Where didst thou go oh callow youth
Whence ignorance hid from you such truth
But yet as adult one now canst see
That truth and pain keep company.
Miserable, broken, heart askew
Savaged by what it knows was true
Unable now to love once more
Wouldst never have known had it not saw.

Tis said that ignorance is bliss
Methinks it did refer to this
For who can bear a broken heart
Where knowing truth drives souls apart
Innocence gone, now all alone
For truth had dug right to the bone.

©Joe Wilson – Truth can break us…2019

I write this with a heavy heart, one week on from such a terrible event. I have a deep affection for New Zealand, our son lived there for twenty years with his New Zealander wife. My wife and I thought it to be the safest and nicest place of all. We must be positive, it still is. I hope I haven’t offended anyone.

Black the eyes that stared back so cold
The finality of death had robbed their life
There was no other presence in that space to see
No future of things that were meant to be.

Robbed of life by an evil hand and heart
At prayer in a mosque that should be so safe
So wicked the man, so heartless the crime
No name to be uttered for the rest of time.

Lock him away, lock him away, lose the key
For he shouldn’t see ever the light of day
How could one be so be so vicious, cruel and vile
Who would steal away another’s smile.

©Joe Wilson – One week on…2019

He collected his thoughts
There were not now so many
He looked for solutions
But sadly —— there weren’t any.
And while he was thinking
More innocents were dying
As mothers of children
Were collectively crying.

Nowhere is the statesman
Amidst the great thrall
Who’ll stand and be counted
For his voice is too small.
And the nurses and doctors
Work among the disaster
Yet all they can do
Is be as sticking plaster.

The world had gone mad
We had all lost the point
But there was no Saviour
No one now to anoint.

©Joe Wilson – untitled…2019

Love!
The duct tape of life.
Both indispensable
Each can become unstuck.

And yet!

When positioned properly
And joined perfectly
It, they, will stay tight
And sealed forever.

Such is the nature of things.

©Joe Wilson – The duct tape of life…2019

The wind howled yet again last night
And in its roar he heard her sing
And tears once more began to fall
As sadness made his old eyes sting.

Not once would he bid her song goodbye
Nor wish his tears would dry
Nor would he wish the wind to cease
Which carries the voice that makes him cry.

He is so sad and drained of chi
His is a fragile broken heart
He goes to write in his journal
But he no longer knows how to start.

©Joe Wilson – A fragile heart…2019

 

 

 

It was that time of year once more

All the streets seemed to be lit up

As the Christmas holiday mood took hold

But not down that dark lonely way

Where Christmas hadn’t quite reached

The vulnerable homeless simply felt cold.

 

Some beaten down by exhaustion

Others found their way there through drugs

All of them feeling an empty inside

Charitable dinner for Christmas, for some

Though for many, so many, ‘twas too late

By the end of the season they’ll have died.

 

©Joe Wilson – Mercy Street 6…2018

Deep lines ploughed his dark furrowed brow
He was lost in his world full of sorrow
For try as he might to shake off such thoughts
He was plagued by thoughts of a sad tomorrow.

It had been such a long, long time
Since he’d held his pen to write
So much happiness had deserted him
Though still he sits there at dead of night.

There was a kind of happiness
But it was so muted somehow
A laugh, restrained, and quieter
They get by, though sometimes, how?

And yet his mind could never rest
So much he still wanted to say
But now, again, seemed not the time
He’d wait, perhaps another day.

He carefully closed his writing book
And put down his fountain pen
He wiped away a single tear
While inside his heart felt broken again.

©Joe Wilson – Sad thoughts at the dead of night…2018

 

And in our claim of love for life
What place the guns that kill
The guns that seem to never still
That take the child or innocent wife.
Children now left to scavenge
Surviving by their wits
No longer to live in joy or love
Who may grow wanting revenge.
Their innocence was blown away
By the bombs of a pointless war
They may well turn to violence
And bear the gun themselves one day.

And what does it prove
That one country
Can out-bomb another.
That in the blink of an eye
Someone can lose their brother
Their home, their family, their world.

A much loved dog lies dead
Killed by the shrapnel
That killed the little girl
Who was throwing it a ball.
Neither will now grow strong or tall
Amongst the rubble
Children fall.

While politicians in comfortable chairs
Decide their fate without such cares.

©Joe Wilson – Children seem less important than guns sometimes…2018

 

The effervescence of youth
What a wondrous expression
But so long now gone
Replaced by depression.
Yet still there is sparkle
If you know where to look
Consider the Bard
And recall dear old Puck.
His mischievous pranks
And his practical jokes
In today’s modern parlance
He’s be one of the blokes.
That youthful hobgoblin
Robin Goodfellow by name
He’s the spirit of youth
The prankster’s no shame.
But soon we age and grow weary
Our youth then disappears
And our once bright effervescence
Slowly fades with advancing years.
Hang on young Robin
Hold onto your youth
For the old goblins round
Are for you all the proof.
We once had the spirit
We played just the same
And we cavorted just like demons
For we too felt no shame.
And just for that one moment
We ruled as if we were kings
For we were all invincible
With the strength that that feeling brings.
Live for the moment
Carried away by your youth
For the moment comes far too soon
When you will find out the truth.

We’re just so many grains of sand
In a desert that is only time
And our life in that desert
Is just a short pantomime.

©Joe Wilson – Grains of sand…2018

 

The rains fell heavy that Tuesday night
No one had predicted it
No one would have believed it could be
No rain had fallen for ten years.

They all rushed out to drink their fill
And though it seemed a minor miracle
At the time, that is
No one fell out, no one got shot!

People had relied on bottled water
For so very, very long
That ever-present taste of plastic
All too common on the tongue.

Bottled water companies had made a killing
The only water there was to drink
‘Bottles of water were the new bullets’
Or so ‘they’ said, the media in the pink.

The coastlines of the world
All lined with desalination plants
And those with the power to control
No longer needing weather info-stats.

But that night, just for a moment
All of that was forgotten
As the rains poured and poured
And the world was refreshed.

Mother Nature had taken back control
Thank goodness She always does
But how long till the next rain
How long —- how long?

When the oceans and the rivers teem
With plastic of all kinds and hue
Perhaps we got our just desserts
Reliant on water in plastic, me, and you.

©Joe Wilson – A deserved dystopia…2018