For UK #National Poetry Day: theme: Messages

MY HELIXSONG

helixsongs http://t.co/gCdJA4MbmI on #SoundCloud

use my pliable limbs
wish while tying me
into a loose knot
your wish granted
return untie the knot
you made of me

I am first to arrive
last to leave
bind your Ash stave,
Birch twigs

scrape my furrowed
white barkskin
reveal my tenderflesh
boil it and drink
to unfurrow your brow

let me bind your floodwaters
let cranes nest in my limbs
where your blood whispers

Surely it goes without saying
a celebrity marriage break up

makes us gasp and open mouthed
and must be discussed at length

and in depth. All the whys
all the wherefores intricately

broken down and due grief
be exhibited in solemn tears

while 12 dead in an aid convoy
bombed and burnt is hardly news.

#poets for peace

I work in a dept. store to be closed due
to recession. Today we get scraps of paper,
hasty redundancy notices, out of blue,
Manager says “Can we move light fittings over
there. And bring those shades over here.” Training sesh
had explained customers need fresh
new items to  buy. They soon get bored. Need 30 days or less.
‘item bite.’ Job Centre I’d worked at six months temp
said same. Jobs on boards replaced everyday.
When unsold items are placed at best sell layer.

We have lunch. I need air, to get away.
See St. George’s demolished without a prayer.
Everything is a burning fag end.
I light up that on which I can depend.

​is a bricked up

thought that needs opening.
Fresh air is poison disguised

with a mask of benevolence.
Grass is indecent hitching

up it’s skirt in public.
Bones hold up lorries

with a “Your flesh or your life.”
Flowers dirty pavements

with their refusal of the concrete.
Gusts are a blessing against dry

stone walls decayed on the hillside.

Keep a closer eye
Keep a closer hand
Keep a closer ear
Keep a closer nose

Keep a closer cheek
Keep a closer finger
Keep a closer breath
Keep a closer sigh

Keep a closer stroke
Keep a closer rise
keep a closer fall
Keep a closer warm

My palm sweats tsunamis
as she leads us off the transport.
“There’s a seating problem.”

She shows us the door
outside which armed guards
have arrived. “What have we..?

A guard raises his hand,

“Please, Sir, please understand
we do not do this lightly.
A person on the transport
said you spoke the language
of suspicion, and dressed
as you are you must recognise
we had no other alternative.
I could ask you to remove
your attire, but common sense
dictates you have not thought
to bring a change of clothes,
So you may leave the area
now and no more be said.”

We worked our way to a taxi.
I was shocked. I did not realise
the ban was on suit and tie.

My reason is a fantasy.
I’m manipulated by advertisers,
massive companies public relations,

into choosing this, buying that,
living here, eating this,
believing that.
They take advantage

of my irrational responses.
Even this state of scared
may be what they wished.

I am an irrational being.