France mourns

France pleure, nous pleurons avec vous.

(France mourns, we mourn with the people of France)

By Rob Kingston

They say there is calm now,
smells of spent munitions subsiding.
Lying around and ferried under a different blue the viewers and listeners, the diners and walkers.
One witness speaks of the bodies so high his wife could not climb over, 
another of explosions a block away.
Carnage the reporter says as a man mentions the sight of men in black entering a music hall with Kalashnikov rifles, he gifted a choice not to enter.
The news speaks of pierced body parts, an arm, a leg, a shoulder, so many dead, 120 the number that exist no more, rising, many many more the casualties of this next step in a new world war.
Flashes and bangs, whistles and booms, sirens scream as forces reign down.
Tears, shock, the misery on faces, much sadness heaped on a peace-seeking nation.
We now know some say why they chose Paris, some claim it is the fault of the west.
Others of ignorance by intelligent beings that choose violence instead, of democracy, though democracy to them has lost its edge to a world full of capitalist cronies who themselves choose numbers over humanity so's said. 
We are left to pick up pieces of what is left behind, we will grow stronger in the face of adversity. 
Hoping one day that the so called wise people are wise, seeing solutions instead of this continuous cycle of violence and death. 
Nos pensées vont à tous ceux qui sont touchés, nous montrons la solidarité avec le peuple français et à leurs invités.

(Our thoughts are with all those affected; we show solidarity with the French people and their guests).

© Robert Kingston 14.11.15

Books I’ve read 01

Books I’ve read 01

By Jane Scoggins

I thought I would offer some ideas for reading by letting the bloggers know what I have been reading during the lockdown.

Hilary Mantel's 3rd book in her historical fiction series THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT published in March 2020 (follows on from Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies) It is the story of Thomas Cromwell, beginning in 1536 just after the execution of Ann Boleyn. It is a huge book expertly researched and written. A must-read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Mind Your Own Business

Mind Your Own Business

By Len Morgan 

For two years Jon Ellery had let out rooms on the second and third floors of his townhouse, just across the road, in an area noted for affordable student accommodation. 

.-…-.

Evelyn peeked between the curtains.   He was a nice young man, neat and tidy, kept himself to himself never caused any trouble.

She’d watched students arrive, bright eyed and eager to graduate with honours from the local University.

 Her nose wasn’t always stuck to the front window like some. She was too busy getting on with her own life to watch the comings and goings of neighbours.  

 Her nose moved closer to the window now, as a procession of body bags were removed from the house, to a large black mortuary van.   Then, two pale emaciated patients on stretchers were carried to a waiting ambulance.  Finally, Ellery appeared in the doorway between two hefty police officers.

She’d always prided herself on being a good neighbour who didn’t pry.   What manner of atrocities had Jon Ellery perpetrated just across the road, safe in the knowledge that in England people can be relied upon to mind their own business?

Copyright Len Morgan

TREES

TREES

^{By Peter Woodgate}

^{Within the woods and forests,}

^{rain or snow,}

^{all are mankind’s saviour,}

^{this, I know.}

^{They help us breathe, of course,}

^{which we just take for granted}

^{alas, we cut them down}

^{so many more than planted.}

^{Natural propagation,}

^{it’s an uphill task,}

^{seedlings crushed beneath our feet}

^{are not allowed to bask}

^{within each season’s detailed plan}

^{or thrive in nature’s scheme,}

^{they do not fit or profit}

^{within our wealth, would seem.}

^{Yet, what reward surpasses}

^{a stroll through a woodland track?}

^{So much to gain in sight and sound}

^{within our senses pack.}

^{And what of vital rainforests}

^{destroyed without a care}

^{where multi-million lifeforms}

^{their havens need to share.}

^{I fear that we have lost our way}

^{priorities awry,}

^{the axe will swing, sap will flow,}

^{another tree will cry…..then die.}

^{Copyright Peter Woodgate}

 

How old are you?

How old are you? (A failed magazine snippet):

By Len Morgan

You may be surprised to learn that the person standing before you today didn’t exist eighteen months ago and bears only a passing resemblance to the person you knew, sometime in your past.

Nails hair and the surface of your skin is composed of dead tissue.   Blood and plasma cells live for about six months, soft tissue for approximately a year.  The cells making up bone live slightly longer, for up to eighteen months.  In fact, the only non-renewable tissue in the human body is the brain.   When brain cells die they are absorbed by the body and the brain shrinks by an equivalent mass.   All the old tissue is absorbed and excreted or reused in a cannibalistic colony of cells that we know as the human body.   In fact, the only living tissue you can see, when you look at me, is my eyes.

So, if you haven’t seen me for eighteen months you are actually looking at a different person, one you have never seen before.   Yet we recognise each other despite the changes; wrinkles witness that many cells occasionally replicate imperfectly.   As you and I grow older, all the cells of our body will stray from the perfection of youth; (our original stem cells).   The process is known as ageing. It is why we only have a finite time on this earth and cannot live forever.   Each successive replacement cell becomes a little less like the original, each mutating slightly from the pattern until the body is no longer a viable colony capable of sustaining life.   The brain cells live longer because they do not have to continually replicate, but even they cannot live forever.
 

Every time you get drunk, approximately a thousand (non-renewable) brain cells are destroyed – and the brain mass is reduced.

So, now you know why I hesitate, before answering when asked how old I am.    

How old are you?

Copyright Len Morgan

Garden Magic #2

Garden Magic #2

By Dawn Van Win

Sandy, loamy, soggy clay

Find a garden

Go and play

Get that dirt

Beneath your nails

It is a balm

For all that ails

Sowing seeds

And tilling earth

Coppice wood

To fill the hearth

Growing veg

To fill your belly

Feels more worthwhile

Than watching telly

Planting flowers

Of every hue

Connects us to

Our nature true

So if you’re bored 

Nothing to do

A garden somewhere

Waits for you

To co-create

And get involved

Whilst re-connecting

With your soul

Copyright Dawn Van Win

HUMANS ARE WE WORTH IT?

HUMANS ARE WE WORTH IT?

by Rosemary Clarke

Humans should never have lived on earth!
Humans should never even give birth!
Politicians are saying that climate change is just a fact, or 'all the rage'.
We cut down trees, destroy the lands: the fate of the planet is in our hands!
We talk of Brexit and economy. We all have eyes but DO NOT SEE!
If we all become Nature's foes Covid will seem the LEAST of our woes!
'Back to normal' others say but what will we do when one day we have to forage from from the land, and RUBBLE and METAL are only at hand.
Perhaps we'll eat plastic, our children are now when they eat or drink water
HUMANS WAKE UP NOW!
We DO NOT own the air we breathe and Climate Change we cannot leave!
Forget Brexit democrat/republican war WITHOUT NATURE WE ARE POOR!
And while the Earth is doing time cows and sheep on a factory line.
If we fight Nature
WE ARE AT WAR
And we will LOSE that I'm sure.
And who will live and who will die?
Why all of us humans bye-bye.

Copyright Rosemary Clarke