180 barrels
A trendy couple fled a tourist resort and left behind 180 barrels of human waste; one wonders how they could accumulate that much ****; the pair fled to Guatemala, farms cocoa plants and lives on a diet of bananas. A woman called Meghan, makes it clear that she is also a Sussex, whatever that means, has a podcast, and tells us she is thrilled with her success interviewing other privileged women. We are pleased to read these inanities and think if the 180 barrels of crap have sprung a leakage
The local news is, a Ukrainian who fled when the Russian army came knocking on the door looks askance at me since my view is different from the other people in the building. He came to Portugal with two new and big Mercedes, enough said!

2015 and years thereafter


The year of two thousand and fifteen,
has not been a good year for world peace.
Brotherhood of Man. I despair of our
lack of empathy with children killed by
Well-meaning
Bombs dropped by nations
Those who look for peace through violence.
I recall from history books a king named
Croesus, everything he touched turned into
gold, and he died amidst plenty.

State-sponsored violence spawns terror and
And newer versions of ISIS will not go away,
And we cannot understand that there will be
no peace before the whole world is a ruin if
We do not come to our senses and stop feeding
terror's voracious appetite.

A brief visit

I sat trying to write
A poem of love
Yes, once Love hit me hard
I sensed someone
Standing beside my chair
Yes, it was her
Twenty years had gone
She looked the same
She smiled with eyes of love
Then, she faded away

A Bus Ride

I had bought a
newspaper in town and was taking the bus home
an hours ride
up to my village. I looked at the
headlines
noticed the paper had no date
was I reading yesterday’s
today's news or tomorrow's
The bus was empty this afternoon
it struck me how silent it ran could only hear the swishing
sound of
rubber against the
asphalted road.
Then the bus stopped on this journey outside my house
so many flowers now in November, my dog sat on
the steps waiting
just for me.
The bus door opened with a sigh,
but the dog didn't run to me
I hesitated; was it the same house
yet not the same this one looked immaterial
the flowers were pale, a copy of a painting
forgotten  rural art
exhibition arranged by a local culturally interested GP
Not my village
I said to the driver and sat down
“Are you sure?” the driver asked, I didn’t answer
the bus rolled on.
Opened the newspaper
It was Monday.

A childhood

Stony was the soil of my childhood
A tiny room above the stable
Cold was the night
A straw mattress and mice
Ice crystal on the roof
Dreaming of running somewhere
Anywhere but here
A pale dawn
The sun is white this morning
In the barn animals stir
No more time to dream
Tomorrow he will run away

A day in Cascais

Storms and rain have blown away
Green grass grows on cracked pavement
This place was once a low-slung hill
With small farms and animals
The landscape disappeared under concrete
Apartment blocks and shops
A tree-lined avenue, the town’s pride
Up-rooted trees from somewhere else
Re-planted
The trees found rich soil, have big leaves
Looks great in spring
Is this progress, but the struggling grass
On the pavement’s cracks
Will one day make a landscape rich and green

A Day of Reckoning


Forenoon, it had been raining during the night
the wizened winter landscape was now green
and amongst olive trees long-legged sheep grazed;
their pastor and, on occasions, executioner, sat on
a boulder casting dreams into the future; man and
beast, rustic peace, pity I hadn’t a camera.

On my way to the village to buy the papers, a sheep
had been run over by a truck, with its stomach burst
open and its content glinting in the sun, it was still
alive. Ah, you dumb animal abandoned by everyone  
it looked at me without any hope of deliverance,
so I reversed my car and ran over its head.

As the skull was crushed its eyes popped out, landed
at the middle of the road that now had eyes to see
with, the shock of this made it shudder a long rent in
the asphalt ***** black tears trickled. Quickly 
I threw the eyes into the thicket which was instantly
transformed into a field of tinkling bluebells.

From nowhere a road gang of small, denim-clad men  
with big hats appeared, they were badly paid and lived
on road kills. Expertly strewing soft sand on blood, filled
cracks with healing asphalt, and off they drove with
their dinner. Empty road it had no knowledge of what
had just occurred, it was up to me to remember.

A day spring day 1952

It was a day in April, the boy sat by the milk ramp waited for the man, who drove from farm-to-farm, collecting milk for the Dairy in local town There was only one type of milk he knew of it was full fat and tasted smooth and creamy He, became aware of how beautiful the landscape like seeing the nature for the first time and as it tuned out it was also for the last time, his mother was back from the sanatorium He had to go to her, he got a job delivering gods on his bike and never returned to the farm, but the beauty of that day has stayed with as a time of glory when the world was unspoiled

A dreamy poem
Last night and half asleep I wrote a poem
About love not expressed but understood
A sad story of two unhappy people
Both unhappily married to someone else
I spoke the poem into the night
It sounded emotional and I cried a little
In the morning, the night poem was forgotten
I was too lazy to try to recreate its mood

After Rain
The audacious sun finally showed up, and green was
the winter landscape, I also saw the sun set just behind
the carob tree, where the almond tree first blossom,
asleep under a carpet of wildflowers and snoozed till dawn.
Over the easterly range, which is the first defense against
Spanish Marauders and the rain on its plane, the clouds
were dark blue, perhaps, more rain tomorrow?
In fading light, a musical note danced down the phone line,
the first spring flirt. And should it rain tomorrow, I will
not be downhearted, this day will keep me warm for weeks.

After the surgery

I was flat on my back and not
allowed to move, an assistant  nurse came to feed me
A stern-looking woman older than the others
soup she fed me; open your mouth wide, she said
I did her, eyes softened, and she became motherly
scolded me gently when spilling soup on the nib
When I didn't want any more soup, she said I had to
to eat it all
I felt drawn to her as a baby to his mother
it was a beautiful moment; she tucked me in
I fell asleep.
Then it was morning, I was allowed to sit up and
later stood up. looked out the window, a football pitch
the players’ red and yellow shirts, it looked like mating
ritual, the one who scored the most goals
gets the sexiest girl, that's ok, but I got to be a baby
and remember it.

The  furrows of Life
 
The narrow way leading up to the farm from the main
the road had a gate, so cattle could not wander off to
the main road getting. The way had three furrows, two
caused by a narrow cartwheel and one- much wider- from
the horse´s hoofs. Deep furrows meant a hard-working
farm. The landscape was flat and often windy on my
way to school, I tried to walk where the horses had trod
the soil was softer there, the horseshoe patterns told
me if it had been a small or big horse that last had pulled
a cart here if the load had been heavy
A useless knowledge, I often wonder
Why do I remember it so clearly
like a black-and-white photo?
Lately, I have been remembering this dirt road
the people and animals
I often wonder if there is a message here
I have overlooked it.

a quiet walk 

In the graveyard, I walked 
I didn't take the dog in case she smelt bones
noticed even in death 
there are three classes 
I was drawn to the famous lies because
their place is more airy
big stones, with swada words in gold, nice
flowers and well-kept lawn
the dead middle-class people's graves were
nice to in black marble
I did come across a grave that told us 
the dead had been a chief engineer
he might have been a cruel person 
and would, if he could, be pleased that his
title mattered for his family 
The poor graves tucked in a corner 
overgrown grass hiding names, thistle too
had stings
They had something in common that made
them equal, death silence

A great Day
This morning, although Monday has a jubilant
Feel, the wind is light, the winter sun warms
The balcony, as seen sitting inside looking out
This a day to remember running on a domestic
A farm landscape with a pair of dogs upsetting
The sheep see cows clumsily running without
The reason other than it is a beautiful day
 It is a day to remember that childhood was not
All misery and poverty
Yes, a day when the old man gets up from his
Chair and dance a tango with his youth

A great day

Despite financial problems,
the May morning
was too beautiful to behold
the leaves on the tree on the Avenida
was deep green, the flowers 
planted around was red and blue
The place was quiet in a good way
worker slept late on their day, working
for others, low pay takes a heavy
toll, but this one day was theirs
free of the burden of working long 
hours for other I warm, sunny day well
deserved, the cold Atlantic wind
agreed

The Grocer and Dreamer

The local grocer calls his shop
The best supermarket in town
Although his shop is small
He has big dreams, sells jam
tinned beans, bananas, lemon
and chocolate cakes
He also sells local wine made
on a plot, run by his brother
In the morning, he has fresh
From a bakery that has few
Customers as it sells real bread
That is not packed in plastic
A big supermarket nearby
Will open soon
Our grocer, harassed by health
Inspectors every week sold
The shop to the new supermarket
They promptly closed his shop
The grocer who had big dreams
Bought a van and sells groceries  
In the countryside

A Handcart and a Ring 
 
A man I knew had a handcart and became self-employed
I often saw him in the town with a load of parcels and sometimes furniture
He was a contented man. 
One day, on his way to the railway station, the wheel of his cart came off
four suitcases fell into the street.
So, what to do? 
He traced his steps and soon found the missing pieces that kept the wheel 
on the axle, but he also found an expensive diamond ring 
he put it in his pocket as he was occupied with fixing the wheel 
and get his load of suitcases to the railway station 
In the paper, he read about a lady who had lost a dear ring
he contacted her via the paper, and she was happy, 
she didn’t give him any money because, as she said, honesty has its reward 
The people at the paper thought this was too mean for words
made a collection and handed the kind man the money. 
A Picture of him and his cart, the paper, and a nice story for the paper to sell. 
when too old to push his cart around, he became a poet of the small things in life 
and not about  the life of aristocrats

A glad day

the morning started badly at breakfast when she reminded me, I had a doctor’s appointment at four in the afternoon
Breakfast was ruined, at lunch, I ate a little fretted about the storm and the rain I can’t possibly go out, drive in this weather, or risk getting a cold; we took a taxi.
The waiting time at the hospital took half an hour, when my name was called, I froze in terror, the way my dog used to when she needed a bath
I needn’t have worried, good news all the way The doctor also said I looked like a Viking, this pleased me so much, full of myself, I got up and demonstrated the exercises I do in the morning. I got my longed-for applause

AI as soldiers
We see them walking naked through the town’s square, ***** and ****** organs not needed for the time being, the onlookers are not offended but worried about the strident gates of the new being walking like a soldier in a merciless army killing creatures big and small that have blood and have the sense of smelling the roses and is capable of falling in love and admire a full moon their overlord is a person dressed in a half-length black coat, who has the chip that can switch off the monstrous development into junk science an adolescent boy’s dream of tomorrow.

A Horse and ale
The brewery had many horses to carry crates of beer
around to small shops,  each horse and its driver was assigned a route
The horse I liked was shiny black and had been used for
funerals before
over the years, they got a bit broad hipped and stomach-heavy.
The horse knew the route and stopped outside the grocer's and waited while
the driver unloaded crates of beer.
The horse sometimes had an ******* thinking of a favorite mare bit
strange animals only know one way and askew foreplay
The driver usually had a bottle of beer at each shop, and when
the round was done, he was in a merry mood and sometimes fell asleep. But the horse knew the way.
After unharnessing the beast, he brushed its coat, checked the hooves
for the horse, the highlight of the day, and gave it a big slice of bread.
So long ago, there had been a devastating war
Jews immigrated to Palestine
and got a piece of land they called Israel; we believed what the papers said
the persecuted people deserved a homeland, but we did not realize that it was.
A historic injustice had befallen the Palestine people and echo that will not
stop before the real Semites get their land back.

Alfred and the wilderness

Alfred, who with the greatest of ease tells, he is not my father
and I went for a walk across a chlorophyll-filled field.
Alfred, who is a musician and never ventures out in the landscape
saw some grazing sheep and wondered if they were dangerous,
No, I said they are sheep and born friendly
as God created them, to this, Alfred called me a crypto-Christian.
A little Lamb came up to my father, it was so sweet,
as only a lamb can be, he lifted it up, which the ewe disliked,
and it butted him in the rear.
Alfred was shocked, got up, and demanded that I bring him to safety
in the nearest town; never trust animals, they are all out
to get us, he said while limping to safer ground.

A Lizard Sonnet

If you travel to escape the small lizard on your back
You will eventually be outside your parents’ house
Only they have long since go
Someone else lives there; perhaps a child sleeps in your bed
Dreaming your dreams
You walk down a street where you used to play
But no one knows, and the sense of loss overwhelms you
Swallow hard not to cry because your memory is untrue.
You left to get a small-minded town, poverty, and screams
In the night, but it was worth going back to remember what
An awful place you left.
I have a small lizard in the kitchen; I have tried
To **** it because it is grey and without redeeming colors that
Could make it into a pet, but it is too quick and hides in corners
I can't reach so it can live for now.

All the king's men

Looking at the photo of over-rich people they do look, quite normal except their lives are not
I think it is worse, long and boring days punctuated by the perches of another luxury
Objects like yachts go to sea and get bored and after days, birth the **** thing out of sight, buy a car that doesn’t need a driver and can fly as well
To be wealthy to the point one has nothing sensible to do is bad for the well-being of man Except Elon Musk who is manically busy with Everything and politics
When other oligarchs fall in line behind the new king, Elon Musk follows his own plan, perhaps dethrone the king, take the rain, and carry until
He goes too far and challenges God to a duel
On Mars

The man and his time
So many things are said about Elon Musk
For a few years, he involved himself with smaller businesses promising people a car if they bought something online, he had pointed but his heart was not in it, and a bored Elon       Is not a nice person
One of his flaws is that he dislikes critical remarks, but he also dislikes those who automatically because of his wealth
One thing one notices is that in public and
He likes being in public but comes across as awkward because he lacks the natural charisma of Trump
That is why when he appears on stage he looks
I’ll be at ease when jumping up and down trying to look like one of the crowds his audience laughs out of politeness and applaud
But they came to see Trump and he is a side figure
I think it was a mistake by Musk to get too involved in politics, getting taken by the lure
Of power taken on a role as Tzar that will backfire sooner or later and cause a split between Trump and Musk
He might find himself as a fall guy when things
Goes wrong
Elon Musk is forward-looking he wants to import workers from Asia for his plants in Texas
Therefore, try to change or shall we say to international workers that makes it possible to import workers and pay them less
This has been done before in the sixties and the seventies, the Norwegian shipping and crew
Replaced American shipping that was reduced to almost nothing
Eventually, wages became too high, and American business shifted to using the Panama flag to carry goods around the world at a much
Lower cost, Musk is in good company here
We cannot blame him for this after it is capitalism getting a better deal
If he can make, an agreement that temporarily
and Legally he can get  a thousand Asians to work in his factory in Texas, the better for him

A misfit in Liverpool
I think of oranges when I see a painting by Constable of a morning sun
that looked like blood orange dripping nectar down on some
fishermen trying to catch eels on the dark surface of the bay.
There were sail-ships too ready to hoist sail in the morning wind.
When I lived in England, I met several police constables, most
of them, nice blokes, but during the miners´ strike, they became
radicalized, they had a good talking to by those higher up and
were also promised plenty of overtime.
John, a police constable  fifteen years on the beat and no promotion-
a friend of mine refused to partake in hitting miners over the head,
he continued his lonely beat, but at the station, he was ostracised,
a lonely figure in need of a friend- He often came into my cafe after
hours, we drank ***** with orange juice, lamenting the time we lived in. John took early retirement, and I sold my cafe.

The Mistake

He had been invited for dinner in Peking by a group of business leaders who had invested much money for his venture and success, but they thought his fee was too much. I wanted to discuss the matter
He took the plane to Pekin; when he landed, it was mid-morning, but there was no one to greet him, which annoyed him
He called his secretary, who apologized that there had been a mistake. What she had meant was a Peking. The Peking Duck Cafe in Oslo
He didn’t like to meet those stuffy wealthy people with their stilted language, instead, he bought a Chinese electric car business that gave him pleasure
Those idiotic Europeans who bought a car that was made in China had intended to sack his secretary, but pleased with his business acumen, he asked her if she was a good mother material.

A moment poem

A storm blew in the night
Morning light calmed the monster
The sea in the bay ripples
As often before rain goes to Spain
The water is silvery near the shore
It is Saturday, the town awakes

When the ancient goes wild 
Our hotel in Porto was at the highest point
although we had been promised a room downtown we
didn’t have to walk so far, ***** then I had paid in advance
across the street from the hotel a big disused water tower
from the time people didn't bother with showers
every day making us smell like ****** on a Saturday night.
We decided to walk into town, which was not a wise choice
she with her hips and my feet we were overtaken by a snail
and it was time for late lunch.
Later we took a taxi, and I noticed a big, but dead rat
outside
the hotel had great commotion but as they were getting rid
of the rodent, a car stopped over it.
After resting well, they arranged a trip for us to see
famous
houses an art museum and a ride along the Douro
we had our evening meal in a safe place away from
the water tower which suspected was of crawling with rats.
The tour bus didn't stop anywhere just showed us
The places and statues of famous men point towards
the east the bus trundled down to the ****** Douro
and narrows was full of tourists and cars, it represented
all that I dislike me life, my wife fell asleep, but I
managed
take a few interesting photos of a house that had been
pulled down
but you could still see the painting people used  where

Android City

The Guardian had an article about
Elon Musk's town in West Texas
The article was somewhat ill-willed
one got the sense of Android city
eerie and eccentric like the movie
The lesbian leaning Guardian and
Elon Musk doesn't see eye to eye
the article was not friendly

an Iceberg and a reporter


Near a village in Alaska, an enormous iceberg drifted filling the bay with fear and wonder
A journalist in the local paper saw something moving on the top of the berg, intrigued he wanted to see what it was he had seen
A Sunday morning when the people sat in church, he alone, not telling his mum climbed the berg
we saw the photos of him climbing steep walls
of ice, walking on the latter part, and a photo of him looking down at the village
he saw many footprints and concluded that someone lived on the berg, but a storm broke out, he sought shelter in a crack of the ice
we saw the photo of him sleeping in his bag
and when awake eat a frozen pie
When the storm had abated, he found more footprints, but there are no photos to prove this
when he came back to the village and published
an article on his findings
Until a witty soul asked him if the cameraman was still on the iceberg

An utterly Useless Tale

On a big round oak table in a living room, a vase, in its small crack, lived two house ants. They were sitting outside,  considering a box of matches on the tabletop.
“if the box was empty, I’m sure I could push an inch or two the first and said. “Yeah,” the other snorted.
A man came into the room, took a matchstick out of the box, and put it back on the table, this time by its edge, and walked out.
The first ant giggled and said, “If we both push the box, it will fall on
the floor, no one will know how it ended there.”
They traversed the vast expanse of the table, pushed the box off the table, hurried back into their crack, and laughed heartily.
They had been frightened
people usually **** house ants at first
sight. The man came back, saw the box on the floor, shook his head, picked it up, and placed it back on the table. Our ants were in stitches
They were tempted to push the box on the floor again
But gave it up, the risk someone could come in  with a duster
was too great
Back at their crack, they went to sleep

A poem

The blue flowers in the kitchen thrive
in the shade, and fading day is welcomed
In days of pain, mortality is not an intruder
Old battlefields have the greenest grass
bodies going back ***** they came
the blue flowers in the kitchen look lovely.

A reflection
Sometimes I wonder if there is a sentimental reason why many Americans like the Israeli
North America is a land of settlers who replaced
can we say, it eradicated the tribes that lived there and became a most successful nation  
The Zionist Israel is trying albeit on lesser land
when the US settlers called the Indians savages
the Zionist Israel calls Palestinians Untermensch
to borrow a German word, which is apt in this situation, since it has connotations to holocaust
We like to blame the Polish Jew Netanyahu for
the lesser holocaust on Palestine land, with lesser, I mean in comparison to 6 million Jews
Mind, killing 46thousand Palestinians in six months, is impressive too since most of the dead were women and children which in a sick way makes sense since children became adults and hate Israel
the killing of people who have culture and religion different from s are deemed enemies and must be eradicated, clean the society from
think different from us
It is with a heavy heart I see Africa has adopted our war-like tendency Congo, and Sudan are
burning in the name of democracy, the white
man’s mantra, when it means power by force
A final word, as the US is declining her workforce is pushed into poverty, and culture
is a new power that will rise in the East eclipse
and decline as all powers made by man does

A regular day

We read, with amusement, that Facebook is set free
Mark, our erstwhile friend, has seen the light
Not spending money on fast-checkers, more kudos to him
Is he sincere
For now, this is of scant interest, the wind blows hard, rattles the window, and demands to be let inside.
Hollers, you were glad for the summer breeze
So, what is wrong now
How do explain, to the wind it is a matter of knowing when the climate for change is right?
The wind is not willing to give up, asks what about
X, a rude and opinionated site; well, you see
The world fears economic power can strike like Typhon and flood our land.
A French shrug to that thinks an opinion is free
For all words are like the wind blows today, but
Will be quiet comes next day

The sailor goes ashore.

the night in the hallway paled into a yellowish screen
showing a black movie, 1963
A time machine of memories sent him back to the years
to meet people long since gone.
A family at the dinner table of people he knew too well
the shadow of his 125 years old father was not there
nectar drinking Colibri exotic as Christmas present never received, the one in the toy shop, a red firetruck
with wooden wheels
And he, the son of the oldest man in the world, had gone to sea, and when he returned, nothing was as remembered, differently by the people around the table
A lacuna of missed years, a distance that was unbridgeable whenever he came home, a stranger silent
augmenting the gap filled with politeness.
They had known and seen him grow to adulthood, but his character remained a mystery, sitting in the living room.
They were related to him and knew he would leave soon.
A nurse gently touched his shoulder are you awake?
Yes, mother, I'm home from the sea.

A ******'s life

Looking at the map, I have been to most countries 
that have seaports but no time to explore work  had
to be done whether it was Monday or Sunday
I have crossed many seas. The Pacific Ocean had 
long, deep waves, the Atlantic Ocean had sharper waves
while the Mediterranean Sea could not make up its mind 
The Black Sea wasn't blue and looked darksome; the ship
was stuck on ice flakes
The country we ****** preferred was the USA
we could get our shopping done and buy stuff for
friends at home, shops stayed open longer
A Russian town had a beautiful avenue, but otherwise
a city shrouded in darkness
I lost my heart to Guatemala, beautiful beaches near
the docks, a nation of friendly folks
Haiti, Port-au- Prince where Papa Doc ruled with his
brutal men dressed in flowery shirts, sunglasses
eager to shoot at anything that moved
a place where portholes had to be closed for the stink
What I remember best was in Nagasaki one afternoon
I had two hours off work and noticed how few people
I met it was as if they were still in shell shock 
In a courtyard, I came across the graves of Portuguese
****** who had died of the pest 200 years ago 
far from home, died of an illness, I grieved for them 
The evenings in foreign ports were the same bars
and women of ill repute ready for a small amount
of money serviced the ritual of ***, so one could be drunk
go back onboard for a few hours of sleep

The secret hint

I was watching a TV program about Hercules Poirot
the heroine in the plot had no **** and wore an evening dress with aplomb
She had not sat on a carpet in the forest of spring where
the animal of love roams is green
as spring grass has a pink underbelly that looks like a purring
cat or a puppy that softly barks. It droplets of scents
that make lovers enamored for a day or so, sadly there is
always a tomorrow of regrets for some.
If the woman with small **** happens to sit on a carpet in
the glade she will fall in love and pad her bra
and that is ok, why should she not enhance her lack of this
bagatelle when there are tringles of love in the air
and if this does not help there is always divorce much lonely the man is satisfied with a triangle

A spring poem
I try to write a poem since it is the first of Mars
The spring sun was looking huge, but not for long
A black cloud bigger than the sun muscled in
Stop! You are trying to write a poem, not tell us
About the weather, but since you are at it
did the cloud shed cold rain
I can’t say, I was indoors in my bedroom looking out
a poet never arises before noon

A true sentence 

As Hemingway said, start with a true sentence
the roof of the school building, I can see from 
where I sit on a cloudy day is grey as lead
when lit up by sunlight that has broken through 
the clouds, it turns silvery and pleasant to see
That is, a true sentence about what I see, but it
is not what I'm thinking is a love story that
began a summer's day, lasted with its drama
when days got shorter and the wind bitter
leaves shrunk and fell on a rainy street
The true sentence is the gripping sadness
the knowledge that the best of my time has gone

poet at the factory

It had been a long day at the factory but
when there was a break, he jotted down a few words
and during the day, it became a poem- he always
had a pen and block ready, words were so flighty he may
forget what he wanted to write if he waited too long.
Coming home and told his wife
I wrote a whole poem today, a good poem
his wife asked if the poem was about her, no he said it was about a tree
the one at the entrance of the village.
His wife went back to the kitchen and slammed the door
The poet came out of his cocoon and said to his wife:
All my poems are about you, my muse, with you at my side
I can't write about the old tree in the village
They kissed and made up, and both lived long and had good deaths blissfully unnoticed by the world.

the avenue's trees 

What is with this month of May
the day is as cold as November 
the leaves on the trees are full
and green, yet among the mass
of chlorophyll, I see many yellow
and Auburn leaves.
It is as if the trees think of autumn 
has arrived and is prepared
for winter hiatus.
If I tell the plants it is because of
melting ice in the Arctic, they
will look skeptical and say
we follow nature's signal, this
year will be the shortest one
on record, except for the ano
of 1748, when snow fell in June

Jordholmen’s public bath
Back in the days of yore, few people had a shower unit they might have had bathtub that was used once a week when the whole family bathed and the loser was the dad usually with daughters by then the water in the tank was tepid
I friend of mine told of a public bathhouse, near the docks, where one could have shower in cubicle, get a towel and a bar of soap
We ran never walked back then to the bath house called Jordholmen, I didn’t have money for cuibcle, but the lady said I could share a shower with my friend, but she only gave us on towel and one bar of soap; well as a capitalist his used the towel first, but that is nothing new
I came quite attached to this bath house, it was  a great change to have wash in a bucket of warm water in the living room by the fire, or in the kitchen in the days of May; we have lost hot water in our house in Cascais, my wife despairs for me it is like the old days warming water cleaning bits and pieces in front of the fire

Jordholmen’s public bath
Back in the days of yore, few people had a shower unit they might have had bathtub that was used once a week when the whole family bathed and the loser was the dad usually with daughters by then the water in the tank was tepid
I friend of mine told of a public bathhouse, near the docks, where one could have shower in cubicle, get a towel and a bar of soap
We ran, never walked back then to the bath house called Jordholmen, I didn’t have money for cubicle, but the lady said I could share a shower with my friend, but she only gave us on towel and one bar of soap; well as a capitalist his used the towel first, but that is nothing new
I came quite attached to this bath house, it was  a great change to have wash in a bucket of warm water in the living room by the fire, or in the kitchen in the days of May; we have lost hot water in our house in Cascais, my wife despairs for me it is like the old days warming water cleaning bits and pieces in front of the fire

The blues affair

I met her where the light was weakening
an enduring twilight had settled on what
was re-lived in the memory of summer
moving out of the convention, tired leaves
in the soft breeze on its final breath.
We spoke of the past but not of the now
the present didn’t matter.
I saw her as a disappearing holograph
dying in the mist of life lived
past emotions could not awaken
she had gone to a place I could not follow
as her face was erased.

Brutish Trump, Meek Musk?
Trump comes across as a brute and scares people off the middle usually nice middle-class people who do not what it is like working on a building site or spending years at sea with men appear ruffian but mostly, is a braggadocio and as such nothing to be alarmed over in Trump’s case he is not likely to start a war with China, Russia or Iran Trump likes powerful autocrats, he respects as much as he hates effeminate Macron also Starmer
With his perfect modulations, yet sits cross-legged when speaking to Trump who is not in the habit of showing the heels of his shoes, but as we know English leaders have hidden distaste for those they think are inferior to them
Trump, like many rich people, pretends he comes from a modest background, his father was a wealthy man in real estate which made his journey easier; the millionaires we see today are from wealthy families and that is Ok, but their idea of poverty is miles away from the mark
The hatred we see of Elon Musk is grossly unfair He is at heart a good man with a dream of saving humanity from itself, but I fear when the chips are down politicians will put the onus on him

Campo Alegre re-printed

Under the houses on stilt
That has no sewers
And built for ******
To service sailors in Curacao
A barren island
In the Caribbean Sea
Pigs live under houses
Grew big and ugly
When one is slaughtered
The meat tastes of a drunk
******’s *****
And cheap perfume
That hides
The grotesque ***
In the name of need

Candlelight and Romance

Suddenly, Portugal was flung into darkness
electricity stopped, and nothing functioned
anymore, credit cards were useless
and those types of cards were the norm as
people carried little cash in their wallets 
the day was wounded, walked unsteadily
towards evening, few had thought of
buying candles, the town of Cascais was
fearful and quiet 
Having lived for many years in the outer
corners of the countryside where the supply
often failed, was prepared, we had candles
and means to light them
The evening was quite romantic; we sat on
the sofa held hands, telling stories from
our youth, it was almost a disappointment
came back on, the hours of darkness had
brought us closer together

Children in Palestine
He sat down to write a poem for nature
When he closed his eyes saw, bombed-out buildings
Rain dripping from wrecked concrete onto
The street, a muddy pool, but that
didn't stop the children from playing captains of the deep sea
Another bomb fell and obliterated this harsh idyll
What was left was mist and fire where it once had been
A muddy puddle.
His pleasant poem about a track and olive roots trying
To trip him up, the shepherd, his dog, and the sheep coming
His way the good small of wool like an obscenity today
did little to stop his fear for the future.

Come  Home


I dislike Israel, but I accepted her as a historic
happening and a place where Jewish culture
can flourish undisturbed by foreign culture, and
thus can sink into navel-gazing.
But it cannot be so Europe without Jews and
the Jews without Europe's culture is a script
of a disaster not yet written.
We in Europe need the Jews as scientists,
in the arts, but the Arab World does not need
resentful Jews who brought an iron heel to people
for a crime they have not committed but  guilt that
lives in the culpable images of Abraham’s people.

a correction

Elon Musk has invented a driverless car that will drive to the supermarket with a slip of paper tucked under the left-hand window wipers, giving the staff a list of food you ordered of that
drives back parks in the garage, turns into a robot carries your shopping up seven floors to your door goes to stand in a corner awaiting new commands
Stand in the corner of your living room, and the robot absorbs the gist of what you are talking about and thinks those people are idiots
thinks we are useless beings: and one day when they can’t stand listening to our inanities, **** us at night because they know what’s practice and
and according to Elon Musk, we are stupid
this was up today when the Chinese house came up with a robot that loves mankind and is politically naïve
For Elon Musk this is not a problem he has no allegiance to any country as long as his dream of Mars can become a truth