by Martin Anton Smith martinantonsmith@gmail.com

Percy McWhirter Opened the Album

The Picture Was Rare

& Yes He Still Has His Hair!

What Has He Done?

This Lonely Bum,

To Have This Life,

Stocked With ‘Invisible Strife’

———–

He Has An Inner Ball

It Lives In His Chest

It Turns Rotates & Seeds

Enfolding Un-sprung Energy

Into His Private Cosmos

Where The light is still bound

———-

Still Waiting On a Flawed Theory

We Wait & Are Stood Up Again

And After The Grimness Fades

We Seek A New Appointment

We Wait & We Wait & We Wait

And We Are Stood Up Again

Then We Wonder

What’s Wrong With The World?

——-

When Making Life Rhyme

He Sounding Like A Hack

He Beckoned The Blind To Clap

He Gestured The Yellow To Yelp

He Left Their Delusions Unvanquished

And They Rewarded Him Richly

——–

Now An Old Man

His Kid Gloves Are Removed

He Sits By His Fireplace

With A Ledger In His Mind

He Turns His Last Blank Page

Scribbling “Regrets” To the Left

Scratching “Wins” To The Right

He Ponders The list

——–

The Divided Words

Collapse Into The Margins

The Chaff Is Now Separated

Yet The Wheat Seems Strangely Spare

A Creeping Nagging Fearful Feeling

Envelopes His Mind-Body & Soul.

“Have I Wasted My Entire Life?”

——

He Died Clutching The Ledger

They Had to Pry It Off His Hands

He Remained Upright By The Fireplace

& It’s Still Smouldering Coals

His Eyes Were Wide Open,

He Had A Look of Despair

A Fine Funeral Was Held

They Crammed In the Aisles

But Try As I May

I Can’t Remember A Word

Of What Old Percy McWhirter Once Said

( Writers Comment – Thanks For Reading “The Bonus Poem” Poem – The First Of Twenty Twenty Three. Yes It Is Shameless Filler, But It’s Only Function Was to Smash The Dreaded Lurgy – an Affliction If you will – That I have dubbed “The Dreaded Blank Pages In The New Year Syndrome”. It just roles off the tongue. M.A.S 09/01/2023)

(Writer”s Update # 2 – I Massively Updated & Improved The Poem – I’d like to think it is no longer “Filler”. I think Its’s Not Bad For The First Poem Of ’23 M.A.S 10/01/2023)