The War Of The Sexes

For some parents 'having children'
is an act of war, usually undeclared,
though who the war is against
-the other parent or society generally
is always left for the children to find out.

Children always discover their place in the war
too late to stop themselves being enlisted.

Double Darkness

Winter should be a time of rest,
of hibernations and letting things
run down. We double the stress,
or increase it by a higher factor,
the more active we are when nature
shuts down, and lives on her reserves. 

My Fifth Christmas Card Of 2017

'Nativity Triptych' painted in 1989 by surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. 

It's Only Words

'Words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind. 
Not only do words infect, egotize, narcotize, and paralyze, 
but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain. . . ."

Rudyard Kipling addressing The Royal College of Surgeons in 1923.

It is not known whether he was addressing the potential
for demagoguery which would rise with European fascism,
or the power of advertisers to oversell the American Dream
which would subsequently become the world's nightmare 
with the stock market crash and 'The Great Depression'.

Or some other future event we have yet to experience....    

When Ebay Told Me

'You won't believe this, but it is the season to be jolly'
they were right I did not believe it, and still don't.

It would take something better than easy debt
and an over familiar social media washing over me
to give me anything like the put the sort of smile
on my face that they were thinking I'd buy from them.

The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever*

When speakers try to refresh The Gospels,
and other unworldly systems of belief,
in everyday ways for their radio listeners
in that legendary piece of broadcasting
'Thought for the day', among many other
listening and viewing opportunities,
the first thought of many who receive
these words is 'The very necessity
of having to refresh it means it must be stale,
so instead can I have something new,
made bespoke, out of nothing, today for me?'.

Little do these tired listeners realize
that no sensation as old as novelty.


*the title refers the New Testament-
Hebrews Ch 13 Verse 8.

My Fourth Christmas Card Of 2017

'Vertical Axes in Motion' painted in 1922/3 by Soviet artist Ilya Chasnick.