Lee Francis Byrne

Oh show-off Sun
So bright, so bold
You burn away
The years to old
Not like the Moon
That shines so shy
and barely seems
To slip on by

But neither holds
In high esteem
What you hold dear
Your loves, your dreams
They float on high
Aloof, care-free
With little thought
For you or me

Yet still we fawn
And stand aghast
As dawn explodes -
- Yet never lasts
and with the calm
Of night-time glow
That quiet relief
It always goes

So Sun, dear Moon
Yes high you fly
But down on Earth
Is where I lie
Where laptop screens
and engine grease
Defy your warmth
And soothing peace

So keep me warm
And glaze afar
But kid me not
That hope you are
No more or less
Than gas and rock
Anything else
Is poppycock

Back on birthday twenty
Far away in past
Yay I rubbed my hands
and thought
These days are made to last

Back on birthday thirty
Smiled I did that day
Laughing with the
Wife and kids
Asking the sun to stay

Back on birthday forty
Smiling through the pain
Fifteen years
With ‘special one’
Was driving me insane

Back on birthday fifty
Truth, it tortured me
Dreams that I had
Cherished dear
Had kept not set me free

Back on birthday sixty
Counting all my friends
Quickly they were
Vanishing
oft’ meeting nasty ends

Seventy’s a birthday
Best forgotten quick
Feeling grim on
Medicine
Supposed to make me tick

Now I’m one and eighty
Birthdays come so fast
Heed my words
Explicitly
These days aren’t made to last

One summer soon I promise this
You'll think of us and reminisce
Of whispers sweet and our first kiss
And how you'll miss our stolen bliss

One autumn day when orange leaves
Do shilly shally in unsettled breeze
Their faded colours stiff with death
You'll feel the rhythm of my breath

One winter day with cheerless chill
Oh echo will our romance still
Regret, remorse, what could have been
Will feel like ice beneath your skin

One spring day, sun ascending high
The wings of swallows stroking sky
The love we shared will be that cloud
Forlorn, a sulky, swollen shroud

Observe outside and you will see
A world not made of symmetry
How high the trees how tall the lies
The treachery that scorches skies
The suits and ties with shifty smiles
IOU's streamed to data files
The long green grass alive with snakes
Fair banqueting on your mistakes
The third world poor that power trade
Who gild the halls of landlords’ glade
The mountain peaks where eagles dare
The jets that kill the ozone there
The chem-soaked fields of olive vales
Deep oceans sunk with dying whales
The dolphins gagged by plastic waste...
This world we love can’t be replaced

The sea, you see, knows -
Not of years, tears, destiny
White from ebony
No. What’s best she shows
Is knowledge of how to be
Of simplicity
Watch and she bestows
As tides like feet journey so
Waves without the woe
So lightly she goes
Back and forth with silky roll
A sure, steady stroll
That for no one slows
Enduring, surge after swell
No whistle, no bell
No ego, no gloze
Grace and gall to her glissade
Poetry like Bard
Breathless as she flows
No mood to mind;
warm and cold
Young as she is old

If life is all about glad heart and love
Why does sad sack sun shrink from falling rain?
If sprites with wings to chorus sing above
Why does the hail impale my heart with pain?
And drown sweet chords of melody with thunder
And strike at me with shards of glass white glow?
No storm or man-made mire should love asunder
Like shine from starry skies true love will flow
As light, as rays, as water drops at play
In breeze we breathe, in waves at sea, and tears
That soak through skin to deep within to stay
As seed to blossom bright for all of years
Your love's the blast that blazes through bone and blood
No sun I need when through my veins you flood

She drifted in like summer scent
A dizzy bloom of sweet perfume
And held my gaze a guilty while
Bewitching me across the room

And yes, another held my heart
A love I felt as sure as sky
But Summer Scent's ambrosia
Laid bare this foolish alibi

Her hearty smile and honey eyes
Of hazel gold were blind to thee
But silently she spoke to me
- a beautiful soliloquy

And Time, it paused to tip its cap
And frame for all prosperity
Oh how a simple turn of head
Can mix both mirth and misery

So long ago that fateful day
That years did pass and melt away
And parallel paths nay did meet
Till thinning hair turned brownish grey

Now hazel eyes, still bright, now free
Have noticed me, so late, so late!
With hand on heart I proudly say
This darling girl was worth the wait

It rests against a raggedy stone wall
Its handles wilted in a weary stance
So many moons its wheels have spun
Through winter rage and lazy sun
And now no better than a hinderance

Both tyres are barren and bereft of air
That neither pump or puff could hope to inflate
A saddle frayed too long in rain
A chassis worn by tough terrain
A fustian fossil now long past its date

A forlorn lamp hangs from a bracket bent
Suspended as though enchanted by a dream
Back racing cars at roaring speed
And winding trails through sun-kissed mead
Ah boy and bike make for the perfect team!

A bullish bell now slumbers without sound
A fashion appendage like watch on wrist
In glory days it rang with joy
like summer song from bounding boy
Freewheeling spirit to bon arriviste!

All peon pins of its well chastened chain
Hang limp and lame in doleful russet crust
Like choker hung round scrawny neck
Where bliss-filled kisses once did peck
All that once dazzled will blaze into dust

It rests against a raggedy stone wall
A relic, a sore now useful no more
Just deliberating the day
A nameless face carts it away
Both life and death just a revolving door