Unrequited

One person always loves more than the other.

Lovers harder, loves longer,

More longingly looking for equal reciprocation

That just isn’t there.

One person always steals that last extra kiss,

One more than was offered:

Head tipped, waiting to be met

While their opposite relaxes (edging slightly back).

One person’s grip is always tighter, always firmer

Making up for another’s casual nature.

One person has to say goodbye first,

hang up first, not look back first.

One person’s only is only for a time,

One person’s forever is always more forever than the other’s. 

This Cambridge

This place of couples kissing on bridges

And Kids rowing boats,

Of ducks waddle-flapping under trees  

That cry fresh water tears into a mirrored floor.

This place where the pushing of wicker is a common affair

And college scarves and emblemed hoods boast refinery and style.

This place of karma and character and calm where I come to be home:

This place is my place.

This place is my heart. 

Tower Bridge

Let me sit and watch the rippling Thames all day in the peace.

Let me drink my bitter comfort

And just feel sad, not need to smile.

Let the pigeon walk in circles around at my feet

And the tall bearded stranger click at the glass and the metal.

Drench me in chit chat and clip clack surround.

Cover me in birdsong callings,

Ringtones in flight.

Let the dredgers drudge the dark flowing tarmac,

Dislodging the calm.

Then let the calm drift backwards, down.

Serenity floating as the city strides along.

And now let me sink, deep in my thoughts

And play at this game without a worry of time.

Let the chill ache through my body

Stimulating, soothingly

A mind busy at rest;

The rest for my mind.

CARCINOS

CANCER is a word that no-one likes.

It’s sound is fear, hushed tones and wet eyes.

CANCER is a word that no-one wants to say

It’s name is helpless sorrow that flicks to the end of a book with doomed impatience.

CANCER  is a word that’s easily explained - never justified.

It comes to us premeditated, or random, and both.

A lifestyle lottery that decides its own fate.

Blind faith tested late and impending knowledge of the unknown.

CANCER is: a fact, a part

Of our world.

No tears; no anger; no sense of unfairness

Changes the truth that this word delivers.

CANCER is a word. We don’t like to use.

Say it quickly and it isn’t really real, really

CANCER.

Don’t repeat it I heard you the first time,

Understood the echo deafening my mind.

Because CANCER is a word that leads to something.

Hair loss, love lost, life lessons learned

Too often too soon to explain a world too hard to face alone.

CANCER is a word I don’t want to hear.

Not anymore.

Never again.