Unrequited Love

Lost Love
by Angela Lansbury

You're just a happy memory
You found another somebody
You chose her and rejected me
Paths diverged for eternity

I had almost forgotten you
I made my life with someone new
I did what friends said I should do
Lived far away to erase you

So when you came and searched for me
My broken heart was mended, free
And I could smile, write hi, goodbye, and -
Thank you for the memory.

-ends-

Another Cockroach On The Floor and a Spider's Web Over The Bed

Another Cockroach on the Floor and a Spider Over The Bed
a lament by Angela Lansbury

I am barefoot in the bathroom
There's a cockroach on the floor
Which is worse, running or still -
Between me and the door?

If there's one thing I don't like
It's a spider on the bed
I'm sure its bad for flies
But now it hurts my head

Right now things would be better
If one of us were dead.

When I see a spider's web

Lurking empty overhead

I wonder where the spider's gone

It's bound to show, before too long

If I stay still and look around

Inspecting walls, ceiling and ground

Brooches shaped like beetles I don't like a bit
What use is a cockroach, a mosquito-ridden lake
Though I'm prepared to eat a pig-shape chocolate
And I've had round salmon-pink 'steak' from a cut-up snake

But another thing I don't like at all
Is ants on a table or desk
Although a gecko which eats them is useful
Up the wall, like me, devouring pests

We have filled the floor with insect traps
We're choking on insect spray
It's another day in the tropics
But neither they, nor I, will go away.

I read somewhere that cockroaches

Have survived a million years

Frankly a single insect, now

Is enough to tug at my fears

I can throw it through the window

Pretend I did it a favour

I didn't kill it - it might come back

Thinking I am its saviour.

-ends-

The Cockroach On The Floor

The Cockroach On The Floor
A lament by Angela Lansbury

There's a cockroach on the floor
I think it may be dead
I wish I knew what killed it
Was it something that I said?

For if it's something which I said
Then I shall not complain
Cockroach, go back and tell your friends
Please don't go there again.

I scooped it with a dustpan

It's gone but not forgotten yet

Although the damned things gone

I wish I could forget.

-ends-

Second Sight Re-write

At first I wrote
My poem pleased
Came back, years on
Revised with ease

The thoughts were fine
But I suspect
At least they're mine
'cos not correct

I could re-write
Read aloud, shout, speak
Stay up all night
Re-work all week 

Eight syllables in every line

Or twelve, or ten

I think that's fine

Just one more time, and then again

I start gone four

And end gone ten

I should end soon

I'm not sure when

It's six a.m. here
What should I do?
Re-writes cost time, dear
All's changed, now new.

I've written through the day

And I've written through the night

Two minutes stretched to twenty hours 

But at least it reads all right.

I know it's morning here

But it's still midnight somewhere else

I shouldn't burn the midnight oil

It's not good for my health

I wish that I had watched the clock

But even then I wouldn't stop

The mirror has a bad surprise

A pretty poem but baggy eyes

I wrote so long I nearly dropped

Even my old, tired clock had stopped

Each comma, syllable's in place -

Though I've a haggard poet's face.

-ends-

Song Birds

Song 

I Am With You

by Angela Lansbury

My sun face smiles, when you’re swimming

Buoys you up, so no self-harm comes

When you run, cook, eat, start slimming

Hear my sweet voice sing, say, 'Well done!'

I grew you safe, tucked in my womb

You left, one cord, like vines, entwined with me

Even when trapped in the tight tomb

Bound, like gold chains, for eternity

Each day trot out, scan round and see

Love’s endless waves, like leaves on trees

Like clear rivers, flow swift to sea

Thoughts and words shared, cost time, stay free

You travel far, plan, divert, roam

Laugh, downy ducks go paddling by

Cheered by warm thoughts of our dear home

We blue songbirds, fly through life’s sky.

-ends-