KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

They seem to think it’s safe now

To draw those boundaries in

Wealth is all that counts these days

As wisdom gets flung into the bin

But we still don’t want to visit folk

Our summer break we’ve now cancelled

Quietly happy not to get involved

With gatherings neighbours held

We were quite happy here at home

Whilst little shops were safely shut

Weren’t bothered in the slightest

About getting our long hair cut

We just don’t want to barbecue

Or sit outside drinking warm wine

When it comes to life’s small pleasures

The sofa will do just fine

Not ones for pubs much anyway

Parties we simply can’t abide

To be frank we’re completely happy

To be ignoring the human tide

Don’t want to go down to the beach

Or drive any distance in the car

Whilst my inner voice is screaming

It’s still too dangerous by far

It’s fine if you want to do these things

I wouldn’t begrudge it you at all

Just respect my choice to not join in

From outside the asylum wall

We’ve needed our supermarket

Gone to a chemist from time to time

All wrapped up in our safety gear

Not like too many other swine

So enjoy your close proximity

Now you’ve been let out once again

It’s not about if there’s a second wave

But more about just when

MAWH, 250620

BOZO

BOZO

Allexpendable
Bozo
deFarquwit
Johnsodyou

I wouldn’t trust him

To run a bath

MAWH, 290520

FUDGE & BUMBLE

FUDGE & BUMBLE

Fudge & bumble 

Bumble & fudge

Deflect the story

With an unwise nudge

Bumble & fudge

Fudge & bumble

Don’t expect numbers

To start to tumble

Fog & bluster
Bluster & fog
We need digital
You're still analogue

Bluster & fog
Fog & bluster
Why not admit
It's a total cluster

Fudge & bumble 

Bumble & fudge

You know what’s needed

Why don’t you budge

Bumble & fudge

Fudge & bumble

We think you’re

A total dumbbell

Fog & bluster
Bluster & fog
More of a poodle
Than a British bulldog

Bluster & fog
Fog & bluster
Despite what you think
You're simply lacklustre

MAWH, 28-290520

‪PAPERS 060520

‪PAPERS 060520

Professor Lockdown ‬
‪Falls onto his sword‬
‪Taking one for the team‬

To keep the tabloids‬
‪From telling the hard truth‬
‪That those numbers mean‬

The finger of blame
Is allowed to be pointed
Unless you're the sainted BJ

Whilst bloody E*pr*ss
Readers choke on their toast
Over the racism of the day

MAWH, 060520

SONNET 130420

SONNET 130420

When going shopping there are golden rules

That need to be followed that is my wish

Should anyone not they’re just bloody fools

Never forget people are so selfish

People must learn that they all need to stay

One metre away then one metre more

If someone comes close keep out of their way

And preferably keep further than four

If your garden is a small postage stamp

Your neighbours outside will all be too near

So you stay indoors unless it’s quite damp

Venturing without brings far too much fear

So self-isolation is all you’ve got

Contact’s overrated like it or not

MAWH, 130420

THE BEAST

THE BEAST

The beast comes calling

Culling

Eliminating

Weak and strong alike

All falling prey

To spend so much time

In suffering and woe

In next to no time

Unthinkably

Whole neighbourhoods

Suffer

The beast arriving

Coughing

Choking

Fever-fuelled fear

Now locking up

To spend endless weeks

In our homes-made cells

Next to unfamiliar

Invisible

Unseen neighbours

Coughing

The beast is ripping

Ripping

R I P-ing

Through a population

Now lining up

To spend eternity

In anonymous boxes

Next to anonymous

Unknowable

Unknown neighbours

Forever

The beast came knocking

Tearing

Causing tears

Of lamentation

Now welling up

To spend year after year

In endless speculation

Next we’ll place blame

Unfathomably

On our neighbours

Abroad

MAWH, Easter 2020

MASS GRAVES

MASS GRAVES

They’re digging mass graves in Chislehurst

Hearing it makes your heart want to burst

Day upon day upon day there’s so many

Faces in places with families and names

Point still silent fingers to place the blame

Day after day after day there’s too many

They’re digging mass graves

For those they can’t save

Dying in isolation

In this shattered nation

Sacrificed so a few can financially gain

Statistically numbed to ease collective pain

Day upon day upon day there’s so many

No one’s hand to hold silently and alone

In darkened rooms more and more gone

Day after day after day there’s too many

They’re digging mass graves

For those they can’t save

Whilst so many still pretend

Thousands are condemned

They’re digging mass graves in Chislehurst

We shout and we rail and we curse

Day after day after day there’s too many

Locked away frightened and hopeless

With a sense nobody could care less

Day upon day upon day there’s so many

They’re digging mass graves

For those they can’t save

This new normality

A savage banality

As some still carry on much as they did before

Another few hundred knock on death’s door

Day after day after day there’s so many

Blinkered in ignorance keep carrying on

Finally waking when their own loved one is gone

Day upon day upon day there’s too many

They’re digging mass graves

For those they can’t save

Why in this modern age

Is there not more rage

They’re digging mass graves in Chislehurst

Hearing it makes your heart want to burst

Day upon day upon day there’s so many

Faces in places with families and names

Point still silent fingers to place the blame

Day after day after day after day

MAWH, 110420

SPRING WALKS

SPRING WALKS

Dawn’s lightshow as we slumber

Night trimmed back to suede

Step out before the world wakes

Into morning’s cavalcade

An intensity of birdsong

All around there’s bright new life 

Losing track on endless tracks

Evaporating strife

Those spring walks of memory

Diving deep into nature’s song

Sustain and feed the soul

Awaited all year long

Still clinging to remembrance

Of walks through field and wood

Now seen through barriers of glass

I’m glad I went out when I could

@MAW_H, 040420

PRISONS

PRISONS

In our lives we all build prisons

To entangle us and snare

The house

The job

The wedding band

Kids for which we have to care

Then life puts up some new ones

Tells us to stay right there

The house

Becomes

Our total world

Because of a health scare

The life we know is changing

There’s nowhere else to be

The house

The lawn

The family

A spring trap you can’t flee

Although you know you can’t escape

That place that you call home

Your life

Your home

Your family

At least you’re not alone

Those prisons we make ourselves

Now shut into by the state

Have life

And hope

And family

Let’s try to enjoy our fate

Real prisons are far worse you know

Few outside will feel so trapped

You’re free

To be

With those you love

In a velvet castle you mapped

In our lives we all build prisons

To make something we can share

Your home

Your folks

Are your cellmates

You need to be right there

MAWH, 240320

SAFETY POEM 220320

SAFETY POEM 220320

Such a lovely

day outside

After that winter

made us run & hide

You may be tempted

to go out there

Where invisible foes

lurk please beware

So if you want

to show you care

Sit down in a chair

& stay right there

Or God knows what harm

You may quietly do

To someone who

you never knew

MAWH

B*G M*C

B*G M*C

I've never desired a B*g M*c

Not once in twenty years

I'd rather be eating plated food

When munching with my peers

Though others think differently

Saying whether you like it or not

You have to if you've got kids

Who's the boss amongst that lot

Some may have another view

Craving a peaceful life

Seek small nuggets of family joy

Amongst life’s many strifes

Let’s go to McD*n*lds

Amongst the ballyhoo

What else are B*g M*c eaters

Going to find to do

Sunday’s queues were endless

It’s replaced the family roast

Those in need of one hot meal

Will possibly miss it most

So now the doors are closing

The fryers and grills gone cold

It’s one more effort to save the lives

Of those who won’t be told

MAWH, 230320

LAST SPLASH

LAST SPLASH

B*gger...

The last splash of milk 

Squeezed from the carton

Means I will have to go

Out shopping again 

Which was seldom a joy

A means to an end

Now turned into a dread

Just to get bread

(@MAW_H, 210320)

BROCCOLI RESPONSE

SHORT POEM IN RESPONSE TO:

“You. Are. Bonkers. To give broccoli the shun

When it comes to health and flavour it's deffo the best one” 
(@DrWhoBritish on Twitter)

You’re right, absolutely

I really cannot disagree

So why did people in our shop

Clear shelves of all but broccoli

Is it a vegetable too far

Does it bring bad memories

As every other box was emptied

Except for lonely broccoli

I couldn’t find one lemon 

Not an onion could I see

Yet they left so much broccoli

I thought “That’s all the more for me!”

Why did swarms of shoppers

Desperate for some veg to buy

Ignore this brassical delight

Learn to love your broccoli

@MAW_H (200320)

POEMS THURSDAY 190320 NEWS & SHOPPING & TV

I DON'T WATCH THE NEWS

I don’t watch the news I won’t watch the news I’ll never watch the news It comes as news to me That assumption I will know What everyone else now knows All those things they claim to know All those facts they think they know Because they choose to watch the news

@MAW_H (190320)


SHOPPING RUN

Now feeling unclean For having been On a shopping run Before day’s truly begun Little veg could I see Except for broccoli (!) Not a lemon to be had Has the world gone gin mad? Much delayed from Sunday Thought we should go today But to avoid hurly-burly Maybe we went too early

@MAW_H (190320)


HAIKU

Room with the TV Lost to a makeshift workplace My madness begins

@MAW_H (190320)

TOGETHER

TOGETHER

The world changes quickly

I’m prepared to display

Pragmatical acceptance

But I don’t have to like it

My fundamental worry

Is that unpleasantness

Becomes the new normality

But I don’t have to do it

I hang on to my belief

That people do much better

If they all work together

But some no longer want it

Rebuilding all those bridges

From shattered relationships

Community connections

We have to work to keep it

This brave new world

Living with the fallout

Of divisive behaviour

Maybe we’ll learn to loathe it

Putting it back together

With pound shop sticking plaster

This is the new normality

Maybe we’ll learn to love it

MAWH, 310120

BRINK

BRINK

We stand on the dawn

Of a timid new age

Fuelled by a cauldron

Of hostility and rage

In the name of a freedom

Locked ourselves in a cage

We stand on a brink

Where flag-waving fools

Cause warm hearts to sink

Whilst people become tools

Hope chooses not to think

When blind satisfaction rules

We stand at the edge

For some bitter change

Where losing is winning

In a world made so strange

Making the win everything

At a cost so deranged

We live in an age

Of anger and doubt

So quick to outrage

Whether for in or for out

Your race, youth or age

Causes the others to shout

We stand near the end

Of a bitter lost fight

Where friend turns on friend

Under cover of spite

What will the dawn bring

From a long cold last night

MAWH, 300120