boy coils in the lawn
& early air.
grass touching him wet,
smoke crawls from his lips,

into the blue awoken,
or sky before his face.
there it dances like wild life lived
& falls away with breezy.

dearly herb to glossy reds,
he purses, thus to inhale.
sparked ember, spark clench, fist to fist.
life given to life encapsulated.

the sense of it goes steady,
goes patent cool.
he exhales, and looks to the south,
where his legs once were.

There are kids that don't have a dad
A girl that feels too **** fat
There's a man who just lost his job
Some have gone without food to eat
There's a boy who watched his sister die
Mom's and daddy's getting into fights
There's a girl who's only hope relies
On a man who walked out of her life

So if you begin to think you got it bad

Just remember all the kids without a dad
Or the kids that make the girl feel way too fat
Just remember the man who took
His last breath of free air just trying to scavage
A meal for his daughters and wife
And the boy who wants so desperately to end his life

I think you know what it's like to taste love
on the end of your tongue
like the lingering bitter-sweetness of soft metal.

I think you're older than the number given to you by your age
and heaven's angels have not spared you,
like they sometimes do,
from the acid tears of sorrow the world cries down at night.

I think you love the sun like it will never die
and that you trust that beauty comes in sleepless nights.
You run from friends in life,
yet you trust that that's what it's all about.

I know you're a mess,
and charcoal eyeliner traces the tracks of tears better than lying about
          fake incidents.
Please let someone hold you this time around.
It's only ever lonely if you find your feet on solid ground,
and the sins of the wind are the only ones to share the stability with.

Even demons can fly higher
Even swords leave softer wounds
She always thought her life was bitter
But she never saw it doomed

Round and round in circles
Round and round we go
Round and round in circles
Death by a suicide poem

Where would I be
Without the Internet and Tellee?
Yes it’s telly I know,
With its glitzy glow.
They’ll be watching down there in Walthamstow.

X Factor, Big Brother and many a quiz,
They are the equivalent of ol’ Show Biz.
They say we are ruled by all this media,
That all those videos are a bad idea.
Without them though it would feel quite queer.

Newspapers now have become old hat,
There’s not a lot we can do about that.
I seem to live in Facebook Land,
But many say it ought to be banned.
They bury their heads in that golden sand.

The Google answers my every question:
Lots of info for my digestion.
Facebook’s full of gossip and chat,
There’s every scope for acting the prat,
So if you don’t like it, just Take That.

I’m on the net most every morning.
Sad to say, it never gets boring.
(Though it still might carry a Government Health Warning)!
Near Noon I have to drag myself away,
But not too many kids are out to play,
It’s video games for them all day.

Any kids about, they’re on their mobile phones.
They’re starting to look like devoted clones.
They hardly look where they are walking,
Busy reading and occasionally talking.
The traffic they are always baulking.

To real life they pay no attention.
They all deserve to be in detention.
I have to wonder how brainwashed we are,
Let’s go on a show and become a pop star.
It’ll soon be empty in the bar.

Social Networking is what they call it,
So very easy to install it.
Instagramming is now the thing,
It’s all about the imaging.
There’s nothing like that internet ping.

So there you are, The Media Rules,
Thanks to all these technical tools.
Soon there’ll be no need for schools,
But will we make geniuses, or a flock of fools?

Paul Butters

© PB 5\9\2015.

Shake out your shining tresses, Love
Undress their dark contour as the pink stars rise
And drowse around the smoke-ringed moon,
Like roses in a whiskey glass.
Take time to dream a dream, my Love,
Tresses fallen across the curve of your face --
Sleep away the late summer moon,
Spooning the stars asleep in pink lace.

Lay down your weary bones, my dear,
Stretch out on vanilla feather-winged dreams 
My whisky rose petal kisses blown into the night
Finding you on glittered opalescent moonbeams
Grab hold of pink-starred sweet slumber
As  silken tendrils puddle upon your chest
Tangled up in each other's lithe limbs
Our blissful hearts beat together in tender rest