Horizontal writing

Can we see what we do, or do we just chase gold ?

Comfy in our little zone, or do we see the cold ?

Watching death around our patch, like some weird cartoon ;

Hoping that it doesn’t come, at least not very soon.



Miles away from agony, until it hits the screen.

Then only for a moment, then we’ve overseen.

Our minds are touched, but then we’re bored,

Or scared and so we zap the ghastly gore.



Armchair witnesses of the world, aloof from reality

All that’s left to understand the answer is just ourselves maybe

Untroubled by the pain , we’re far away, but TV close.



Internet connected, a click away, to post ideas online

The world’s an expert , shed a tear, spread some fear,

« It’s terrible », « don’t you know » « we’re powerless »

But change starts internally, not government or policy



I watch the smoke from chimney stacks

Its hot cloud waft of wasted heat

Would fill the pens of a thousand hacks

And almost never fill the sheet



They drift up , then left, then right,then back

Which way to go, the wind decides

Just like us, the clouds they lack

Any substance and all the facts



Where we go, and what we say

Corporations organise governments thus

We don’t decide our life each day

Democracy is just passive lush



We have ,no plans, no vision , no belief nor ideas ,

Just make a profit ,make a margin

People don’t matter,or countries, that’s clear ?

Got to cross the line first if you want to win.



Throw them to the wolves or drag

Ideas to divert them from the scent

Tell them that the debate is deep

Keep them numb and well meant



Gaze into the belly-button,gaze into the hole

And all you’ll see is fluff,fluff,fluff

Questions empty with meaning and ideas stole

Away from keepers then twisted so enough

That in the false light of the media they seem so beautiful

But on closer inspection they are just shallow

Imagination has it’s boundary, fearful

Ideas already proven empty and hollow





Come back again to spoil our route

The reason forgotten in the thrust

Of communication when we are mute

And policies which are just unjust



The pathway is chosen to our minds

By companies whose choice is cost

Price but not as the consequence unwinds

And the rest is sacrificed to frost



So in the end we wait for change-but passive us

Act now and take control of you

Destiny’s path is self made stuff

Show the people what to do.



Crawl through all the thick and dross

Fight the path to freedom’s truth

Lips are dry from bitter dust

And hopes are spent from wasted youth



We don’t question what we buy

Nor its production place today

The lowest wages question why ?

The little children’s bleeding hands



Made in somewhere else today

The cost of production here’s to high

In low cost countries profits pay

With low aspirations, respect will die



The mystery is why such guiltless tranquillity

The ticking clock of all our lives

The effortless switch of history

The chance to spin eternal lies



« We want to win the war » they said

But in its wake there was the blood

And every drop was shyly shed

And every hope was in the mud



They came back home draped in a flag

Silently they passed through streets of shame

No really gave a fag

And no-one really took the blame



They fought for what ? For History’s fame ?

The pages of the books repeat

All that’s left is all that remains

Forgotten again, till death they meet.



Soldiers, wasted, like school boy’s games

Lined up inside the playground of their minds

And each battalion are just toys

And all the lives are just white lines.



Crosses on the empty fields

With only sorrow for a bride

Wage war against the clinging weeds

When tomorrow claims its pride



We fight ourselves with bitter breath

And cut our very souls with spite

When into battle our shields,our wealth

Go avidly , the cause of might



Victims of ourselves we are

The crumbled leaves in debris town

The hunger of the innocent by far

Was caused by greed’s renown



They pray and hope for peace inside

Tranquil temples of their minds

Deaf to begging’s desperate tides

Blind to reality’s simple signs



We want peace ?We want war ?

We want change ?We want the same ?

We want what ?Just more and more ?

We want calm ?We want shame ?



We need to step back and t say

Where the line lies in the sand

From being free and giving way

To take up responsibility’s stand





Fight no more ! Tire ye not !

Against aggression fear and pain

The finger slips and not a jot

Of difference there was to gain









Empty gestures in the end

They joined up and knew the price

Back in boxes, empty hands

Empty bodies , freedom’s dice



So we plan for another way

But naive are those who think it so

Doomed to greed, to war, to say

The same message spat from long ago



Larkin’s man is alive and well

With misery in every bowl

Pass around famine’s gruel

Hand on the pain, remove the soul



Throw the dust back to the earth

And give back pain and helplessness

Don’t expect any love or truth

From lips blistered by forgetfulness



The soldiers path is cracked and dry

The battle has been fought and lost

The flags bare and tattered lie

The bodies broken count the cost



All youth is doomed, its anthem sung

Cut down as poplars in Hopkin’s wake

War is lost, the game begun

Stuttering steps , which road to take ?



On paper full of promises

The signatures were scratched

But signed with pens and not with hearts

The charter was half hatched



Into dry dust, forgotten there

In some backwater of a place

Where no one remembers where

Forgotten, lost without a trace



Administration’s machine it turns

The laws like sausages produced

The taste perhaps, for it some yearn ?

But listen to the instrument’s sound



They play what tune ?What sound is that ?

I’ve heard it somewhere else I’m sure

The public though,sleeps like a cat

And History was ‘just before’



We change and change and change again

We haven’t any clue

What medicine to take today ?

Or shall we sniff some glue ?



Like hamsters in our little cage

We run around the wheel

Watching life’s empty page

While eating the last meal.



Children’s eyes, desiring seek

A meal to calm the gnawing pain

Every minute of every week

The children ask « What’s to gain ? »



We seek revenge for past wrongs

Passed on to us by long dead foes

Holding the hate for too long

It burns us with its fiery coals



Burn up, burn out, burn wide our hate

Burn deep, burn deep inside

The flames around every heart

Are pumped by bellows wide.



Reasons to kill someone, today will be supplied

Like some strange instruction delivered in the night

The meanings clear, just take a look inside

Join up the screws, and bolts and join the fight.



When terrorists hate so much

They kill themselves to kill us

With breast implants full of death

The breast gives life, not sour milk



What war we fight is for us to chose

The war against ourselves

To change our lives and others too

The future on it depends



There isn’t any hope today

Give up and go to bed

In your dreams the truth is said

But in the light we lose the way



Enough ! Enough ! There isn't more.

I haven’t any strength

To go to battle or to war

Or to fix the fence



What dreams are these ? Deep down inside

Nothing ever grows

Except futility’s poison pool besides

Hoplessness’ claws.