Four Poems by Tom George

Four Poems by Tom George

On The Other Side of The Wall

There will be no more divisions,
No cultural collisions,
Or blinkered racial visions
On the other side of the wall
There will be no flagellations,
No female mutilations
Or power-hungry nations
With no mercy at all
There won’t be terror forces,
Denial of resources
Or distant bearded voices
In stony holy vow
No vicious circle game
Of here we go again
Where history takes the blame
But punishment is now
On the other side of the wall,
The strong will heed the call
Of dignity for all,
The need to understand
To heal the great divide
That festers deep inside
And cannot be denied
When written on the land
On broken Belfast streets
Where concrete keeps the peace
With reinforced beliefs
That stand twenty feet tall
In east and west Berlin
The long divided kin
Who never did give in
Until they saw it fall
In Gaza on the strip
Where sniper bullets rip
A nation in the grip
Of merciless control
Existing without power
Beneath the look out tower
With murder by the hour
And hospitals in holes
On the other side of this pain
Truth will fall like rain
And pour down onto flame
Extinguishing the grief
On the other side of this rage
The troops will disengage
Like someone turned a page
Restoring our belief
There will be no more excuses
No temporary truces
Or human rights abuses
To dim the inner light
Suspicion will be banned
And martyrs will be slammed
And people will demand
Their safety from the fight
On the other side of the wall
Hearts run free
Horizons of hope
Stretch continuously
The dream of all nations
Believe it we must
On the other side of the wall
The rebirth of trust

Tender Memories

I've got tender memories
But I can’t let them out
Fragile memories
Subject to doubt

Maybe it was just our age
Quietly you left the stage
Gratefully I turned the page
On tender memories

Too soft and fresh to bear the shock and glare
Of retrospect and regret
I left them gathering dust
Legends of a love and lust

Too indiscreet, they haunt these streets
Sweet and bitter
Like psychic litter

The aura of a bus stop thrill
The corner where a certain chill
comes back to me
- I hurry still

Tender memories never go stale
Locked away - an innocent tale
I keep them from the light
And I hold them tight
Fragile, foolish but precious

Don't Ask Me Why

Don’t ask me why some people are scared of silence
When it’s the very opposite of violence
“How do you do?” is a very nice thing
“See you around” is worth repeating
Everything else is just poetic licence

Tell me your thoughts, you know that like conversation
But it’s not the be-all and end-all of this situation
You shuffle your feet, and let out a sigh
To fill up the time as it crawls slowly by
Until you can think of a subject to pontificate on

It’s no disrespect with a friend to neglect talking
When all that a leisurely walk requires is walking
Cut your verbosity back down to size
Think how your words would sound mightily wise
If you had to choose them as carefully as Stephen Hawking

Don’t ask me why some people are scared of silence

Neville's Scared Of Spiders

Neville's scared of spiders
I've heard it once or twice
They say he just can't stand them
Like elephants hate mice
It's really just a rumour
I wonder if it's true
It's really quite amazing
It's quite amusing too

Neville's scared of spiders
Don't say it too loud
He's got lots of cronies
One in every crowd
It wouldn't fit the image
The one that he projects
For one like him to run a mile
From something with eight legs

Everybody knows him
He's tougher than a rock
Presumably he's fearless
Immune to any shock
That's why I've got this longing
A secret kind of dare
To carry out a prank
And see him jump into the air

The trick would be to catch one
If I could find the gall
And chuck it on his table in the dinner hall
Alas I fear, it's something that I'll never, ever do
'cos I am scared of spiders
And I'm scared of Neville too!

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