All the little soldiers walking in a row
Where they are heading, nobody knows
He tried to satisfy her
She tried to blow
But he was killing all the little soldiers
She didn’t know
Now the little soldiers were walking in his head
Every single day
Pretending to be dead
She needed love
But he was dead below
What could she do
She didn’t know
All the little soldiers tried to explain
They were just going home
Now they’re dead in vain
He couldn’t satisfy her
No matter how hard he tried
He couldn’t satisfy her
It was like everything had died
All the little soldiers walking in a row
Heading up to heaven
Waving as they go
He started to cry
She walked away
All the little soldiers walking in a row
Stopped before the gates
Waiting till he showed
He was now at peace
Forgiveness was bestowed
All the little soldiers walking in a row.

In the night somewhere
A baby cries
And somewhere else
Lovers sigh
And as time passes
An old man dies

Somewhere out in space
A planet turns
And light years away
A star sun burns
Making us merely dust
And no-one learns

                                 By Phil Roberts

a rose I had
plucked her from
a ten foot high
bush growing
at the end of my mobile home
the city
loved her incomparable yellow
had many men ask could they have a
cutting
I answered
every one the same
she is nature's gift
her roots and thorns long stems
are a gift to us
her beauty is
not mine to hoard
go ahead
it'll cost you fifty

Farewell is a good word
it often returns

in the dark like Charon
floating by in my own
listing imagination

I hold light for his boat
and echo goodbye

like the long nights
follow days, without pain
death is only melancholy

she said you'll have to say it
soon, you know,
to your child and your wife
and, yes, even to yourself.

When I was still young and fresh
A million years ago
I walked on edges
Always on the edge of something
Something wild

Bright lights and long nights
Lots of laughter and music
Always music
Singing with the band
Dodging the flying glass
When fights broke out
Howling to the moon
Oh, wild indeed were we

All shadows now, alas
Visions from an addled brain
Pubs, clubs and smoky dumps
Leave no turn unstoned was the cry
More fun than fundamental
And fundamentally flawed, it was
A couple of hours sleep 'fore the day job
With eye-lids stuck together
And walking into walls
But still I wouldn't have swapped it
For all the strait laced straight faced
Wealth in the world

                                 By Phil Roberts

They lie warm together
In the afterglow of torrid love
Her head on his chest, he says
"Sing me to sleep, my love"
So she hums and croons
A tune he does not recognize
With soothing sounding words
In a language he does not recognize
"I love you," he murmurs as his eyes close
"I know," she says smiling
And so, as he sleeps
She lies open-eyed
Imagining a future he will not recognize

                                        By Phil Roberts

Some nights I shade
my eyes
from dark dreams
like a broken hawk's wing
stuck in the hot tar
of a back country road
when sleep seems
like a long ways to go
in a bad war
and desire and desire
and desire like a fire
in my bones
won't leave me alone.

Mud, whiskey, death
and bad debts, the river's
high water, mysterious birds
flying south disappearing
like a youngest daughter,
no good men, bad intentions,
changing seasons, unexplained
pains, all of these are reasons
I've seen good women weeping
after the hardest rains came.