Second-hand Hurt

I was watching you through the window
drinking your beer
sitting alone outside today
while I played
“Everything I Own” real loud and sung along and drank my red wine inside
and then you came in to say
that you’d just shared a drink with her
and that’s okay
but when you say these things
it brings it home
that every minute of every hour
you’re aching for her
and your pain gets passed on to me
through your sad eyes
and I realise
that this second-hand hurt
that I am given
is harder to cope with than my own grief
and I would give
everything I own
to bring you relief
but it is my belief
the best I could do
was to continue to swig from my wine bottle’s neck
and heck
share a drink with you too

Over The Moon

I am over the moon

I am over the way its light
is just too bright for night

I am over the way it finds
the cracks between the blinds
and seeps through
and keeps you awake

I read somewhere
(or was told)
that the moon has the same
push
and
pull
effect on our bodies
as it does on the seas
because we
are made up of almost eighty percent water
that sorta made sense to me
but I gotta say
some nights
it just makes me crazy

Infectious

I’m wondering
if that yawn that I caught
just now
was once mine
that I then passed down
to the next person
who then went on
to send it round
the world in eighty days
and now it’s made its way
back to me
in endless circularity

Ahead Of Yourself

Getting ahead of yourself
is easy to do
when you are trying to put
it all behind you
The train’s windows
act as projection screens
for dissecting discussions
that never have been
and concocting conversations
where you say what you mean
When your eyes glaze over
the passing scenes
and nothing was ever
as it always seems
it is time to turn off
those incessant daydreams

Look right through the glass
to what is real outside
and watch it rush by
it is your time to bide
pretty soon you will notice
you’ve gone and arrived
just don’t get ahead of yourself
whilst on this wild ride

Around Here

You told me
you don’t think
that if she came back
she would recognise anything
anymore around here
not the cars on the driveway
nor
the garden
or
the caravan on her front lawn
but I beg
to differ
If she were
to come back
she’d know everything
off by heart
While you were tidying up her kitchen
you looked at me
while holding what appeared to be a scourer
and you said
“what on earth is a ‘hard surface cleaner’?”
and I said
“it’s a cleaner for hard surfaces”
and you said
“like your face”
and I laughed
see
things are much
and will remain as such
the same around here

The Epic Saga Of The Final Days Of The Known World's Last Remaining Wandering Minstrel

The last remaining wandering minstrel
was looking glum
for he felt that he
had been given a task
truly onerous
that had we been asked
all most all of us
would have found to be too upsetting
For being the last remaining wandering minstrel
required fortitude to handle the solitude
and loads of stamina
because all of the wandering
and the minstrelling
could get to ya
and now as his last hurrah
he was to travel near and far
and make known to all and sundry
that from now on
people were to talk of life
and speak of death
not with their words
just only with text
and they would learn
of sorrows great
and tell of loss
too hard to take
receive good news
and divulge their own
all just by using
a thumb and phone

The last remaining wandering minstrel
shed a single solitary tear in self-pity
and then dejectedly walked from city to city
in a final farewell and goodbye tour
until, alas, there were fewer and fewer
places requiring his special talent of news dissemination
as he handed out those little boxes of communication
It was the inevitable, lamentable, nay tragic elimination
of The Last Remaining Wandering Minstrel position

Time Line

You come from
a long line
of strong, fine women
that you will never know
but I will show
and tell you
all about them
as was told to me
The First
said “I don’t deserve this”
left with the five kids
and raised them by herself
The Second
loved a man
who went to war
and swore to himself that he would never speak of it
so he didn’t
for their fifty-two years together
The Third
loved you so dearly
that no matter what the cost
and no matter how hard it hurt
she did whatever she was told to do
to have as many days as possible with you
before her time ran out too soon
The Fourth
loves you more than you’ll ever comprehend
until you yourself get to send
this strength on down the line
in time
The End

The Better Of Me

Most times it feels that
I am not the best I could be
but I'm hoping we'll soon see
you get the better of me
God knows, you’ve seen my worst
I’ll just shut my mouth at first!
until it becomes second nature

Port Of Call

It’s a short distance to that cove
that has long harboured dreams
we’ll set them free
no strings attached
for you and me

It’s a long drop down from the edge
we’ll watch from the cliff top
those hopes get dashed
on jagged rocks
their tethers slashed

It’s a cold, dark dip into the deep
to retrieve what’s survived
scattered debris
flotsam, jetsam
gone out to sea

It’s a slow process to once again
begin building new dreams
from scratch and scraps
salty water
still licks and laps

our feet
and rises