It costs to live
we know this
but the currency is ours to spend

We should be livid at those
who pretend to care
espouse our best interests
but then push us
to be batteries for a
busted machine

Remember their fat faces
when we’re clear
their arch indifference
and disdain, for once,
for our fear

When they return again
to using our dreads
against us

remember

Blossom caressed
fat leafed
unabashed
exhibitionist spring
get out and let it couch you
to forget
and remember

I broke a commandment
and sat in the garden mid-afternoon,
so technically on the clock

every other life around me
lived
had a purposed buzz
and flap-winged damns to give
while mine were elsewhere,
somewhere

not gone, I guess
just hidden in emails
and dumb-watching other people’s
screen creations
from the follow/subscribe sidelines

and the industry of beasts
leaves me in a shade-corner
shamed by a simplicity
that my chosen complications obfuscate
poorly

Sometimes there’s peace
in this restriction,
you get gifted a lucid
memory trail that you can wander
with a heart that sings back
to the echoes within

At other times it’s fibreglass
or vitriol under the skin,
prickle-burning every thought,
flaring angered embers
that refuse to chill

It’s a sickness
that infects our wishes
and snuffs the daily ebb and flow
of our earned minutes
as we yearn for the next high point
where we can
just
let
go

No escaping
this fickle, clumsy spectre,
just a recognition
that its patience wears as thin as ours
and it will pass

Having faith in the change
the wind might bring
is a thing
y’know?
a challenge
testing bitter thoughts
and locked up hearts
too long apart

But it will blow
y’know?
this wind we wait for
bringing other thoughts
to sit inside
and while away togetherness

I watch the forecasts
come and go
y’know?
and pretend that there’s a pattern

This mapped isle
has never been one
for clement weather
but I’ll pretend to know

Hey
You
Yeah you
How you doing?
Getting on with stuff
In this rough of roughest times?
Or wobbling a bit?
Sit in your jimjams all day. It’s cool.
Anyone with anything worth saying
Loves you
Be annoyed a lot
And try to smile
But don’t fret if it takes a while
The ups and downs are real. Feel em.
If you have a hug to hand, use it.
If not, accept the alternative
Through screens
We mean it

This is for us
who work with those
we love or tolerate
(hate seems a bit strong
for them we’re forced among,
it’s not like we’re a picnic either...)

You are mainly wonderful,
sometimes misguided,
but we’ll hide grumps
in flippant huffs
because we know the pull
is mostly in the same direction

But know we miss the scrum,
the ****** staff room air,
hurried tea and coffee
and meaningful cake

Daily, we take time to thank you
as we grapple this stupidity
that dwarfs all sense

The dinner table desk
is a lonely place