My daughter sleeps to the sound of the ocean
softly, gently rocked
forth and afar into dreams and nightmares
a soft static blanket
the assonance of water

My daughter sleeps
to the sound of an ocean that she has never heard
a loop of imagined waves that have
never wet her feet
she has never run screaming and laughing
from the imagined horrors of seaweed, foam
Tangaroa’s arms enfolding her

As my daughter sleeps, I cry
as salty as the swells she’s never seen
in this landlocked room
slowly falling from my cheek
to land on hers
a soft saline baptism

As my daughter sleeps, my thoughts fly
wondering how I can fill her
with the awe that something as elemental
something as capricious
something as beautiful
can exist in this tattered world

but still, my daughter sleeps

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

Once upon
a summer sun
A gruesome act
has begun

A father burdened
by the torment of life
sharpened the blade
of a kitchen knife

Stuck between
his morality
he begins to weep
for his growing brutality

He led his children
straight to bed
with evil looming
right over his head

The little whispers
tingle in his ear
The growing dread
erupts into full blown fear

Fear for his children
and their small life
The whispers rising
along with the knife

His heart stained
By his destructive mind

His morals caught
in a thick bind

Not remembering
the right from the wrong

Looking
from room to room
as he soundlessly
moves along

His dark shadow
hovers overhead
right above
his children's bed

A shift in his mind
brings the knife down
The children now quiet
Their frozen faces
Lying on the ground

Wiping the dripping knife
Relieved for his children's life

And once he saw
what he had done

He buried them
under
the summer
sun

Growing up waiting, wishing to be set free
Ready to take over the world with some degree

Having beautiful memories of growing up
Only to be smashed with a hop, skip, and a jump

Enjoining parts of childhood, trying to forget the bad
Having an understanding that it was all a fantasy land

***** to have to fail to say
Wish I knew that before I went astray

As we grow into adulthood we marry and have a family
At that point we understand why our moms protected us daily

I always thought I'd die by age twenty-eight
I must have been high, I could've sworn I seen the expiration date

We shuffle through life, career, and family it's all just so mechanical
Deciding on Plans of burial, which seems practical

Leaving my children one less thing to worry about once I finally expire
So my children can grieve instead of worrying about the open fire

Boxing sentimental values and sorting pictures,
brings back wonderful memories of little sneakers

Sad to see them grow but very proud of how they've turned
Into handsome young men that's adjourned

As life goes on knowing that everything is in order
I'll pick up my bag of memories and go quietly to the transporter

Don't worry boys, I'll always be close
I'll guide you through the right path of life of course

So we'll meet again in the afterlife
Be ready for me because I'm going to hang tight

Went to the doctor today
Should've stayed in for the day

Got really bad news Doctor see's
What no one wants to see the letter C

Had to tell my family
***** so much, to be in reality

Why did this happen to me
Lord please give me an absentee

I want to get rid of this demon
So I can have some freedom

I'm like the calico cat in the hood
Like Nick said I'll bounce back like she would

I know if I die mother f---er you better not meet me at the pearly gates cause you won't be on your feet
I'll ram you right through to the Devils cage where you need to face your own rampage

I will fight for my life
Just like I fought you with all my might

You may haunt me now
But you won't do it up there

I've done some shady s--t
I guess I deserved all of this

I'm a fighter, and I will sting you like a bee
Like the great Mohammed Ali

In the narrowest of lanes
I found the sweet shop.

Behind dusty crumbling glasses
dozed the old keeper
smelling of sugar, milk and sweat
over fossils of Paleolithic sweets
on a time machine from the century
he never was
to a millennium he doesn't bother about
clinging onto clay by pottery
not succumbing to synthetic
counting not on android
but accounting on parchment
with the art of finger's arithmetic
most intricately scribbled with pencil
announcing progress is a trouble
not designed for the simple
and contentment has no more nitty-gritty
than price and quantity.

Over his head
spiders worked and reworked
from the ceiling to the glass
as have been doing
since Carboniferous.