Parasite

Yellow stars shooting down
Sucked dry of all their light
Denuded of celestial gown
No longer shining high and bright

Trees growing broad and tall
A black blot on the green
Parasite on the ivy wall
Making the serene scene unclean

Violent glint in the fire
A sad song on the lyre
Violet tempers pushing tires
With sticks stolen from the Pyre

There’s the smell of burning rubber
Vinegar mixed with the cider
A blood stain left on the scrubber
Abuse stockpiled for the outsider

What is evil if not a parasite
In high definition colour
Growing off the good
Together

Sometimes there’s nothing you can do
No easy way to prune
For to destroy one is to destroy the other

Bully

Pan the camera
To Tommy Panama
Wielding a machete
To destroy paper mache
He feels so very strong
While doing something wrong
He laughs at Shawn’s sobs
And then viciously robs
Shawn of all dignity

Tilt the camera down
To young tearful Shawn Brown
His artwork project’s gone
He’s as weak as a pawn
Can’t stand up to Tommy
He can’t cry to mommy
For there’s a code of honour
Don’t tattle to the teacher
He sees his grade destroyed
Cut down by Tommy’s new toy
School a torturous place
Shawn has lost all face

Twenty years later
Nothing has changed
Tommy still a dictator
More than a little deranged
A business mogul
An artist of the deal
Hills fall to his yodel
Real estate pays his meals

Twenty years later
Shawn still a timid mouse
He’s a museum curator
Saving up for a small house
Nervous of every visitor
‘Please don’t damage the art sir’
Nervous of every new flutter
He can’t talk without a stutter

144 Duels

Enter Old John Barley
Fastest gun in the West
His hands are ne’er shaky
His holsters are speed blessed

Hundred and forty three dead
By old John’s quick drawing hands
He whirls in a wind of lead
Destroying dread brigand bands

Endless youth seeking legend
Spray old John with their bullets
But he escapes into the wind
Wounded but alive, bereft of wits

Thirty two years marks this John today
An old man with a gun and a belt
Wherever he goes he cannot stay
He seeks only peace but people won’t let
…

Young Jake Honeylake
New kid from the East
Wiley as a snake
As strong as a beast

He finds John in the desert
He fires a shot. John’s hurt
Blood dyes red John Barley’s shirt
The legend  falls to the dirt

Now Young Jake Honeylake
Quickest draw in the West
No place to sleep… awake!
The challengers won’t let him rest

Black and White

The interaction
Chaos and order
Shaping the Way
A zigzag line
In the middle

Spiral out
To the eight trigrams
The elements of Space and Time
What was, what is and what will be

Go back in
Mysterious Yin
And familiar Yang
Incomplete without the other
Follow the Way on the border
Complement energies of the Known with the Unknown

A precarious journey