Label Me, I Dare You

People have tried to pin me down

People have tried to label me

People think they know who I am

They know nothing

People have tried to get inside my head

People have tried to get to know me

People think they understand who I am

They know nothing

People have tried to enter my world

People have tried to be what I am

People think they can live for me

They know me not

People have tried to read my mind

People have tried to see what I see

People think they are in tune with me

They know me not

People have tried to identify with me

People have tried to feel what I feel

People think they sense everything I am

They are not me

No matter how they try

They will never be me

I am what I am

And always will be

No matter how much they profess

To be as one with you

Always remember

There is only one ME.

© Fergus Martin

Apr 2013

The Death Of Black Gold

Death stalked the valleys with a twisted smile

Reaping vengeance on the belligerent

Iron will of devastation could not be turned

Stamping hooves of the acolyte stifling resistance

And in a thousand valley homes

Black stained rivers ran on the faces of the broken

Tears for the death of a life in the dust filled depths

The seams of black gold will echo no more

Villages fell and communities died in the night

All at the sweep of Death’s sharp blade

Slicing through years of mis-managed neglect

With no thought to the lives and worlds to be forfeit

The wheels of their world turn no more and lie silent

Deep dark shafts echo with the bitter cries of the past

Black gold remains but is left untouched in the dark

Still the tears fall for the lives they once had

And in a thousand valley homes

Across villages throughout this great land

Effects of the blade cut deep and are never forgotten

As dreams became forfeit at the stroke of the blade

Black gold now comes from lands far afield

Bought on the cheap back of slave labour rates

Shipped in dark holds at a cost our own

And villages weep as they crumble and die

© Fergus Martin

Apr 2013

Brain Freeze

There are many words

That spin inside my head

And most of them remain,

Unsaid

I came across a man

Just the other night

Who become two men

Much to my delight

A man of many voices

Bouncing this way and that

With Machine gun speed

And a Rat, tat, tat

And when those voices spoke to him

He listened carefully

He chose his answers wisely

And smiled most merrily

“Shut up”

He said listen to the voices

And you may understand

That wherever they may take you

Is not at your command

Emboldened I sought refuge

In the words that he had said

And listen to those voices

Deep within my head

But my voices seem so frail

Most certainly not clever

They sound so weak and fragile

Like a badly tuned zither

“Oh shut up”

But I listen carefully

To see where they will go

And wander just like Alice

Down that sleepy rabbit hole

A hole so deep and welcoming

It spirals into emptiness

And Alice, lovely Alice

Grabs tightly to her dress

Alice, Alice,

Who the fuck is Alice

The words they pour so freely

And fall into the chalice

“Oh Just shut up”

And still they purr and murmur

Charged within their world

That is not mine, now welcoming

Lets see how it unfurls

I throw the words around

Leave them scattered on the floor

Where walls of white surround them

From wounds so deep they pour

Not my room this is

Not red and gaily pictured

Plain white and strangely clinical

And smells like iodine tincture

“Oh shut up”

I met that man the other night

The one inside my head

Who said to me to listen

Hear what my voices said

What my voices said

Was not what I write

They said that I should listen

Each and every night

And so I listen carefully

As they argue to and fro

Where will they finally end

I guess I’ll never know

“Why won’t you shut up?

Just give me some peace

Nurse, please give me my meds

I need some sleep”

© Fergus Martin

Apr 2013

Spinning Wheels

The trains of thought that thunder in the night

Rattle down the tracks, twisting wrong from right

Pulling me this way and that, never quite sure

That the destination I reach will be secure

Safe at a way-point of a sheltered haven

Or stranded alone in my isolation

The end of the journey, so far from the beginning

I open my eyes, and the wheels keep on spinning

© F Martin

2013

Eloquence Lost - Revisited

The eloquence of words is lost

Eloquence that charmed a world

Of light and love and fantasy.

Words no longer live with feeling

Is this what we have become

Lost, without the power of words

The power of words has fragmented

Power that filled imaginations

Of hope and wonder in their lost adventure.

Words no longer drive with such conviction

Has this reduced our ability to evoke

Fragmented without the beauty of words

The beauty of words is hidden

Beauty that took you to a world

Of unparalleled heights of emotion.

Words no longer used with such precision

Is there still some world of light and wonder

Hidden within the eloquence of words

© Fergus Martin

2013