If love is what you're looking for,
   I've got the magic potion;
It starts with trust and discipline,
   then ends with full devotion!

It comes with lending all your time,
    just giving up yourself;
To show the one who means the most,
   their love means more than wealth!

You must forgive each other's wrongs,
   don't live in times gone past;
You've got to focus on today,
   for ANY love to last!

Now show her that a passion burns,
   for her inside your heart;
Romance her with your love each day,
   a love to never part!

Don't ever leave her when you're mad,
   not one foot out that door;
Until you've made ammends with her,
   don't ever leave her sore!

Now spend some time in prayer each day,
   get on your knees with God;
Then hand in hand together walk,
   the road not often trod!

You take to heart these words I say,
   to make a simple plan,
In love you'll be a Hercules-
   to her, a Superman!!

You steal your thoughts
From memories never lived
Hoping that terror will hide
In a whisky filled teacup

It's the 1 a.m blues again
(Everything is burning
Everything is burning
Everything is burning)
And your friends pretend happiness
By feigning death and snoring.

You did not sign up for this, you know,
Not the cold nor the bit of blood
From the lip you cut too hard
But you've got it, anyway,
So you may as well ****
But everyone who'd touch you is gone,
Looking to love and not simply make it

You cannot think what then you were

Now it's morning
Go to church, eat a sermon
The leaves are crackling in the wind
And your Sunday is cried away at the pews
Breadcrumbs burning your ears
A poet can bleed, they say,
If his ears are torn up with words enough

Now it's night again and you're trying
"Beloved", you say. The mirror does not reply
"Beautiful", you say. The mirror does not reply
"Broken", you say. The lights go out
Now you can go to bed
With your eyes open
Waiting for sleep to say
"How do you do? Let's hold each other forever."

Tears roll down my face
As card and flowers are on display
In readiness for mothers day
I turn and walk away

Memories of you come to me
I close my eyes and all I see
Is my wonderful mummy
Taken away so suddenly

You were always so very brave
But you  I could not save
So while the world celebrates
I bring flowers to your grave

I love and miss you mum! ❤

It got so bad
he couldn’t sleep.
Frenzied bedsheets,
pillow a swamp of sweat.
He’d swig milk
from the carton,
eyes a crush of crimson
and wouldn’t say a thing.

Then he’d mention he could hear them still.
The duh-duh-duh-duh of bullets
zooming towards strangers,
the thunderous stomach-rumble
of an erupting grenade.
I’d grip his hand and he’d cry,
shake his head, trickle out names.
I couldn’t help so I cried too.
The therapist would ****** tissues at us.

I’d be careful with noises.
If I dropped something
he’d shoot up like
an electric-shocked puppet.
Body at home,
mind at war.
He smelt death in the air,
the energy sapping from his body
as if a pin had perforated his skin.

I had to drag him up
from the bathroom floor,
as if a putrid corpse
wrenched from a river.
     Why is it me?
     What did I fight for?
That’s what he asked me.
I didn’t know, wouldn’t know,
and we cradled each other
as the shower spat out water
for a minute, for an hour.

My love runs behind you
hoping for you to slow down
So you can see it's real
Not just a mirage of your past heartbreaks

Jl 2017