Siberia not Siberia

It's the haunted Polish image

thousands, maybe millions

driven by the bad guys to Siberia

Siberia is a place, defined clearly enough

and many Poles - and other ethnic groups -

have indeed been deported there

But in the Polish mind

Siberia is a hellish entity

the place where innocents go

driven by the bad guys

except in hell you burn

and in Siberia you freeze

Siberia - that Siberia -

includes Kazakhstan, Archangel Oblast

and anywhere else they dumped Poles

So next time your small talk

drifts like snow to Siberia

do discuss which Siberia you refer to

you wouldn't want to get it wrong

would you?

Old Men

a bunch of old men

thinking old men thoughts

about death and misery and physical pain

and mental anxiety about death

with a capital D

living to complain about living

happy in their woes

they take succour in life's sadness

and grieve for what they have lost in life

rather than what is still available to them.

Fly Fly

there's a fly in the room

I open the door and let it out.

the house

even the room

is so big in relation to the fly

it might as well have been the whole planet

but the fly is not yet outside

and outside is where the fly belongs

so I gently push and guide it

till it flies out a window

and returns to the wider world.

I hope he is happier there than here.

Mystery Song

they sing the songs of my younger days

they still absorb my soul

but only for the moment there

not deeper, not quite whole.

what is whole is mystery

what are we is vast

there's nothing more than everything

and everything is past

everything is emptiness itself.

Still Blowing in the Wind

Everyone caught in the morass of culture

TV, music, browsing, news

unable to see what's going on

right in front of them

or outside their front door.

incapable now of being in control

of their own mental wanderings

they blow in the wind of trash

from one dump to the next.

Mind at Peace

the mind is at peace

having vented through art

all the mysterious gunk

that gathers inside

the mind, released

from all its concerns

empty as space

full of contentment

at peace with itself

at peace with a world

far from peace 

Lost and Found

lost in confusion

too many thoughts

on too many subjects

what is important?

wars? attacks? bad news?

what is trivial?
exercise? what you eat and don't eat? peaceful mind?

who am I anyway?

who are you anyway?

who and what do you love?