it seems we live in times
when helping hands extend only reluctantly
to those in dire need who had to leave
     the ruins of their devastated homes
     not waiting for more bombs to fall
to those who had to save their lives
     from the barbaric rule of self-styled prophets
and those whose simple love of education
     was met with inane terror and oppression

why is it that so many people
     are afraid of them and think
     these desperate refugees are perpetrators
          not the victims

why is it that the nations most responsible
      for chaos and destruction in these countries
           far from their own safe shores
      are the least willing to accommodate
      those they have driven from their homes

good Samaritans have become scarce
only a few today share their possessions
     with those who are in greater need

our humanity has been outsourced
to NGOs and sundry other institutions
to whom we donate so they feed
the hungry   poor   and the displaced

it makes one wonder whether shameless greed
has indeed  
    and without any saving grace
become the only goal of our race

.
Of the unaware dreamers,
Hearts are held breathless
In mid air, shunted in light
Below lips that lie a bed,
Hairs stand on ends break
Drowning with eyes shut,
The flesh that burns cold
Knows only heats of mind
And dreams smothering,
Like so few words alive.

In the love room blankets
Reveal dark in coverings,
The fingers tally bone dry,
Touch, chafed and strafed
Like nails sanded and cut,
Two hearts so long gone,
Untethered, playing foul,
Both agreeing in isolation
That death has two smiles
Frowned, in the love room.

There's slaughter in the fields

                              Men
                             Women
                         Children
                      Frozen
                    No fight
                   No flight
                      (Frozen)

Thunder
Everywhere
though
There are no clouds in the skies

                                             ******
                                            My daughter
                                              ******
                                             My mother
                                               ******
                                                    Me
         ­                                 
                       Running for water
                      Through the rubble
                         All homes destroyed
                        ****** taking aim -
                          The bullet
                         Does it have my name

War
War
What's it good for
                                    Numbness
                                            Is
                 ­                  The only game I know

The dogs
Are eating corpses
In the streets

                                              Just another day
                                                In World War
                                                        III

It'­ll end one day
Peace will return
to a quiet Earth.

autumn leaf falling down
was remembered
when March comes 'round

every love broken
was as easily forgotten

I go around in circles
around myself
having lost my destination
I am stuck in my mind's morass
so icky and gooey that
every time I try to find my way back home
Laistrygonians and Cyclops
will always pop up on my mind.

I don't want to know
more than I should
too much knowledge makes for mischief
seldom does it do any good.

The learned I shun--all the time-
they rank as  the world's most rude
barking at one another like mad dogs--cantankerous, contemptuous,
supercilious, condescending, spiteful and outrageously crude!

Follows my inhale
Embraces my exhale

Sleeps my thoughts
Restores my mind

Honours my body
Heals my heart

Balances my nature
Shines my light

Welcomes my warmth
Accepts my spirit

Cleanses my essence
Respects my soul

© Jl 2016