One - tries
To outshine
The other

How does what I have done
Make you feel?
Make me feel?

Let me show you
My latest video
And tell you about my great battles
And marvellous achievements

Why must you tell me?
Does this make you great?
Greater than me
More valuable, more worthy
Of our parents love?

Are you trying to show me
A successful way to live?
Is THIS  how to do it?

We emerged from the same womb
But our journeys in this world
Have taken us to different places
In different ways

What is more important?
Our shared heritage
Or our divergent paths?

For the sake of peace
Let us share love with humility
Express kindness and consideration
Not pride and competition

If you are happy
And you know it
Clap your hands

If you are unhappy
And you know it
Why not clap your hands anyway
And decide to become happy

I’ve got time on my (back) side
Two hours a day
On the train up to London
And back later today

I’ll ponder my navel
And think on my fate
It’s more than two hours
If the train’s running late

I’d forgotten this feeling
Of to-ing and fro-ing
Ive been living at home
Not having to go in

But now I’m come back
I’m not sure what’s the best
To keep up this travelling
Or give it a rest

I’m back on my backside
Watching stations go by
Catching sight of the pigeons
As they fly way up high

London's graffiti looks tired
And the city’s smells bad
I'm better on the beach
By the sea, I'd be glad

But, it has to be done
I'm back on my way
And back on my backside
At least for today

I’m back on the trains
7.25am, Prittlewell to London
A journey last taken
5 months ago

I talk to the ticket lady
I converse with a passenger
Confirming my sense
That this is
A most strange time

Just three souls wait on the platform
And my carriage is empty
Another reminder
Of the great disturbance
Of this pandemic

I have my mask
Under my chin
It stifles me to wear it
But I will cover my face
If others sit near me

What will London be like
I wonder?
Will this great historic capital
Lie in deep slumber?

The trees of Essex
Are untroubled
Leaning into each other
Bearing the lush greenery of summer
They have endured for decades and centuries
Without complaint

I sit observant
Nervously journeying forward
Uncertain of my future
Facing it all the same
As I peer into the unknown

The holidays
Are over
And I must
Go back to work

I’ve had the time
To question
Everything
But
I haven’t really
Got any fresh answers to
Why we must work
To make ‘money’
To pay bills
To keep things...
...going

So
I will go back to work
And make the most of it

And put my Peter Pan thoughts
To bed once again

Until my next holiday
When I will sit in a field
Watching the campfire burn
Setting my eyes on the horizon
And watching for shooting stars

Let go
Let go of the grip
Let go of the hold
Let go of the future
And live

Live
Now
In this moment
Wholly
Fully
Naturally

Tomorrow
Never comes

And yesterday
Only lasts one day

But now
IS
Forever

If I had a fraction
Of the ease
With which
You embrace life
I would be
A million times happier

But my nature
Is different to yours
My journey
Apposite

I can learn from you
Observing
Your embodied qualities
Pondering
Their meanings