Family life

Boys brawling, sister crawling,

baby bawling, eldest scrawling,

husband trawling, promise galling,

night falling, dreams calling.

TYPICAL

The bird fluttered upwards vertically.

Watching I waited for its singing

but it just flew away. Typically

Shelley got skylark; I got starling.

At the top of the plots

I sat here at sunset a week ago and bemoaned all vanishing Nature.

In past years I had watched bats hunting along the allotments hedgerow

but last week there was nothing flying except a partying blackbird.

Today I enjoyed the glowing sunset, silken sky and a single cloud

and as the land darkened, the sky above the streamside trees exploded

to a distant forest fire enfringing the whole width of the horizon.

The lonely cloud evaporated and Venus edged slowly eastwards

narrowly missing a collision with a plane from the nearby airport.

Then suddenly a twist and a turn in the air above my head !

A bat fluttered by and then another - relief, Nature ascendent.

PEACE PLAN

We'd clear the rubble from bombed buildings

and build some new ones, re-span bridges,

renew power and water networks,

re-create whole cities from scratch.

But what we can't do is raise the dead,

or heal the hurt or calm the hatred.

PUZZLING

Tell me why does America worry

about a nuclear weaponed Persia ?

They're presumably managing nuclear threats

from Russia, North Korea, China.

Iran would be such a distant threat

to the USA ( but so close to Israel ! )

BIG BIRD

I'm not amazed by the skylark's twitter

or the nightingale's melody.

What does amaze me when it's flying

is hundreds of tons of machinery.

GOODBYE

Leaving I gave my love a rose

fragrant, royal, red

saying "Take this flower from him

you barred from your bed."

Glaring at me, proud in parting,

sharply she said

"What am I to do with it?

Why give me this?

I don't want your gestures now

or farewell kiss."

Just as I'd thought she might -

a chance not to miss.

"Just let it die." I said,

"wither and die.

Don't ever water it.

Cover the sky.

Just like my love for you,

just let it die."

Turning she left me with her smile

dazzling, royal, red

saying "I will keep your flower

though love has fled.

Having no root it must of course

quickly be dead."