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2.2k · Apr 2013
The Optimist
Reuben Leivers Apr 2013
The Optimist

I wish that I could purchase
A paper of good news
Which didn’t love misfortune
Or laugh when people lose
Which didn’t sneak and pry
Or celebrate a lie
Or gossip, steal and scandal
Then revel while we cry

This new paper’s called The Optimist
And you don’t need to buy it
The first issue is free you see
So you will want to try it
‘What is all this?’ the people say
They look slightly bemused
The happiness inside has made them stop
And they’re confused

It’s been a long time since they paused
To think and look around
And see the joy and beauty
Just waiting to be found
Not in the shops or on the box
This joy is something new
Or old that they’d forgotten
But now recognise as true

They hardly dare believe
As they delve inside again
But the stories are all true
And nothing’s awful or profane

Two sisters reunited
After fifty years apart!
A boy who saved a stranger
And that is just the start

Of all the good that’s happened
And your heart’s about to burst
Because people can surprise you
When you don’t expect the worst
The hunger and the vanity
Are swiftly set aside
As something more important grows
Where bitterness resides

And The Optimist begins
So slowly, it’s effect
The hearts and minds of all begin
To thaw and to collect
The sun begins to shine
Like it never has before
And people start to wish and pray
For peace instead of war

And although this paper’s fiction
It may pay to recognise
The Optimist cannot exist
If we don’t open up our eyes
1.0k · May 2013
Don't Forget!
Reuben Leivers May 2013
Faye Pasquil died without a fuss
When struck on Sunday, by a bus
The driver sneezed and missed the brake
And in that moment sealed her fate
Her final thought, quite curious
Last night she had dreamt of a bus
Yet of an accident no mention
Perhaps she didn’t pay attention
For as the driver took her fare
He told Miss Pasquil ‘Please beware,
I have a cold.’ What could this mean?
Faye wondered waking from her dream
The last thing she expected then
Was death caused by bus number 10
But wait before you shed a tear
At her demise, for just last year . . .
When collecting for some charity
A woman rang Faye’s bell to see
If she might have some cash to spare
Or maybe clothes she didn’t wear
‘I’ve something you can have,’ Faye said
And hit the woman on the head
‘And don’t come back!’ Faye waved her stick
‘You goody-goodies make me sick!’
Faye Pasquil wasn’t very nice
Her hobby was to poison mice
Then let them loose for cats to chew
And then she got to **** them too!
And on the night of Halloween
When children knocked her door, to scream,
For chocolate treats, in scary clothes
She’d drench them with her water hose
But of these incidents gone by
Faye did not ponder, did not try
To pray, repent, or merely see
There was a better way to be
There was no Heaven, was no Hell
God wasn’t real, so who could tell
What happened after your last breath?
You went to sleep, that’s all, that’s death!
However, as Faye closed her eyes
She found there was one last surprise
For lying dead, out in the road
Her mind did not die, but, implode
The light at first was pure as snow
Then brighter, a beatific glow
Pulsating hotter than the Sun
Yet did not hurt to gaze upon
Dead relatives she did not see
Just blinding light, eternity
The cosmos born in black and gold
The pattern of her life unfold
And everything made sense at last
The good, the bad, the ugly past
For even being mean had been
A journey leading to this scene
Mistakes are made so they can show
A way of learning where to go
To see, to know, to love, to live
There’s simply nothing more to give
Awakening a certain truth
Faye Pasquil finally had the proof
A pity then, enlightenment
Had been revealed while Heaven sent
But wait, one more surprise in store
Faye Pasquil wakes upon the floor
She isn’t dead, she needs no hearse
In fact it feels like the reverse
Enlightenment has staked it’s claim
And Faye will never be the same
The old Faye’s dead as dead can be
It’s why death felt so real you see
And now she gives away her things
Attachments gone, she cuts the strings
They have no value any more
Except down at the cancer store
October doesn’t need to come
For kids to visit for some fun
Faye throws a party every week
With music, sweets and hide & seek
Her neighbours think Faye’s accident
Is brain damage, it’s evident
‘That knock was no calamity,
It’s changed her personality!’
Faye smiles at rumours of her brain
There’s really no need to explain
This was her true self all along
She just forgot for far too long.
787 · Apr 2013
Never
Reuben Leivers Apr 2013
Never let them tell you
You can’t run before the wind
Believing the impossible
Is how it all begins
Never let them tell you
Time is better spent in earning
Believing false priorities
Can leave life’s lessons burning
Never let them tell you
Love just isn’t worth the tears
The pain of your regrets
Creates more suffering than fears
Never let them tell you
What you feel inside is wrong
It’s less about who’s facts are right
Than whether you belong
Never let them tell you
That to live in nature’s grace
Is wasting precious time
When time is all that they misplace
Never let them tell you
That opinions matter most
Empty promises and words
Will leave you hungry as a ghost
Never let them tell you
You can never win the race
When they deny they dared to try
And ended in last place
Never let them tell you
There’s no meaning in the stars
That peace is just a dream
And dreams are better kept in jars
Encompass all and find the jewel
Revealing your true self
Never hide it, let it shine
For they can never steal your wealth

— The End —