WHERE THE BATTLE RAGES

THAT SPECK OF TIME     To have again that speck of Time  To hold anew that briefest while   A heartbeat of a certain day When my whole world was washed away So much Time both now and past Time in reams and yards and tracts!  Sprawls unused and all around  Meanders by in fruitless hours When just the barest speck I crave Just one hour of that potent day  If just that speck I could wrest To stand again on Canaan's crest I'd take the road that Frost eschewed  And claim the tide that Roman used That merest moment could erase  An endless stream of Esau tears  Yet the Lord will not relent Grant to bring that chance again   Not for just a tick of Time   Will those stars again align  That heartbeat of a certain day When my whole world was washed away 

OF MUFFLED MALLS & STRANGLED SHOPS    Muffled malls and empty yards Strangled shops with fake facades Empty plots fill silent streets  Marking out the long retreat  Of family firms from dawn of days Who just gave up and went away Leaving takeaways and choking vapes Mini marts with minging paint     Where surly guards ward blinking lights Bets and slots and corporate vice  And snuffling strangers snort for change In sleeping bags in smelly lanes  Discount stores and discount lives   Discount souls clutch sausage rolls  Echoing streets and scattered stalls Mark and mourn the tragic fall  Bereaved of bustle and trader's praise  No tinkers, tailors, market days   No butcher, cobbler, wafting bread  No soul, no heart, for all is dead 

  ONCE   Again recall that once I was In a world of kindly voice   I think of sight and faded sound  Smell once more that final frost Was then a son that mother knew   Then had friends not all alone   I know I cried but now can not  Know I laughed but hence can not    Once I lived now only feel Once I spoke now only pain Sun and stars beyond recall Air and light now clean forgot    I once was there but now am not 

SKERNY OLD RIVER Skerny old river  Must you keep skerning Skerning on to the Tees? Birthed in slime, thy father foam  Baptised in mud that Time withstood  A sluggish slew of sludge serene  Why it never clears  Born to bear that muddy name   Skerny old stream!  Skerny old river  Must you keep skerning Skerning on to the Tees?

BENEATH THE SUN Just one chore I cannot shun 'Neath this brief and hidden sun Just that task  The barest ask  Soon be done  Yet not begun  So circles stead This sloughy head  Round and round The dreary ground With nothing wrong  When all is wrong And nothing done Beneath the sun Nags again that dismal voice   Says that I will rue this choice A time for this! A time for that!  A time to spin The pointless plates! And yet to treat my soul's dis-ease I'll do today just what I please  A time to view the winter haze! A time to mourn the Janus days! With nothing done Beneath the sun   

A TAD MORE     Wishing all Shabbat Shalom!    As we say around my home  Not Tel Aviv, but Potter's Bar     And also say 'Yehoshua!'     There's many words I now can say  In Hebrew I can all but pray No,  I'm no better than thee    Just a tad more spiritual, see?  Christmas? I'm not that keen   I think I blame that Constantine  Easter? That's just the pagan way  I keep the feasts of dear Moshe My Gentile Seder is not a joke  For certain no Galatian yolk! Yes, I know in Christ we're free  ...just I a tad more than thee?

  HAPPY NEW YEAR  Weary, hears the tolling bell The former Future bids farewell A year on from the very day  It first woke up in quiet dismay  Surprised to find itself now made Firm master of so many trades  Hailed the dawn for which we'd yearned The blank and blotted page we'd turned  For we that hope that clocks atone That Time alone is set in stone  So hail ye now this newest fraud! The bright new hope of this our lord  Let's leave behind our slush and go  We'll tread once more the virgin snow

'THEY FORGOT'   'Lest we forget' They blithely say Recite by rote a certain day Dignified and  so urbane  Cross and mitre,  civic chain    With doff of cap and hand on breast  Resplendent in their Sunday Best All heads bowed as poppies laid Tommy Atkins roundly praised!   But oft I have the thought profound  If that lad now could look around How he'd mark the change of mood See what's gone and be confused Drink and drugs an unchecked bane Borders breached and babies slain    With womenfolk an open prey And rugged manhood held at bay Loss of rights, loss of creed Both sold on for passing greed With Church astray and rule corrupt Would he think this land is cucked?    Is this then for what he died,  Where none will check his nation's slide? Might ol' Tommy scratch his head Wonder then for what he bled? Atkins was no bloomin' fool He would see where traitors rule  And if we brought him to our day...

 TWO FEASTS, BUT ONE NAME Christingles and carols Haunting voice at Midnight Mass  Sounding forth the mystery deep Of Holy Child in dreamless sleep  Santa's elves and Sladeish songs Totting up children's wrongs Primal greed and glut Ceaseless rush In Crimbo crush Endless drink and aching gut Our mouths to feed Primal greed And panto tights Sullen blink of plastic lights  Are these at all the same? Two feasts but just one name Divided by a common name