Hymns To Mammon

I was reared on apocryphal stories
of 1930s health care and welfare.
If those tales were merely half true
they were both appalling and unprovable.
The evidence was in the shortened lives
of the once living, now long dead. 

One story I took at face value
was to do with how free medicine
was issued by Charitable Hospital Boards.
These boards always had clergy on them.
The medicine was given if/when the patient
sang a hymn well enough for those listening.

What happened if the clergy were deaf?
if the patients, who were ill, sang poorly?
Protested from a position of weakness?
Or went mute from despair? I was never told.
I assume they did not get the medication. 

If such a board were to exist nowadays
it would highly secular, but still patients
would have to sing for their meds,
never knowing how loud their hymns
to Mammon were meant to be
until they shared the board's insanity.

We Can't Go On Meeting Like This

I am often propositioned by Jehovah's Witnesses.
We both know how the dialogue is meant to go.
I know this because every time we meet I listen.
Unlike many, I treat them as if they are real.
Because I avoid being dismissive or frustrated
I make a space which makes for mutual respect,
a space that last until the end of that conversation.

Would that I could be as calm, composed,
and as unprovoked by everything else in life.

When Is A Door Not A Door?

When it is a metaphor for personal choice.

From early on in my life what I wanted most
was a front door that would help me choose
without malice who to let in and keep out.
Many decided on very particular doors,
spaces and boundaries, for me.
The choices presented seemed personal
but how personal were they?

Even as I was helped to choose,
my helpers helped themselves
more than they ever helped me.
They vetoed parts and selves
of mine which were more vital
than they knew, before I could stop them.

Whether the fear was of immorality
or sheer ineptitude made no difference
-I was shut in and beyond the pale.

Regular Employment Can Have Strange Effects

And contentment can come from the strangest of sources.

For A Chaste Calm

Skin to skin
is a powerful thing.
It is exciting!  
But being at ease
in your own skin
is far better. 

Caution; Light Bend Ahead

But where the light is dimmer at least it is consistent.

Signs Of Greater Age (36)

1-looking at a very cloudy sky
and thinking 'That is what
'Fifty shades of Grey' is about'.

2-with the passage of time
finding the appetite for life
reduces, so shared meals
become more about quality
than quantity. Though simplicity helps.

3-when in public libraries, banks,
with your doctor, or in shops,
preferring to talk with the staff
about your needs from their stock.
Live human beings seem to be rare
and worth giving thanks for.
Perhaps more than you value your own life.

Whatever shape it takes on
public service will last long into the future.