Love
Love is a powerful friend amidst chaos
A cooee when you are lost in the mountains
A visit from a doctor when you are ill
Water in a desert of loneliness
A warm fire when you come in from the cold
A kind hand when defeat bars your way
Laughter when gloom thinks it is winning
If you regret a mistake it understands
When the world condemns you it forgives
If you are ostracised it ensures you do not walk alone
Love is magic
It casts a spell on whoever it touches
Love is a connection
For with it two or more become one
Love is eternal
As it survives even after death
So don’t feel sad for me please when I die
For I have found love in my life
Flowers
Those flowers are nearly dead now
Lingering as they do
In that vase
Watered with human kindness
How lovingly they were put there
Aiming to give delight to a returning loved one
Who had been through the Hell of living with an illness
You can see the last traces of colour
Remaining determinedly
As an incentive to make the most of each hour
Shape is changing too
The way of all living things
In the end succumbing to time
Shrivelling wrinkling transforming
Into the livery of death
So that soon all that will remain
Is a memory of beauty
And yet
Despite the momentary grief of decay
There is an antidote to ending
Recollection of the smile those flowers conjured forth
When first they were seen
By that troubled, ailing soul
In that sense
A thing of beauty lasts and lasts and lasts
While tomorrow
There will be more flowers
And another vase
When Will They Ever Understand?
Afghanistan August 2021
It has happened again
Intruders bringing chaos to a foreign land
Yet another invasion
Repulsed by resentful denizens
Desperately hanging on to their own code of ethics
Which is their right according to international law
Irrespective of the inconvenience it causes foreign potentates
Not the first time either
It has happened again and again and again in this place
No child’s learning there is ever free of warfare, bloodshed, struggle
They study mathematics with a data base of death
And the land itself protects all fugitives
It is easy to hide in its caves and valleys and hills
A favourable sanctuary for rebels and dissenters
Who have flourished there down the years
Constantly evoking the ire of powerful, trigger-happy aliens
For whom conference, dialogue and negotiation are dirty words
Where is the wisdom of this intrusion?
When will they ever understand?
When will they ever learn?
Tags
Only yesterday I found the tag for faults was solutions
For hate was love
For anger kindness
And for war peace
All this because an old and dying man
Said he still enjoyed living…
All things bright and beautiful were still there for the seeing
He cheerfully helped me understand
His category for existence obviously lingering on
Even though days were hard and seemingly numbered…
He had lived a long life
That old man
Watched the doers of dark deeds get their way at times
Felt the pain of injustice to others
And the triumph of getting things right occasionally himself
With his own learning process
He had been married to someone he held dear
Raised three children
Paid off a home
And worked like a vassal for his pay
Now his time was running out
Children far away
That wife dead
With nothing to do in retirement but think
And write his memoirs…
So feed all this into your computer, reader
Get the tags right
And the best category I can think of is humanity
Post it on your blog
For all the world to see
That old man by the way, the one I mentioned, was me
Liar: Proud, Magnificent
Greetings!
You are welcome in my presence
As long as you toe the line
You know what I mean
Believe my lies and act accordingly
I need
No demand, respect from you
Obedience
For I am the world’s most powerful liar
Believe me
That’s the truth
And I grow more powerful every day
Because of my army of acolytes
Who thump their fists against law and order
Walk the streets
Storm the balustrades of truth and justice
To give me power
By denying all reality
Don’t you dare mention logic based on evidence
In my presence
How dare you think in my company
The lunacy of logic has long departed this globe
Lies lies lies
Are the essence of existence in this new age
And time will confirm my deception sublime
So come with me now
Bow your head respectfully
Dance to my seductive music
And it shall follow
According to my plans
Heaven will be discovered in Hell
And we shall all rejoice
Data
Hello
I am a number now
Infinity minus one
Part of the data base for all mankind
Someone I have never met
Knows me today better than I know myself
Where I go
What I read
What I spend my money on
Even what I eat
Somewhere in the world
A data base exists
Created in the last two years
More vast than everything mankind ever wrote
Since time began
And there I am, little me
Somewhere in that vastness
A tiny speck
Naked, exposed, available
To any inquisitor who wants my details
For whatever reason providence may decide
It’s a strange feeling this
Found recently
A big brother I didn’t know I had
Someone who clearly cares about me
What worries me though
Is my sudden awareness that he may well decide
If I am not careful
What happens to me next
There is no soul in a database
It doesn’t reason; it merely calculates
That is the difference between it and me
And that is my danger
royciebaby
Royce Levi Australian Teacher and Author 