Category: humanity

Anchor

.Reading time 1 minute.
Do I express my rage 
When I write it on the page
Or let mindfulness gently touch 
The thing my heart hates so much 
Don’t let me ever turn out to be 
A duplicate of that kind of history 
Because it stars wars 
And closes doors 
In people’s faces
It’s like wanton disgraces
And I don’t know how to say 
I want to see it go a different way 
And Gaza burns 
People in tents and the water churns 
And radiates a spasm 
Is there a great chasm 
That will swallow us all 
I hear them call from down the hall 
And I grasp a hand 
But I’m too far away and I don’t understand 
What I need to do 
To pull you up from where you are 
Somewhere there is a star 
Shining over you, child 
You’re more than the faxes they’ve filed 
Away from another day 
This one is not getting away

Future Monuments To What We Are

.Reading time 5 minutes.
There are arching toes
And people who say that anything goes
And if my poetry is deflagrate 
Could someone tell me how another state 
Is possible 
The path does not seem crossable 
As it winds and turns 
And people’s edicts burn 
Am I bound to their vision of me 
The life, the wife and the fucking money 
And I can’t claim innocence complete
Because I used the heat
To get myself out of their grasp 
And my body bears the scars of the clasp 
I locked myself into 
A season of the glinting blue 
And I look at him through the screen 
From the place I was and I want to scream 
Because he’s still with her 
And they’re standing by the water 
Looking out into the sea 
And I just wish that ocean was me 
That he stares at and sighs 
But he just grimaces and replies 
That all is not as it’s supposed to be
And he could never make the coast out of me 
Not in the place where I was
And I’m in the bay because
They decided I was crazy
And everything’s a little hazy 
And clinicised 
As they fill you with the lies 
That you’re “unwell”
I ignore them and they can go to hell 
With all their clipboard notes
They’re not people that I’d ever quote 
In a future version of myself 
Talking down my mental health 
As I sit so zen 
Listening to Adyashanti again 
In that room at the end of the corridor 
Til Leanne knocks on the door 
With a junior doctor in tow 
And they tell me what they think they know 
About how I am 
I say, I don’t think you understand 
But they think they do 
So I let them be what they want to 
Someone playing nurse to an unwilling actress
Someone making me laugh when I’m lying on the mattress 
Because it’s so fucking funny, it’s hilarious 
And there’s nothing I want to discuss
As I say “To Kill A Mockingbird” is my favourite book 
And Laura (the doctor) meets me with a knowing look
As if that explains it all 
Why I am standing in the hall 
Looking for someone I can call
To get me the fuck outta here 
But your presence means something, dear 
So I concede to stay 
But the rebel in me still gets in their way 
When they want to make a diagnosis 
Because I am ferocious 
And not a willing “service user” 
I am a peruser 
Of the book of life 
And I will never be your knife 
To cut into the cake 
So you can call me a real fake 
In the parlour of the sky 
I never wanted to die 
I just agreed that if it was my fate
I would let God write upon that blank slate 
And take me to where he’d want me to be 
Now I’m looking at Motaz’s story 
About what’s happening in Gaza 
As if that could stop the burning of Mufasa 
As he lies in the garden 
And falls from the place where Elizabeth Arden 
Had held him so high 
Lord, let my life be for something in the grand lie 
That everyone is told 
Maya will be brave, Maya will be bold 
And as I watch it all unfold 
I’m powerless to stop 
The rotary turn of everything that I’m not 
Neti, neti in disguise 
I watch the child as her spirit flies 
Into the grand expanse 
A place where she is free to dance
With out the sound of drones 
And a world that left her all alone 
Except for the brave souls that went to her door 
Gunned down again, mo stór
There are many forms of occupation 
And I’ve learned to let go of my education 
As it sought to encroach on me 
And mould me into a version of who I should be 
So I could be compliant, as the lady says 
But I’m self reliant so I’m shady instead
And resigned as I lie in my bed 
Is this how Ireland felt when the heroes fled?

Seeing Man As An Escape

.Reading time 3 minutes.
Seeing man as an escape 
I watch the dream take shape 
At seventeen 
Do you think that a moonbeam 
Could come down and reach my toes 
And take me somewhere nobody knows 
Somewhere beyond their power to contain 
As they try to keep the rain 
In buckets and in the sea 
They don’t realise the grand eternity 
In the rising and pull 
And the angry say that Ireland is full 
I cannot agree 
Though all I want is a man down on one knee
Who means something to me 
Who will give me all that he says 
And not children to raise 
For though I’m fertile as the fields 
There is a part of me that simply yields 
To the wind that blows 
And being tired and old is not part of that, God knows
And I’ve watched the fraternity age 
I don’t want to write that story on my page
You know the blank canvas where I sit with a pen 
And try to denote the purity again 
And when you’re young they warn you off boys
When you’re older they treat you like you’re their toys 
Just to perforate 
(Though not until the second date)
And get married like the man on the stage 
Says and I step outside the rage 
I can feel build inside 
When I realise that men hide 
Just so they can get what they want
And she sang a song about the haunt
That rises when he leaves you alone 
And he sang about a face to call home 
I wonder will they ever get it together 
And make something even better 
From the shared genius of their eyes 
I don’t think it all was lies
On either side 
I think it was just miscommunication 
Jumping to conclusions and the indentation 
In the shape of you 
That made a God shaped hole in his incendiary blue
And her fiery red
Or the golden she claimed it was instead
And I’m just making maps out of the points I’ve drawn 
Points of reference as it finally dawn 
That that boy is not gone 
But somewhere waiting in the wings
Sullen soul with a heart that sings
Its own melody 
I just wished he could’ve played it for me 
I live for a guitar croon 
Not Barbie bored in the room

A Gentle Reminder

.Reading time 2 minutes.
It's a gentle reminder that all humans bleed red
And all of us sleep when we're in bed
Even if that bed be a floor 
In some prison that I abhor 
And the colour of our skin 
Do we let it in 
And seep into the crevices of our minds 
That would rather not leave anything behind
And do your guns fire on the criminal 
Because you've absorbed the subliminal 
Read between the lines 
And is it just a sign of the times
To say that movements must rebel 
Or we are all going to hell 
In the handbasket we have woven
Is this the path that we have chosen 
And you stand there and you utter that line 
Do you mean it this time 
I sense the falter in your step 
Does this even cross your greatest regret 
For you have build something huge 
But you get by on being rude 
To the people who come close to the line
That only you can define
And the bubbling wrath has simmered down 
But they're still burning someone else's town 
Because they're not adequately human 
As they defend what they're doing 
In principled tones 
Do you think we should leave them alone? 
To finish what they've started in the melee
I know what I'd do if it was me 
I would put beyond all use and commission 
The weapons they use without permission 
And rip to shreds another life on the ground
When a child cries do you hear the sound?

We Are All Gazans

.Reading time 2 minutes.
We are all Gazans, is it politically correct
And when you sit is your spine erect
Or do you slouch 
Are there words in which you couch
Your terms of endearment so they don't fly
To protect the ones who die
And I've said it before but every child
Is an echo of the one wild 
Free call that we all make
And I will not forsake 
Them to the bombs and guns 
Are some deaths worth more when sons 
Are the offspring of the united 
But there's a knot and I think we untied it 
As the world comes to see
That everything is reverberatory 
And you cannot harm your brother's daughter
Without drinking from that same water 
That you fed to her lips 
To bring darkness like an eclipse 
And who am I but a child of peace
Until the famine became a feast
That ate our bodies til they were worried thin 
And all I can think about is him 
If he were born in that time 
Is to be male a crime 
That means you're not entitled to the same rights 
As the woman whose heart ignites 
When she looks at the man she loves 
And there may be two turtle doves
Somewhere on the ledge 
But I've got to let it go, isn't that what they all said 
And I may have been contained 
But the sky still rained 
Down on me so I know the feel 
Of wet to the skin as it steal 
Away every bit of warmth you own 
And people just say: you never would have known 
So what entitles me to my perspective 
When I just choose an elective 
In politics 
So I can see where the chain sticks 
The spoke in the wheel 
People always know what they feel 
When the chips are down 
And Rihanna wanted to run this town 
But I don't think she's in charge of the flights 
Of birds in the midnights
I subtle stare
And think of the humans who once lived there

Space To Breathe

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Do you allow space to breathe for the other side
Because they need air to survive
And if you suck all of it out of the room 
Then you’re both falling into the doom 
Because they’re our brothers and sisters 
And they may be misled 
But they still fall asleep in their own bed
With a million things running through their head 
In the guise of something to protect
Because something reject 
What has always been 
And you might see it differently but the dream 
Will always stay the same 
Until you have given it a name 
And said its verse 
In a lyricism you cannot rehearse 
I know they have a point and I know I want change 
But also know that making strange 
Never helped me a day in my life 
I met the man and I became his wife 
Though he never knew 
And now you 
Must face the great wave 
Of being there when there are people to save 
And how can any of this do any good
When there are people paying with their blood 
For the slaughtered masses
As we learn in our history classes
That we are so beyond this now 
Til it breaks out and somehow 
I know we have not transcended 
An agreement yet to be amended
The injustice makes me quake 
But greater yet is the space that wake 
And hold the ground 
For the sheer absence of sound 
In the din 
If I praise Him 
Am I only a Christian 
Or do I live out the promised mission 
To its conclusion 
I think I see the root of the confusion 
Though I could be wrong 
Every syllable contains the song

Interconnection

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I don’t know what to do 
I just know I want to do something for you 
And if they’re bombing the crossing, people shelter there 
And I don’t know if they care 
If they see their targets as human beings 
With lives, with loves, with pains worth freeing 
And you would think the great illness would have brought us together 
Instead of this winter weather 
That always rains in the Middle East 
Another father, another doctor, another deceased 
And if this is not genocide 
Then I don’t know how anyone can hide 
Behind the rule of law 
And the great thaw 
That seems to be underway 
I know what the people say 
It’s everybody’s business when something’s on the line 
But something corporate is hard to define
As the wounded dance along and entwine
Protesting that everything’s fine 
But it’s not 
Have you forgot 
That mystery must always break into the unknown 
And when the grass has grown 
Will people look back with mute silence
Divesting their own part in the violence 
By mild complicity 
As the anger comes to your city 
In the guise of something new
We’re all interconnected and that means you

Monumental Shift

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I watch with breaking heart 
As my hands break apart 
And the students call for change
Meanwhile the studies rearrange
Themselves around a new constellation 
A new age, a new installation
And I’m powerful in my surrender
Something about me makes people remember
A land before time 
And it is not mine 
It is something else in the sea 
Vague remnants of eternity
That build itself into a fort 
I have nothing to report 
And do I go against the grain 
The great movement of monumental pain 
That seems to foreshadow a darkened age
And if we don’t clear the page 
Of all the words that have been written upon 
Then we’ll regret it when its all gone 
And I make no enemy 
But something has to be said about the unfree 
Who walk with chains on their hands 
Strangers in their own lands 
And its accusations of anti this or anti that 
But it’s about something you can’t take back 
Once it’s done 
And I’m still young 
But do I sacrifice 
My own life 
For what I can never be
I just wonder why they don’t see 
What they’re doing to a population 
And if your education 
Inoculates you to your humanity 
Then it isn’t worth the paper they hand you by any degree

The Blackened Sun

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The blackened sun shines from eyes that are undone 
And I remember from when I was young 
That adults paved the world of grey
And made you do what they say 
And it’s unconsciousness, it’s conflagration 
A darkness in a miseducation 
When you are taught to think 
But not taught to be aware of the sink 
In which everything will drain 
And must we let the pain 
Continue without reserve
I love the world but, my word
Humans are a violent creation 
And I can’t just switch the station 
For flick the TikTok 
Because it hurts a lot 
To see the children die 
And the mothers and fathers cry 
As they are dehumanised 
Like there are only bullets behind their eyes
And a two state solution 
Could be the answer to the revolution 
That is bubbling under the surface
I hope that they don’t hurt us 
For saying what we see to be true 
And I must stand with you 
For if we quake in cowardice 
We fuel a fire that burns us twice

Don’t Lose Your Humanity

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Don’t lose your humanity when you grow up 
Remember you were founded on love 
Like every good city
And there is self pity
And there is blame 
But know the name
That is given to you 
Is not all there is when they ask what is true 
And I put a flower in the shield of the riot policeman 
Because I know that only open hearts can
Remind a solider what he really is 
Not a function of what it means to merely exist 
As a job or as a duty 
There is beauty 
Within every man 
No matter what he can 
Entertain 
When he seeks salvation in vain 
In the trigger of the gun 
And the false notion that he is the only one 
Who feels this way 
But everything will eventually pass away 
But do you realise what is eternal in the now 
And if you do then what will you allow 
To happen on your watch 
Do you keep one eye on the clock 
As you hear it tick your life away
And you gather sand because you cannot stay
In an earthen grain 
And is it wrong that I see the pain 
In their mocking eyes 
As they disguise 
Their despair 
At having to go in there
And break what someone else built 
But now the milk is spilt 
And do we cry or do we clean it up 
Do we make it worse or do we love 
And hold the hand of the screaming baby 
Is that what it takes to save me? 

Image Credit: https://pin.it/ZZtcBY08W

The Strip I Found Myself Upon

.Reading time 3 minutes.
What can I do I’m just a speck of dust
Born on a spy Wednesday that I can’t trust 
And do I really betray the saviour 
Or is it just something I pray for 
As I sit in St. Mel’s Cathedral 
And wonder if there is really a thing so evil 
As what we’ve been taught exists 
But I was flung into the mists 
And there was no option but to face the darkness
I give who I was a parting kiss
As I step out of her skin 
And into the one I’m walking in 
And I’m scared of death and revolution 
Because once an idea became a final solution 
That rested on the destruction
And some babies are born by suction 
As mothers die just to give life 
And women sacrifice to be someone’s wife 
And men on the front 
Call those they hate some kind of cunt 
As they get their guns ready to fire 
Will humanity ever tire
Of pulling the trigger 
As we only get bigger 
On a planet that stays the same size 
And people must show they’re having the time of their lives
Or they do not exist 
And is it any wonder that I’m pissed
Or that we have a crisis of suicide 
When it means so little to be alive 
The price that hangs above our head
So vapid that some would rather be dead 
Than face into the storm I choose to weather
And wouldn’t we all rather be lying in the heather 
Soaking in the moor 
But the poor 
Echo in my mind
And ask me not to leave them behind 
And wealth is not a measure of riches 
So I just kick it with my bitches 
And find a way to keep what is precious in me 
Even if it means that I don’t let anyone see
The cog that turns my wheel 
Must I repeat, don’t be ruled by what you feel 
In the age of Iraq
And an atrocity you cannot take back 
Not as hard as you try 
There are those who send the wounded to die 
As a salve for what they need to do 
And I passed a homeless man who had not one but two 
Limbs amputated 
And I may be educated
But I can never know how that feels
And something in me just reels 
As the veteran sings 
And thanks me heartily for the things
I give to him 
Money and a smile but how could a country win 
When we are one humanity 
And consciousness knows only one way to be 
And that is to embrace the other 
For every man is my brother 
And holds my empty hands
As the hourglass is spilling sands 
Onto an eternal beach 
What does Earth School teach? 

Image Credit: https://pin.it/4z8XGxezd

Collapse Of All

.Reading time 1 minute.
The war takes my breath away 
That people could still think in that way 
In terms of human animals and sorting knives by their edge
The sharpness of the thoughts in their head
As they strike their enemy down 
But what if their enemy lived in this town 
And they decided to blitz it 
Because they say that violence fits it 
And it deserves decimation 
I think of the train station 
Where I once met him 
And the idea is so grim 
That he would be the men in the verse 
Where they say women and children first 
And I have to leave him on the ship 
Or hands behind his back tied with a zip 
In a grave at Nasser with nothing to identify 
I watch as a mother cry 
And scream over the loss
If this is innocence then why do they pay the cost 
For a button you press 
And guns they fire, you know the rest 
I don’t need to elucidate 
Because I’ve touched the educate 
In Middle Eastern politics 
And the lump in my throat still sticks 
When I hear the students soar 
And demand that the people in charge do more 
To prevent what happens to a child 
Lost somewhere in a wild
Wild world 
Sometimes it’s a blessing to be born a girl

Image Credit: https://pin.it/4idwwqTTr

World Peace

.Reading time 3 minutes.
Is world peace just an errant thought
And can I be bought 
As I watch the children die in Gaza 
And the feminists are full of bravada 
But they herald a movie about a drink 
And deck themselves out in pink 
While I watch an atomic bomb descend 
The kind of suffering you cannot mend 
And we raise man up high 
But what happens when he starts to die 
By his own hand 
Individually when people don’t understand 
Or as a collective in the fires of war 
As we look on and wonder what it’s for 
And some say freedom and other need secure 
But I was locked behind a closed door 
And they fastened the key 
Far away from me 
So I couldn’t get at it 
How could I tell them I flat to the mat it 
As I watch Sinéad walk up and down the hall 
So I copy her coz fuck it all 
And they’ve got their notes and pens 
Figure that out, fuck you, amen 
I walk backwards when I’m talking to that nurse 
She says find a new way so I rehearse 
How I can mime the way I feel 
I say I feel sick and the Gavisgon is real 
And pink in a little cup 
I take it like a drug 
That might do me some good 
And they try to draw blood 
From a turnip but I laugh when I’m in the bathroom 
Coz I’m high on the sounds of doom 
And they come and knock every fifteen minutes 
“Just doing the check”, that’s the way innit
And there was nice shampoo left by someone else
I just found out it’s Israeli and bad for your health 
So I don’t buy it in the shop 
And you can say I’m anti semetic but I’m not 
I’m just pissed off as hell 
That you don’t see the humans you tell 
To move to the south and into Rafah, refugees
And you would have them on their knees 
Just so you could be taller than them 
As if the Bible means that it happens again 
Every great flood and plague of locusts 
But I think you may have lost your focus 
Coz the Arab population 
Have as much right to an education 
As the highest scholar in the land 
The Sufi poets that understand 
Things I can’t put my finger upon 
And my words will live on after I’m gone 
To bear witness and say 
A just war is not okay 
And at the break of day 
Peace will come to land on the bay

The Ancient Struggle

.Reading time 1 minute.
Why do I see myself in Gaza 
Like there’s something Irish about Barack Obama Plaza 
And I just drive these roads like there’s somewhere I’m going
But is there truth to it, there’s no way of knowing 
And there was a famine that was inflicted
And tenants that were evicted 
From they only place that they knew
Could provide food for you 
I look at the images of suffering 
In my history books and feel the storm worsening 
Inside myself and felt 
The kind of anger that injustice dealt 
Now I look at my screen and see 
A child with no way to be free 
In this life 
And people worry about a wife 
That might stray 
And I wonder what made them that way 
As their hearts are hard and unforgiving 
And hell comes for the living 
As they scream and cry
Or just accept that they’re going to die 
And I cannot lie 
That I’m afraid of remuneration 
Some kind of unwanted compensation 
For all the words that I write 
Because half of it is shite 
And could never measure up to 
All that I want to be for you 
Some kind of presence in the absence 
Of a leader as buildings are collapsing 
Under the weight of what they do not know 
Know that I will never let you go 
Not to be alone in this fight 
It’s bandages in the twilight

That Day In The Town

.Reading time 2 minutes.
I wanna be the boss or the queen 
And it was someone else's dream 
To rule the boardroom 
I just couldn't commit to the doom 
Of giving your life to a job 
I only thought of all the things that it could rob
You of
And love
Has always held itself in between the lines 
And I sing the refrain a thousand and one times 
But I still see myself as king 
Even though he never gave me a diamond ring 
To buy the status that I love 
And he is just a tattered glove
On the floor of the car 
As I become what we are 
In my mind 
I left the man behind 
And found the serene 
The unconditional beyond the scene
That is hitting play in my soul 
I just watch as the credits roll 
On the movie of my life 
And I am nobody's wife
Because I could feel his pulverised tension 
And the hatred that was an extension 
Of all he never got to be 
He would've thrown me into the sea
If he would've had the chance
I only ever wanted to dance
And hold his hand as we'd move 
Not fight for a point to prove
Or hold me like I was something he could lose
And I felt his energy 
Try to throw me 
Up against the wall of the venue 
As if it was dinner time and I was on the menu 
So I look away when he pours his gaze on me 
I want to be free 
Not someone's broad 
Someone to applaud 
All of your faults and flaws 
But I am the mountain when the ice thaws
And I come down in streams and waterfalls 
Now there's graffiti on the bathroom stalls

Letting The Monstrous Go

.Reading time 1 minute.
I’m letting the monstrous go, the one that tried to eat me 
But it could not defeat me 
Because I hold Jesus in my core
And I know who loves me more
As they batter me with clubs and stones
As I beg them to just leave me alone 
And Barry smirks and grins 
But I don’t have so much time for him 
Because I feel the pulverise try to latch a grasp 
And the asp 
Bites but does not sting 
And no diamond ring 
Is forthcoming 
But I like who I’m becoming 
As the doctor looks at me with plaintive distress
And if I had to guess
I’d say that she fears death 
But then she deals with it every day, I must not forget
And tries to stave it off every way she can 
But I accept that every man 
Must one day give way to the sea 
And let the spirit become what it’s always been to me 
As natural as breathing or being born 
Why do the people look so forlorn 
As they contemplate 
A realm they cannot estimate 
With the power of the mind 
I let go all that I’m leaving behind
And I feel myself losing it 
But I think that I’m choosing it 
As I walk towards the sun 
I realise that I’m the One

Anything I Couldn’t Do

.Reading time 2 minutes.
I saw it as something I couldn’t do 
That I couldn’t reach across to you
As you sat in the seat beside me 
And I only know how to hide me 
But I feel you know me better than most
Then two years later you look like you’ve seen a ghost 
And it has taken up residence
In your bones with no defence
So I reach out across the sea 
And draw you to me 
And I read every comment on every picture 
Break the lines of the stricture 
That I have been taught should keep us separate 
And I know you still want to take me on that date 
That I tried to offer out to you 
But I failed to let you see through 
The landscape that has been veiled
Though years of not telling the tale 
Of how I once was a child 
Who was determined to remain wild 
And the darkness came to call
When I was standing in the hall
Slowly devastated
As though I had just been educated 
In all that I am 
Now I post my tale on Instagram 
To show all those who are lost in vines
That if you don’t struggle all the lines
Will disappear from your frame
And you are not your name
You are something so far beyond 
I feel the pull and I abscond 
From the winter that froze my leaves
And the dragon that taught me to believe 
In the sullen grey of the futile 
But all the while 
I was growing angel wings
Now that bird inside me sings 
It’s own refrain 
And I must let go the pain 
As it’s abandoning my bones 
And all the throwing stones
Pass through the light that I am 
I exist outside the plan 
Of those that think they know 
I held on til it let me go

The Futility And Helplessness

.Reading time 1 minute.
The futility and helplessness sets the kettle to boil 
And I wouldn’t be a daughter of this soil 
If the tragedy of conflict didn’t run in my veins 
And if I didn’t understand their pains
As they’re bombed into an oblivion 
How do I forgive them 
For what they don’t know they do 
When they are crucifying you 
For all they want to gain 
Because of the mechanics of their pain
As it spins round and round 
And delivers verdict without a sound 
Only the deafening quiet of thunder
Another neighbourhood going under
To the sound of crush
And the people rush
To see who they can save
As western civilisation cave
Under the weight of its own oppression
And every truth seems like a confession 
We make in the dark 
And we scroll past the things that leave a mark
And I watch young men in suits 
Brush past the truth
Like it is an inconvenient stare 
That they don’t want to admit is there 
When they don’t want it to be 
And if the Mediterranean Sea
Is the only place you can find solid ground
You know the silence has been lost in sound

Empire

.Reading time 1 minute.
There is an empire nobody sees
And it has everyone on their knees
Struggling to make ends meet
As people try to die on their feet
Through the beauty blogs
Or the city that the pollution smogs
But never good enough is the refrain
And you can only ever paper over the pain 
As we try to keep everything in frame 
So we can keep up with a name
That we have identified as ours
And the powers 
That be pull tight on the rein
As someone else takes the blame 
For what is beyond the pale 
You can’t buy what is not up for sale 
And I watch the horrors encompass the whole
And you may not be able to steal their soul 
But you sure can make their body hurt
Make them long for death and what’s worse
Is you do it in the name of the free
But you sure as fuck do not do it for me 
As I balk and retreat 
And admit total defeat
In a war that can’t be won
Watch a mother sacrifice her son 
For some hidden clause 
The video skips when I hit pause 
On the show 
And I cannot let go 
Of everything I’ve come to be
And a man down on one knee
Is not my salvation 
Neither is my education 
So pulverised and perfect, true 
But I didn’t do it for you 
As I let the wind go slack 
The years you waste you can’t get back

The Tribesmen Of The Highlands

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The tribesmen of the highlands in Scottish weather
As they walk though the mountainous air that only does them better
Than any city smog could know 
And people think they know better so
They denigrate what seems like dust
But there’s something in their freedom that I trust
As they scream their battle cry
And head into war to die 
As they face a foreign foe
For the kingdom that they know 
Living on the brilliant expanse
Of the wind that makes the leaves dance
And I don’t want to make no enemy 
Out of grey modernity
And what those people have become
Mixing genes with ancestors that have known some 
Of the brutal blow of a sword 
Or the things they think of for which there is not a word
To describe the horror inflict
And the end may come quick 
Or it may come slow
But I just wanna say I don’t think they know
What they profess to 
And I see the Celt in you

The Forest And The Girl

.Reading time less than 1 minute.
The forest closed in around the girl 
And for the last time she saw the world
As it had always been 
There was a time when she was the queen 
In perfect aftershave
Now there is no one to save
And she must cope with the weight
That buckles under people’s hate 
And she shines a new light unto the dawn
But all that she craved is long gone
And untoward 
Just don’t say that you’re bored
With the way things are
I’ll meet you under a star 

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Revulsion

.Reading time 1 minute.
I can’t stand my own appearance
It’s like they’re having a clearance
Sale on all I used to be
And I hear the pause where it had been complimentary 
And I must square with losing the body
And all that it attends
There is a brutal breakage that nothing mends
And the legacy of their “love” 
Is a girl ten times closer to above
And they claim they do it right
But I remember the night
They lashed me with their whips 
Just so they could own my eclipse
And she said she would call the cops
Now all she is to me is what she was not 
In the evening time of a gaslit anthem
Tiptoeing around a ranting 
Shout at the break of day
I guess things can’t always go my way
Or if they do it’s on a different plane
I’ve lost a lot but there’s something that I gain
In the surrender
Am I the girl I used to remember 
So free and so blue
Now they just say she used to 
Be that way
Because in the midnight I made hay 
And someday in the light
Everyone will see why I’m so quiet 

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In The March

.Reading time 2 minutes.
They’re all for the right to choose
Like it is a point to prove
And being female means you have the right
To extinguish life
If it flows forth from you 
And depends on what you’re giving to
The wilderness of a winter 
And every fire knows the cinder
That burns on after the flames are gone
And the echoes of this are for so long 
And I gave up acres just so I could say
I don’t agree with things being this way
But it’s become a moot point to speak 
On what you think when your resolve is weak
And I’ve no desire to misunderstand
Or act like I’m a man 
Who’s in control of the whole rote learned degree
It just seems like a blight on our history
To think that the embryonic cell
Does not contain all that will grow well
Into its teens 
In sighs and ripped jeans
But when you put a full stop at the end of a sentence
You block the entrance
And ward off all visitors there
Don’t tell me that you care
About women’s rights 
When you watch them take flights
And just because I don’t agree
Doesn’t mean that she is less free
Than I could ever be
There are notes scrawled on bathroom door
And flyers up and what’s more
The student’s union promotes the thing
While the opposites argue about a ring 
Can we have a conversation where one side versus the other 
Becomes a spectrum of lover to lover
Making heaven in the sky
It doesn’t mean they have to die 
Or that you have to cede ground
Just answer when you hear the sound

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The Freedom Of Information

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Have we become the abortion state 
The ones that would make a person wait 
To see if they qualify 
For the right to die 
And she shudders when she realise 
That all of her stormy skies
Have condensed into a cell
That she does not wish well 
She just wants to get it out, out 
And I can’t let my truth escape my mouth
Because what if she feels judged, sad
All I can think is how bad
It must be to give birth 
To a wire you don’t want to earth 
And though I feel the separation 
Between you and I and our education 
I don’t want to let this one go to loss
Do you know the cost
That is paid 
When you put the sun in the shade
And believe that mothering blues
Is all that will become of you 
If you release the foe
And let the war with her go 
And the man just walks away
Because he has had his full today
And there is nothing more to say
Than just get rid of it
I don’t want to throw a few quid at it 
Until it reaches eighteen years old 
And what have we been told 
About the genesis of life
Do we really know when a wife
Conceives
And what she believes 
Determines what we see
I know that if it was me 
I wouldn’t want to water the ground
With a mere lack of sound
And it’s easy to say
She shouldn’t move that way
Because I see a child, a child 
In a heartbeat and a smile 
Somewhere in the amniotic sac
And once it’s gone you can’t get it back
And what you lack
Is a structure that supports
You to a deeper force
Living with injustice die
I can hear her spirit cry
Out loud and in her deepest woe
I have to just let it go 
But I can not forgive myself 
Is that what happens when you let go of wealth

A Journalistic Intent

.Reading time 3 minutes.
The newspapers are not what they used to be
Slave to some indignity 
And they do not report on the crime 
I watched the man do hard time 
And no one listened 
My teardrops glistened 
And I saw the female pulverise
It is right under our eyes
And yet no one looks 
Everyone’s too busy on face books 
Liking tutorials about how to paint the sky 
Or do a smokie eye
And I lie
When I say that it’s okay
That we spend our time this way
And all the chicks call me out 
For putting a hand over their mouth 
And telling them they cannot spend their days
As they like but there are so many ways 
They are influenced by outside forces
And the thing is they love divorces 
When they’re spread all over shiny pages 
Coz the part of them that rages 
Tells them it’s normal, okay
Everyone else is doing life the same way
Just don’t go looking or you will find 
A much darker side to the human mind 
And your being on a marionette
Does nothing to ease the regret
Of those who took a step too far 
In an empty room or a crowded bar
And I don’t mean to spill the tea 
But there are deeper dragons than me 
To lady up a storm 
And it would make you wish you were never born 
To roll in that sea 
I looked at the gross debauchery 
Under the cover of a sheet 
And I’m dying to meet
A man who could protect me 
But they all reject me 
When they see I am not for the string 
I’ve got a scissors and I cut everything 
And it’s like woke Barbie in the movie 
But there was a point when Greta lose me 
Coz I’m not buying all that is sold 
And women don’t do what they’re told
They do what they’re made to do 
And I must say the change starts with you 
Getting informed 
But be warned
The bed of roses is full of thorns 
And the darkness is a storm 
You cannot quench with water 
There is an ungodly slaughter 
Going on 
I watch the sunset til it’s gone  

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The Place That We Meet

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Why do I get to sit by my fire
While the people in the Middle East tire
Of being ignored by the Western world
And I’m just a girl 
What difference can I make 
I am not one to shake 
Out the tree 
Of indignity 
And revolutionise 
The way the hope dies
And the children, the children, the children bleed
And I know that all they need
Is some warm food in their bellies
No waiting til after dinner to give them jellies
And there’s a protest dying 
Somewhere a mother is crying 
Over her son 
And I wish I could be the one 
To soothe the pain 
But the rain 
Doesn’t fall when you need it to 
We are told there’s nothing we can do 
As the educated eejits make bombs of war
I don’t know what it’s for 
If not to destroy 
How can you teach a boy
That he shouldn’t push that button red
But the temptation overcomes instead
Because to expand your land 
Is the fuel to the demand 
Of a heart never satisfied 
I don’t know but I think that the truth died

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Choices We Make

.Reading time 3 minutes.
Anguishing a sigh
As she lets her foetus die 
And she don’t even cry 
Because she had to travel across the water
To say goodbye to a daughter
She will never know
But it’s the right choice to let go
Isn’t it, isn’t it
She questions herself
Gets checked out for mental health
Conditions and now they’ve passed the law
But some part of her spirit doesn’t thaw
Because the shame, the shame
Of a life that will never have a name
And they say they believe in choices 
But they silence voices 
That will never speak 
Because the weak 
Are always the first to go 
In any kind of broadway show 
And I mapped the terrain
Listened to their arguments in vain 
To see if I could spy
Some reason why 
They say they’re not human
What are they doing 
To us just because we have the means 
To stifle someone else’s dreams 
And it’s not about judgement or pushing you down 
It’s about realising what drives this town
And the pull of democracy 
That’s tied to an industry 
That makes money on this 
And every last kiss 
That everyone makes 
Is the first time someone breaks 
And maybe it’s my relationship with grief and death
That has me projecting my own regret
Onto these women 
And all the “sinning”
That I ever did 
Has been kept under the lid 
As I expose 
The less travelled roads
That I have not shown
And I’m Catholic, true 
But I don’t believe in it all, do you
And all I do is hold it in 
Because I have a duty to him 
He who died upon a cross
He who said all is not lost 
But my defence fails
When I look at the nails 
I hold in my palm 
Do I crucify another psalm 
And raise the dead
Just so I can make my bread 
And I hear someone sob and say
I had to let go, okay
As if I sit in some judgement chair
And say you’re the reason she’s not there
But I let the wave break across the strand
And let fear stay my hand
I didn’t vote
Though don’t quote
Me on that 
I couldn’t say it was old hat
But I couldn’t hold a knife to her 
And say continue what we were 
Either
And in the ether
I find peace
As I let the loss decease

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The Old Dark Machine

.Reading time 1 minute.
The old dark machine pulls and it shakes
It shudders when the earth quakes 
Entertaining no form of rain 
Though the ground is wet in vain 
And no grass grows up to meet
The pavement that they call a street 
And somehow I see it in her eyes
The part of her that dies 
Every time the house is empty 
And I was just a girl of twenty 
When I realised
That everybody dies 
Slowly but not all the same 
Some are not even given a name 
As in their mother’s womb they lie
And she in grief because they try and try
For so long to bequeath a child 
Now all they’re left with is the wild 
Of the Burren sparse and grey
Though beauty in its own way
Will rise up through the crevice crack 
From a life they can’t get back 
As they grasp and struggle and refrain 
I didn’t know that I could forgive the pain 

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Love And Its Consequence

.Reading time 3 minutes.
Is to be mother just to gain an experience 
Nothing to do with the child 
But a biological urging that has run wild 
And we’re watching little ones bleed to death
On a screen but we forget 
As we bring new babies to this earth
That they are capable of feeling hurt
And I am reminded of a promise I made
Before the sun put me in the shade
That I would never fall to the fallow field
That only knows how to yield 
To a power greater than it
Fertile ground that only ever sit 
In the seed to germinate 
So he asks the girl on a date
And it may be for the masses, it isn’t for me
But I love them so much and they do not see 
As the mattress bows and the bodies writhe 
But they’re ashamed and so they hide 
Their lovemaking under the covers
Because they should never be lovers
According to modern society 
You must do it in the dark or someone will see 
And you’ll go to hell (or something like that)
But I took the baseball bat
And smashed that particular window
Because I don’t believe it’s a sin, though
There is shame and there is expense 
When you do it outside the present tense 
And I may be tantric and I may be yogi 
But I don’t walk with someone that doesn’t know me 
In the depths, not surface tension 
And the only way to make an extension 
Is to know just who you are
But when I saw that boy I saw the star
Burning in his heart and soul 
I was just eighteen years old 
And he six months my junior 
But still 1990 so acceptable sooner 
Than I would have liked
And my courage spiked
As we sat next to each other 
As though the apple had fallen into the hands of a lover 
And we both took a bite 
But it is alright 
Fifteen and a half years later
Though there is a crater
Left by that meteor strike 
I just thought you should know I like 
You in that way
Though what is it that you say 
You don’t got time 
Well, here I have plenty, take some of mine

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Machine Gun Eyes

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Dead bodies and machine gun eyes
I think they believe the lies
That they are fed
And when they lie in bed
They must stop the truth from reaching them 
And life must be teaching them 
How to bear the weight they’ve been gifted
I sweat in my jumper that’s been thrifted
From some nearby store
And I just wanted to change it more 
But how do you compete with belief
And you just feel relief 
When it falls away from you 
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what to do
What matters is that you’re wiling to be led
Not blind opposition to what’s being said 
And I watch Ben Gvir shout his refrain 
Does he even know the pain 
He’s in and so inflicts 
They say that some day wars will be fought with sticks
After we’ve destroyed ourselves
Why do you put them in cells
If they are brother and sister tide
Please leave the Palestinians alive
You’ve done enough
And, God knows, it wasn’t out of love
It was to feed that old demon 
That’s always dreaming 
He will rule the world 
And what does it matter what says this girl 
Who is just a child of Irish rain 
And our own kind of particular pain 
As we live on the land
Our ancestors once couldn’t understand
As it was stolen from beneath them 
Until someone bequeath them 
Their own patch of ground 
And do you hear the sound
Of the child cry
Why must I be the one to let her die? 

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Mo Stór

.Reading time 1 minute.
We watch it unfold before our eyes
Another day, another Palestinian dies 
And their culture is erased like it has no meaning
And the people are not dreaming
Because it’s no nightmare
But a reality that would scare 
The most stoic into submission
I don’t need anyone’s permission
To say what I feel to be true
The end of the genocide starts with you
And I, as we raise a voice to lift the blockade
So that the only shade
The children know is that of a tree
Palestine is forever free
No matter the walls and doors
Checkpoints and bombed out floors
But a spirit nothing can kill
If I know anything it’s that Love never will
Ever be defeated
And my courage has not retreated 
Far enough that I will not say
I can see another way
For the tide to beat the shore 
You are not alone, mo stór

Love And Rage

.Reading time 3 minutes.
I’ve somehow always known this feeling
And it left me reeling 
When you told me that I was crazy
And it didn’t faze me 
But I decided to get a second opinion 
So I fled to the city
Let them assess every little bit of me 
And admit me to Stella Ward
It was as though someone crucified the bird 
That had been singing within me 
And they try to begin me 
With a meal of chicken and gruel 
And I walked into a room, the floor smelt like school
I dunno if it was the plastic floor 
Or the way they paint the exit door 
But it just reminded me of being three
And terrified of what they had in store for me 
And as the years advanced
I learned that I don’t have to dance
If I don’t want to 
But I was always compelled by you 
To act as the role provides
It’s as though I’m not even alive
But just a cartoon cutout or a silhouette
And somehow I have managed not to forget
Just who I am 
All these years under the plan 
That aims to rob us of humanity
And it did its best to take it from me
With pills and booze
With the winning and the knowing how to lose
Somehow in the middle of the sea
I realised it wasn’t for me 
And that there is another way to live
That I could forgive
All that had been done 
In my name by everyone 
And I just watch on a screen 
How the children scream 
And cry over a parent murdered from the sky
Unprepared and forced to die
To depart the form 
Now babies clutch bodies no longer warm 
And the saltwater flows from their eyes
While we just say, my, how time flies
As we get old and grey 
And pray
That we’ll have a safe departure
In Gaza they mourn the martyr 
Under a mountain of rubble 
We have known the same trouble 
On our island 
It’s on file and 
Making someone rich somewhere 
As they wonder do we care 
About the force of might 
And like every candlelight 
The dark departs 
When it sees what is burning in your heart 
I see a kind of constant flame 
Just whisper it when they call your name 
And as you step to the stage
Let love be your kind of rage 

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Into The Mystic

.Reading time 1 minute.
Have you ever been afraid of deserted roads
Like you can’t walk them alone
Have you ever been afraid to even leave your home
For fear of what might come to pass
When a guy says; check out her ass
And so the feeling goes
The shame, the blame, the game, God knows

Have you ever been afraid of having one too many
Not because there are guards but coz there isn’t any
To protect what you might call your virtue
The catcalls that just hurt you
As you walk down the street
The uncomfortable feeling when your eyes meet

Have you ever been afraid to say me too, too
For fear of what that punk might do
As he braces against the wall
Ready to hit you with it all

And I’m tired, I’m just weary
And I want you to hear me
When I say I know it’s not all guys
But could you be the one who tries
To make a change
Coz isn’t it strange 
What silence will do 
When there’s walls between us two


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The Feminine Advance

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Is it wrong I don’t want to “have kids”
And I reject the idea of being his 
Because I don’t want to be owned
Always revelling in the unknown 
And my sister thinks it’s the only way
But I have learned that what she say
Is only an expression of how she sees
And it’s not up to me to believe 
In something I don’t want 
Forty two and the haunt
Eating up my heart and soul 
And is it Jackie and Wilson to be whole 
Because when you hit thirty everyone expects
You to just have sex
And make three out of two
Or more if possible to issue from you
And when you’re a teen they warn you that 
Your life will be ruined if you create something you can’t take back 
And I watch all these children dying 
In foreign countries and they’re crying 
And I just want to reach out and touch
And tell them I love them so much
And I am doing everything I can 
To resist the man 
Who says that war is the way to peace
And all these people that decease
Are just casualties and collateral damage 
How can he stand the carnage
And I know it’s not up to me to blame
And no one really is their name 
They are the depths and so much more
But I must tell you, mo stór 
That you are paving the path to hell
And I can’t just stay out of it and wish you well 
Or be obstinate refuse
Boycott the brands I will not use
I must let a new dream birth
And create a new dawn all over the earth
What is the feminine reveal 
Is that she can only ever steal 
That which is not real 

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Handing Out Tokens

.Reading time 2 minutes.
He makes me feel brand new
And I’m not thinking of him when I’m talking to you
And I don’t know who I wrote this about
But no longer mired in self doubt
I listen to the angels that speak their tome
Into my brain when I’m all alone
And I told the psychiatrist that I hear voices
It’s not like he gave me many choices
It’s psychosis or on the brink 
Of letting the whole thing sink 
And so I drink the potion he’s dying to sell
And all the people they call unwell
And I know it’s nicer than crazy
And it doesn’t faze me 
It just feels clinical and watered down 
And when you want to drown 
Telling people that the sea
Is rising up to meet me 
In the great valley I am 
And someone mentions a care plan 
That I refuse to read
They take my blood and I bleed
Out into several jars
And I wonder if the stars 
Had this in mind
When they told me I would not be left behind
By the might of weighted thunder
Some people say I’m just a number 
And don’t know what to do 
But do you want to rock it with us, do you
And I lose the rag
And the man tries to brag
But it falls flat
As I wonder what the hell is he at
I realise only too late
He was trying to impress me into a date
Or a roll in the sheets
Was it predestined that we meet
Or was it organised
And something within never dies
No matter what they put you through
Telling you it’s for the good too 
As they lie to your face
But they lie to themselves too and it’s a waste
As the Barbie dream house claims one more doll 
Was I wrong to answer the call? 

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Blocking It Out

.Reading time 2 minutes.
I was the queen of blocking it out 
Back in 2020
And the streets were empty 
Are we all suffering from the trauma 
Of a year and a half of flora and fauna 
Growing up through the pavements that we don’t walk 
And it’s only electronically that we talk 
But somehow I found some kind of telepathy 
Some community 
That are united around the pain 
And it all falls as rain 
And I was terrified 
Of the people who have already died 
In case a list of names might be added 
To the families already saddened
By the might of a hand that swipes across 
And we count the ones we’ve lost
And I remember the first one that was fallen as I stood by her bed 
And she said 
That’s just the way it’s gonna be for a while 
And some people could find a way to smile 
But I was buried under the timber 
And now I’m listening to a singer
Articulate it so much better than me 
The weather got wetter but now I see 
That I was tapped into the collective fear 
And I quenched it in a place that was not near 
To home 
Because I couldn’t be alone
I could sense it coming 
Now everyone is running 
Away from something smaller than a cell
Capable of unleashing hell
Now I”m watching Israel bombing Gaza
Like we haven’t been through it all together 
And they’re using Covid suits to protect them from the weather 
And make nappies for the babies
While we’re told that the dragons have rabies
And it’s catching kind 
Some humanity that’s left behind 
As what divides us conquers 
And it’s as if those who run the place want us
To devour our tail 
And the part of me that is not up for sale
Rails against the storm in the sea 
I thought I was alone but it was just me 






					

	




					
						


		

		

			
Visionary Appeal
		

		
.Reading time 3 minutes.

		

			






Would you fight and die 
Would you live the lie 
As they sell you war and peace
Then you watch your love decease
On the storm front of another day
And I didn’t make it that way
I’m just calling it as I see it
I couldn’t ever grow to be it
As Colin said that Africa’s a drain on society
And my blood boils through my sobriety 
Because those kids are living and dying 
And no one knows they’re even trying 
Or like that time Naiomi said 
Something about the way she felt about the ones who were dead
And I want to smack her full in the face
For all that she just lets go to waste 
And we may only be fourteen 
But it’s old enough to wake to the dream 
And I know there’s violence within me
I can feel it breathe when there’s no one looking at me
And I scream freedom into the air 
But it doesn’t start out there
You can’t build your inner harmony 
On bricks you throw at your enemy 
But it startles my soul 
How some people get old 
With the bitterness inside
And my pride 
Burns my skin 
Til I let it go into the arms of Him 
He who would take all from me 
Leave me with nothing and just let it be 
Now I hear the screams from the strip 
And hear the rifles they equip 
With bullets to end a life
Do they wonder if she was someone’s wife
When they take her down 
And it was years ago I wanted to drown 
Because I couldn’t bear the weight
Of all the accumulated hate
That seemed to weigh on me 
Someone I love is dead and there’s an Iraqi 
Girl somewhere on the planet 
Who’s lost and alone and dammit 
I won’t let this go to the wall 
I used to not be this tall 
But now I’m thirty three
And there is more that can come from me 
Than just a woeful gaze
I am no white woman to save
Populations from their demise
It’s just I see myself in their eyes
And I must admit my skin 
Was nothing to the British who’s politics merely skim
What they did here 
A few short years ago 
I guess as a humanity we learn slow
That we are all people 
Mosque or steeple 
We live under the same God 
And our bodies go back to the same sod
To nourish what is yet to come 
As we succumb 
To a passing age
It’s all I can do to control my rage
And write it on a page
If there’s merit to the sage
She must be a force for good 
I breathe out and the trees in the wood
Breathe me in 
When is it time for Love to begin 

					

	




					
						


		

		

			
Ripped From His Mother’s Arms
		

		
.Reading time 2 minutes.

		

			






I watch the Palestinian children die
And why do I get to cry
When their eyes are dry 
And a parent weeps over the corpse 
While soldiers laugh with no remorse 
And the commanders drop another bomb
Where has our humanity gone 
Do we not see ourselves in the other 
See our sister and brother 
In every battered storm front of war 
And I just look at her
And see the death that I know
The pain life has visited upon me slow
That must be experienced by the masses
Or as they’re designated - the lower classes
While I sit and sup my tea
Knowing full well that it could be me 
If I lived a hundred and eighty years ago 
When the British starved us slow 
To death 
And there is a memory that does not forget
It’s held like generational pain 
And I resonate with the acid rain 
That falls from white phosphorus plumes
Into lungs and living rooms
And burns into skin and sears 
People with images of those they hold dear 
Suffering and crucified
In every single one who’s died
Is the hidden heat 
Of the love that makes my heart beat 
And no claims of anti-semetic
Can make me subscribe to the rhetoric 
That justify the claims of war
When the dust settles what will all this be for 
And will we survive another spin of the wheel 
That makes us deny what we feel 
So we are capable of 
The worst of what I’ve listed above 

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Like A Drowning Man Needs Air
		

		
.Reading time 3 minutes.

		

			

***Trigger Warning – Mental Health***












The boat rocked when the wave shook me to my core
And I kindly showed her to the door 
When she took out the dagger and it caught the light
And I could see in the night
That she never wished me well
And it rained holy hell
On my town 
I contemplated what it would be like to drown 
In a nearby lake 
Would she come to my wake 
Like the whole community does when someone dies
Then someone’s loved one cries
And I couldn’t do that to them 
But I wouldn’t like to be back there again 
Because it was as pitch as the blackest dark 
And it left a mark 
The scar is what I cherish now 
Because the truth got to me somehow
And I don’t understand the Lord but he saved my life
And he doesn’t want me to just be a wife
And surrender and go down 
Like everyone does everywhere around
It’s like you hit thirty
And everything you thought was dirty
Suddenly looks so damn appealing 
And there were comics that I was stealing 
The day I followed a trail 
And I swore my soul was not for sale 
But I danced on the edge of a cliff
Balancing on a what if 
And it mattered to me less than naught
But what if I get caught
So I commit myself to an institution 
Maybe they can straighten out my convolution
And I’ve always had a strong constitution 
But it doesn’t hold up under this pressure
There’s nothing like a doctor to stress ya
Especially when they’ve got all the power
But I am not one to cower
So I just run to the sea
But they’re still watching me 
As I find a corner of the room 
That doesn’t sink with the sound of doom 
That echoed around that place
And I couldn’t show my face
To anyone at all 
I just remember the length of the hall
When you’re walking it alone
And they’ve taken my phone 
So I follow Sinéad and pace the route 
But they jot down that I follow suit 
And it’s all just a case study to them
And they assure me it will happen again 
If I forsake the pills
And the bending of my wills
But I’m about done with this
I’m still thinking about Jack’s kiss





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The Futility Of Helplessness
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






Watching a father watch his children die
And I don’t even cry
It’s like I’ve been desensitised 
Because are they even alive
If their skin isn’t white
And I know it’s all shite 
But they believe it’s true
They don’t see me in you 
Anymore
And every closed door
Is an opening somewhere else
Your health is your wealth
And I watch it wane
But I fear death in vain 
Because a light has come on
And once it does the darkness is gone 
And the midnight ensue
Is nothing to the colours of you
As they fly on the wall
What is it at all
That makes the world go round 
In the absence of sound
And eternal flame 
Is the Word the same as its name 

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The Graveyard
		

		
.Reading time less than 1 minute.

		

			






We could all be under earth pretty soon 
Am I the only one who hears the noise in the room
When it’s silent as hell
And there’s all these people wishing me well
But I can’t help but feel that it all pull asunder
The rattling windows to the sound of thunder
As it all caves in
And who would win
When the triumph is naught
It’s like some disease that we’ve caught
That makes us capable to kill
And at will
The degenerate
Comes to pull apart the state
Of affairs and of the mind
I swore I would leave no one behind 

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Chat Bot Shots
		

		
.Reading time less than 1 minute.

		

			






There’s a war in the chat bots
And it’s all about taking shots
And not seeing each other’s points of view
I adopt the one that you 
Profess that you own 
But now I’m grown
I’ve been born and raised
And its something that I’ve praised
I don’t need no sea to open 
I don’t need to get by on coping 
I need to release my hands and see
That in the realm of grey mystery
There is a fleck of colour 
In the absence something fuller
Makes itself known 
And though the game may have been thrown 
Something still resides in my soul 
It’s more than an ad at the Super Bowl 

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Pink Parade
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






I’ve learned not to fight with the feminists
They never seem to get the point 
It seems more about our differences
Than the ways that we are joined
And the women wanted to join the march
But their shirts weren’t made of starch
So they couldn’t play
I watched them turn the floats away
Because if you stand in the way
Of Roe V. Wade
You can guess the dragon that will be slayed
And I know it goes against the grain 
But I cannot triumph the rain 
When it falls upon bitter hands
Who claim that they own the lands 
When they only till the field 
And the feminine must yield 
To the greater flow of life
That doesn’t mean I’d be a wife
Or subservient to a man 
But I just never can 
Let myself believe 
That I grieve
Over sufferings that mean nothing at all 
And when you talk to the wall
It does not talk back 
So I walk away with all I lack 
And leave that shit behind 
They don’t control this mind

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The False Circuitry
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






The false circuitry 
Has the current running in circles around me
And you could say it’s electricity
But it’s just as likely to abandon me
Like everyone did
When everyone ran and hid
And they committed me to St. Pat’s 
And I committed to never coming back
Because how do you return from a sojourn
In the realm of the forlorn 
Where people tear out their hair
And the worst thing you can do is care
And feel everything 
“That girl has a broken wing”
And there’s a demon stalking these halls
I can feel him through the walls
Of my cage
Rocking back and forth for an age
It’s a wonder I don’t fall away
And just fall for what they say
When they tell me I am unwell
And that there’s no such thing as hell
But once I mention that word
I watch the nurse quake in her boots at what she heard
And I must be quiet and say nothing at all
Because somehow I am answering the call
And I sit in the office just discussing my state
I don’t mention I wanna taken Stephen on a date
Coz he is so damn cute
Couldn’t be more like the proof
That heaven is real 
As he tries to steal 
Me away from the long arm of the law
And I wonder if I should let on I’m in the midst of the Great Thaw

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The Birth Of Fear And Suspicion
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






The darkness of the night is very near
And it was an education in fear
When they taught me about the man in black
And that I must be wary of an attack
I still remember the moment it made an impact
Cut to the future and I jacked
When I saw that same abyss again 
And instead of a god, it was men
And I ran and ran 
Because only the truth can
Catch up to me
And the scenery is no match for me
As I turn a blind eye
On what it is to die 
In the midnight of the day
And they tell me it’s okay
I ask the doctor if the devil is real
Because hell is sure what I feel 
When I’m looking in the mirror
And I barely hear her
When she say that she don’t know
She says she’ll help me though
And she’s from India so 
I trust in where this is gonna go 

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Éire Go Deo
		

		
.Reading time 2 minutes.

		

			






I watch the images of bombed out bars
And burnt out cars
On city streets 
And I know that the heat
Is born from a fervour deep and true
I feel it in me and I see it in you 
And somehow peace has found a way
To hold and that’s the order of the day
It’s been 800 years
And so many women have cried tears
Over lost sons 
And I could be the one 
To finally unpeel 
The way they made our nation feel
As they circumscribe the land
And say this must be tilled by hand
And no more than so many yards
I don’t even know how hard
It must have been 
And my dream 
Has been rocked
Like the walls made up by people locked
In Connemara by the rule of the day
To hell or to Connaught, isn’t that the way
And we can bark orders and we can make decrees
But that Ireland isn’t me
It’s something other
It’s living and breathing for your brother 
And dying with hands crushed together 
Nowadays we just complain about the weather 
But the sadness is embedded in the roots
Of the great tree that began as shoots 
From the fertile soil 
I feel my blood boil 
When someone talks about English rule
The things they taught us in school 
About how to bend and break 
And why they did it for our sake 
And we must be respectful, too
Because they are human just like you
Then someone utters a word
And just like that the bird
Of hatred is born 
Because the fire of fear is still warm 
And glowing embers 
Not everyone knows but the heart remembers 
Even when the mind forgets 
And it’s not over yet
Not till the trauma storm 
Has made the people realise they warm 
Their hands on the coals of the past 
And in some ways people are classed
In the stratosphere
I feel the time near
When we must stand up and be counted
Oh, what has it amounted
To but this 
Heaven is in the first kiss 

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The Entertain
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






The entertain 
Holds all the rain 
And I can never discover 
What is undercover
As they hold each and every secret
But would they know how to keep it
If I split each and every end of hair 
I answer their questions like a prayer 
I turn my face away
When they say 
All is just ash and timber
In the crematorium where I am limber
And they move with the masses
The last time I was in classes
I towed the line
Til the voice said; it is time 
And I departed to the foreign shore
And I know he loved me more
Than I can countenance 
And our first dance
Will be by our death bed 
I keep my closets in the shed 
And I would have hidden them away
Til I caught him say
I love you true 
But he’s got a woman and I don’t want to 
Break into her scene 
If this place is really a dream 
Then would I like to forestall the waking 
I draw in each breath that I’m taking 
Until my mouth is dry
And people threaten to die
All the time
I collapsed and the light sublime
Encased me like a drug
But I don’t know if I should 
Reveal 
All I feel 
The Eternal that made me kneel 

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The Fervent Hope
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






I can feel the fervent hope start to diminish 
As I watch the age of us finish 
And a new one begin 
It’s not about who win
As the demons drag me under
And the thunder 
Knows no bounds
When it comes to overwhelming sounds
I’m stuck in St. Pat’s
With the pain turned up to max
And all the doctors just attack
Me with their pills
It’s like a display of wills 
As they try to force me to obey
And fall into their particular sway
And say “it’s just psychosis” 
But I have always been precocious 
And spit back at them
“I swear if you say that again 
I will bring the full weight of the world
Down to earth to be hurled
At your statin skin”
Then I just look away from him 
Because he never hears me 
And the day just nears me 
When it will be revealed
And all the life congealed
Like a scab on my finger 
I’m a poet, some kind of singer
Who has a melody in her mind
And just because I left it behind
Doesn’t mean it doesn’t still ring true
I blackmail the best of you
Into submission
And my commission
Is a death most profound
I did it coz I hear the sound
Of echoes infinite 
I woke up in the dead of night

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Visions Of Hell
		

		
.Reading time 1 minute.

		

			






The fire burns every goddamn city
I don’t know but are you with me 
As the buildings fall
I try to stave off it all
But I feel it encroach
Is it a subject I dare to broach
With the entertain
Will all these words have been in vain 
If I just spill them onto a sheet
Never being one to ever meet
Them in the public sphere 
I can sense that danger is near
And that if we do not shift course
The next generation will be filled with remorse
For what they have to face
They tell me to just fall into place
Fall into line
But I can sense the time 
Slipping away
And yet it is still today
Every day I wake
And I know I must do something for their sake
Before they die in flames 
With no one even knowing their names 
They say the end is fire and ice
But we can end the night
We face every day
Just stand with me, don’t look away

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The Erosion Of Despair
		

		
.Reading time 2 minutes.

		

			






They come with their tanks and their bombs 
And their hidden intentions
And the last thing they want
Is to be in your mentions
As you call them out
A genocide that you cannot doubt
As they ethnically cleanse
This will not come to an end
Til they have erased the evidence of a people
And the steeple
Is no deterrent to the war
They bomb the mosque and what it’s for
Coz they have a reign
And a plan to occupy again
What they designate as theirs
And the west is like “who fuckin cares”
We’ll just watch over here from our couch
And stay silent as a mouse
In a house of cats
While the baseball bats
Of white phosphorous burns 
And history never learns 
Not to repeat itself 
Be quiet or your mental health
Will take another knock
But they level another block
In the name of fighting terror
Do you think their error
Might be in the lifeless body a mother holds
Like the stories that they’ve told
Of their own past and legacy
Do the brutalised visit their pain on me 
When they repeat the cycle
And it is vital
That we all recognise
That whenever anyone dies 
At the hand of another
There are no qualifications in that murder
Under the guise of attack as a “sacred” role
The logic of that is pulverise a soul
Til it gives up the fight
And you can sit by the firelight
Warming your hands 
And say these are our lands
To conquer and to own
What will be the reflection when the true colour’s shown

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