My town was closed

My town was closed, they shut it down 

It happened in my own home town 

It should have been a normal day

But someone blew the day away

My town was closed, they closed the town 

It took a lot to close it down 

It took a madman, evil clown 

A shooter in his dressing gown 

It took a dozen shots or more 

It took a bullet riddled door 

and bodies lying in the street 

and sirens wailing to the beat

My town was closed, the roads were blocked 

The shops and houses shuttered up 

My town was closed for just one day

When a gunman blew our lives away

Steve Wheeler © 26 August, 2021

Read more about the Plymouth Shooting

Photo by Steve Wheeler

Argent

Rings made out of argent 

cut to shape by golden shears

Face masks for the ardent

worn through the coming years

We measure hours with tea spoons

as we transgress dark frontiers

The days pass inexorably 

in the movement of the spheres

playing out our normal lives 

'til the tragic interferes

The harshest noise of all 

must be the grinding of the gears

So deafening, the silence

that assails our listening ears

resounding as the bulwark

of our freedom disappears

Will we ever find the means

to exorcise our fears?

Should we ever wipe away

the trackings of our tears? 

The days pass in procession

like the music of the spheres

Rings made out of argent

cut to shape by golden shears

Steve Wheeler © 16 June, 2021

image source

The last laugh

I’ll tell the jokes 

and you wear your frown 

I’ll make them happy 

when you bring them down 

You play the straight man 

and I’ll act the clown 

and I’ll have the last laugh tonight

I’ll bring the sunshine 

when you bring the cloud 

You fight your demons 

while I please the crowd 

I’ll be the wedding 

and you be the shroud 

but I’ll have the last laugh tonight 

I’ll write the comedy 

you load the gun 

You bring the sadness 

but I’ll have the fun 

You’ll stop the music 

yet I won’t succumb 

‘cos I’ll have the last laugh tonight 

Oh yeah 

I’ll have the last laugh tonight

Steve Wheeler © 30 March, 2021

image source