Raising The Standards (With Banners Held High) [MUSIC VERSION]

You said that you wanted a land fit for heroes,

a place to call home that they’d show off with pride

but somewhere along the way you forgot

the reasons they fought and the reasons they died.

They thought they were fighting for honour and justice,

suppressing the tyrants and saving our land -

but returned ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Advent

Just imagine

Lying in a crib of straw

Staring at a star

Hanging over the barn

That whistles

With the soughing wind

Prizing at the flimsy wood

That keeps the night at bay

Just imagine

Your future laid before you

In pre-ordained days

That smell of blood and betrayal

The multi-paternal conundrum

That plays upon your mind

As you carve wood

Read and leave comments (2)

This Is England

the empty cardboard

coffee cup groans with hunger

eyes to eyes to anything

that isn’t eyes

clothes that itch with dirt

the taste of yesterdays soup

settles against teeth

sleep is the enemy

dulling your hopes of escape

if the spiteful arrive

with mean intentions

and brown leather boots

head bowed against the world

not looking ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Resolution #9

A cascade of sparks
exploding in the blackness
of a revellers sky
like bright tears.

Crying for the homeless
sat where the light
doesn’t fall,
under archways,
behind garages,
in cardboard boxes.

Damp and cold
while a flaming wheel
greets the crescent moon
as it circles.
A metaphor
of the turning year.

Out with the old and needy,
in with the bright young thin...

Read and leave comments (0)

Snipers

was it out there
that I became a ghost?

I may be an unreliable witness
the constant stress does that to you
the days spent outside, unprotected
with a local population
that won’t look you in the eye
or when they do
they have the look of hate
that you are even there at all

if only the locals were less hostile
to my cause
if only I could count on my military team
to back ...

Read and leave comments (7)

caterpillars

caterpillars caterpillars
everywhere you look
creeping into corners
no one gives a fuck
peering from the darkness
in the shelter of a door
praying for forgiveness
hungry cold and poor

caterpillars caterpillars
down upon their luck
pleading from their makeshift beds
no one gives a fuck
pressing against cold brick
crawling on the floor
crying for their past lives
hun...

Read and leave comments (0)