Casino
No clocks shades of addiction
Drawn day indistinguishable from night
Rotating mirrored ball twinkling stars
Crystal sconce fixtures teardrop prisms
The setting sun flipped like
Tossed coin suspended in midair
Calling heads landing tails clinked
Into Lady Luck slut machine
Winsome charmer on the prowl
Fixated on evening score for
Last time’s losses re-vowing commitment
To never again in vain
Spinning roulette wheel beyond control
Snake eyes crapshoot no dice
Ace of hearts in hole
One-eyed jack about-face drawing card
Deep pockets turned inside out
Embossed last chance silk linings
Bloodshot eyes saggy hangover lids
Yawning one for the road
Time to call it quits
Pick up chips can’t afford
To still have plastic justifications
Credit limit not yet spent
Infamy Revisited
By
Bernard Vance Kyle
Copyright, 2002
Some tales will Thrill & some will chill,
With Schemes of Daring Do,
And some can Sicken to the Heart,
The likes of me and you.
And Fiction palls in Earthly Halls,
When Truth with Courage stands,
And Heroes rise with smoke dimmed Eyes,
To help with eager Hands.
For Infamy did rise again,
When Planes with massive Powers,
Pierced the Sky to let all Die,
And Collapse the Great Twin Towers.
So Forget ye not, this Heinous Plot,
Come Raise a prayer to Heaven,
For History will mark that Day,
That Day of Nine eleven...
MUD SLIDE
Whole villages slither by downhearted
Desperate needy souls without recourse
Abandoned huts cling to hillsides
Knee deep red clay slicks
Stray dogs buried under rubble
Cherished family heirlooms grime infested
Pet songbird trapped behind bars
Gold cage exposing blackened ribs
Picking up bits and pieces
Of beloved lives devastatingly lost
Decomposed bodies clear tarpaulin mummies
Unceremoniously dumped in mass graves
Rancid stench permeating burial mounds
Grief-stricken anxiously trying to cope
Calloused hands digging through debris
Tragic avalanche reeking sorrowful guilt
Flooding heavy rains preceded disaster
Sheer bluff came crashing down
Shaky grip gritty cliff hangers-on
Struggling to rebuild eroded future
MAUNGAKEIKEI
A singing axe made naked Maungakeikei,
Some settler men a sacred Totara killed.
The grief of Tane Mahuta was vented,
And Rongo wept upon that naked hill.
Those Pakeha then realized their error
Of desecrating Maungakeikei's crown.
To ease the grief of Tangata Whenua,
A pine from Monterey was bedded down.
It grew to massive size, that sacred pine tree,
And shaded Maungakeikei from the sun.
Tane Mahuta had smiled upon it
And made sure that his curse was well undone.
Then came a man of very twisted vision,
Who saw himself a warrior of the past.
Imagined all the warpaint and the feathers,
Attacked poor Maungakeikei in the dark.
The shadow of his moku echoes visions
Of imaginary battles with his foes.
Their juices stain his chin in feasts of conquest,
It's how, in his skewed mind, his mana grows.
He grunts and wields his mere with conviction.
It roars and spins its hungry metal teeth.
Chewing through the whiteness of the tree-flesh,
Carpeting the ground like snow beneath.
That pine tree through its stature had grown tapu.
A child of Tane Mahuta indeed!
The twisted one could not cut through at that time,
But struck a mortal blow that would succeed.
Six years it took before that pine tree's passing,
A time to stand in awe and say farewell.
Tane Mahuta's new child will grow there,
And once again we'll see our One Tree Hill.
© Kim Randell 2005
Danger Signs
That droning sound can only be one thing
It is time to go down and be amoung
our family
Discuss the tedium of hours
away from the privacy of our rooms
What we call individuality
Sacrificed lest yet for our safety
Mutual respect for our spaces
Ahead of the dignity of graces
we call on the memory
of our heroes instead
as our neighbors die
explosions above their
heads and stones
buildings can be rebuilt
innocence
cannot.
5:10 Aug 19th
THE SPORTING LIFE.
By
Bernard V Kyle
[C] 2005
Now Rugby will never Bug me,
While the Ticket for Some, is the Cricket,
If you're Seven Feet Tall, there's Basketball,
And Soccer, if you Just want to Kick it !
That Tennis is Surely a Menace,
For those who Remain Overweight,
And a Fast Game of Squash, Oh Golly Gosh,
Needs Coronaries that can Dilate !
Cards are attractive, if you are Inactive,
And Darts, will minimize Strain,
Weight lifting of course, Needs the strength of a Horse,
And Chess needs a Brain - in the Main..
There's many a Sporting Attraction,
And Games with no Effort, I'm Told,
But surely your Health and Maybe your Wealth,
Will improve, if you'll just get Involved !
Now Gambling on Sport is a Problem,
It's even less Certain than Shares,
One day you'll be making a Fortune,
While next, you'll be selling your Wares..
This Watching the Sport on the Telly,
With a "Tinny" or two in the Hand,
Will Bring you No Bruising and maybe some Snoozing,
So Appeals to an Increasing Band.
But don't be a damned Couch Potato,
Get out and Give it a Go,
You don't have to be a John Walker,
Or even a Florence Flo Jo !!
There's good Reason for being a Player,
And Getting involved in some Sport,
The Effort involved, you need to be Told,
Could Delay the Day of "La Mort. "
Now you may be as old as a Grandpa,
Yet Sport, can be One of your Goals,
You can Ruin the Walk, by Playing some Golf,
Or get on with Playing some Bowls,
But Whatever your Age it's Important,
To Function as Well as you Can,
So give it a Go and ere long you Know,
You'll be more than an old Also Ran..
Yet Athletes need to Remember,
And it's True, for All who will See,
One day you'll rank as the 'Top Dog,'
While Next, The Fire Hydrant You'll be !!
********
Among the apples
Among the apples sat a fresh young leaf,
Through the branches,
To the ocean she could see,
The fruit pickers came,
Time and again,
Over the years, stealing her friends.
The young leaf wallowed, as she began to age,
And spent all her time thinking about that day…
That day, when she nearly left home,
The day she decided it was time to go,
The ocean was calling,
Begging her to come and play,
She had been too scared, and decided to stay.
Now all her friends had gone,
And on her own she stayed.
The ocean didn’t call anymore,
And the pickers didn’t come,
The apples were not plentiful,
As to the years, the tree had succumbed.
So the leaf sat each day on her branch,
Wishing she had left, when she had the chance.
Knowing her thoughts would get her nowhere,
She broke her own twig, and fell through the air.
She assumed she was to fall to her death,
When suddenly she realised, she hadn’t hit the ground yet.
With slight hesitation, she looked around,
The ground beneath, was far to be found.
She let her veins relax, as the wind held her tight,
She felt safe and secure, and let go of her fright.
The salty breeze, engulfed her at once,
She enjoyed this feeling, as in the wind she spun.
Her friend the wind carried her to the ocean, where she had never gone.
When she asked is this the end?
He replied, no, you’ve only just begun.
Late 2005.
Did you know the entire South Island was quaranteened for didymo?
I had to carefully consider if I had any to declare, but nobody seemed to be listening anyway and I did not like it on my salad. Seaweed is infinitely better, and you do not really have to declare it as you tend to get it on the way, not from another land, per se, but from the misty aft, the places in between where it is neither day nor night, living or dying, black or light.
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
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
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
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.
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
