LETHEAN BAPTISM

Let go.

Swept down sadness

                      madness

washes all away.

Cold running panic all

is deadwood

drifting

out of reach.

Roll with it

rushing over

beds and bones.

Alone.

Accept.

The river

                    leads

                                 you

                                           home.

ENDINGS

Threads entwine

               by chance their

cord loops ‘round some

brief but stable

point

           in time then

                                 off again

                  to

fray.

No neat knot no

happy endings;

only endings.

             

CAUSES HEART DISEASE

                        And what is love? It is a doll dressed up

                        For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle;

                        A thing of soft misnomers...

—    John Keats

Twisted in a meat-grinder

or crushed under a steamroller

even love looks good.

Attachment grows

      a tumour while

connexion desiccates

a cigarette forgot in an ashtray.

Life is a packet.

Keep lighting them ‘till they kill you

or the last one’s burned away.

STRUTTING AND FRETTING - A Dramatic Irony

Why do some crave

solitude, lone among

anonymous chatter quiet

prepare death a reception?

Cursed by thought life is

a movie seen a thousand times:

washed-out actors inexorable march,

clichéd conflicts, banal resolutions

written – directed — produced.

The players, immersed

search for their credits, existence

on screen.

It’s easy to be a critic; pass the popcorn.

Ignorance is bliss.