Two very different poems -
I’m OK, You’re OK
Sitting
in my usual place
in the circle
throwing out
the rotting ghosts
and spooks
of the past
for the others
to peer at
pick over
with a glint
of satisfaction.
There’s
the skewed form
of my father
- look –
turn him over with a stick,
can you tell what made him tick?
What do those white pebble eyes
say to you?
Tell me
what you think –
I really want to know
the truth.
And here’s
the shored-up fragments
of my mother –
what do you make of her?
an evil sow?
or flawed saint?
She’s here
for your delectation,
your pathological dissection
- now tell me something –
I don’t know.
Yes,
they did that to me
and theirs before
did that to them
they tried their best
with what they knew
(forgive them for they know not what they do)
and so on & on & on . . .
Lay off ‘the bleedin’ obvious’
lay off the insults
the calm
the obvious
connections
the words caught in a book.
Lay off me
off me
while I smile
sweetly
and nod my head.
And I note them all
- and note them all –
and when it’s their turn –
you were deprived
you were hated
unwanted
despised
an inconvenient blip
on their lives
and so how does that feel?
And you know what?
an explanation doesn’t heal.
It may explain
- a little –
but you
were never loved
or understood –
abused
and used
a mask
to cover their inadequacies.
A social necessity
the expected thing.
Yes –
I’ll tell you how it is –
you’ve chosen to live with the past
in your present
your trophy scars scarcely cover
a wallowing amongst
the grit-skin of the dead
your eyes fixed ahead
so keen to prise your way
into the spread of other people’s lives.
I’ll twist the knife
a full round
and make your life’s worth
a shadowless reflection
of the corpses
scattered pile-high
in our midst.
Lost In The Snow
The snow falls as white as feathers,
Drifting lazily all around,
And the ice on the pavement is as glittery
As diamonds on the ground.
My breath, as thick as cloud,
Hangs frozen in the air
And the cold nips my nose
Like fingers that are not there.
Then the dark settles, thick as a blanket,
Changing everything I see.
I’m now in a strange land,
All there is, is the snow and me.
As lonely as an Arctic explorer
I feel far away from home,
Lost in a world of whiteness,
Cold and all alone.
My feet sink into the snow,
The cold holds as tight as a claw,
I’m frightened and I’m lonely,
Trapped, frozen, raw.
Home seems so far away,
As distant as a memory,
Buried in the drifting snow
With all my family.
Through valleys of ice,
Over glacial flow,
somewhere, yet nowhere,
A world lost in snow.
But then, around a corner,
I catch a familiar sight,
It’s my home, my long lost home,
Magical, frozen in white.
And as I walk inside,
My home is as warm as a hug
And I close my eyes tight,
Found, safe and snug.