BUSY

I'm busy busy busy

I don't have time for other people

Least of all you

I've got enough on my plate thank you very much

Look how in demand I am

See how precious my time is

My chocabloc diary

My colour-coded Outlook calendar

I wear my busy status as a badge of honour

It's a medal that I polish regularly

A measure of my self-worth

Or is it one-upmanship?

Keeping up with the Smiths and the Joneses

I'm busy doing nothing, sang Bing Crosby

Trying hard to find lots of things not to do

The ant pulling a guilt trip on the grasshopper

Perhaps it's a confession

An announcement to the world that I can't manage my time

Get busy living, said Red to Andy in Shawshank

Or get busy dying

TWO KINDS OF CLOUD

 

AGE OF CHAOS

A destructive wave of sameness sweeps everything in its path
Cloned Identikit houses, streets and developments
Country fields become shiny solar mirrors 
Groaning wind turbines stride along resentful ridges
Flood, storm and drought puzzle farmers and gardeners
We wonder where the bees, birds and butterflies have gone
Wherever something is wrong it is too big
A toxic alternative seduces those who have lost a sense of pride and belonging
The powerless and disenfranchised lob a bomb into the living room of their baffled masters
Exhausted dark-skinned people in flimsy dinghies wash up on our shores
They explain that they are here because we were there
Statues topple into the harbour to remind us that all lives matter
So many of us can't breathe
A plague has killed off many of our old folk and some of our young folk too
Shares in disposable plastic are at an all-time high
Shares in actors, singers and publicans are at an all-time low
Ministers are rewarded for their incompetence or having rich friends
They cry grade inflation as teenagers are punished for their hard work
None of the academic lenses seem to make sense of all this
We have lost perspective
Neither left nor right can protect what we love
Teenagers are depressed
Mums and dads are alienated
Grandparents are lonely
Nothing is sacred any more
God has fled
We cast around looking for someone or something to blame
China? Russia? Johnson? Trump?
As we mourn what we have lost

MY WORLD IN TEN IMAGES: #10

MY WORLD IN TEN IMAGES: #9

Cycling revolution

MY WORLD IN TEN IMAGES: #8

Birdlife

MY WORLD IN TEN IMAGES: #7

The moon and the sea

MY WORLD IN TEN IMAGES: #6

Art Nouveau