Long ago, I’d come to dread
The choices looming up ahead.
Now the intersection’s clear,
The day of reckoning is here.
Soon there’ll be no turning back,
Once I choose the narrow track.
Steep and winding it will be
But it’s the only one for me.
When I pass around the bend,
I’ll not see you again, my friend.
Let no one your decision make –
For only you the path can take.
Stephen Tomkins
17 July 2018
Shanghai
Though we try to understand,
The flowers say it best:
A life in full-bloom plucked away
And hastened to its rest.
Straining to articulate,
In vain we seek a voice.
So, we resort to hugs and tears,
As if we had a choice.
To void the Reaper’s deathly grin,
We focus on a life –
Thankful for a life well-lived,
It still cuts like a knife.
Stephen Tomkins
11 September 2018
Sydney
I’ve got your back, you’ve got mine –
Lived that way, life would be fine.
But sadly, that’s not how it works
Though that could be one of life’s sweet perks.
We view each other with grim suspicion,
Relying on some weird intuition.
Instead of giving each other a chance,
We engage in some kind of deadly dance.
You know, we might just be surprised,
Our neighbourly opinion might be revised.
We might find ourselves a brand-new friend –
One on whom we can depend.
And isn’t that what we truly seek,
As from behind our wall we peek?
Lower the drawbridge, the portcullis raise.
Watch the sun break through the haze.
Stephen Tomkins
26 July 2018
Sydney
Pondering Poet Pilot 