What If

11/04/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



What if we choose to be kind?

To give of ourselves

Our time and our energy

To support those around us



What if we choose to give thanks?

For the things that others do for us

For help that we receive

And for the privilege that we have



What if we choose to stay positive?

Even in the face of obstacles

That threaten to derail us

And spread love to our neighbours



What if we choose to embrace humanity?

If we lifted up those who lift others,

If we celebrated family and community,

If we look past our differences



What if …

Wonderland

10/04/2021 - Poem a Day Compilation



Oh, to be Alice

Falling down the rabbit hole

Escaping from day-to-day life

Into a world of fantasy



Or maybe to be Dorothy,

Spirited away to Oz

Only to find out

There’s no place like home

Rush

09/04/2021 - Poem a Day Compilation



Somethings don’t deserve your patience

They must be seized

– Like the day –

Taken in hand and moulded

Before the clay dries



        So, rush



Headlong into the snow

To make those angel wings



Onwards into battle

To take the enemy by surprise



And tumble head over heels

In love with life



        Rush, now



Before those legs grow weary

And cannot carry you

Over the hills and far away

To where daydreams escape

From minds lost to the notion

That life is for the living

The Last Image

08/04/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



If I’d known this would be

The last image I’d take of you,

Would I have made the effort

To take another picture?



It’s quite a nice picture:

You’re sitting on a bench

Hair flowing in the breeze

Half a smile on your face



You never really liked it:

The lighting wasn’t flattering

And you didn’t fancy that top

With that particular shirt



Now it’s all I have:

A moment in time

Frozen forever but

Captured in the blink of an eye



So, I don’t think I would

Take another picture of you

Because that’s the real you

And the one I keep in my heart

Peculiar

07/04/2021 - Poem a Day Compilation



I’m peculiarly peculiar

A strange sort of soul

Wonderfully weird

And erratically eccentric



I’m up and down

And round about

Inside out

And back to front



I’m eager and willing

And avoid at all costs

Yes, no and maybe

All rolled into one



I’m sinner and saint

The good and the bad

The lover and hater

And entirely apathetic



I’m high and so low

Flat as a tack

Up and about

And down in the dumps



I’m full of confidence

Drowning in doubt

Creating and destroying

All in one breath



I’m your very best friend

Your absolute worst enemy

Your greatest fan

And ready to tear you down



I’m the ultimate human

Inexplicable alien

Familiar animal

And supernatural pixie



I’m the stories you read,

Late at night, under the covers

While you smile and cry

All by yourself



I’m the builder of my world

In all its curiousness,

Its absurdities abundant

And its style strange



I’m peculiarly peculiar

Atypical and abnormal

Odd, unconventional

And perfectly me

Reluctant

06/04/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



I was reluctant to say hello

I didn’t think you’d say it back

You wouldn’t want to be my friend

You were too good for me



I was reluctant to ask you out

I didn’t think you’d say yes

You wouldn’t want to be my boyfriend

You were out of my league



I was reluctant to say yes

I didn’t think you’d really mean it

You wouldn’t want to be my husband

You were way too successful



I was reluctant to let you go

I didn’t think I could

You wouldn’t want to live like this

You were too much for this world

Always Five

05/04/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



When you were little

I wished you’d never age

You’d stay my precious little princess

Forever and a day

But I never meant for it to happen

Especially not like this



The last time I saw you

Your smile flashed across the park

Your pigtails swishing as you ran

My mind occupied with other things

And you climbed the hill

Ready to slip down the slide



It took me a few minutes

To realise you hadn’t come down

I looked around for you

All to no avail

And the search became more frantic

As the minutes themselves slid by



My heart was beating through my chest

Hands shaking uncontrollably

Air struggling to fill my lungs

As I screamed your name

And fellow parents joined the search

But coming up empty



The police were called

They arrived sirens blaring

To take over the haphazard search

And co-ordinate the organisation

Of checkpoints and interviews

As I broke into a million pieces



As every hour passed, I cried

Tears staining my face

Salt stinging my eyes

The heartache and fear within me

Tearing me apart

From the inside out



Divers scoured the bay

From the mangroves at the shore

To the depths of the ferry channel

Extending the search

Yet still finding no sign of you

Or any clue of where you’d gone



Your face was plastered across the TV

Every network running the story

Of a little girl lost,

Missing, taken

Somewhere out in the world

Away from her grieving mother



My life was turned upside down

As hours turned into days

And days turned into weeks

And still no sign of you

As if you’d disappeared into thin air

Like the angel that you are

 

Strangers blamed me

Their anonymous notes

Shoved viciously into the letterbox

Asking me how I could hurt you

And that I should burn in hell

For something I could never do



The posters with your picture

Stay on every telegraph pole

Replaced within a day

Should they fall or be blown away

Or torn down by unfeeling monsters

Who will never understand



Somewhere you are out there

And I hope you remember me

But as the years drag by

I feel I might be just a dream you have

That haunts you as you sleep

And you don’t know why



I try to imagine what you look like

As the birthdays come and go

And now that you’d be an adult

The fear that I wouldn’t know you

If I passed you in the street

Fills my heart with dread



What music are you into?

Do you still love to read?

There are so many things I want to know

But will never get the chance

Because someone stole you from me

And I fear I’ll never get you back



So, while you’re turning twenty today

I can’t see you that way

My precious little princess

All grown without me there

A life lived that I’ll never know

Because to me you’re always five.