Auguries of Life

Spider On The Wall

Spider spider on the wall

Who lasts longest of us all?

Do you observe me with vision clear?

Can you see me standing near?

You seem untroubled as I watch you

Poised on a crevice like a bold statue

Weaving your threads of micro steel

It is a mystery how you feel

Are you afraid of foes like me?

For I can deny your divinity

Crush your body with a single blow

Kill you with toxin laced with woe

Yet there you are lord of your space

Child of the ages apace with grace

Defiant though your time has come

As I hold your destiny under my thumb

Yes you are doomed by arachnophobia

Whilst I endure life’s xenophobia

Death will be our common fate

Now for you but I must wait

Die then noble creature away begone

While my humdrum life lingers on

_________________

Koala

Little creature out on a limb

How bravely you meet your fate

Mangled by policies dark and grim

Heard in political debate

Robber barons have revealed stark trends

With greed that is habit forming

Their profit from coal is a world without ends

In denial of global warming

Thus we have fire engulfing trees

Putting to death a community

That is the pain when pity flees

Pursued by herd immunity

Age does not weary nor the years condemn

The approaching end of a species

Plants extinct when you cut off the stem

Cause wars that rage without treaties

So if you die as a child of fate

Or suffer the pain of burning

The cause is a rich man’s thoughtless state

That defies all wisdom and learning

So farewell friend as you meet your end

This is the way things are

Yours is a fate I cannot amend

The door to your death is ajar

___________________

Bird In A Cage

Dreams are things the caged bird loses

In a coop confined

Bondage is what no living thing chooses

With love of life undermined

Can you hear the cries of despair

From a creature confined for life?

Wings once free that rode the air

Now nothing but pain is rife

Freedom is a word that is quite absurd

When you’re locked away in a prison

The plea for mercy remains unheard

And a wraith of ruin has arisen

Just one thing more is left to deplore

For the bird on public display

It’s taught to talk with skill what’s more

And we mock the interplay

O where is the joy and what is the cost

Derived from this avian grief?

If I opened the cage what would be lost

In the sufferer’s joyous relief?

This I must do to forever be true

To the peace I would find through giving

Let the bird fly away as Noah’s dove flew

To the only life worth living

____________________

Truth

Truth is the foe of villains who come knocking on your door

A better angel by your side in both peace and war

Liars abuse reality in a savage way

Turning wisdom into doubt and hope into dismay

Look around you every day; play a watchful role

You’ll find rogues putting their case and planning to control

Words can be the deadly tools of rascals seeking power

They turn headlines into folly at a witching hour

Deceivers can decide your fate with their false allusions

As they wreck your humble life with nothing but delusions

Every day is a danger when truth is decried as fiction

Deceivers can turn absolute falsehoods into benediction

So many myths are claimed to be for the good of the nation

Dissemblers easily stand aloof with righteous indignation

Where then are the villains with their sinister intent?

They are found in every rank from lackey to president

So what must we do for peace of mind that will save our lives?

Why move away from realpolitik so that justice survives

Turn our back on deceivers who still pollute our days

Shout the praise of honesty and see how virtue pays

One dark day a head of state told just one big lie

The consequences of this deed were written in the sky

Thus the world has changed itself with deadly habit forming

Destruction now is everywhere because of global warming

So ride with the brave into wisdom and let the truth be told

Watch the liars freeze to death while you come in from the cold

____________________

Advice

On Legal Aid

Once I wandered overwhelmed

Along a street to nowhere

I was lost and did not know

What I was bound to find there

I needed aid that was not a tirade

To find a better path

I found a friend who brought to an end

A previous aftermath

Words were the gift given to me

That gave me back a new life

Respite from my own helplessness

Comfort in my strife

So now I walk to a different place

No longer pale and trembling

Prone no more to ignorance

Or other fools dissembling

There is calm in my mind at last

I am no longer afraid

The troubled track that once I walked

Is now a peaceful glade

One more deed remains for me

In my looming last days

To give my thanks to my mentor

With this humble song of praise

____________________

Travesties

I demand my freedom 

To choose not to wear a mask

To hell with social distance

How dare you take me to task! 

Liberty is mine, a legacy

No death count can deny

If you seek my views on that virus

I will refuse to reply

How dare you impose a lockdown on me

In this land of milk and honey

And do away with my free will

It’s a crime that’s far from funny

I insist on my right to stage a rally

Where folk are free to swap air

When fools decry a danger

I know it isn’t there

I refuse to have my life determined

By the whims of a statistician

Your normal curve I don’t deserve

And I do not fear the mortician

So begone dull fool away with you

I refuse to accept your complaint

It is for the good of a nation

That I live without restraint

But wait, what’s that you say?

O why am I ill at ease?

Morose downcast crestfallen with the news

My father has caught that disease?

____________________

royciebaby