don’t
         take
                 it    
                    away
                             from
                                     me
                                          from                ­                          
                                      ­            us
                                                     don’t                                                
                                                              ta­ke
                                                                ­    the                                                  
       ­                              love
that                                              
       we
            both                                
                   desire
                              and
                        ­             cherish.
the
                                      love
                     ­                          that
                                                      we
       ­           l
                      o
                         n
                            g  
f
o
  r

He sat down
by the bar with a bottle of
whiskey.
And while the angels sang
he listened
to the preachings
of a crooked bartender
Whose days were filled with drunk forgotten nights,
and he knew
for first time
that he has
never felt more
close to God.

Ignite the light
Ablaze the fire of delight
To which stars could beam from the sky
As the night could walk
In the darkness
It glows
From fireflies that search for wavering sea
It might catch a feeling of despair
Deprived, detach from the noise that you hear from the outside world.

I called the lone parrot passing over my head

from the blue
i won't fly to you
it said

forgot the love i gave?

but you made me your slave
to repeat your chosen line
to voice your chosen tune
my life was not mine

so from the blue
i won't ever fly to you

she affirms the parrot escaped

but i know one dull afternoon in March
she let the bird fly away
being too weary of the chosen line.

Pushing the half dozen sodden flakes of corn
Round the bottom of the Willow pattern dish
The woman wondered how she could endure
The continual daily struggle to exist and enjoy.

There was always Evelyn with her warm heart
And Florence curly in the sunlight smiling out
Two little precious gems conjured from a book
Always ready to give whatever they were able.

Love Grandma Mary **

Every bad has some good in it
like silver line round the cloud
a bad isn't bad every bit
has something to make feel proud.

One night on a rainy day
out on my aimless roam
saw a koi that lost its way
caught it and brought it home.

In a bucket it lived two years
no way I would ever regret that
had I on that day chosen to stay clear
it would have been taken by a cat.

Once she bought a bird cheap
back home we soon found out
surely it wasn't a prized keep
was lame in one leg no doubt.

But be sure we chose not at all a wrong
the foot though not cured healed a lot
the budgie would not have lasted long
had its lameness prevented to be bought.

These atoms the earth's -
       not mine -
This life force carries on
       without my conscious control -
All universal law is
       perfectly executed
Minus any command from me -
       and yet I embellish
A focal point
       with end all egotism.


- fr