Fingers to keys

* fingers to keys *
Think caress of keys
Instead transferred to thee
Olde English used in rhyme
If in wooing be no crime
To stroke upon your skin as
In merriment I skim across
Trace the magnetic lines and curves
Seek the smile hid inside
I know one would settle on your face
If in meeting skin my fingers lace
Entwine your feelings and desire
Captivate and send you higher
Swirling as an ember on the wind
Under alights and sets alight
All thoughts and coals within
A furnace of your life make
A leaping fire barely kept in hearth
Blazing most in hidden reaches of your heart
This these fingers tapping keys seek
To restore lion's heart and reject the meek
Set each emotion charging forward
Aside place moments awkward
Stripped bare and honest
These fingers typing spoke.

Anthem

++ *Anthem ++
To me the anthem always meant
Sore feet and a neck twinge
Standing at attention to a tune written
Before the digitalization of our economy
When horses were more likely than cars
The Wright Brothers were still dreaming
And blasting off to the Moon
was domain of Jules Verne and HG Wells
Now when anthem plays
I think of dust crusted soldiers
Fighting in those lands where Alexander once fought
Lands little changed in bleak outlook
Family and tribe interchangeable and immutable
The fields they crop and sow
Wild goats as lean as the people
Always been a struggle here
Developed a fragmented nation
Of tribal alliances and warlord rule
Never keen to acknowledge any law
Other than the law they call their own
As every invader from Alexander onward learnt
As empire fingers constantly burnt
By the challenge of taking the Land
Conquering the folk of Afghanistan
Who allowed you in and there greeting faded
More than one Empire discovered
Afghanistan was a step to far
The highest peak of ambition was arriving
To escape the land was mere surviving
And all the world noted your defeat
At home and abroad knocked from your seat
And confidence given to revolutionaries
Soon the empire will fall
For in Afghanistan the impetus of victory stalled
So now our men in khaki fight
Slouch hats discarded for hardier headwear
To assist the people who sought no help
Bring democracy where votes are bought
Little wonder as days and years past
We prepare to escape at last
Our ambitions grown smaller
As we realise this costly power
To change a world cannot be done
Without blood shed in Afghanistan.

Sea colour

**+ Sea colours +***
When the Sea is distant
And the ground is brick dry
I often take to staring upward
At the great expanse of sky
Imaging each fluff of cloud were a yacht
And I upon it sailing
Salt catching on my lips
As sweet spray whipped up by our progress
All the world unbound and free
A sailor sailing brightly and broadly
Across a sea within borders
Each ocean visited if had the notion
To see the different shades of colour
Of turquoise blue green and grey
Which in the waves these colours play
And settle to my heart's content
If colour reflection of vaulted sky above
Or derived from sea bed depths
Or perhaps some of this and that
Which makes the sea and sets its sheen
A hundred thousand shades
Of blue and grey and green.

Once was

** once was **
Chasing seahorses off the pier
Descending into anarchy
The currents and waves storm caught
All is turbulence in this sea
And I am a swimmer lost
Unable to bear to shore
A shore I have lost from sight
And hope grows small and poor
I once so knew my way
Stroke was strong and sure
I was a different person then
Braver and more trusting and pure
Life has tainted me and stained me
This parchment I become
From once was such a clean sheet
I wear upon myself everything I have done.

Cold

* cold *
This cold insinuates itself
Between collar and skin
Up cuff and over arm
Down your back
Sweeps up trouser leg
Slaps your face to bruise
With icy cold snap of hand
As this cold addresses
Cold freezes and trangresses
The defences of heat set
Getting underneath draws cold
Winter fingers down your skin
Makes you flinch at this touch
Cold as ice and set by wind
The huntmaster of this pack
To try and chill you to the bone
Leaves you shivering from cold
Has you in it frigid hold
This winter day of beauty raw
Heavy clouds so high and bold
Set their with intention to
Make you fully aware
Of the creeping sneaking chill cold air.

** Recline **

Xxx recline xxx
Let my busy brain rest a while
Recline thoughts in relaxation
Once more contemplate sweet sensation
Of lips warm closing space to lips
Soft kiss hard kiss full kiss
All those kisses ever known
All those kisses passed up and missed
Kisses in the restaurant
Such a show to see
Kisses before tourist spots
How the statues gaped
Kisses upon hills and dale
Never ever did they fail
To stir the mind from business
Abduct thoughts to another place
Where kisses were an entree
And you abruptly think same
See as your face does red flush
Is it blush or embarrassment
To know your thoughts are known
How deep they lie I cannot tell
How they would embolden
These lips to kiss those lips
Warm and red and lush and full
If we knew the tale true
Of relaxed minds of two
Escapees from busy crowded day
Finding some relaxed reclining
Lips together as if with glue
Such a better way to slay the day
Spend it reclining with you.

Right time lost

** right time lost **
No time is the right time
Never seems to matter
Always something else to do
Something else on the plate
Always rushing somewhere
Always running late
A few words snatched from ether
Garbled toneless hurried
As scurrying off without time
To explain or express
How depressing such exchanges are
A snarl of frustration echoes
In words cast to wind
Stolen from my ear by clatter
Of work or train or tram or gym
There is no time at all
A crime without boundaries
When foundry of communication
Place and time to relate
No longer exists for us mortals
Rushed and rushing by perpetual fate.

Roleplay

** roleplay **
How often change my heart
How empty find it now
The seam of love ripped out
Mechanically I continue
This role I have is not hard
Be civil when I would not
Earn money for the mortgage
Keep a roof atop our heads
Lock the doors at night
Let in the dog and turn off the lights
Sleep a while then rise and head to work
Arriving home again halfway through dinner
Head out to collect a child at tutoring or sport
A role I can focus on and perform
Only times the performance shakes
When nothing more found to do
When find self alone with you
And the words we trade are limp
No thoughts loving or passionate we think.

Company excuse

* company excuse *
All the thoroughfares are crowded
Heads down we bullocked our way to work
Heart and sentiments set aside
This is purely work we do
Human emotions and care
Need not be involved
No water share or principle
On avaricious let our hearts be set
Cruel as slave owners pass
More miserly than Marley
It is not what we would do
If we were to do as we would wish
It is the company policy
This alien set of values in our midst
Which decrees the way we must act
And yet a company is no more than
A gathering of people in common enterprise
And the things you do in your work
Reflect the person you allow yourself to be
There is no company without your actions
And when you act without heart
No excuse for you can be found in company policy
For the actions performed are yours alone.

A lie set

** a lie set **
Across the truths a lie set
A black line of grime and sweat
Leaves you waking in the night
Quaking at those invitations sweet
A mess of nerves and tempers
Rising falling tidal moods
Set outside the world's own pace
In this subterfuge find a darker place
How one lie's needs must multiply
To be knit and twinned with truth
An entire world fantastical create
To hide the lie upon your slate
Bury lie in woodpile of truths
Overlay with all manner of coverings
If truth it is said will win out
Is immutable truth lie's existence shall rise
Break all bonds and demand be free
This lie which across your truths you drew
This lie which coiled tight strangles you
A lie which outweighs all truth
For from where-ever point you start
The lie you have is at your heart.