Dr Charles Frederickson

Seashells

Sand pebbles stretched azure tiderip
Vacant shells winding staircase evacuations
Homeless crawling into glazed carapace
Disoriented strangers forwarding address unknown

Black oyster pearl scooped out
Carried away by abandoned echo
Accompanied by bivalve mussel castanets
Break dancing surf’s humdrum beat

Fossiliferous beaches embedding piscine spirals
Seascape riddled with sedimentary boredom
Fabulist enigmatic true grit mercreatures
Cerulean wrapped in fetal seaweed

Composite dolphin equine sea mini-monster
Tiny hippocampus saddled bony plates
Cyan white caps Neptune ridden
Grasping prehensile comet tail reins

Bone dry skeletons craving tans
Burnishing driftwood into petrified agate
Barefoot print traces wiped out
Sluggish frothy wake waving goodbye

Bernie Kyle

TERRORISM,
By
Bernard V Kyle.
[C]2002


They Walk, They Stalk, There's Covert Talk,
They Hide, they Sneak . They Drive,
They Board the Bus, without a Fuss
And amongst themselves, Connive.

What Hatred fuels their Evil Deeds,
No Religion Preaches Thus !
For Children Die or Injured lie,
When a Bomb destroys a Bus.

Their Targets know no Earthly Bounds,
A Train, A Plane ! A Tower !
Such Heinous Deeds against men's Creeds,
The Peaceful must Empower.

For Peoples are Irate, Incensed,
And Countries Mobilise,
But the Fear must be that, Uncontrolled,
The World could Vaporise !.

For the World now has, both Neutron Power,
And Destructive forms so Vast,
That set upon the World at Large,
Each Day could be our Last.

So Terror must De- escalate,
And The Drums of War must Deaden,
Or Terror in this World of Ours
Will lead to Armageddon

Charles Frederickson

Past Present

1
Scurrying crabs reclaim shell-shocked sandscape
Before faltering light burns out
Heritage shucked lustrous pearls looted
Snapping turtle eggs burial crypts

Unhealed scars heroic pulsating veins
Sliding down ribcage bunker cave-ins
Combat fatigue mindful of revenge
Sweaty sniper bullet casing souvenirs

Claptrap pincers fill check-out vacancies
Empty conches staring hunger down
Tubular organs grinding to halt
Siphoned off lifeblood drained dry

2
Ziggurat temple honored god Marduk
Beyond reach towers spiraling heavenward
Straw-mud bricks slimy bitumen mortar
Gates to afterlife garland festooned

Once fertile Mesopotamian Shinar plain
Etemennanki furlong square Hanging Gardens
Ancient world’s wondrous terraced flora
Babylonia yearning to breathe free

Eons of devastating warfare later
Foundation rubblework bed left unmade
Idle chatter gobbledygook wise cracks
Slow fixes doomed to anarchy

3
Fabulous Assyrian lapis lazuli inlay
Nine heads eleven horns scarlet
Scaly wings swishy serpentine tail
Beast ascended from bottomless pit

Glorified visions faded revelations blindsided
Monster slain by double-edged sword
Decadent hedonistic orgies lustful revelry
Parched lips kismet fatal kiss-offs

Final conflict lamb ultimately victorious
Universal God’s prophetic covenant restored
Hell-bent on winning lost cause
Retributive martyrdom lying in wait

Jan Oscar Hansen

Disturbed Sleep

police sirens tore into the night and
darkness undulated,

flooded shop
entrances and yards before settling
back to black mirror;

stars snowed
in the outer galaxy, a few fell into
streets, glowed, like malignly ember,
on asphalt;

a widow looked out into
the street below with total disinterest,
drew curtains and went back to sleep;

silence dripped from old roof tiles,
kept the lonely awake.

Nicholas Alexander

Time Ends

Time ends for everybody
At the end we hear the kind words
of Family and Friends

at the end

Before we fall we may suffer
but afterward, we lie in peace

Keeping ourselves
in daylight

Leaving our skin under skylight
our brittle bones no longer matter
our exposures and sins no longer
count against us

Our diseases now dormant
our selves liberated

no longer home
no longer there
lying there still and silent