Confession Of The Second Wrong

I have often been forwarded for ideas,
not allowed to know what I was supporting
where the actions that I was prompted
to complete became the tipping point
for a failure in which I carried the blame
which left the sponsor of my shame free to carry on.

I accepted being made the second wrong,
in a whole series of decisions made by others
where when different sponsors were in conflict
and their disagreement gave me no exit from them.

In a world in which two wrongs cannot make a right,
I was the wrong who was made to be condemned
that made earlier wrongs seem better in their time,
and excusable. What more could I ask of life?   

Memory Lane

When loneliness is the path
that leads us away from others 
then at first it won't seem like it.

Why would it? At the start of so many paths
we travel down we go in the hope that every path
goes somewhere, and won't disappear behind us.

Whilst there is time we can all go back.
But there is snag: when time is the path
then there is no return, just the memory
of where you came from,
how you moved on from there 
to where you are now and the thought
of where to go next and how to get there.

The Best Innocence Is Always Relative

I am used to online petitions for this or that cause
where reading what the cause is about becomes
part of my news for that day, whether I sign it or not.

The petitions I read least and take against the soonest
are arguments I am asked to sign where what I am asked
to agree with is a variation on 'Protect the innocent'
relating to children that are inferred who 'are in danger',
a danger that the petitioner can point me towards seeing
much more than the children 'in danger' can see it for themselves.

Innocence needs toughness and an honesty beyond fear
to sustain even a relative innocence in a harsh world.

Petitions by adults I know nothing about
that ask for my name, then ask me for money
to make the petition go further
when in the past I have been imperilled
by people who said they were my protectors 
when I did not know what proper protection was
and they were protecting themselves more than me
cannot impress upon me the need for protection.     

'He Is Not The Messiah, He Is A Naughty Boy.... '

When Monty Python wrote 'The Life of Brian'
they soon learned to not make the film a critique of Jesus,
Christianity, Islam or Judaism, there were too many
fine words there to be followed, or strayed from, 
for such words to be ridiculed. But by making the film
about A.N. Other who was being followed
where the comedy of errors lay in the followers
sowing their errors into how the faith was founded.
With this Monty Python team hit humour gold, that will last.

Cut to life nearly fifty years on and the gerontocracy
with autocratic tendencies of one Donald J. Trump    
whose every public word illustrates a kind of verbal
alchemy in reverse: Everything he says in public
has a half life of withstanding scrutiny through logic
that is shortening by the day. Until today's headlines
won't last one whole day, and remain slightly true.

Like Brian's mother in 'The life of Brian'
we have to say of The Donald, as his fans call him,
the headline that will ring true beyond them all
'He is not the messiah, he is a very naughty boy.'.

A Book Worth Reading

'The Outcast' by Sadie Jones on Vintage books (2008)
and later Penguin (2019) is very Philip Larkin-esque
'They tuck you up/they don't mean to/but they do '
 sort of way - but far better. To hear more about the book
in a half hour radio programme on it please left click here.  

 

The Conveyor Belt Of Life

Have you ever felt like a piece of lost luggage,
taken from the baggage conveyor belt of life
before who put you in flight could claim you?
Your feelings are more common than you think.
Therein lies the problem: the commonness
of the feeling that normalises how we place the 'dis'
into who owns who, and to what attempted effect.

As lost luggage we don't know who to disown ourselves for,
to be owned more carefully in future, than we were before.

I have no answers beyond how thoughtfully I look
at the luggage labels I see that other people come with
and hope that others are similarly careful with mine.  

Before And After

Before judging others for who they are
and what they should have done 
know yourself for who you are:
whoever that is, they will guide you
through different judgements in ways
you will only recognise after.