One F'n Word

One F’n Word

One word

Just one word

Keeps me from sleep

Makes me grind my teeth

And cry like a girl

I can’t use it

It just isn’t right

I can’t replace it

No other says what I want to say

Just the way I want to say it

The thesaurus doesn’t work

The dictionary isn’t any help

I would love to take a drink

Smoke up so I can forget

Suicide might help

But that word would still be there

Haunting me into my next life

I started writing to relax

It worked for way too many years

Then I wrote that word

That one word

Someday I will put that writing on a drive

To work on something else

That one F’n word will stay with me

Calling to me when I am not thinking

Maybe someone who reads this poem will know

They would have been through it

They would have had their own word

And they would have worked it out

And maybe they would be happy

With their own one word

Just Say No

Just Say No

Look at the embers

The smoldering remnants of a lost world

Destroyed by arrogant world leaders

Mere children fighting over their toys

Arguing over the size of their manhoods

How did they let it go so far

How could we not say that is enough

Did we believe the lies they told us

Someone somewhere should have said no

Took the children and spanked their bottoms

And sent them to their rooms

If just one person would have stood up

Denied what they were told and thought for themselves

Children would be playing kickball in the streets

Mothers would be nursing their babies

And songs would be sung

Instead, look at the embers

Think of everything we have lost

And someone please…JUST SAY NO

Mud of the Mind

Mud of the Mind

Thousands of years of mud

Wrapped around my legs

Struggling to reach my mind

To force me to see a reality I didn’t create

Others decided what I should see

What I should hear

And what I should believe

I want to be free of their mud

The ideas they approve of

The thoughts they want me to have

I do not believe their visions

That Cinderella was a good girl

The Wicked Witch was evil

They may have been right

They may have been wrong

Once the mud they created is gone

My mind will tell me the truth

And I will see a reality

Maybe one they cannot accept

But for me it will be true

And that will be all that matters

The Coward

The Coward

Do I see what I think I see

A world gone mad

Terrorized by cowards

Who know nothing more than murder

They are not smart enough to talk

To voice what they want

They hide

Killing women and children

Kidnapping those who no not believe in their god

Killing them by the dozen

I cannot believe what I see

With all of that

The leader of a major country

Afraid to defend the innocents

He uses words to hide the truth

So his people will not panic

So his people will not want to fight

Let him hide in his stone castle

Let him whimper

Smaller countries will defend the people

They will fight the fight

Their man and women will die

Still they will save lives

While a man elected to lead the world cowers

The Broken Soldier

The Broken Soldier

An old man

Over a hundred years old

Laying in a bed

His mind travels back to a time

He lived a life no one had to live

An ANZAC storming the shores of Turkey

An unknown place called Gallipoli

He watched s his friends died on the beach

His brothers died fighting in the trenches

Blood flowing in rivers

Soldiers running across acres of the dead

While officers hide miles away

Sleeping in the wet trench

He cried a tear for every ANZAC who fell

That time affected him

Seeing so much pain and death

He was never again quite right

The boy as gone

All that was left was a broken soldier

With memories he should not have

Even today

A century later

He still remembers

He has shed a billion tears

But when he dies, he will be happy

He will be with his friends and brothers

Once again, laughing and drinking beer in the pub

And he will be happy

The Last Tiger

The Last Tiger

I do not want to die

But I do not want to be the last of my kind

Roaming the jungle

Looking for another

But she is not here

She was killed

Not in an attack

She was killed for greed

Humans jealous of her beauty

Set a trap and walked away

Her foot was caught

As she walked down the path

She struggled and cried

As the wire cut into her leg

Hoping for someone to save her

Her eyes teared

Her growls became mere whispers

It was not a painless death

She suffered beyond reason

For what

For someone to make money

For someone to have a beautiful coat

Or was she killed just for fun

Remember, you will miss her as I do

And you will miss me when my day comes

Especially when your kids ask you a question

When they ask, “What is a tiger”

And all you can say is

“We killed them all”

And then you will change the subject

And you will feel the guilt

I Will Be Their God

I Will Be Their God

I know what you are going to ask

Yes, I am ignoring you

I may be destroying a planet

There may be a baby being born

I may kill thousands of people

Or allow one to live

They may be happy

They may be sad

I have not decided yet

I know a little about their pasts

I am all knowing about their futures

I know what they are going to say

What they are thinking

I decide everything with the stroke of a key

They place me in a zone

Somewhere where I am all alone

Deciding the fate of worlds untold

So, yes, I am ignoring you

At least until the princess is rescued

Only then I can stop typing

Even if just for a little while

For that short time they can be on their own

Then, once again, I will be their god

And I may just let everyone live

At least for today