poems

THERE’S A MESSAGE HERE

Flicking through the channels, see the Boston strangler conning

an old woman, her life gone. Nazi sniper taking Jews’ lives

at the breakfast table telescopic style.

Would I pick America and the crazy people, real car chases

and shootings or nice quiet England see a lad play for his team

and date an Irish girl? Give me a publishing deal!

See a script writer showing off his work and his nice plush flat. When me?

Vietnam hovers in my mind, 3-4 million dead, things not what they seem.

Try to exist in my head, have a nice girl now, Norwegian lady and keep her happy

and look after her well. There’s a message to be told on my trashy TV

of the state of America and 21^st century life.

What does it mean? I don’t know…

IRANIAN CORROSION

A sense of old age, a sense of corrosion.

All of this nasty metal, when you touch it,

it makes a weird noise.

You can feel it all over the city.

Every metal object is corroded.

And in this city of metal

even the people are corroded.

You can feel the humidity

getting into your body.

IN TIME

In time we will lose some of our planets, cities, due to violent events.

Earthquakes will claim a few, a game of chance when and where, collapsing

buildings, crushed people dying in carnage. What next? A tidal wave,

millions of tons of water at transonic speed.

Rising up, amplified by the coast, a hundred feet high, drowning, smashing

its way inland.

Swamping a city, bringing down skyscrapers like dominoes.

A race against time to escape. Many don’t make it, ask those in Banda Aceh.

What about volcanic destruction?

Mountain of fire spewing lava and hot gas

onto sleeping inhabitants, waking them up.

No time to sleep, do that when you’re dead.

Run for your life to get out before ash burns all.

Not to mention countdown to meteorite impact, death for all from outer space!

LOST SOULS

The crime is with the leaders, you caused the death of thousands,

destroyed two cities. Cursed your generation so it became the guinea pig,

the atomic generation. You all glow in the dark, legacy lasting to my life.

Now more have the bomb, ten thousand times bigger than the Hiroshima firecracker,

that destroyed your city. Old people walk happily down the street,

look them in the eye, they don’t blink. See into their soul and witness what they saw. Beside them young people holding hands and enjoying each other’s conversation,

no cares in the world. New generation, innocent? Children holding their parents’ hands

and looking happy. Will they ever experience those awful scenes and events from sixty

years ago? What do they think of their relatives who lost their lives,

do they think to themselves, what was all that? Did it really happen?

Time moves on but one question hangs in the air, breathlessly, still poignant:

Will it happen again? Who, what will start the madness, how many will die

in the next mushroom cloud? You, me, my family, our world?

 ...my books are on amazon look for Nick Armbrister...