Training. 

Remember your training!

When the bow ramp drops, charge!

Pull the bolt back, forward, & aim

Pull the trigger, make your enemy quiver!

Stop shaking! 

It's just a day at the beach!

There's vomit on me uniform. Is it mine?

Might be Bill's next to me. He's seasick 

Pull the bolt back, forward, & aim

Pull the trigger, make your enemy quiver!

Mam's b...

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Please Remember Me.

For those who sleep from battles lost

And paid, for us, the ultimate cost

For all who came back from war

Forever scarred by what they saw

The lucky ones, 

      so they say

They got to see 

       another day

But friends who fell

At the toll of death's bell 

Still haunt their dreams

Upon that field of screams

Where...

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Do not cry for what you reap

‘Though I lie in eternal sleep

My life, I gave for the freedom of others

I rest in the arms of my fallen brothers 

Every unencumbered breath you take 

Is a life you did not forsake 

Remember us, remember me

Remember how you grew up free

We are foundations, we are the light

The ones who fought the darkest night

Remember those who never...

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Just over a year since I lost my Brother.

I lost my Brother, and my poetry went with him

Words replaced by a bottomless hollow

Knowing he had no more tomorrows 

The words I needed drifted away

Like smoke adrift on the  bleakest day

Forever drowning in a sea of grey 

Amidst its melancholic sway

He enjoyed a drink, and liked a fag

But was the best big brothe...

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Never falter from your dreams

Nor dream to falter

Never hope to live no-more 

But live to hope for evermore 

Never chase your own despair 

Let despair chase after you

Never doubt the strength you hold

Let strength leave doubt out in the cold

Never fight when you can talk

Let talk win the fight for you

Never call for hate when understanding is needed

...

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Ah! 

The simple sorrow

Of no more tomorrows 

A gasp of air

No longer there 

Drifting down life's breezy alleys

To settle in some distant valley;

A nomad memory roaming free

Returning only occasionally 

To minds who thought all was calm

Under masquerades of smiles & charm

        Do we only truly live in youth?

‘Til conformity becomes our truth?

Teth...

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The old bell jangles as I come through the door 

A familiar step down to a dark wooden floor

A petrichor from pages hangs in the air

Its musty aroma telling tales of their wear

On shelves, are bindings crafted by hands

Lost & forgotten to times shifting sands 

And others, whose fingers caressed those old pages:

A DNA echo still lingers through ages

In a corner sits Mis...

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I lay beneath the hanging tree

Where thoughts of who I used to be

Like salty tears, dripped from me

Falling 

            to 

                mediocrity 

And everything that I could be

And everything I thought I'd see

Lays waste beneath the canopy

Of that ancient, screaming  hanging tree

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The towers fell, & the world changed 

And so began the great exchange 

Of hate 

Of lies 

Of family ties

Severed at the soul of man

For what? Allah's master plan?

There was no god on that bleak day

Only man's abuse of a belief astray 

The dust still gathers; our lungs still choked

As we try to escape from the fire stoked 

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In the place where women belong

Scrubbing, dusting, pinafore on

Hard working husband down at the pub

She better make him some hearty grub!

For, he'll return all worn out

Money lost on the horses no doubt!

Cheer him up with a nice beef dinner

Even though he would like to be thinner!

But it's such a hard job working, then drinking 

By the time he gets home, his stomach is ...

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I sat in the cafe as I had when a boy.

Sitting as if I'd see the world as I did back then,

When the steam from my tea cup 

snatched a rainbow from the window light

It seemed the world was full of colour 

But, now the cafe was derelict, charcoaled.

The window lay in shards & fragments 

The colours of the rainbow, repelling 

There was rot in the architecture 

of both ...

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Across the forest summer sings

Whilst brother autumn waits in its wings

Winter fluffs its snowy fleece

Whilst snoozy spring gets some well earned peace.

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The local club

Was once the hub

To watch a band

Or chew the cud

Legs eleven

Was halftime heaven

No local winner =

Armageddon! 

A stranger's feet

Resting at your seat!

His smarmy face

You'd wanna beat! 

Oh, the damned consternation!

“That's been my seat since

decimalisation!”

Working men blow woodbine hoops

In kipper ties & we...

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Through morning rain

And misty plains

The dawn shakes off night's coat

Yawning bright 

The dappled light  

For the birdsong's perfect note.

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I lost a rhyme

Somewhere in time 

One that nestled

In my soul

It left a scar

A dying star

Could not replace 

The light it stole

I searched my mind

But could not find

Why my soul

Set it free

Perhaps my sadness 

My internal madness 

Showed no joy

Would ever be

So, if one day

It should come your way

Give it my love

And regre...

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A late one for DDay.

Do not cry for what you reap

‘Though I lie in eternal sleep

My life, I gave for the freedom of others

I rest in the arms of my fallen brothers 

Every unencumbered breath you take 

Is a life you did not forsake 

Remember us, remember me

Remember how you grew up free

We are foundations, we are the light

The ones who fought the darkest night

...

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Little Ted likes to bounce his ball 

on the beach

So did Billy

But he was killed just out of reach

Little Ted likes to watch the seagulls 

Swooping overhead 

But, Billy remembers them picking

At the dead

Little Ted likes to run into the dunes

To hide & play

Billy still hides from the machine gun’s

Deathly spray

But, little Ted doesn't like th...

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We stood on the bridge watching 

the train approach 

The steam dampening our faces

as it passed under

It was warm, then cold

I grabbed my brothers hand

and we ran to the other side

But, the train had gone,

along with my brother.

The imprint of his hand 

still lay in mine

But time had taken them both.

I stood there for days, weeks, 

Perhaps, months

Perhaps,...

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There was nothing new 

in what I saw

For, what I saw 

I'd seen before

They'd like me to see 

what I do not

Instead of the same 

Old political rot.

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I've had a couple of poems published In this anthology, as part of poetry against poverty with all profit going to Save The Children.  

Check it out if you can, it's for a good cause! 

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 4 https://amzn.eu/d/9Z9L39i

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You are the cooling morning breeze

The song of birds from distant trees

The sway of summer's golden fields

The light that darkness cannot steal

The colours of a rainbow's sail

That drifts from sky to misty vale

You are the warming hug of dawn

The dusky twilight's sleepy yawn

And here I rest in dewy slumber 

Beneath your veil of untold wonder…

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(Part 2)

The monsters find a way.

Those precious years that followed 

Were summer fields of fragrant flowers 

Where dreams, thought long forgotten

Had returned to fill the hours 

We had a princess of our own

Kept the witch & the goblins at bay 

For, if they knew we had an heir

They would, surely, take her away!

But, somehow, they found her Mother 

Cr...

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(Part 1)

I remember you saying

Back when we were young

That sometimes you felt

Like a song left unsung

That reality was fake:

Our dreams held the key

And there lay the truth

Of how life should be

You were the princess

And I, the dashing knight

who saved you from the monsters 

And a pit of endless plight

Down to the woods I'd go:

A ...

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The garden seems much smaller

The grass, not so green

Inside, the walls close ever in

And harbour silent screams

I clutch at straw crumbling to grain

And feed it to myself again 

This pain

This pain

This recurring pain

That I Inflict time & again 

I grab for the stars

And the bright morning sun

But, the closer they come

The further I run

A raindrop ag...

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An old reminder of what happens to good poets on #worldpoetryday  So, I'm OK. You however...

A beautiful, dreamy poetry day, MASSACRE!

Through your window, the powder-puff clouds

And sun drizzled fields are beckoning poetic verse to be written. 

Behind you, a gentle scratching sound distracts

But you don't turn. 

It's probably that sneaky, little

dormouse that someti...

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I teetered on the brink of a book

Its fragrant words & structure 

sucking me into the hand-stitched binding

Embossed with gold leaf, its cover flaunted itself

Like a literary geisha pandering to my wanton need

I playfully thumbed through a few pages

Its musky allure teasing my nostrils 

Suddenly, a voice from another realm spoke:

“Have you got my book in there?”

I n...

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I saw 

The flare of the gun

Against the setting sun

My baby's smiling face

I kept within a lonely space

My wife's hand in mine

For one final time 

I saw

The blood from my chest

Sending my body to rest

The future I thought would be

Drift away to a blood red sea

The hands of Time slowly cease

Feeling a weary inner peace

I saw

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A re-post 'cause it's one of 'The Wifey's' favourite 

And it is valentines, apparently...

If ever I fall will you catch me

And sing me a sweet lullaby?

To stitch up my heart when it's broken

For, I've never been good at goodbyes

Would you weave me a story of wonder

To light up my mind when it's cold?

And chase all the darkness & thunder

From the emptiness of my...

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I saw the blood run down the walls

Within the children's tears

I heard the parliamentary halls

Resound with warring cheers

I felt the shock of bomb & gun 

Within gasps of anticipation 

I saw their prey run & run

From nation killing nation 

I drew my scythe & licked my lips

A hefty load to swallow 

I told the ferryman, he needed ships

For, they will b...

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The world keeps shouting 

whilst, the quiet

sit in despair, witnessing 

the mould & rot spread

Trying not to Inhale 

greedy spores that rot hope

Exhaling a desperate,  empty foreboding 

‘Times they are a-changin’’

Echoes from an old radio somewhere 

A white flag drifts past, stained red

We rub our eyes

But, there's fire in the sky

And death all around. 

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“Atkinson! Pay attention!

You have the attention span of a gnat!”

I remember a teacher shouting 

When, in a school classroom I sat

“You'll amount to nothing, boy!

Is that really what you want to be?”

Well, nothing can be fascinating,  sir

Like a black hole, or the deep of a sea!

He flung a piece of chalk my way

But his aim dented his pride

It hit a girl sitt...

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Jeez!

I can't hear the telly 

for your bubbling belly!

Stop being horrible! You know I get IBS

Aye, Irritating Belly Sounds!

I laughed

She didn't 

Her cheeks glazed with cherry red

But, also, the weight loss?

And, you need to eat more! 

You're like a mouse lately. 

Eeek, eeek, She mimics (badly)

She turns, cups my face in her hands, 

kisses me

But, there's...

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Some days I like to wander free

Let reality's harsh light dim

In hope I'll find new things to see 

New worlds to hide within 

I wander down forgotten paths

Now overgrown with thistle 

And find a draughty little nook

Where the fair wind likes to whistle 

I came upon a cottage somewhere 

Or, perhaps, I was at rest?

Outside, an old woman stood

In ragged...

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