Hull Docks

Standing at night on a dockside in Hull
Watching the ships that lie still in the port
Un-noticed, unseen as a solit'ry gull
Wondering what these grey ships could report

Voyages round the world twice every year
Thrice to Zeebrugge and back every week
Four ocean's crossed and the manifest's clear
Tales there are none though for these ships don't speak

Lie there and wait for the word from the shore
Let go all lines and push off from the side
What was once dormant is living once more
Silently slipping away down the tide

Carrying cargoes to everywhere
Bringing back things from the rest of the world
Enabling commerce  with terms that are fair
Sailing with flags of convenience furled

Then after decades of travelling far
Engines and drive shafts are starting to screech
No longer following its guiding star
Every ship runs up its terminal beach

Though winches and cutters will tear her to bits
That's not the ending for beings like these
The metals will go back to sea as new ships
The stories will linger in crew's memories

The long view

The world's emotions are in play
Just hold your nerve and use your brain
Four years from now Trump goes away
But America will remain

The one that walked away

A thousand miles from anywhere and lonely
Another pair of boots have worn right through
Still thinking about you, my one and only
and things I did I wish I could undo

I left one angry night and started walking
You'd think a thousand miles would be enough
But I still feel your touch and hear you talking
and wish that you had called to call my bluff

The thousand miles behind are soon forgotten
The thousand miles ahead are still unknown
A thousand miles of hopes and dreams gone rotten
A thousand miles to walk with heart of stone

Each thousand miles I ponder on this thesis
A thousand miles for me to think things through
That every step I take along this road is
the first step of my journey back to you

A journey with no end that I'll discover
The road will last much longer than this clay
And you'll move on to live life with another
and I'll remain the one that walked away

Quack!

The prettiest girls on the internet
The cleverest men in the world
All have their flaws
on which trolls sharpen claws
in comments maliciously hurled

So if someone is trolling you greatly
and wounding you right to the heart
Just don't answer back
for the un-echoed quack
is as lost in the storm as a fart

The last Polar Bear

The great ice floe
on which she would go
a-hunting for seals
for family meals
is melted and gone
from what Man has done

She doesn't know how
to feed her cubs now
Where once they would thrive
they can barely survive
And with more warmth pending...
There's no happy ending

Loss

You should not judge a book just by its cover
My contents are much deeper and you'll find
that as I change from 'just a friend' to 'lover'
my outsides matter much less than my mind
That as time passes and our lives are linking
I'll captivate you more and more each day
I'll think the thoughts that you're afraid of thinking
I'll say the words that you're afraid to say
'Til finally you find you're lost without me
Each hour apart is more than you can bear
You'll rush home like a desparate internee
to that small cell of privacy we share
But starts imply something inevitable
The terrible last phrase that is 'The End'
So as you turn the last page of this fable
you'll search for other works this author's penned

Softly she comes to me

Softly she comes to me
 Over the undefeated ramparts of my fortress heart
 Following the track set by Cupid's dart
 Past all my defences before they can start
And softly she comes to me
 Through all the confusion and the unplanned life
 of this un-lonely loner and avoider of strife
 and suddenly I'm asking her to be my wife
And softly she comes to me
 On her father's arm she walks in style
 down the consecrated and rose trimmed aisle
 all dressed in white with a beautiful smile
And softly she comes to me
 To hear me promise that I will
 keep only unto her through good or ill
 'til all is gone and the world is still
And softly she comes to me
 To make her promise that is the same
 to cleave to me through ice and flame
 to wear my ring and to take my name
And softly she comes to me
 So we can live out all our years
 'til softly, with no earthly fears
 we pass beyond this vale of tears

And softly, she comes with me...

Elysian fields

I cannot walk the way that I used to
My muscles and my joints have let me down
I sit here in this chair the whole day through
When people see my face they see a frown
My sight is dimmed so e'en had I the strength
to lift a book I'd not make out a word
My mem'ry is by mayfly beat in length
and loudest conversations' barely heard
But this is not a sad and lonely end
In happiness I doze my days away
A happy future I can apprehend
and I look forward to that joyfull day

When finally my constitution yields
and I am freed to walk elysian fields

Post Truth

The Truth is a conspiracy
to keep you in your place
The Facts are immaterial
and don't affect this case
Belief is all that is required
and I will say to you
Repeat a lie often enough
and it becomes what's true

Home

My home is where my heart is
it's where I hang my hat
It's where the ones that I love live
and that my dear is that

It doesn't need an open fire
It doesn't need a cat
Just all the folk that I hold dear
and that my dear is that

The Tide

For every ending there's a new beginning
Each written page is blank the other side
For every loser someone else is winning
but as the moon swings by it pulls the tide

A glass half full is also one half empty
This was the best or worst year, you decide
You've had enough! or what you've had is plenty
and still that moon swings by and pulls the tide

Tonight we say goodbye to twenty sixteen
And hope that seventeen will joy provide
But sure as little apples times are changing
and as that moon swings by it pulls the tide

Flock gone

When waking from what seems to be
a century of dreamless sleep
The first thought that occurs to me
is, What happened to all the sheep?

So far

I am so far now from the place I started
So many miles and many years have passed
Those I once knew are now my dear departed
and of my line I know I am the last.

But do not make for me a gift of sorrow
I will not weep nor beat upon my breast
For while I live, there's no grief I will borrow
I'll live in hope and be forever blessed