Theodora

I hold your gaze

With my blue eyes

You choose a card

I feed you lies

My voice is honey

My manner beguiling 

You miss the signs

Just see my smiling

How kind I was

A drink to buy you

You see the room

Start to spin by you

The darkness falls

As I lean in 

Perchance to kiss you?

No, to sink teeth in

A quiet corner 

Of a darkened pub

You came here seeking

Sinful love

Instead I drain you

Of your sweet blood

And then release you

For the thieves

To empty your pockets

As I silently , leave. 

Is This When It Gets Better?

Is This When It Gets Better?.

They say it gets worse

Before it can improve. 

But it's got so much harder

I'm finding hard to prove

This theory in a nation

That's lost its drive to love

Hope has taken flight

Like a eager turtle dove

They drive the mental breakdowns

They tell us we are feckless

To give up work in despair 

They say that we are reckless

Yet people they are dying

More so at their own hands 

As no one's their to help them

As no one understands. 

The rivers flow with sewage

When they were full of fish

The paths all lose their width

As nature spreads its fingers

And stretches through each slish. 

They starve the council's coffers

Then blame them for their cuts

A clinical gaslight tactic 

Explained with ifs and buts

They leave our veterans in the streets 

Then blame asylum seekers

They know the money is all there

These slime still seek to cheat us. 

They blame the poor guy with a phone

That gets him help and safe warm refuge

They blame your neighbours with a telly

Who shelter from the deluge

Of debt and hard demands for cash

That batter their souls completely 

While ultra rich just get much richer.

And hide their taxes neatly.

I think it's time we had a change

I hope its for our betterment 

I hope for the mending of our land

Our people and our temperament 

I can but hope we learn to love 

To care for humans fleeing

I can but hope for a kinder nation

To itself to its people, human beings. 

Sweet Fanny Adams

 

Sweet Fanny Adams

A man of means was Frederick Baker

Worked in legal offices

Thought he could simply take her

An 8 year old child with her sisters

They felt it safer to stay together

However he insisted

He offered coins to Fanny first

Then tried to buy her siblings exit

Send them off to sate hunger and thirst

But then he simply legs it

But not without first grabbing the girl

While her sisters looked in disbelief

He ran into the hop fields and hid with her

His status empowering the child thief

Distraught were her family to lose sweet Fanny

Then came the news from a farmer:

A mutilated head was displayed on some stakes

No doubts on who had owned it

The police found blood on Baker’s clothes

He thought he could escape but he’d blown it

With parts of the girl slowly coming to light

He was tried for the gruesome atrocity

He was sentenced to hang before a Winchester

And duly executed with some due velocity

A tale of a upper class entitled bad’un

Who thought he could just dispose of Sweet Fanny Adams

Joanne Oliver 2023

Bunny

I'm just a bunny

A bunny, say I 

I look so cute 

With just one eye

I wander through

A land so dry

I wonder why

I make you cry!

Your world has gone

You silly folk

Your leaders did that

When they "mis-spoke"

I have ten tickles

They're not to choke

If I wrap round you 

It's just a joke

Be glad I'm here

Bunny so sweet

Look at my little bunny feet! 

A taste of home 

The countryside

Where rabbits roam

And foxes hide. 

We'll be so happy

In this toasty world

Where dust is smoky

And green fumes swirl

So take my "hand"

My human friend

Be with your Bunny

Until the end.

Rise Up

Rise Up 

Working class Tories

You brought us to this

You soaked up their stories

As they took the piss 

"They're doing their best, man"

Their failures excused

No mistakes by these liars

We're all being used

They'll feel not a twinge

As thousands more die

We are just their livestock

They're bleeding us dry

When will we discover

The warriors within?

The need for some fairness

Must be under our skin

With food getting scarcer

And warmth a rare treat

We must reject that new normal

And rise to our feet!

Didn't Like To Say

The windows painted open by the council

They didn't like to say

No heating but a coal fire

They didn't like to say

Single glazing draughty frames

Old bathroom we'll fit our own shower

They didn't like to say

Pay the rent for 50 years

Fit a kitchen themselves

Someone else said the house is unfit

They didn't like a fuss

Finally windows and central heating in

He dies and leaves her alone

Dementia creeps in

No one likes to know

They didn't like to say

Don't face it say nothing 

She didn't like to say

Until she can't cook them 

A nice Sunday lunch

They didn't like to say.

J Oliver 2022 

Boronavirus

Boris boris where are you?

Boris oh Boris what should we do?

"Go out or don't, maybe wear masks, or leave them at home and wipe down your phone."

You gone red to green does this mean the virus has gone and been?

"Well no but let's open things up old bean!"

Boris please tell us, please tell us, do? How many shall die before this is through?"

"That's not my concern dear I work for the banks. For you and your family I give not two w**ks.  "

We're glad you have bred while we haven't got bread. But whilst we love babies....why must ours be dead? Why our mums,  siblings grandparents and dads? While you sit so safe in your no 10 pad?

"Well I'm the PM and my word is the law. So go fight the virus folks! That's what you're for!"