And in that quiet time at dusk
When light grows dim
And eyes begin to strain
I see the shadows of fallen souls
Who bravely fought for King
Yet died alone in pain.

And in that quiet country church
Reflections in long windows
Inscribed the names of lost young men
The words of Owen and Sassoon flow
Through this old aging head
For they too fell, back then.

And when I look into the glass
Myself I only see
A question forms within my mind
That has always troubled me
Would I have gone and fought as they
To leave this world behind.

©Joe Wilson – Reflections in a country church…2017

 

Set sail for the shore
Homeward bound
Firmly placed feet
Once more on dry ground.
In boats large or small
We sail on the sea
It’s powerful beauty
Just overwhelms me.

I take to the lanes
I drink from the well
There’s nothing compares
To the hills and the fell.
And such beauty viewed
In company with friends
No technical gadgets
So bucking the trends.

The magic of trees
The beauty of flowers
Amongst all this pleasure
I could get lost for hours.

©Joe Wilson – The countryside for me…2017

 

Feckless and disgusting behaviour
Falling far short of what’s decent
The well-known are dropping like nine-pins
For their sins in the past and more recent.

A girl, a boy, a woman, a man
Should feel very safe one and all
Yet the predator calls far too often
As they try to make victims feel small.

But the end of the wedge though revealed
Only shows us the celebrity few
There are many right there in the workplace
Who will turn their attention to YOU!

Speaking up for yourself is the answer
Make them pay for the sins they commit
For if the guilty remain in the shadows
They’ll forever get away with it.

©Joe Wilson – Predators in the modern age…2017

 

Cold, subdued
Huddled in a corner
To keep warm and dry
To get soaking wet
You don’t have to try.

Sometimes she yet fails
To remember her name
For now it’s not that often spoke
She barely gets treated like a woman
And chivalry would just make her choke.

She’s lived on the street for five years now
Just a beating too many made her leave
She spends her time now drinking cheap whisky
Often drunk to fend off the cold
For a woman this life is so risky

As her hell continues to unfold.

©Joe Wilson – Mercy Street 5…2017

 

They were always together, almost like one
Joined at the hip some would say
But he let his heart wander for a little while
And when he looked back she’d drifted away.

It was only just for a moment…
Was what he said to his friends
Yet even those who sympathised
Found him typical of just such a trend.

We’re only given one heart of our own
It’s better to share with just one
For the space left behind by his wandering
Gets so painful now the owner has gone.

©Joe Wilson – It was only just for a moment…2017

 

Thin looking, gaunt even
The years on the street
Had not been kind.
He was missing an eye
That he’d lost in a fight
Long, long ago
In country.

Considered himself lucky
So many had gone
Far less came home
To the World.

Soldiers do the bidding
Of political whores
Dying alone
On faraway shores
There are no winners
Only God keeps the scores.

He’d done alright though
For quite a while
He’d worked in a truck stop
Handing out the smile.

Bu the nightmares became
Just too much to bear
So he took to the street
To a life so unfair
Where each meal he ate
Was now stolen or begged
By sitting on the sidewalk
Cap out, cross-legged.

A street tramp he was now
As politicians still talk
They sent him over there
But they don’t walk the walk.

©Joe Wilson – Mercy Street No.4…2017

 

Wet grass
Almost unmowable
Autumn damp
Yet not quite cold.
Leaves not fallen
Few if any
Climate changes
Denied by so many.
Yet lucky are we
The temperate west
While others suffer
But still do their best.
Lives get shattered
Earthquakes destroy
Houses all wrecked
As if they’re a toy.
Nothing gets left
As hurricanes sweep
Barren lands now
Families weep.
Too late the help
Of NGOs came
Nothing for some
Will ever be the same.

©Joe Wilson – Storm clouds…2017

 

 

How long the highways of life can seem
That leave an imprint on your heart
To deal with and then not to succumb
As the heartache breaks you apart.

Mile upon mile we travelled as one
Seeking such joy in a life that shone
And then one day I looked, you were gone
Yet the blacktop painfully carries me on.

So trudge do I my lonely soul
A life alone and joyous free
My memories I do yet control
And while it’s so you’re here with me.

We sat by lakes and hung our feet
In bright clear water warmed by sun
And watched the dawn rise from the east
A life of joy had thus begun.

But now, alone, my thoughts are bleak
You seem to slip so far away
And days now pass when I don’t speak
For what is there now left to say.

©Joe Wilson – The highways of life…2017

 

But yet your heart
Though in your chest
Is beating still
At your behest
You feel it throb
Within your breast
But from the pain
There is no rest.
It’s crush is slow
There is no end
Until the pain
Becomes a friend
For as the days
Blend into one
Those happy moments
All long gone.
The way is there
Alone you’ll be
Resist all love
And stay pain free.

©Joe Wilson – Not my choice…2017

 

Browning now and soon to fall
No longer Spring when first you’d call
Each year I wait for your return
When thus my stomach starts to churn.

For with you came my love to me
A Summer love so filled and free
And as the Autumn came and went
You left and our love seemed all spent.

As Winter comes to freeze my bones
I walk among the graveyard stones
And wait for Spring to see again
Your flowers that bring me such pain.

Yet once more the Spring arrived
And flowers bloomed and some just thrived
But you had not a bud this year
My love has left for good I fear.

©Joe Wilson – A Summer love…2017