Primary fears

A thousand miles away,
Beyond my reach,
In a system I do not
Trust or understand,
Twisted arguments,
False evidence,
Hyped presentation,
Double standards,
Cloaked prejudice,
Personal vitriol,
Distorted images
And outright lies
Are wrapped in layers
Of endless spin
And force-fed to
A divided nation
Powered by the money
Of selfish patronage.
All this is shaping a choice
I cannot influence
That will affect my life
And billions more.
Vote wisely, America…
I am scared

When I watch you – terza rima

When I watch you, I see the games you play
I see the hopes you are afraid to dream
The fears that drive you to push and stray

When I watch you, I see your false smiles beam
I see the defensiveness in your eyes
And I also see your frail humanity gleam

When I watch you, my smile implies
That naivety underlies my respect
And yet I am not unaware of your lies

When I watch you, I know what is in prospect
The pain that others’ choices have forced on you
And yet I cannot give you all that you expect

When I watch you, I feel affection and concern, it’s true -
But still I am watchful of the flaws deep in you.

 

This is inspired by a prompt at readwritepoem – to write a poem based around the line “when I watch you”. For once, this isn’t a poem in any way about my ex!

 

After waiting to be rescued – Monday Mural poem

After waiting to be rescued for far too many years
I feel it’s time to investigate alternative careers
I had such high expectations of the arrival of my knight
But when he finally got here, well he’s just not quite…
As shiny as I was expecting. Actually rather a feeble wreck:
One sneeze from the dragon and he was stretched out on the deck
So I picked myself up, and, though I’m not especially brave,
I triggered a neat little rockfall that sealed the dragon into its cave.
I could try to wake the knight up – I feel I ought at least to learn his name
But he’d probably find my rescuing him a source of deepest shame.
So instead I’ll head off into the world, leaving him lying here
I suspect that I will cope quite well with any perils that may appear.
And really, not much happens when you’re part of a dragon’s hoard
Whatever dangers are out there, it must be better than being bored!

 

This was inspired by the picture above, the monday mural at poefusion - the image is by pokermedic at photobucket.

I must confess that at the back of my mind I had the brilliantly funny poem “Not my best side” by Ursula A Fanthorpe, which I thoroughly recommend.