How many times have you heard a song that just brought you back?

What if?

The piano hits a solitary note

The chord vibrates in my heart

The singular sound wakes emotions

Remembered times reverberate through me

The past meets present day

So many memories to the front

Riding the bus lost in words

Thinking of nothing

Music escapes a rider’s headphones

The piano note rings loud

The piano note rings clear

Holds my day prisoner

Trapped in what could have been

The music takes me where I should have been

Regrets bring me dissatisfaction

A moonlight sonata keeps me company

Even as I sleep with you

The moonlight is dim compared to my recollections

Recollections a reflection in delusion

What could have been?

Circumstances make me happy

Circumstances lead me

Why ask “what if?”

Today brings satisfaction

Yesterday a perfect illusion

Redundancy paints a portrait in black and white

I live in colour

The protests in the arab world are inspiring.

Bad government

The scream inside builds

Blown up with indifference

The pressure needs relieving

Looking for an outlet

Looking for salvation

Years of oppression crack the foundation

Rules for freedom abridged

Free thoughts in shackles

Murder in the marketplace

Martyrs find heaven

Government sanctioned assembly

Bystanders not welcome

Censored change hits the wires

Ruling authority asserts privilege

Protesters cry in a rain of blood

Red tears fuel the rage

Courageous umbrellas unfurl

Fear imposed bans ignored

Memories of repression wake slowly

Indifference dies a quick death

Old pain gains new life

Freedom lives on the street

Societal chains broken

No more denial

No more lies

No more

This is for all of you who have had to deal with Vogons in one form or another.

Red tape

Don’t know what I’m doing anymore

Used to know my place

Used to know where I was going

The rules changed bureaucratically

Decisions made capriciously

The county fair comes to town

New entertainers run the show

The sideshow becomes the main event

Performing miracles with red tape

Shooting with bound hands

The carnie laughs at my efforts

Logistics imitate logic

Throw the dart and decide

Impossible to see the prize

The fixed target ever moving

Ring master with no direction

A three ring kaleidoscope

Falling from the trapeze

Promised net imagination thin

Promises fail to break my fall

I fall broken

I am finding it very difficult at work these days.

An open door

Working in a house built by others

The foundation precarious

The walls made of bad decisions

Floors made of quicksand

Windows casings out of plumb

Central winds threaten destruction

Eaves blocked with remnants of last year’s results

The shutters hang in disgrace

Missing steps on the front stairs

Be wary of the climb

The supporting pillars do not communicate

The wiring is frazzled

No suggestions from on high

The year is architecturally deficient

Total collapse is imminent

Stuck inside

Looking for an open door

The tree of life, we are all connected.

Humanity rooted

Entwined deep in dirt and soil

Winding around rocks and stone

Unfurling with twisting spiral

Uncurling searching for life in the dark

Fingers down to the bones of the earth

Sending tendrils to feed on the past

 Bringing nourishment to the future

Nourishment that climbs the winding way

Rising in concentric circles that betray age

Surrounded by rough protection

Liquid memories move slowly ever upward

The path tied in knots

New pathways created by persistence

Sturdy trunk grown massive with the ages

Centuries of strife causing malformations

Centuries branching out in limb

Each limb a step on a living ladder

A rung broken gives birth to two

Stretching in search of sky

Two become a hundred with expectations

Wishes unfurl to capture sunlight

Bright green in their innocence

Unknowingly they wave goodbye

Memories blossom and flower

Pregnant with the past

The wind carries their hopes on swirling breeze

Thoughts that drift a distance unknown

Alight and grow new root in fresh soil

Spiralling down to a distant past

Looking to the future

I read in the news today "Virginia refuses to consider anti-gay discrimination proposal" and "Indiana's House passes gay marriage ban" This is for my American brothers and sisters; keep up the fight.

Let there be darkness

I Read the news today

The ruling masters have rightly spoken

The right to deny human emotions

Legislation written in the dark

Laws to suppress

Laws to divide

Second class citizens have no say

Legal discrimination in illuminated script

Medieval thinking lights not the night

Some passages chosen others ignored

Selective ignorance on a soap box

Intentional sophistry meant to confuse the masses

Sunday mass feeds the confused with bread and wine

Modern media with republican pimp

Worship on hands and knees

Well used orifice given easy access

Well greased channels hide behind artifice

Your laws will not change me

Your laws will not deny me

Your walls will crumble

My friend Alycat likes my doodles...here you are Alycat, something I did while watching the news.

This is something I wrote for my partner...

Sometimes I forget

The smile’s first appearance

A mouth full of stolen gum

A warm restaurant gives respite

A warmer story gives hope

Spanish words strung together for the first time

Laughter over their meaning

The boring bus ride to work,

The running smile makes it easy

Time not to be wasted

A clock to be constructed, a puzzle to be solved

A multitude of friends come to roost

The dove wishes to escape

Change of venue is welcomed

Three rooms are better than one

Cafe, yellow, and green

The changes are needed

The search for permanent happiness

A citizen of belonging found

The stress of contractual living takes its toll

Relief grounded in government

Busy lives with forgotten laughter

Laughter taught to me

Sometimes I forget

Both my partner and I think Valentine's day is a really stupid day.

A psychopathic valentine

I want to eat your heart

A cardiovascular feast

A cabaret sauvignon will be best

In the red pulse of candle light

I want to consume your lungs

A pulmonary delight

A merlot, I think

 Let it breathe

I want to nibble on your ear

A carnal lobectomy

Riesling, I heard, is great

I want to tenderize your liver

Filter it with my love

A Japanese Huangiiu perhaps?

My opinion may be jaundiced

I want to ingest your colon

It won’t be a waste of time

Intestinal fortitude won’t be needed

A digestive would be perfect

Grand Marnier maybe?

I love you. Be mine

I hate travelling for work. This is for all of you who have to travel for work...

Business travels

The ice in my glass melts smoothly

Cube to cube they dance

As I swirl my drink slowly

The whiskey burns a slow path

My insides warming

My soul sings the blues

Conversations around me

Strangers living strangers’ lives

For a moment they belong to me

For an instant I am not lonely

Billie Holiday plays from a tape

I dream of dancing with my partner

The trumpets call to me

The piano plays my return

Note by sweet note

My room has pretensions of home

The bed sheets are crisp and cold

Generic paintings pretend warmth

A study of bland

Carpet patterns try to imitate good taste

A bouquet of ordinary

Imitation wood fools no one

Room service a temporary companion

Home awaits me with no expectations of tip

Home awaits me

Just let yourself make the universe a little bit brighter

Say goodbye

You say you can’t
I say you can
Your power is hidden
You hide it
Let it go and shine
I believe in you
Let the river carry you away
Let the current hold you up
Stop fighting
Breathe the waters deep
Success is only one death away
The clear waters reflect your dreams
Stop living in muddy reflections
The choice is yours
Choose to be a gem surrounded by grey
Choose to be brilliant
Brush off the dust of others
Let opinions die upon lips
Say goodbye to expectations
Say goodbye
Start living

I don't feel this way now, but I have in the past

Depression

Lost my path

Don’t know where I’m going

Navigating roadblocks

Stumbling through life

Hoping for someone else’s solutions

Told to carry on and be brave

I cry out and pretend everyday life

No one notices

I secretly smile as I make coffee

The curve of the cup is interesting

The kitchen counter lends support

The front door inviting

Sidewalks lead somewhere I don’t want to go

I can’t help but follow

The tree lined streets want to hold my hand

Branches intertwined with my thoughts

Scattered leaves like my emotions

Cover my body

I want to lie in peace

I don’t want to cry

Don’t speak anymore

Manager frustrations

Afraid to tell it like is

Excuses in the shape of shields

Proactively apologetic

Decisions never made

Fear of repercussions

A kindergarten well managed

Efficiency sacrificed on the alter of complacency

Common sense commits suicide

Logic led away in restraints screaming

Thinking drowned in a pool of frustrated tears

Numerical justifications grow like leaves

Statistics put down ever changing roots

Humans become numbers

Accountants in charge of emotions

Even Kafka weeps

Leadership wishes on a falling star

The seasons

Change of seasons

September’s love conceived
Summer’s ripening begins
The snow yet begun to fall
Picnic baskets and walks in the park
Dreams of green grass a distant memory
First week of December the sky a sheet of steel
The winter seamstress plies her trade
Dresses and skirts made of filigree and ice
Decorated in delicate frost
February arrives well dressed
A cruel smile on her frozen lips
Summer growing in her womb
March foetus behaves badly
A question of lambs and lions
Unpredicted by shadow
April knits warm apparel
May and June hold the yarn
Summer reborn
September a lady in waiting

I am reposting this poem about 2012 because no one has taken up my challenge to decipher it. Once again, I challenge you to decipher the meaning. Are you able?

2012

Long count calendar, Mayan wrote;
Nine hells of fifty-two years;
Counter reset, beginning anew.
Transition from fourth world to fifth;
Five millennia in waiting;
Philosophy reborn.
Lord Krishna speaks in lunar cycles;
Hindu worlds yet unborn;
A golden foetus dreams;
Five millennia in gestation.
Malachy, Irish born monk;
A saint made in Clement times.
One hundred and eleven popes counted:
The labour of the sun wrapped in gold;
A life eclipsed in birth and death;
The second becomes third from last.
The glory of the olives reigns today;
German birth in controversy,
Benediction from the church assures rule;
Sixteen is second.
The seven hilled city is destroyed;
The Roman born is witness.
The rock shall say amen;
The first shall be the last.

There is only one person in the entire world who will understand this poem.

Met at the Kacho on a Friday night

Nineteen years in the making

Escargot on a hotel balcony

A birthday celebration minus a forgotten year

Ham cooked in beer a Ray of light

With desert no Les

Cross the river to join the dance

Punch the piano player

Plastic flowers displayed Artlessly

Dinner guests go around

The chilli air is rock hard

Another bowl will be fine

Fond memories fourteen times four

Carrots pretend to be roses

Silence as lamb is to be served

Tommy does not come knocking

Malodorous Sunday brunch

 The bathroom door was Jimmied

Distance separated after leaving

The bond refused to break

A friendship renewed with scotch

A conversation never ended

A connection solidified

Twenty five years of smiles

This was taken from my balcony after a snow storm

Season realities

Clouds surround my face

Congested passageways impede me

Liquid thoughts bubble in my brain

Walls once solid begin to turn

The floor betrays me

Rough voice tries to express meaning

Thoughts left voiceless

Understanding is indifferent or confused

Fever hot skin burns in the night

The morning chill not welcome

Rational thought an evasive creature

Transparent fish swim before my eyes

I have the flu

Catholic shame.

A friend said I should do some political cartoons. How are these?

The papal coat of arms