SCHOOLDAY WINDOWS

Schoolday windows .. .

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boots 6

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Jam on it…

Old boots drawn on a blackboard wall
  no creativity in the assembly hall
kids line up for their detentions
  who came late to the roundabout

when we were students in the forum
  ruled by slipper, cane and ghosts
we joked about it as we stood in line
  forget your p.e. kit – pay the fine

rule of law says don’t talk back
  boys turned men at initiation ceremony
press-ganged onto the ‘operating table’
  wartime values becoming unstable

like dynamite, the kids were not alright
  maleness corked, bottled, so uptight
fights after school not tolerated
  boys at back of class masturbated
 
next door the girls wore black tights
  while schoolboys debated their teats
learning the best adolescent behaviour
  ’till secondary schools eventually merger
 
sadists in tweed jackets, brillcream-cuts
  leather elbows n’cuffs no idea about children
junior teachers who constantly bungled
  stepping through the blackboard jungle

sash windows, grubby nine-inch panes
  tell tales of misery by classroom stains
a trashed chemistry lab, corridor fights
  keep you looking over your shoulder

the awesomeness of art still calling
  Mr Morgan not caning our asses
was now in the art-room drawing
  the most beautiful boots I ever saw

then came the old school reunion
  Dianne Seizer whose tits were huge
had died while swimming we discovered
  Richard and Susie now bedroom lovers

©edenbraytoday22.05.2022

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GUEST POEM ~ THE AXE

THE AXE

by Thom Yorke

Goddamn machinery
Why don’t you speak to me?
One day I am gonna take an axe to it
The pitter patter
What does it matter?
Where’s that love
You’d promised me?
I’m pierced by long nails
By coloured windmills
The soft sustain
Envelope

I thought we had a deal
I thought we had a deal
I thought we had a deal
I thought we had a deal
I thought we had a deal
I thought we had a deal

You bastards speak to me
Have you no pity?
Give me a goddamn good reason
Not to jack it all in
You would’ve sold you
I’m daring you to turn yourself off
I thought we had a deal

(Could’ve loved me)
(I’ve had my fill)
(I’ve had my fill of hurt)
(Had had my fill of hurt)

 

 

 

 

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THIS DREAM WAS THE FIRST .. .

This dream was the first .. .

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GODZILLA

This dream was the first
  it woke me alarmed and
covered in damp persuasion
  of believing myself 
a gangster on the run
  born to play Machieveli

I, who held my own,
  alone in downstate Illinois
put things out with guys
  from town who boasted
their family had worked
  the numbers for Capone

I rolled-over on my side
  to dream a dream so real
I might have borrowed long
  archived in black and white
a spool of Pathé-news
  a Time-Life story centrefold.

A technicolour epic-plot
  enter centre-stage right
a vision of a golden age
  when streets of Hollywood
became the focal point
  Cecile B.DeMille was sage

My dreams all now coloured
  who says they never are
from Maine, Chicago and Nebraska
  drawn together two by two
I rob a bank, I wander free
  movie-screenplays all i see

I became a full-time dreamer
  who has a skill of sorts
imagined myself a schemer
  I can cope with all retorts
yet now the sun is dipping fast
  this dream is nearly over

John Wayne leans against
  a door that’s open, Cagney
singing, dances off the set
  Gregory and Jean may settle
down in happy valley, Burl’s
  performance we forget
 
I wake to find it was a dream
  things bad as they could be
maniacal monsters, sharks
  still roam the earth and sea
Godzilla’s wearing afterbirth
  sick tyrants still walk free

©edenbraytoday18.05.2022

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YOUR BOUGHS OF PLENTY .. .

Your boughs of plenty .. .

Oak tree b&w

Your boughs of plenty
  laden down
your arms of joy
  greedy green of goblin’s gold

your eyes hidden
    blinkered, sightless
        neath your eye-line shadow
            golden eyes with lashes
                cold scars on your knotty spine

burrs on your umber skin
  you are incapable of sin
      your branches cannot lie
          ’til that morbid day you laydown
              I long since departed

under your nature’s robes
  visits as a minor bird 
your fine clothes green n’ gold
  your off-the-shoulder gown

your locks untrained, lascivious
  your shape bent tantalising
the way you stand just out of reach
  oft painter’s-brush horizon

Marrietta, corn is waving in our field
  scenery afore tomorrow’s growing
      your flowing dress of aqua – maize
        supports the motion of our ways
            trees always do outlive our days

                         ©edenbraytoday11.05.2022

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INGRATES and CATHOLICS

ingrates and catholics .. .

The world is full of them
the people who don’t care
and people who care too much
you meet both all over
both can drive you to despair
it’s why I started drinking
and then when I gave it up
I met them everywhere
ingrates and catholics
some are never thankful
or appreciate what you do
they take it all for granted
take enough for two
selfish ornery bastards
wind you up
and round their finger
the one that’s sticking up
others always feel guilty
they’ve never done enough
or do much of anything
so filled with condemnation
they circle round the earth
never say anything much
scared of what they do
cannot get excited
their purpose is subdued
always feel unworthy and kind of dirty
till they’ve bowed to mother Mary
told her that what they do
they are so goddam sinful
tell it to the fairies
your life is far too short
once your through with your confession
it does not need retelling
just get on with your life
look out for your brother
always love your mother
respect a faithful wife
my maxim for today
whistle while you pray

♡✌️

©edenbraytoday12.05.2022

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ALL I SEE IS HATRED .. .

All I see is hatred .. .

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putin

..

(echoes of Masters of War)

I look at your stony face
and all I see is your hatred
the hatred you have unleashed
upon this sad, worried world
not curbed by the reason
some of your people show
which you decry as treason
as you drop another bomb
destroy another hospital
you are cold as morbid death
there’s metal in your eyes
they never must have cried
the hatred you have unleashed
will grow across our planet
your countrymen, your women
will forever more be hated
that same hatred unabated which
poisons cultures everywhere
more cruelty will arise as you
have justified these actions
steel. you give to all tyrants
near and far by your stance
your mind held as in a trance
you have allowed to blind you
  and I hope that you die
  and your death will come soon
  I would follow your casket
  on a pale afternoon
  watch while you are lowered
  down to your deathbed
  and stand over your grave
  until I am sure that you are dead
  there is one thing that I know
  I am just older than you and
  even Jesus himself would not
  forgive what you do

©edenbraytoday11.03.2022

GOLD STAR WINNER

                            

author’s notes

I read things that aren’t nice .. . it is my contention that Putin has stirred a vipers nest of hatred that will only breed yet more hatred throughout the world – weak-minded and vengeful people will enjoy the atrocities being conducted and in turn it will encourage only the savage side of human nature – modern warfare is an evil we can well do without!

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BLACK and WHITE and GLOSSY .. .

Black and White and Glossy .. .

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sensual

.  .  .

Black and white
your photograph so sensual
I love the grainy feel
statuesque I want to touch
yet it bids me just imagine
being together as once we were
when we touched and
loved each other everywhere
I watched you lay
beside me naked on the heath
you clothed your eyes
your fantasy disguise
that made me want you more

.

©edenbraytoday29.04.2022

B
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I SPOKE PEACE TO THE RAVEN .. .

I spoke peace to the raven .. .

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eagle

Peace, I spoke peace to the raven
a bird who takes his fill at any quarter
I spoke love to the robin, red breasted
and fun, a love that lingers longer
I spoke faithfulness and integrity to a swan
patience to the dove, who circles above
finally, I spoke forgiveness to the eagle who
though regal has most often killed in war

..

..

..

©edenbraytoday23.04.2022

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BRAY .. .

Bray .. .

Tibet Kailash 11 Back 08 Shishapangma Checkpoint Shepherd with mountains behind

Born of a philosophy of stone
carved in latin linguistics
fashioned from Tuscan clay
by the hands of a Michelangelo

I bury my head in my hands
the long fingers of Zeus
pointing at my brow, discerning
both intellect and lineage

The observations of science
then as now were paramount
whether for Greek deity
or the political charlatan

before Enoch walked with God
before God took him
did the church bury the fact
the relevance of disclosure

We searched long for hope
yet when hope was found
we buried it deep underground
am I the only mule that feels betrayed

Of carrying these panniers
they are filled with dust
though we mined hard for gold
our mirror now seemingly so old

Howl he said, howl we did
like many dwellers of this earth
those resurrection tellers
now we just stare stupid at the past

Bray at the mythological moon
howl long in your eternal kingdom
the donkey who had learned
to speak before the prophet fell sick

History is like signposts
turned the wrong way round
you cannot hear a sound except
for the murmur of approaching years

Howl he said, I had no retort
the ugliness of deception
laid out on the path beside death
while darkness lurked next to misery

Yet now I did not feel human
discovering their remains
whether seated with mohammed
or prairie hounds upon their sacred ground

We set out at the dawn
our spirits high to climb upward
and every traveller we met
was dressed in robes of green

We attained the summit
purple-headed mountains
icey glaciers and rivers falling
they may still wash the earth again

                                    ©edenbraytoday7.04.2022

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THE RULING CLASS .. .

The Ruling Class .. .

.

PARALLEL LINES

. . .

On the island where your rules are waves of the sea
your rules that surround me
innocent and brave I must face them alone
who has time to create rules
fish lines and nets that catch things in them
rules that dumbfound me
they murder inspiration
cameras that invade your freedom
as quantum mechanics states
observation changes behaviour
constricts and controls
reduces, systemises
rules that duplicate, coagulate
ultimately annihilate intuition
creatures don’t understand rules
rules are for fools not creativity
yet take them away
and society breaks down
proving the unwritten rule
that states
embrace the rule that hangs over you
try to make it your friend
and you will have defeated antipathy
developed your personal synergy
understood the rule of life
always lies in simplicity

                         ©edenbraytoday01.02.2022

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