It’s another lonely day

Washing clothes. I might stay

In as the weather’s so cold.

Breeze blowing through cracks

And gaps makes the house

Sound so old.


I tell myself I feel fine;

Bones ache upon the line;

Hung out to dry with yesterday's shirts,

And bleach spotted sheets.

Shivering becomes the norm;

I take it as a sign.


I wrap up as warm as I may,

Cloth upon cloth,

fold upon fold.

It’s not enough I sigh,

As the heating starts to lie.

I crave warmth, but heat

Escapes and meets the outside

With a smile and starts to fade.

It’s another lonely day.

Words spill like an avalanche down a mountain,

Swamping out the message in a flurry of exposition.

The plateau crumbles, dropping great sheets

Of icy statements down like old guillotine blades,

To shatter against the cold rock in tears,

Too frozen, too brittle to pierce.


Such noise, such ineffectual destruction,

Laying snow on snow on piles of snow;

But the mountain stays still beneath the weight,

Its stony face unmoved for yet another day,

Knowing it will soon abate.

As the tide drifts to a halt,

The mountain slowly, contemptuously,

Turns away.

I've got a prayer for you, my Lord,
It's not quite fleshed out, that's true.
I wonder if you can brandish your sword,
And cut us down to the few.

I know it's not the most popular
Or practical idea I could say,
But, let's face it, there's far too many
Of us to squeeze into heaven today.

Also, begging your pardon, my lord,
Most of us really are ****.
We could do with a culling,
Before we take off and split.

You see, we're spawning like maggots
And spreading from pole to pole;
Slaying each other in your name,
With oil and land the goal.

Evolution was really quite clever,
A red herring for white-coated nerds;
Genetics our new religion,
As dinosaurs turned into birds.

We forgot your purposeful message,
To do onto others your will.
Instead we shoot the innocent,
And send their families the bill.

We buy and sell gold in our temples,
Our banks our churches of greed;
We care not at all for holy prayers,
Crosses, or rosary beads.

So spare us your soul-searching piety,
Leave off your crown of thorns.
Pick up your sword, strong and mighty,
And sound from your terrible horns.

Is it too much to ask for apocalypse?

Is it really that hard to do?

Or maybe you're far from omnipotent,

Or maybe, just maybe,

Not true.

Tired and tied tight
To the unyielding plough,
I scream myself hoarse
Into the silent field
Of endless toil.

Knee deep in the sludge,
Shackled and blind,
A waning force
Too stubborn to yield,
Too proud to kneel.

At the last pull I fall,
Too weak to climb up.
My health they endorse,
Their intentions concealed,
"Come back when you're healed."

The carriage arrives
To take me away.
The knacker's draught horse
Bought from the field,
Naught but bone meal.

'Not like that, like this,' said the small man,

Rapping his knuckles on my day.

I withhold, and sit back, watching.

He stumbles from one page to the next,

Unsure of his next move.

His veins flex.

I say nothing.

There is nothing to say.


'I lead, you follow,' said the small man,

In denial of the fact that he is more lost than I.

I demur, and sit back, watching,

As he trips over his lapdogs to find his feet.

He doesn't feel their bite,

But takes time to tip them with a treat.

I say nothing.

There is nothing to say.


'We work to live,' said the small man,

Lying to himself while he rows upstream.

I shrug, and sit back, watching.

As he loses his stroke, the doctors gather

With knives in hand for the feast.

Exit cadaver.

I say nothing.

There is nothing to say.

____

Comments welcome

Demons in khaki suits
Stand with baited breath,
Smoked glasses held high,
As God shows us all
What He means by death.
Disintegration
By starlight.
A fire of heaven.
Oh, bow before his might;
Blasted by wings of angels
Back and forth,
Left ablaze in the wrath of the sword,
Until your atoms are shriven
Of their bonds to this earth.

The demons clap and cheer,
Red eyes grinning as they smoke.
We grovel in your glory,
Piteous wails stopped in silence;
Choked.
A spherical void
To turn our tainted air to traces,
And leave a newly cleared path
Of charred stone and empty spaces.
The vacuum fills to receive
Guests with the promise of your blessing;
A half-life prayer,
Good for a thousand years
Of deformed children
And cancer tears.