Antithetical beliefs can divide even friends.
Gain hope in justice, kindness, love…
Mankind needs optimistic poetry.
Quiet reason silences the untenable violence
when xenophobes yell zealotry.
#125
Dark Thoughts
Sitting in the dark,
dotted with little red, yellow, blue, and green lights
from small appliances, computers, rechargers,
and the digital clock on the stove.
Sitting in the dark,
in the glow of the computer screen.
So, technically, not really in the dark at all.
In the semi-dark, quasi-dark, pseudo-dark;
the dark that’s too dark to do anything
but type but too bright to sleep.
So I sit and I type about the almost dark and wonder
why I’m awake at four in the morning.
Sitting in the dark.
#124
First Rule
There are so many rules
where one would do
so pick up the cards you’re dealt
and do your own thing
as long as that thing
doesn’t hurt someone else.
The trick here is knowing
the true definition
of words like ‘someone’ and ‘hurt’
‘cause plenty of hurts
don’t show at first glance
and are easily incurred.
And that ‘someone’ could be
a person, a dog,
a tree, or the earth ‘neath your feet.
That ‘someone’ could be
yourself so some care,
and empathy is needed.
And the one rule that seemed
self centred evolves
into an awareness of all
and how we’re connected
for better or worse
on a spinning, blue and green ball.
#123
12 Months in 8 lines
Muddy mess
Bird nest
Long days
Heat haze
Brown leaves
Frost heaves
Long nights
Wind bites
#122
Ear Worm
My brain is like a two year old
who’s learned a brand new trick
and the song that it’s repeating
is going to make me sick.
It’s not that it’s a bad song
or one that’s not deserving
of airplay, but three days straight
is getting quite unnerving.
Every time I stop to think
my brain’s new song is playing,
my health’s begun to suffer
and my sanity is fraying.
It seems the only chance of peace
is taking drastic action
and teaching brain another song
as some form of distraction.
And though I know my one track brain
will just switch songs, at best.
At this point I believe a change
is as good as a rest.
#121
Stand Up
Stand up for the ones who have served.
Stand up for the ones who have fallen.
Not just for a minute one day of the year,
when the piper or bugler is calling.
For as they fought for us, now it is time
that we fight for them in return
to make sure they get the care and the help
that they so selflessly earned.
Let your remembrance be constant;
a pledge, not just a token.
Honour the dead by helping the ones
who came home battered and broken.
#120
A Prayer and a Plan
I will take this day
just as it has come to me
and make it my own.
I will see the world
through eyes bereft of judgement
and life will be good.
And when the day ends
I will smile and say ‘goodnight’
and I will mean it.
#119
Things
Things worth pursuing;
sun beams and prism rainbows.
Things worth sharing;
warm touch and laughter.
Things worth giving away;
forgiveness and praise.
Things worth keeping;
true love and memories.
#118
Calendars
It’s that day when the sun comes out
and melts the skiff of snow into muddy
puddles and the sky is that soft shade
of blue and you can’t remember
whether it’s late fall or
early spring.
That’s when you catch a fleeting glimpse
of why calendars are such
stupid things.
#117
Rings
When I sleep I dream of things
I’ll get done today, brass rings
I’ll grasp, grand schemes come true,
the looking glass I’ll sally through.
But now I find, once I’m awake,
my plans are slightly more prosaic.
Like tiling walls, then, if I choose,
installing a new low flush loo.
I’ll do the things within my grasp
Though my brass ring be made of wax.
#116
Linda Studley 