Poems That Come To Mind

Secret Hallelujah

O I am Zeus and I rule the world

But you’ll never see my flag unfurled

For I am cunning and act propitiously

And do my dealings surreptitiously

My scheme for mankind has something new

It’s to put all power in the hands of a few

I am a combatant to rival Hector

Transferring control to the private sector

Public possession is not for the wise

So I ride with the wind and privatise

Patients and students are income sources

I condemn them all to market forces

I place offshore my wealth and power

To give tax evasion a witching hour

The balanced budget is one more false dream

So poverty and pain are part of my scheme

Low taxes for the wealthy are another ploy

No trickle down for the poor to employ

Low skilled workers will have paltry wages

As monopolies flourish in organised stages

Ecosystems die while I remain mute

As my mining cronies collect the loot

Each plan I devise increases my wealth

And no one dare touch it except myself

My design is secret and of biblical proportions

I keep it dark with cunning distortions

My negative forces are a skilful diversion

Unseen by all as sheer perversion

Loneliness, poverty, mental stress I ignore

It’s the old feudal system that I restore

My personal aim is to control the common man

Corporate triumph is my lucrative plan

And I shall sing as morning follows night

A secret hallelujah to the glory of the Right

Enforced Nonentity

Here I am

My life still aflame

Still ready to take up arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them

Many thoughts for future action flood my mind

Ways to improve the world

As well as myself

Such a glorious opportunity

To make the most of life

And sprinkle water on the deserts of ignorance

My demise is not yet in my thoughts

Between now and then I have much to do

Learn this learn that

Read this read that

Write this write that

Countless ways to squeeze the juice out of time

To make each day count

As a little triumph beyond mere necessity

So why do you threaten me with the enforced nonentity

Of aged care

To turn me into a dependent anachronism

Hand fed by strangers

As if I were unable to help myself?

I may be a dependant some time but not today

If you try to impose that existence on me,

I warn you

I will flee from your sight and dance on the moon

Time For Me Is A Friend And Not A Foe

Yes I am old and my life may seem nothing but woe

But time for me is a friend and not a foe

Age is not a symptom of disaster

It is a database of memories to master

All those years are not a reason for despair

When events changed the fate of mankind, I was there

Reading the papers, seeing the films, listening to radio news

And then came television which now the whole world views

The past is not a body to dismember

It is my ally because of what I remember

In those days when my hearing was not impaired

I heard an anguished voice saying war was declared

I recollect many warplanes flying overhead

And the Rats of Tobruk being told to bring out their dead

Pearl Harbour ablaze will be in my mind until the day I die

Hiroshima and Nagasaki as horrors still make me cry

I once sang a Glenn Miller song called Elmer’s Tune

I was swept away when Neil Armstrong walked the moon

I remember too Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf 

Who most agree gave the Internet its birth

My friends and I watched many dictators fall

We saw as well the collapse of the Berlin Wall

History is less a mystery when you are old

You are almost a spy who comes in from the cold

Wars, peace, boom and depression

When you live through them they make an impression

Change your life and determine what you are

Because the door to vital things is ajar

So I thank you here for noticing my story

There is so much more I could tell to extend the glory

But now I desist with a thought I cannot resist

Old people’s stories are events that should never be missed

I have learnt to rejoice on reaching my venerable age

As my mind turns me into a lion without a cage

A Friend

A friend is

Like silence when your head aches

Like hot food when you are hungry

Like drink when you are thirsty

Like a breeze in a heatwave

Like shelter in a storm

Like laughter when you are sad

Like being found when you are lost

Like rain in a drought

Like a blanket when you are cold

Like company when you are lonely

Like a tree in a desert

Like shade in the hot sun

Like a garden in a city

Like a key to a locked door

Like peace after war

So thank you dear reader for being here;

Please be my friend

Confessions

I questioned once the view that I was dumb

But when in doubt I merely sucked my thumb

When my view of the planet was forming

I denied the truth of global warming

I put all my faith in mere divertissements

And based all my judgements on advertisements

Regarding commerce I tended to fudge it

And accepted the need for a balanced budget

I agreed to the purchase of weapons what’s more

And supported the plans for a global war

I cheered tax concessions for every rich clown

And believed that the proceeds would trickle down

I was happy to give wealthy CEOs my thanks

And raised the income of the heads of banks

I accepted lobbyists as genuine envelopers

And placed each city in the hands of developers

I denied true science the power to define

By extending the existence of every coal mine

I described green bans as pettifogging

And permitted unfettered forest logging

I condemned marine parks as futile wishing

Which led to disaster by illegal fishing

One final deed turned me into an ass

I spent many millions on power from gas

And so my life has gone merrily on

I can say I am rarely frowned upon

In fact as a gesture that reeks of bar sinister

They’ve recently elected me Prime Minister

Consequences

O I can see the sky afire

Clouds in a tumult of anger pounding the air

Trees a clamour of leafless branches

Clutching upwards like hands of the dead

Thunder tearing the planet apart

Lightning burning hot creases in Heaven

Endless rain 

Hammering on the eaves of tomorrow

Cyclones battering frightened cities to death

Millions of cars licking the air with forked tongues

As dark Satanic mills burn away the future

Beside this doom there hover the ghosts of greed

Haunting still frequented mines

With wraiths of doubt denying the truths of science

While the drones of obsolescence

Cling furtively to outdated ways of living

Can there be a reason for this storming?

Did I hear you mention global warming?

royciebaby