an echo
could not recognise
it’s own voice
it got stuck
in a canyon
between
reason and choice
screaming
all the more louder
it threw out a rhyme
no one dared to respond
or cared to reply
for none heard such a poem
nor the voice
that was mine

“I wish you well”
said the wishing well
to the old man with the coin
“Don’t wish for me
I’m old you see,
just a wistful wish for my boy.
My life is done
his, just begun
a wish for life and health.”

And with what’s left of his money
he flung his last penny
giving all for a son’s
wisdom and wealth

I’m living the life
now that my wife
has moved on to another man
My kids are grown
now left all alone
I’m doing as I want and I can

I please no one
and then when I’m done
I only please myself
I eat when I want
whether I drink or I don’t
I serve nobody else

My neighbours a bore
they hear that I snore
but I don’t care a bit
My gardens my pride
trees hang on their side
and I spy on them from where I sit

The police on my back
parking fines in a stack
on the mantle above the fire
I ***** on scotch
every hour of my watch
I dare ya to call me a liar

My mum is my care
she’s always been there
in a nursing home now with Dementia
She brags, her boys the best
I tattood her on my chest
it’s always been a love of hers I betcha

I drive the old truck
and just my luck
the astray on the dash still works
I pick up my Betty
she’s dolled up and pretty
and take her for a night of beef jerks

A man’s got no mates
when he does what he hates
look at me living and licking it up
like my dog named ‘Bloke’
and it ain’t no joke
named him ‘Bloke Jr.’ when just a pup

I’m as good as it gets
placing my bets
on a horse or a grey or a ****
I’m not much of a convo
but what do you know
when I win I talk off your sock

Give me a minute
I’m not here to win it
I’m just good at what I do
They say life favours some
I happened to be one
and It’s unfortunate that you are you

Nah…I’m just kidding
I’m actually just bidding
all the chances I have on me
So far so good
knock on wood
I’m loving life and happy as Larry

I took advice from a fox
about survival and natural law
It spoke to me about cunningness
and how to trap birds within your jaw

I took advice from that bird
laying stiff in its mouth and still
about the ways one catches worms
and the early rise for their meal

I took advice from the worm
squirming in it’s beak from a brook
about all the fish it once had caught
and how in everything theres a hidden hook

I took advice from life itself
searching for secrets to survive
the difference between good and bad
and how Karma is killing us alive

You called me predictable
and you were right
when you said
“You’d write a poem about it”

The last meal I will eat
The last of fears I’ll defeat

The last bottle I will drink
The last loop I will link

The last chance I will take
The last speech I will make

The last invite I’ll attend
The last message I will send

The last call I will accept
The last part I’ll dissect

The last path I will pave
The last coin I will save

The last option I will choose
The last friend I will lose

The last wrong I will right
The last battle I will fight

The last confession I’ll admit
The last piece I will fit

The last shoe I will shine
The last letter I will sign

The last song I will sing
The last bell I will ring

The last line I will draw
The last grain I will store

The last claim I will stake
The last breath I will take

The last of love I will give
The last of life I will live

The last of dust I will bite
The last of words I will write

I’ve been asleep
inside my head
my pillow is soft
but my blanket like lead
falling off
it slips
I doze
My feet come cold
my toes
exposed
I tug and turn
inside my dream
I pull and stretch
and tear the seam
And in my sleep
I spill the wind
dreams of
frosts that ****
and a sun that grins
Now with the chill
against my chest
I wake with eyes
that find no rest
between winter sheets
I’m as cold as dead
It’s just a leak
in my waterbed

Pins upon my pillow
puncturing my brain
Sprinkling out my dreams
like sleeping in the rain
Flowing out my nightmares
Rivers run in my bed
Swimming in my dreaming
Plugging holes in my head
My mattress is floating
My soul is sinking slow
Down the river drowning
and in my dreams, I row…row… row…

I breathe in your fragrance
I blow out a field of freesias and forget me nots
I catch your smile with my hand
and release swallows and sunsets
I turn your eyes into stars
the night your sweetest silence

I  have five fingers
Raised in my defence
You accept my surrender
We shake, without offence
Till, I point with my index
Raise my thumb for a gun
Curl three fingers back
Tucked into my palm
“Bang! …Bang! You shot me
A simple twist of my wrist
You aim it back at me
A hand gun for a fist

She hides waterfalls
behind her eyes
The taste of oasis
between her lips
Her ******* are a valley
of delights
Sun caressed cliffs
form her thighs
The wide skies hang
beneath her brow
southern cotton fields
clothe her golden soft skin
while oceans east swirl
at her curls and curving hips
the harvests ripe upon her lips
and if one asks me, “who is she?”
I reply,
“She’s my world, can’t you see…”

The stories we live
are bound beneath
the covers of land and sky
and the days in between
are the pages
from hello to our goodbye
Each turning sun
brings a new day
closer to the hour
Where all good things
must come to a close
when death holds the power
We scratch our name
in the dirt and dust, till wind
blows away existence
leaving behind
scraps of our mind
and fragments of our presence
To toil much and embed a mark
only in soiled strife
is vanity to have had a name
not etched in the book of life

Winter, one night, came to visit me
It sat in the chair opposite me
In a dark room it blew a chill over me
Ripped the cover right off me
Naked and hunched, it mocked me
Then fell in love with summer and left me

Can I ask for love
Without the romance
Without the slow dance
Without the holding of hands
Give the kiss, a miss
necklace and jewelries
without the emotional abuse
The manipulation we use
like flowers or presents
The chocolate selections
The dinner pretension
The relational misuse
and the facade we choose
When love in truth
is the exception

A poem half made
is like bread still dough
like a bed unmade
like half a mo
A poem half done
is like a shade of day
with half the sun
A kiss, an inch away
A poem undone
Is a four moon phase
a count to one
a ‘mil’ out of place
A poem half finished
is like a tin of spinach
still unopened
and an expired usage
A poem not a

It’s the end of the world, as we know it
So hurry, hold me close and we can slow it

Beneath a burning sky, lets hold the other
Forget the fights and heartaches, my lover

Meet me down that alley, where we first met
where the fire hasn’t spread there yet

Let us speak the things that remain unsaid
and sit our hearts down, inside our head

Can I call you ‘my wife’, before the end?
There may not be a morrow, but we can pretend

Let’s find a church before they’re burned to the ground
Make our vows before the sky falls down

Take my hand and run through the streets
Sing our love before the chaos proceeds

Play the tune that we’ll always remember
dance beneath a red moon, now or never

The world may think we're a little mad
yet, it’s the best of days we’ve ever had

You and I, my love, are forever
it’s not over till we’re over

There are those who fight for love
with weapons as weak as wood
these are they who avoid the fire
and would hide if they could
there’s lovers, whose shields are hung
and are dented with dints
defeated by a waging war
that they had no faith in

The war for love is never won
though dressed in iron, steal or tin
when you have no hope in love
neither should you win
The strong have given it their life
in armour as soft as cloth
with a heart that gave all it had
they fought hard and never lost

I picked a grape, from a cluster at a deli
you know…to sneak a taste before I buy
A lady scorned, “yuck, ain’t that dusty?”,
and ******* her face like I was going to die

“Hey, what’s up?”I said “I gave it a rub
and I’m not going to buy unless I try,
a lick with my lips, is as good as a scrub”,
and I gave her a wink of my eye

But she wasn’t impressed by my address
and was weirded out by what I meant
She quickly called the police for my arrest
and accused me of sensual harassment

When the police arrived at the crime
I quickly swallowed the pips
For a pinch of a grape, I’m paying no fine
no matter what she claims I did with my lips