Lichfield

Lichfield
Doomed Dominion
Prey to Viking plunder
Loyal to the King in time of War
Steadfast

Fine square
Market Bustle
Traders tout for business
Punters pause and procrastinate
No sale


Statue
Tribute on land
The wand’rer lost at sea
So far from home missed from his hearth
Adieu


Reflect
Upon water
Under the world where
Shadows are playing at the art of
Being


Three Spires
Reaching skywards
Grey Stone fingers grasping
The heavens seeking salvation
Kings sleep

A collaboration between Gary Longden, Val Thompson, Ben Macnair ,Janet Jenkins and Ian Ward

J'Accuse

You fancied me once
Fingering me lovingly
Running your hands down my spine
Stroking me
You wanted me so much
That you bought me

Now I lie discarded
Abandoned amongst the rest
Your interest has moved on
Your expressions of intent unfulfilled
Left on the shelf
Sometimes you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

A Public Death

They arrived as shadows, silent fluid shapes
Seventy men ,armed avengers
No match for casual guards, wives and children
Bullets drilled the fate of the five dead
Played out on a screen in real time

A lifeless corpse, drained of blood
Stripped of possessions, dumped.
From anonymity to notoriety
Then consigned to oblivion.
A private affair

The towers had crumbled as dust
Madrid baked in incendiary heat
Helpless passengers mercilessly interred
Paradise blown to hell
Played out on a screen in real time

Wild crowds danced in jubilation
Lacking only a head carried aloft
Wide-eyed with hate, dizzy with revenge
The cameras caught every whoop of
A private affair

From darkness comes darkness
From light comes light
In life as in death, what’s right is right.