Spring has sprung nature has gone mad.

The birds are singing early, waking me at six o’clock.

Trips to the garden centre, are back on the agenda.

The lawn mower is working hard, cutting down the grass in our back yard.

Daffodils are blooming, primroses glowing in the sun.

The beach hut is opened and ready for a summer of seaside fun.

Planning is under way for holidays and sunny seaside away days.

The caravan is ready to play its part in our summer holidays.

The start of the long school summer holiday

No more uniform or catching the school bus

No more arriving and bunking of at the first break

Only returning in time to catch the school bus home

Just long hot days in permanent sunshine what bliss

I had a project in mind I was always building rafts

Old metal cans from the farm and bailer twine

The difference this time was just the depth of the water

The old sand pit in Great Holland was my chosen venue

I picked a spot to moor the unsophisticated craft

When it was built a minor maiden voyage she was given

We tied her up at the end of the day

Some other adventure beckoned and the raft was left alone but not forgotten

Some days later we decided to return to the pit

A police car and the bomb squad were blocking our way

What the hell was going on a mystery unfolds

When the police and the bomb squad had moved on

It transpired a bag full of explosives was found in our pit

Just beneath a raft tied to the bank

Who put it there was a mystery never unwound

I always thought I may be drowned

I never thought I could be blown up

My rafting adventures carried on for all of my childhood

And I still cannot swim

Let’s all live in a fairer society.

Where people who work reap their just rewards.

Not my words but our illustrious leaders.

They are such lying bleeders.

Fight for your country work hard and pay your dues.

And when you get old and frail you won’t be able to afford a pair of shoes.

Your government will ignore your needs leave you to die in winter in your cold home.

The welfare state you funded is being torn down by a government that doesn’t care if you die alone.

They’ve had all your contributions.

Now if you die no more pension to be paid.

It’s a simple financial calculation.

The dead don’t need any kind of state aid.

Living in a living hell never feeling all is well

Always feeling something’s wrong

Never being able to just get along

Always being the oval in a round hole

Never touching all the sides

Mental illness rarely ruins just one life

It fills many with grief and strife

Always striving most often failing

Trying to fit in with emotions flailing

The relentless pattern of highs and lows

The turmoil that cannot be explained so no one knows

A future that cannot be predicted a life lived in the now

No plan no stability no goals you don’t know how

Another internment a medication tweak

For what? A day, a month, a week

You want what we have a life a future

Not a never ending cycle of Bi-Polar

The options are becoming narrower

Either cure it or leave me alone

Lunch in Connaught Avenue, good god what a racket.

Waitresses shouting about the colour of their hair.

Dreadful music playing in the background polluting my ears.

We only came in because we were desperate let’s hope the food is worth the wait.

It should be good for what it is, it’s costing a packet.

If they turned the dreadful music of they wouldn’t need to shout.

It looked good when it arrived, it tasted good too.

Sadly I spent the rest of the day trying to wash the taste of salt away.

Penknives are for making pens

Flick-knives are for people that bite their nails

Stanley knives are for killing people called Stanley

Penknives are very useful for sharpening pencils

Flick knives are very useful for killing people

Stanley knives are very useful for cutting polystyrene

Penknives are very useful for little boys to make catapults

Flick knives are for criminals without finger nails

Stanley knives are good for carving beach hut names

All knives are good for people that make first aid kits

Brightlingsea is by the brightling sea.

It sparkles in the sunshine it’s just the place to be.

It’s got promenade and beaches.

It’s got countryside and fields just on its outer reaches.

It’s got paddling pools and boating lake.

And views enough to make your heart ache.

With the town the coast and estuary.

And lots of pubs to keep you merry.

A town green and a social scene.

A few people who seem to never have been.

Takeaways and cafes for those who cannot cook.

We’ve hung on to our library for those that like to read a book.

Course and sea fishing for those that like to cast a hook.

Please don’t all come at once just visit and have a look.

I might volunteer for destination Mars

A one way trip no journey home

A beginning or an end no answer known

Just traveling expectantly destination almost unknown

I’m probably too old with nothing left to offer

Most won’t be around to see the launch

But what a gift to be part of the brave new world

Rewrite the rules and start afresh

An end to the class system and the power of money

No more unfair educational advantage

But I expect that the one man with a gun will become the king

Survival of the ruthless is how this mess begun

Our lives are once twice thrice bemoaned

But is it justified, that we should moan

Our Queen sits on a bejewelled throne

Everyone seems to own at least one smart phone

We give our largesse to those that we deem to be fitting recipients

We donate with our smart phones to rebuild a corrugated tin house

Do we really understand what it’s like?

Or are we giving cash to salve our conscience

How can you choose between each deserving cause?

The cynic in me says that the pictures of kids earn the most

I sit here in a quandary do I give kids clean water

Or do I help the residents of Vanuatu

I could be said to be on the horns of a dilemma

To whom am I going to send my fiver?

How can a mere human make a judgement this scale?

I’ll probably procrastinate and do nothing for anybody

I need more time to work out who is more deserving

The dilemma of the horns on which I perch is that everybody is deserving

In the dark recesses of my mind I see this life’s predilection for evil

In the sunny side of my mind I see the appreciation of beauty

It is all in the balance, of good and evil

How to weight the scales in favour of good

How to balance the scales in a country that wants to criminalise the poor

Asking us to turn our backs on the persecuted who come knocking at our door

It’s time for us to stand up and say this isn’t done in my name, life doesn’t have to be this way

*“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”*

*The communist party manifesto*