you feel.
So answer their prayers, even if they tell you th...

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On the empty wall of my room

I think I'll put a picture of the rain. --

Hitting the ground,

And getting up to ankles,

The rain will be wetting my socks

And trousers from below;

Then my eyes will follow

Roof-edges,

Streets,

Sidewalks,

...tick, tick, tick...

Everything in the picture,

Until catching a black brolly,

And the shiny enamel shoes...

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My chair has been around for many years

It has supported me most of my life

It’s structure has mainly been very sound

Colour not always of choice but needed to blend

in with the requirement to fulfil its purpose

My chair has changed from time to time

It has seen many aspects of life and rooms

that didn’t always do it justice

in terms of ambience and mood.

Mood, ah y...

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A change is welcome

for the Lord

whether we want it or not,

for whatever reason, 

when HE feels it

to be truly just

by losing hope

due to a picture worst:

Some of us sacrifice,

what we love, 

for a reason

valid for recreation,

and some of us walk

a pilgrimage

shouldering a weight,

for a cloudy past. 

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THAT SOUND

(For Little Richard)

You liked to make a noise

Banging pots and pans

To accompany

Your boyhood singing

And always raising the key

Until they threw you

Out of the church choir

For making ’that sound’.

Later it made you great

A wop bap a loop bop

Tutti Frutti

Good Golly Miss Molly!

In and out of religion

And of confusing sex...

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Everyday Is Someday

loud minds
discard the many futures
eternally as snakeskin
as a plastic glowstick
nescient of the night
coursing mornings’ brief
unwise hope
and the air of Earth
like one deformed breath spread across
the once-crystal planet
observing as if from orbit
your own life, the avatar
you choose to be without knowing
annihilates all realms out of sight
and from just ab...

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The simplicity of life

The complexity of man

Of expectations not heard

And intentions hidden in the crevices deep within one’s heart

The double standards that exist

Yet the respect that is demanded

The trust that is violated

All in the name of self-love

Many avoid to be used

Yet find themselves culprits of being users

Of trampling on others, and leaving them...

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The connection that is formed in the inner spirit.

It is overwhelming and felt within every piece of my body.

It aches, like longing for something that is lost.

See somehow you took a part of me when I left.

The last time I saw you. I never imagined that would be the end.

I'm afraid that I will never get it back. I will never be whole again.

I know you didn’t mean to take it. It'...

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Discussing the idea of a parallel universe 

Is often intriguing and really kind of fun

But what really elicits my interest

Is the idea there's a perpendicular one

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are you bored of the love

are you bored of the drives

are you bored of the kisses

are you bored of the sex

are you bored of me trying 

are you bored of the dates 

are you bored of my family 

are you bored of the car

are you bored of my body 

are you bored of the laughs 

and my mother who loves you

are you bored of our life 

our future 

our nights

are you b...

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I've been responding in all the wrong ways
I've simply just an idiot
Trying to make everyone laugh
For my sins are carved into my skin
We never want to be evil or cruel
I know that all humankind can be

The human race hates change
The only time we can grow is when we'er uncomfortable
We let fear take over are mind
So we let people weaponize with our fears 
We become the monsters

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Spiraling down into heaps, ragged and gray, cracked crockpot hip sway
How many times a day do the flies find dead lips
Violence equips violence, self perpetuated static hate
Powers of state observed through grates, through threadbare shirts as they disintegrate
Inflating the lie, runflat tires crushing thighs, for his mom he cries
How do your eyes hold dripping pitchers back, how much empathy...

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वह आई थी पीला सूट डाल कर

हमने रखा था दिल को संभाल कर

आंखे फिर भी फिसलती रही मगर

उसकी जवानी पर जा रही थी नज़र

आज हमने देखे आम सरे आम!

होंठो से उसके छलकता है जाम

बातो में उसके एक मीठा पैगाम

चूम ले मेरा, वह होंठ; इतनी कसरत

बस चूमते रहे मेरी इतनी हसरत

हासिल मुझे हो जाए मेरा मक़ाम!

आज हमने देखे आम सरे आम!

आँखों में खंजर उसके, क़तल करती है

देखूं मैं जितना उसको ...

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