The world stops
In that intimate moment
When he calls me "his".
Distance melts
Times pauses -
And his words -
Feel like a kiss.

When I was a kid
All I ever did
Was move my feet
To the rockin' beat
Listening to the music
Each and every day
'Til the rhythm became
Part of my DNA

As I grew
I talked the talk
Then I learned to
Walk the walk
I never cared
For right or wrong
All I wanted
Was to sing the songs

I came alive
When the music soared
Loved it more
When the crowd all roared
And the adrenalin
Made me shake
Driving fast
Without brakes

Now I can only
Talk that talk
I'm grown so old
I can hardly walk
Those good old days
Are sadly gone
This foot soldier
Still soldiers on
So now that I
Have grown too old
Rock 'n' roll still
Burns my soul

                                  By Phil Roberts

She moves like
A whisper

I feel her flush
My ear with a
Tickle brush
Of calligraphic pleasure.

You cannot exactly
See her

She moves like a
Breeze or
Jasmine scent

And then,
Gone,

Only the sweetened
Fragrance

Of a pure heart

In being

Love,
What on earth do you want with me?
I have tried everything I can think of,
I said everything I can say,
I got lost a lot,
and somewhere along the way,
I still hoped I'd find you
but you're still too elusive for me.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

When I was a young man
A heedless headlong consumer of life, was I
Above and beyond the norm or necessity
I wore paths deep and wide
To the pleasure centres of my brain
And I rode my soul like an easy *****
Oh happy daze of hedonism
How sweet life tasted then

If there was drink to drink
We drank it
If there were songs to sing
We sang them
If there were fights to fight
We fought them
We had fast feet and faster wits
If there was hell to raise
We raised it
Excess and adventure in equal parts
How fast, how high we flew back then

And then the magic playground
Became a bleak and dangerous place
Peopled by predators and prey
In an ever changing food chain
And I was only one step away
From the totally oblivious
One brain cell ahead of
The permanent reality challenged
Then friends began casually dying
Barely noticed in the rush to join them
Now the race is on
And I have grown old and slow

                                              By Phil Roberts

I flip a coin
Heads and I walk out
Tails and I stay

The coin lands on it's edge
Just my luck
Another decision

I hate decisions
Though I'll admit
Not as much as I hate change

Slender and tenuous reasons
Run through the droplets of motive
Which impel us in our actions
Direct us to  our self-fulfilling fates
Our cleverly devised mistakes
For we each bear the scars
Of our own fatal flaws
Victims of our own design
As I have been of mine
Haven't you?

I am the saboteur of my dreams
Picking at the seams
Of a braver me
A wiser and unlikelier me
All my tendencies and traits
Conspire and defeat me
To subtly beat me
About my empty head
With every word I've said
Every thought I've had
And that's why

                       By Phil Roberts

Dust amidst dust
A resting place of sorts
However many kites you flew
You never left the ground
You never heard a sound
Beyond the rage you screamed
Tearing down flags
In revolutionary rags
And changing nothing
Going nowhere
Sat in your armchair
Dust amidst dust

                                By Phil Roberts

This land
Is not your land

This land
Is not my land

It is land

This woman
Is not your woman

This woman
Is not my woman

She is woman

Folly
To fight over what
Cannot be possessed

From nowhere
Walk on
Walk on

Earth supports
Your feet-
Grateful

Woman looks-
Grateful

Walk on
Walk on

To nowhere

Walk on
Walk on

Alone

Amen

There are pure souls suffering
Warmed by the same sun
That shines on the hardest heart
The same rain that falls upon
The gentle and the caring
Splashes upon the heads
Of the aggressive and ambitious
The same wind twists around
This turning world
On which all humans live

                                     By Phil Roberts