If you say Goodbye a thousand times
I'd pray that once you say Hello
If you finish the day despondent and down
Then there, too, my heart must surely go

If you wander on hot coals tonight
And collapse in search of rain
I'd kiss your feet until they healed
And brand my own just to feel the flames

If your luck was lost and the white flag waved
And the water washed up your precious time
I'd double cross my own wristwatch
And you could borrow some of mine

If you cried and cursed when the hour is late,
Knocking graffiti out of place
I'd hold on till I loved the sound
And pick up the words till they spelled fate

If your hungry heart skips a mark
I'd envy anyone that you face,
I'd feel too young to have my say
But too worn and old to walk away

If the tide never deemed to return
And carried my hope to the end of the world
You'd be the lighthouse in my dreams
And still you'd have me after you, girl

© Copyright David Bosworth September 2023

You woke in a hurry twenty years ago,
An ancient spell made you grow
Tall now, and full, till it hurts,
The earth you stand on can feel your curse

Blitzing, you play with your bad hand,
You do all that one possibly can
A golden bliss is ever near
But no pride dampens the dormant fear

So return to the olden ways
The decent home, the tempered days
Stop to reckon: you shall go on!
And drift through those spectres wailing swan songs

Now unending rhythm of swaying leaves
Calls you to find the sun in ease
Tread carefully for lying underfoot
Is the gentle vision you idly sought

The whip-through-you wind beckons season's change
A fault in the plan, the gods' yearly exchange
Early to slumber and last to wake
Dear old friend, why won't you wait?

© Copyright David Bosworth August 2023

Nothing good can come of this
Noted the plain man for his soul
I lent over and distorted my frame
To put a coin in his bowl

On closer inspection his pullover
Flew out at me in rainbows
And his eyes glinted through a face that was hurried
But for all time, slow

We chewed the cud for an hour
My spineless talk criticised power
The rain fell mercifully
And he sauntered off to ***

I said I didn't like to see people unhappy
More to myself than to him
He said I was a 'good lad'
I said the little guys would win

Who is the benefactor
In a time-drenched street?
The hypnotised or the ostracized
The elephant in the room,
The mouse at your feet?

© Copyright David Bosworth July 2023

I tried to kiss your mind, in the way of inimical words I’d heard:
how a boy should begin.
With everything I thought you’d be, bubbling in convoluted thought, caught in the fresh oxygenated current
It’s real love and it shouldn’t go wrong.
I floundered, and you weren’t to
swim down from your opaline blue altitude.
Since you existed as a perfect reflection of your face, I
imagined the rest of you lost in the prism’s traces; let your mind’s eye
photo-reply a dappled understanding,
whilst we stretch out to grey misty conjecture above -
ever luminous rising depths,
to a love touched on
It’s real and it shouldn’t go wrong;
but if only for jewel chippings, I liked to kiss your mind;
to feel your arms round my heart one more time

© Copyright David Bosworth June 2023

However long the road seems
I'll always have you in my dreams
Fair and smiling, at garden toil
A tender heart, my father's foil

Trees grow and uproot sometimes
To float upstream to better climes
I'll buy yellow roses for my lover today
So you know we're both making hay

© Copyright David Bosworth May 2023

I wish I hadn't played Bowie that night
In your kitchen - he was yours after all
But Mum, I was only dancing
And at least it wasn't Wonderwall

I know you really loved it -
The incessant guitar and drippy vibes
I kicked a ball about too
And sang Teen Spirit once or twice

The funny thing is, the irony is over
I didn't self-combust or spend empty
Wednesdays digging old boys' graves
Or rent a fleapit from the 1970s

I did, however, sleep too much,
I wasn't as clever as I thought
I wrote doggerel and this 'poem' too
And mostly dreamt while the tough lads fought

Trouble is, you're not here to see
A human girl interested in me,
Or my driving round the old town
I'd pray you could, but I'm not aged three

You no longer have to iron my shirt
Or lend me a lift from school
You needn't change my room around
Or gently persuade me to follow rules

If angels can reach back down to Earth
You might wanna honour one of my wishes
I'm useless at hoovering - a real pet hate,
But I swear I got better at the dishes

© Copyright David Bosworth May 2023

Sleeping cats
And vanquished bats
Are all we're really about

You put on the TV
Pull out the coffee mug
I'll forget the rocker's shout

I loved you from the moment I met you
I never loved someone more
To feel feckless when I forget you,
To witness the whole planet roar

Tonight I'm a desolate crow
Only because you're not around
I'll do my best 'gainst my swelling chest
To be someone Jesus found

But I'll hand it to you
You fixed this clown,
Broken down and all a mess

You fetched me humility
With reproaching tranquility
Guess that's what I needed best

The past has had its time
It's taken its sublime low bow
I think of tomorrow without fear or sorrow
And live in the almighty Now

© Copyright David Bosworth April 2023