Kevin Saving
Six Epigrams
Absence
Absence can't make hearts grow fonder-
that's a poet's dismal lie.
Love -just like our eyes- can wander,
time won't serve to measure by.
Life's a tad too short to squander,
memory so soon runs dry.
If, within a world of sorrow,
some affection comes your way,
love today and lapse tomorrow-
we were cast from fickle clay:
everything we have, we borrow;
no one ever came to stay.
Bounce
Most human knowledge is pretence,
most 'Experts' know Jack Squat-
when we've examined evidence
'Fuck all' is all we've got.
God's comfort crumbs bob in our wake,
this ferry goes short-haul:
if asked what solace we might take
I'd answer you, 'Fuck all'.
Shooting Match
It's politicians who make wars
as ways of saving face-
they speak of 'Honour' or 'Just cause'
and (sometimes) of 'Disgrace'
though prudence, it seems, still ensures
others die in their place.
The pomp and majesty of State,
the sum of corporate fears,
a 'free'-market inviolate,
a rigged assembly's cheers:
the whole damned shooting-match can't rate
one orphan's abject tears.
Kevin Saving © 2009
Handkerchief
A trusty keepsafe to entrap
all that which secret cavities anoint,
illuminated treasure-map
of silver lakes and rugged points-
whole continents emerge, disjoint
to one galvanic thunderclap.
At pinch, a rustic tourniquet
which (knotted) pesters memory,
wipes cum and caramel away:
like life, a spotted tapestry.
We semaphor a quaint goodbye
to those left standing on the quay,
or wipe from optics smaller fry,
or pocket tears inexpertly.
For all we own and are
For all we own and are,
days narrow into night.
For all we note, compare
the light and the half-light
we'll sniff the evening air
and still fall cowed, contrite.
For all we love and like,
foul seasons follow fair-
monsoon and earthquake strike
for all we do and dare.
And time ticks up the stair
for all we owe, and are.
Minotaur
King Bull, sluggish but proud,
a meadow for his court,
moves through the bovine crowd.
(His reign will prove quite short).
Though flies besiege his face
one consort's undeterred-
he grapples for his place
to rise above the herd.
Kevin Saving © 2009