Insanities

 Insanity 1

Perhaps we are but parasites
upon the face of this old earth
who, now and then, reacts
destroying quite a lot of us

It seems insane
that we should want
to aid her in her task.

Sept 2002



Insanity 2

If I like you and you like me
why is it that we can't agree
to differ?

To kill for all the paltry reasons
people trot out plausibly
is such a waste of life.

Insanity indeed.

Sept 2002



 Insanity 3

All of us fear what we don't understand
- just watch a dog or a cat -
but that's no reason to kill the thing.
What kind of madness is that?

Sept 2002


 Insanity 4

We put our cats and dogs to sleep
when they're too sick to survive
so why are we so intent on keeping
suffering folk alive?

We insist the terminally ill should live
while healthy babies are killed;
this is the kind of insanity
that leaves my spirit chilled.

Sept 2002


Insanity 5 

Human life is sacred
or so the laws decree
what makes us so special?

Because we have superior
communication skills
we really reckon ourselves

we lord it over everything
and think we can call the shots.
A kind of megalomania?

Sept 2002

Insanity 6 

Two Men

Two men sit and cry
two men wait to die
one is in prison, one is not
one is cold, the other is hot.

One will be given a lethal injection
releasing him from this life
because it's the humane way to go
even though he killed his wife.

The other lies in a hospital bed
he will not last the night
yet he must die in agony
to kill him wouldn't be right.

Two men sit and cry
two men wait to die
one a murderer given a buffer,
one an innocent left to suffer.


Insanity 7

Under Bridges

Life was cartons
under bridges
begging coins from passers by
newsprint blankets
cardboard mattress
sleeping underneath the sky
just a youngster
not yet twenty
faithful mongrel by his side
eating sometimes
bathing rarely
How he lived, and how he died.


Insanity 8

Human Garbage

I saw a woman lying there,
just lying on the ground,
as if she'd simply gone to sleep
in a comfy place she'd found
except the place was white with snow
her bed was hard and gray
and the blankets that now covered her
bore news of yesterday

And the silent stars looked down on her
to bid a fond goodnight
to this, their child, now fast asleep
so still, and cold, and white
and people were just walking past
as if she wasn't there;
perhaps they they hadn't noticed her
perhaps they didn't care.

I wondered where she came from
and what her name had been
what tales she might have told us
of the many things she'd seen.
Just one more of life's tragedies,
a silent bitter end
for someone who perhaps had been
a mother, or a friend.

Were there none to mourn her?
I wondered as I stood
and offered up a little prayer -
I thought that someone should -
for soon she would be carried off
examined and cremated
like so much that is tossed aside
her value underated.



© 2002

Insanity 9

Canned Hunts

Canned hunts: barbaric,
cowardly, obscene;
hand reared animals
drugged, confined, and shot
by men with guns but no balls,
the young die when the mother falls
and the "hunter" ups and walks.
Animals without a choice
crying without a voice
but oh! how money talks.

©  2003


Insanity 10

Progress

Things have changed.  We've come so far.
We often don't know how lucky we are.
We fly to the moon and study the stars;
we travel in trains and planes and cars.

We can feed the world, well most at least,
yet still some starve while others feast.
We are no more than savage beasts;
our brains grew larger, but we decreased.

We treat each other with such disdain,
ignoring one anothers pain.
We've grown so cold and inhumane
and one man's loss is another man's gain.

Our animals are cruelly used
often neglected and much abused,
some sick folk are even amused.
Can that really be excused?

Is there anything that we need
to justify this kind of deed?
Does self-content, like a noxious weed,
choke us with laziness and greed?

What is humanity's ultimate goal ?
What do we see as our primary role?
Can we get out of this awful hole?
And what do we gain in exchange for our soul?

It's like some terrible pact we've made
a kind of intelligence/feelings trade
and now it seems we're too afraid
to admit the piper must be paid.

Where oh where will this all end?
Will we ever comprehend?
Can we hope we'll all transcend;
wake up one day, and buck the trend?

© 2003


Insanity 11

LMF

They went bravely into battle 
those aeronauts of old
in flimsy looking aeroplanes,
fondly known as kites.

Many barely more than boys
in search of some adventure,
they ranged the wide blue yonder
with scant hope of return.

Dante's Inferno played out nightly
in glorious technicolor
as friends and crewmen did their bit
all for for King and Country

til, traumatized, courage gone,
filled with abject horror, they were
callously, cruelly, stripped of rank
as Lacking Moral Fibre.

© 2003


Insanity 12

Running Out of Time
We have managed to slow the earth's rotation measurably 
in the last fifty years by damming huge quantities of water.
We waste so much, and what we don't waste, we poison.

What sort of people wantonly
wreak havoc on the place they live?
Such feckless, reckless, ill-advised behaviour
has me baffled.

This better life we strive for,
how will it save us from
tornadoes, floods and hurricanes,
the whole environment in turmoil?

The planet warms, the ice sheets melt,
the sea increases giving rise
to stronger winds and heavier rain,
loss of land and life.

Weather systems all awry means death
for many; starving, fighting,
fire and brimstone, hell on earth,
unless we make some changes.

To bring down mother nature's wrath
upon our heads is foolishness,
yet still we close and eyes and smile,
pretend it isn't happening.

When all around is chaos, maybe
then we'll stop and contemplate
then look into the faces of our children
and despair.

© 2005


Insanity 13

Man Shrugs

Ice melts and glaciers tumble,
seas crash and clifftops crumble;
rain forests die of thirst,
dry dusty ground is cursed.

Storms rage and typhoons level,
trees burn as fires revel,
land drowns as rivers rise.
Earth turns, heaves, and sighs.

She is strong and will recover;
not so her sorry lover.
Man shrugs, turns away;
no more he can say.

© 2006

Insanity 14

(A Wing And A Prayer)

When I think of where humanity's bound
I'm tempted to despair.
There's death and destruction all around,
we're polluting the air, the sea, the ground
and still we ignore the death knell sound.
We're on a wing and a prayer.

Why do some people never learn -
is there any hope at all?
Are we determined to crash and burn?
Is our children's future of no concern?
There's time to halt the downward turn
if only we heed the call.

A gung-ho attitude drowns the screams
that issue a warning note.
Not enough people care, it seems;
we merrily cheer our favourite teams,
heading for hell on a sea of dreams,
in a rusty, leaking, boat.

© 2006