Nature Fascists

Nature Fascists

Nature Fascists

Those who believe in the sanctity of nature, survival of

the fittest and so on, tend to be on the political spectrum

right winged and living off inherited money and believing

 it is  a right for an eagle’s rig to kill a rabbit
and they are

right, and of people on horseback pursuing a fox until it

can do no more running and is killed by man`s best friend,

the dog that lacks empathy unless it is a learned behaviour

 It is a right to tame
nature but not eradicate it because we

do we well not to harm our future, but farming is needed

despite what the learned thinks cattle have to graze to give

milk and meat. The mule has gone and the tractor has taken

its place but without sheep and cows grazing in peace and

not knowing its purpose, the countryside would be a place of

fear and wildflowers enjoyed by botanist and goats.

It is the fascist agenda that is scaring the right to
exterminate

what nature lovers think is not worthy of their ideal.

over fifty

Over fifty

When you are over fifty divorced and want to meet a woman

– there may of them about- they all have a daughter who will

not let your late romance in peace and you will always play

the second fiddle the phone will ring late at night some trivial

drama you have to take an interest the daughter who doesn`t

 care about your feeling it is her mother`s love she have to make

sure she is not forgotten by the beast of a man she has met,

and demand unspeakable sex acts my mother has to perform.

Yet they need your money for education and often for doing

nothing and sleeping to twelve and expecting to be fed.

Middle aged man all women of over fifty have a daughter who

who will never accept you as a dad, but only as a provider.

the sparrows just like us

the sparrows just like us

The sparrows just like us

He fell from the dry, hot sky first the male

sparrows, it could be because he was older than here

and had developed a habit of hunting near

the large chimneys at the chemical factory and it was

up to the young widow, she had been a fledgling

the year before to feed and bring up five hungry chicks

and if the weather was not cooling she to would

folds her wings and fall on the bonnet of a passing car

and snakes and crows would be moving in.

The famous actor Omar Sharif has passed away, he will

 be remembered but as
the demise of a family

of sparrows will like us be forgotten not be missed in

the lottery of life 

Angela Merkel

Angela  Merkel

I have seen Angela Merkel naked it was on a nude beach

in East Germany and she was a young  communist

member of the party, the only way one had to go if not

being stuck in a factory job. Angela back then had

a rounded body not quite Ruben but a body that had in

had the frame of a middle-class Germanic sexuality.

She had by then staked her political future and she had

no time for suitors which belonged to no party?

And she did right when East Germany went into freefall

she was there taking note and agreeing with the west.

But Merkel is history less, she has disregarded her past

yet  her socialism instinct must give her sleepless nights

Greece cannot be bought by German Marks and they are

not disciplinarian by nature that can be cured by

a bracing North Sea beach. 

planets

Planets

Pluto the charming little planet has got snow

not that anyone is going there soon it is good

to know how useless information pleases us.

a cat is not wise it only makes us feel good

to think Pluto is a cartoon dog and not a cat.

The grapes on the vines still need another month

before they can be harvested and that is ok by me

it is a beautiful day and far away from war,

treachery and the vanity of man.

Cold and alone Pluto can hang there as a faded

lampshade while we should try to discover more about

ourselves and the world we live in. 

The Watershed

The Watershed

The Watershed

There was a time when 45, I thought life had passed me by

I had spent too much time seeing the night train leave.

Through the rain, soaked train windows saw people reading

some looked into space and there were those who tried

not to cry. My friends had drifted away and my old mate

Trond had found God and to think we sat all night long

talking about books and in the morning we went out in his

boat fishing drinking cold beer and falling asleep as spring

the sun danced on the blue water in the fjord and wind from

the dark mountain didn’t blow.

The best women too lost patience and took the tram home

to mum and dad waiting for you to grow up.

At 45, your parents begin dying the impossible happens and

you are a floating iceberg lost in a glass of whisky.

And just as wheels on suitcases are invented you grow up

polish you shoes and find that little cabin in a hidden
valley

it has a leaking roof and has been waiting just for you.

The raciak issue

The Racial Issue

I know nothing about being black but when black people

speak about childhood poverty I sense empathy I too know

how it feels like  being dismissed

Once I was invited to a birthday party by people who were

serious, I had nothing to give so my mother gave me two

tins of sardine in olive oil and the had very colourful

labels. I still hear the laughter it caused and still stings me

like being attacked by a beehive.

I`m not a nice person if I go into a shop and the staffs talk

into their phone I make my displeasure loudly  I dislike

being ignored meekness left me years ago.

So I`m trying to say people can only discriminate against

you if feeling inferior. My wife, born in Kinshasa in Congo

does not understand black Americas struggle with slavery,

but it is up to the black Americans to rise above it.  

the plot

the plot

The Plot

It was after eight o`clock in the evening before it got cool

enough to go for a little drive my interest the savannah

like grass made golden by the falling sun, it was then I saw

the eyes of lions keeping an eye on me. Lions around here

 are not bigger than a
cat you can take one home but it

scratches your furniture is untidy and bite.

I had a beautiful girlfriend, let me hastily add years ago,

she was intensely jealous going out with her was an ordeal

I had to look at her or the table it was like she wanted to
be

inside of my eyes to see what I saw.

One day she broke up with me and slammed the door shut,

her friend came asked me to take her home since it was dark.

She invited me for a coffee suspecting foul play said no
thanks

The day after I dried my feet on the town`s doormat took

the bus down to the coast and re- joined the merchant navy.

 I dint’s come near
the place for years. Yes, I learned then it had

been a sordid little plot.     

It is beautiful driving around her as the shadows get longer

I stop the bike and the stillness is beautiful nature
doesn’t

play tricks it just is and I`m not burdened by age this
evening

and there are no poisonous snakes here.

life-time

A life Time

How long is a lifetime it cannot be measured in years

my brother died young yet left behind five children

and I was born a weakling – he will never grow old

doctors said- weak heart and pacemaker, I’m kept alive

by modern medical science and have lived to get old.

I know the end can strike anytime anywhere, but I will

not think about it. However, long my life -time it has been

short as I leave nothing behind to be remembered for

“As my father said”, a made up lie, no one will have to

make up stories about me  

Great American Literature

Great American Literature

Great American Literature

Our book shelf groaned under the weight

of American Literature and my mother was

principally a communist.

An American Tragedy I read at fourteen,

and my fascination with A bridge over San Louis Ray

was endless, and so it went on.

I joined the youth wing of the communist party

of Norway, it lasted a month, they kicked me out

I knew too much to be useful.

The plight of the poor concern me I bristle when

seeing injustice in short i will fling my arms around

a horse that is about to be flogged yet one doesn`t

need to be a communist for this. Kindness is not

political and doesn’t carry a flag you have to pledge

allegiance to, a friendly smile will suffice. 

when news was easy

When The News was Easy

Most of us know more now than we did before when news

was simpler such as the Soviet Union bad- and Mao in China   

swam across the river I have just been reading about Sinai

 a place I thought consisted of sand, goats and Bedouins on

white horses, but there has been a slow war there going

back a long time. We didn’t and were not told that Islam has

 many aspects and sects – just like us- and there is fighting

 amongst them, usually about power and money, religions is

the glue that binds together the rest. The young Muslims in

Europe, who go to fight for IS they are fooled into believing

they fight for a cause and the will be dispensed of when no

longer needed. In Sunnis eye, they are foreigners.

 We live in paralysed world we don’t which way to sway do

let us follow the money whoever is in power.    

meeting an old friend

meeting an old friend

Meeting a Friend

I met my old friend Joao at the pharmacist today

a place we old ones go to buy medicine and to

meet friends still alive, it occurred to me the pharmacy

and the cemetery is only five minutes, walk away

from each other. Joao had gone thin he used to be

a house builder with a big muscular frame and now

before me an old man who had lost his ready smile

and a funny riposte to any argument.

But I saw something else in his eyes, a dread, it was

as he realised the finality of his life, a pleading to

to nature that he was the one who escaped to

the paradise island where the word death does not

exist in the local language of the tribe who live there,

but there was no succour; he had lost the battle. 

a poet road

A  Poet Road

Now that it is hot and the sun has turned from

a warm friend to a raging enemy, what did I say

to make it so burning hot?

 I`m up early and drive around stop and take

pictures of growing plants before the rampant

sun makes them lose all colours.

Then before I know it is ten o’clock and time to

sit indoors watching the miserable news

and trivial entrainment programs.

The bush fires of terror are something we have to

live with until we learn to clear the undergrowth

and when needed...brutally weed.

I’m thinking of a man who has a small field of

the greenest vines and every day he tends lovingly

his bushes, you see we should not be too kind.

On the other hand we cannot poison the land

with pesticide just to save a plant we like, and

forgetting that all life has its place.   

    

the undying soul

The undying soul

There was a time

I thought soul and body

was separate

so when the body gave up

the soul

kept flying about

having political opinions

no one had heard of

My soul pointed out

all the beauty to be seen

no listened

Never to be hungry nor sad

not able to commit suicide

too bloody awful

to contemplate 

changing class

changing class

Changing Class

Sitting around a table laden down with pints of beer and

football was discussed, I got up and walked home.

A navy academy accepted me I studied English at home

and had a private tutor for math taught by a girl who

loved me, two years it took it could have been longer but

I wanted to change my life, so much so I changed the way

I spoke, which on reflection was a mistake as I ended up

speaking stilted and my natural irony and humour was shy

but not for all time. So there I was a purser on a liner, 3 silver

stripes  having supper with the rich and I found the especially

boring forever talking about real estate.

I had to be social dance and often fuck one of the widows on

the cruise. Back home I was a misfit I didn’t belong anywhere

I used to say I was classless, that is not true.

My loneliness drove me to drink and finally, sleeping rough

rejected by two classes, until I saw the light, and borrowed

money- from my mother to buy a typewriter.    

job seekers

Job Seekers

After being unemployed for a long time I got

a job as a cook in a cafe where people came

for the beer, but the local law demanded

drinkers had to order something to eat before

drinking. Usually, it was a burger or a cheese

sandwich. If a sandwich came back uneaten

it was moved to another plate and served again,

but I had to open look under the cheese to be

sure no one had put something there, like

the butt of cigarette and so on.  I knew the game

having been a drinker there until I lost my job

of putting a lid on tins of sardines and mackerel.

 To be working class when time is good is Ok, but

but sooner or later there will be a downturn

and without proper education poverty beckons.