Herman Nucleosis

Dec 2017

Mick Devine

She was so much younger than he
And here they were, alone,
She all flesh and blood,
He all skin and bone.
All bristles, knees and hips
Skin as tight as vicar’s lips,
A slight smell of cheese,
They’d warned her there’d be nights like these.
She stood there with a duty to perform.
She stood there in her nurse’s uniform.

The old man was quite dead.
She drew the curtains round his bed.
Began to wipe the grime away,
As mothers will do every day,
She washed his ***** knees,
They’d warned her there’d be nights like these.
She scrubbed behind his ears
And stroked his head.
She combed his hair
And tucked him up in bed.
She thought about a goodnight kiss,
But no, not on nights like this.

If dead men dream then this was his:
He took that goodnight kiss
And dreamt of the wife he’d won,
Who’d touched him as the nurse had done.
He dreamt of days of bliss
Of when he never dreamt that there’d be nights like this.

Herman Nucleosis Oct 2017

Vigilance

And as I love you every day,
Every day I let you go
Slowly, slowly, for you won't stay
Nothing does, and this I know.

I hold your hand, so small in mine
Always thinking of the coming days
When we fulfil the grand design
In which we both have parts to play

Will you be spending your years with me
Or leave me in a month or two
Either way, it's plain to see
You'll leave me never, until you do

For enough of life I've witnessed now
To know this to be pure and true
The best in life's but loaned to us
To be snatched away from me and you

So with every hello, I bid goodbye
In my heart, a most preventive stroke
And when you turn your back, I will sigh
Mended my heart before it even broke

Herman Nucleosis Oct 2017

Constant Independence

I have to learn how to live
Without you, once again
To wake up to my own quiet mornings
And start my daily routine
Without the sound of your car engine in the background

I must get used to booking flights
With no one but me in mind
Not trying to adjust to your schedule;
To picking up my bags and quenching my lust for adventure
At my own pace

I should sing myself to sleep at night,
A lullaby of solitude
Gradually forgetting the sound of your breath
Syncing with mine as we enter dreamland

For everything is fleeting
Someday soon
You will fly away
And only the self remains

Jul 2017

martin

Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of summer shines;
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade'
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

that fair thou ow'st; the beauty that is yours
thou wand'rest; you wander

Herman Nucleosis Jun 2017

Of Marriageble Age

I told my mother I wanted to be an astronaut
And she smiled and said, "My sweet child,
If you go to space, you'd miss your years:
The laughter of your children,
The embrace of your beloved husband.
Better not waste your life amongst the stars
Once you are of marriageable age."

When I was nearing graduation
In the golden era, the high of the times
I wanted to venture out and learn more
For myself; I had dreams of becoming a hero,
A revolutionary mind, a change in the world.
Alas! My darling, he looked at me with love
And uttered, "But I will provide for you
And our children, in our pretty little house.
What of education, when you are
Of marriageable age?"

One time in a playground, watching
My young boy conquer the slide like a warrior
While carrying my newborn doll in my bejeweled arms,
My neighbor proclaimed, "Oh you are
The luckiest housewife in our neighborhood!
A rich and faithful husband and such
Beautiful children! How I wish
I were as favoured by fate as you were
When you were of marriageable age!"

And just today, while visiting nan
I sipped my afternoon tea, staring at the sunset
I recalled to her the missed opportunities
Of mine own personal growth
And she, rocking in her ancient chair,
She replied to me, "But what could you have done, my dear?
You were of marriageable age."

Herman Nucleosis May 2017

Mr. Left

Kind
Clean
Simple
Comes home to mom at 19:00

Good
Moral
Smart
Never gives cause to quarrel

But no matter how hard I try
He doesn't seem to be the stuff
I write poems out of.

Herman Nucleosis May 2017

Self-Absorbed

You know
As we were waiting for the chariot
To take him over the setting sun
To the distant land beyond the mountains
I was too busy weaving my sadness into sighs
Thinking of nights when
I will be alone again
That I didn't realise until much later
That he was taking in huge gulps of air
Trying to stop beads of tears
From falling
My Adonis
Do you really love me that much