I'm not looking for a handout
So you need not turn away
I feel these days down for the count
In need of some spare change

Nothing that's to drastic
Just a little change in tide
From the in as well as out
When it comes to change in life

Spare change in my attitude
In the way I deal with friends
Even those that I don't know
I sometimes need to make amends

Also in my daily walk
Change up my exercise
Instead of curls with a fork
Get up off of my backside

I need spare change in the way
I tend to look at life
Spend it on my kids
As well as on my wife

If there's any that's left over
I'll save it for a rainy day
And the rest above all that
I'll give that change away

Cause I don't care who you are
We could all use some spare change
To make it through the trials of life
We spend time in everyday

we
must have
faith
again
or
we are
the
forgotten temples
within

I hammered some words
Out from the quarry of my brain
They fell around in shards;
Some like boulders,
some like rocks and rubble
I picked them up one by one.
Block on block, I piled them up
Thinking I could build a ‘pleasure dome’

But,
     When it was time for the workman
      To marvel over the beauty and wonder
      Of his dream creation  
      His masonry tumbled down
      Like sand castles built
      By little hands on sea strands
      Or dunes of quicksand sliding down

I have lost count of the times,
This has happened before.
Now that I stay resigned,
Amid a heap of debris

Is there any use feeling remorse?

Like Nero fiddled on his harp
When Rome was burning
I sit on this pile of wreck
Piping my thoughts away
In the cusp between victory and defeat
Exacting as much ecstasy as I can
Before the truth looms large
In all its stark nakedness!

Shall I compare you (being modern)
To a summers day?
Or to a galaxy full of stars?
No I will not
For I know full well
That you will never fall
For any of my corny chat-up lines.

Paul Butters