Happy
On the top of the block of flats that blocks out the sunshine,
there lives a tree with spreadeagled branches,
home to a curious bird nest where
stray thoughts grow up and out of the bedding.
Bits of plant and wood and delicate processes
form a game of surprises.
The light comes back and we can see the sky again while
the nest keeps building up in weight and conviction.
Stick to a Stone
Stick to a stone
Leaf from a bone
Sailing with the breeze
Then sinking
Fast are the trails
Whirling spins
This divines the
Next path sideways
Swimming Lessons
An inflatable castle
Bigger than the sun
That sends its rays
Through the plexiglass roof
Is approaching
In rapid slow motion
I want to test myself
So I do the deep dive
Thinking I can bypass
Floating Camelot
And come up the other side
I figured wrong
And swam out of steam half way
I attempt to get back to air
But keep nudging the lairy plastic parapets
An 11 year old life flashes by
In a stutter and cough
And then it clears
And then it’s clear
A New Day
Alarm sounds shine clear as sun stream
Filter through the dark with an extra beat
The echoes grab and lift me out of the haze dream
A message that it’s time to get back on my feet
What happened in the night we find out from reportage
The winners tell the tale and it’s tall and it stoops
The words fly like bullets within a luminescent barrage
Firepower realised by troop after troop
Survivors, animals, creatures us all
Look out the window to a new day
Survivors, animals and interpreters us all
Welcome the morning, remember to stay
Robert W Monk 2022
Improved
Songs from the ether
prayers to a dream
caught up on meaning
falling into change
Compare and contrast
the numbers in the cloud
The one from 500 years ago
is filled with the crushed bones and
gasping breath of the doomed
1000 years hence
the picture is cleared
But the slate is not blank
plate not cleaned
But improved
Have we improved?
Is it getting better?
Raindrops
As the rain continues to patter softly on the windows, the questions keep on coming.
What is this place so shabbily created?
And who is that there, looking over from the doorway?
I only know that I need not worry of the past.
Choice
Choice
Looking out to the sea from the tower on the headland, they felt a strange wind blowing. Birds fly past, future siren songs to a glorious beginning and a doomed conclusion, sun blinds the eyes. They want freedom. They want choice. They want what they already have.
Treatment
I’ve been thinking back to just over ten years ago.
I was in hospital following a major bout of illness.
My legs had stopped holding me up.
My eyes had double vision.
Numbness was in feet and hands.
I was put on a 2 month course of steroids to reboot the system.
It worked and I could gradually get back to a good level of health.
Nine years ago I became afflicted with optic neuritis.
My left eye went blind.
Following this NHS neurologists confirmed an MS diagnosis.
Since then, with the help of professionals and an awareness of my own health issues I’ve been largely free of major relapse.
All of which is to say, I trust in the effectiveness of medicine. That plus proper self-care has kept me moving.
Look after yourself. Look after each other. Keep health services freely accessible.
Dawn to desk
On this table top
This surface
This counter space
Memories turn and twist
Gathering thought
Gathering pace
I dreamed I was creating
I thought I might be writing
I felt I could be planning
When I found out I was listening
I sat back
And drank more tea
Robert W. Monk 2021
Myrmidons
Following like flies to the shithouse
These citizens are up on their crap
Ready to distil the teachings
Of a wrong-un in a tin foil hat
These myrmidons follow their leaders
Like ants slowly walking the line
And when it all gets too much for feeling
They’ll put the whole thing online
They’ll put the whole thing online
A Shot in Space 