The day we lost Pompeii to vesuvius – a culture wiped from the earth

 

     While Charlotte Bronte penned  final words to manuscript giving literature fresh Eyre.

 

   Edison had his eye set on moving times – pictures flowing one after the other

 

   Earhart in unstoppable motion managed to be untethered from the earth and cross the oceans.

 

   Franklin D told the FBI to round up commis and fascists – spreading fear and control to the masses

 

  Eisenhower had no picnic either – thought he’d find them in the cinema or the theatre

 

   The first time we saw the moving window that haunted Bill Gates dreams – an opening sound, iconic now it seems

 

   Hawking discovers new theorys – Zuckerberg celebrates the flow of 1 billion masses – another milestone passes

 

   And I on this day of great history  fall fate to this aging mystery with celebrations of birth and another successful 365 days on this earth.

 

 Here is to all on the journey, forever making memories

New year begins

So look deep within

 

Pull those terrible thoughts

The weeds in your mind

 

Walk your neural footpath

Leave new seeds behind

 

Watch the flowers grow

Planted long before

 

See the towering trees

Shade the forest floor

 

Walk beneath the moon

Until you greet the sun

 

Go to far off places

New journeys have begun

 

You may never reap

What you never sowed

 

Tend to your garden

Or you’ll never grow

I walked the path to the end

 

When I got there

 

came back through the grass

 

Leaving a trail, for you to follow

 

So that you would not suffer the twists and turns

 

For the grass is greener than the reality

 

O Dublin, you fair city

Cobbled streets, bounce beneath our feet

Carrying old souls and young dreamers

Arthur Guinness, your pearly gates

How you taught us, what’s worth a wait

You are your people, not your place

Beckett, Behan, Wilde and Yeats

You’ve worn many a different face

 

Stephens Green to College Green

All the change you must have seen

Your flower sellers see it all

On Grafton, where they’ve pitched their stall

Conversation carried on the breeze

From Poolbeg towers to the Liberties

There’s not a spot where strangers seat

For we’re all friends, who’ve yet to meet

 

Your tribes spread both North and South

Whisper your name from their mouth

Singing songs, chanting rhymes

Fond new memories, rare auld times

Where would we even start

You’ve carved your name in all our hearts

From Ballymore to Dublin Bay

The Liffey carries dreams away

 

Dublin, all of this to say, I may be gone tomorrow, but I’m here today

Created in the flow of lava

I am volcanic, suddenly changed

hardened, un-igneous, different

Metamorphosised – Metamorphic

The flowers still bloom

Where they were planted – years before

Her green thumbprint all over

Garden of Eden in urban wasteland

 

Her calloused hands are tired

Unable for the digging of the earth

The tackling of bramble and brush

She is confined to house and home

 

Yet – when the sun comes

Clouds lift, unveiling her children

Watcher from the window

Mother of all beauty in nature

 

A rose tree ascends to heaven

Grown of her blood, her sweat

Flowering year after year

Something living – after life

My heart is my limit

I can’t control who’s in it

 

My mind is my limit

When Terrible thoughts slip in it

 

My hands are my limit

They wander when I’m not looking

 

My legs are my limit

It’s like they’re never working

 

My back is my limit

It breaks at thought of moving

 

My pride is my limit

When I am facing defeat

 

My soul is my limit

It seems I will never be free

 

O, theres love and pain

triumph and defeat

everything’s your limit

 

when your mad at the world

and everyone in it

He is Son, Brother, Husband.

He is Selfish, Lazy, Hopeless.

He is Unequal, Unworthy.

He is Complicit in the silence.

He is working to be better.

He is hopeful for the future.

 

She is Mother, Sister, Wife

She is Outspoken, Fearless

She is Supportive, Loving, Caring.

She is more than she seems.

She is Light in Darkness.

She is Pillar of Perfection.

 

They are Interwined, Connected.

They are Unequal parts of the sum.

They are Nothing and everything.

They are Sharing broken paths.

They are Breaking broken moulds.

They are in this together.

You run along rivers

I flow in unison with.

Seeing you there,

Searching for bridges.

 

Stopped on overrun riverbank.

Deep water pulls me in.

Enticing me, streaming whispers

 

Torn apart by expanse,

Chasing notions of love.

Stepping stones in my mind,

Used to bring us close.

 

We dance through cold nights

until bracing morning comes

waking us from delusion

River slows to meandering pace

Revealing bashed, unbroken bridge

 

I dare not cross this distance

for love lives on in memory.

Across unmoving stones on wild rivers

They wait to be tread upon

Revealing lost wonders.

We were young lovers

Whispering sweet nothings

In a rush — worried about the end

Never living in the moment

 

I don’t know when we drifted

Suddenly untethered — floating

Struggling to get back — to you – to us

The world watched on as we failed

 

I think of you — more than myself

In the whistle of the wind

The stains on the wood counter

Deteriorated — like you said

 

Broken down over time

We treated it right

Sanded — Varnished — Polished

Still — it could not survive

 

If it had been marble

in its pristine beauty

We’d have been deceived

Until the day it shattered

From the cracks – we could never fix