Photos of people
before murder. Stop. No. Don’t
go there. Run away.
Blog
Siesta
A rabbit sitting
on the lawn, in
the shade, under
a trailer. For once
relaxing, sleeping,
safe from death
screaming
out of the sky
Losing their marbles
Heaven save me from
celebrities who seem
quite sane and
rational when young
but who in old age
become religious and
move hard right
politically and seem to
be mulling over joining
the Flat Earth Society
Seasons in the Sun
Impossible to
decide which season
would be best to die in:
Summer with its heat
and blue skies;
Autumn with
hints of frost and snow;
Winter with the warmth
of hearth and home:
Spring with flowers
and promise of flowers.
But whichever I choose
I would be desolate not to
see the following one.
Numbers racket
How many stupid
and ignorant people
does it take to
destroy a planet?
I guess we’ll find
out pretty soon.
Hand on head instead?
What is it with
Americans putting
their hand on their
heart at solemn
occasions like the
funeral of an
ex-president?
They do know,
I suppose, that the
heart is just a lump
of muscle that
circulates blood?
I mean, we have known
for five hundred years
that the heart has
nothing to do with
emotions, so why
put your hand over it?
Out of touch
Celebrity news
is all kinds of good
and bad things
happening to
people I have
never heard of
Sparrow dreaming
I don’t mind sparrows
though I guess I should.
They didn’t ask to
come to this alien
continent, and they are
trying to make
the best of it.
By any other name
Sometimes
a house is
just a house.
Sometimes it
is a home.
Home alone
When I was young
I was too embarrassed
to invite friends home,
thinking they would see
the old furniture, the
worn carpet, the odd
books, the unappealing
prints, the washing
on the old clothes line,
the unwashed dishes
in the coldwater sink.
It was only later in life
that I came to realise
everyone was embarrassed
in the same way, and,
more importantly, no one
noticed the flaws in your home.
In the same way other
people’s lives seem glamorous
exciting, sophisticated,
easy, planned, while your own
seems the reverse.
Only later do you see
that some people envy
you your life, failing
or ignoring, the bits
of it you find embarrassing.
If I had understood
these things much earlier
my social life as a child
would have been much richer.
Of the people
Once upon a time
to be a politician
was to be the essence
of the polis, the people,
of being a human being.
In these times it seems
to be a politician is
to be ahuman, distant
from the polis,
removed from humanity,
removed so far indeed
as to be inhuman.
