The human race is an arsenal of anger and revenge, whether it be on fields of war, the streets, or within the home. My anthology of poems express my experiences of life, witnessed first hand when working within disadvantaged communities.

The final poem in Part 1; Exodus Of A Viking, is a mythological one,written in 2011 under my former pen name of Poppy Moss.

War

Beneath the sickle-moon you crawl

through dense undergrowth.

Seeing yet unseen;

stalking your prey.

Preparing to kill or be killed

in the name of victory and honor;

for your Government and country.

Whilst the facilitators of war sit

in luxurious surroundings.

Their remit, to debate.

Make decisions that will affect your fate

not theirs.

You face death.

The worst they can expect, is

to fall out of grace with 

the public.

Making way for other facilitators

to take their place and

condemn you to die.

on grounds of slaughter.

Where they ought to be.

not you.

After all, it was their decision

to go to war.

Up Close Not Personal

The weapon of your face

targets mine.

You aim to shatter my being;

splinter my mind.

Steaming vapor's of hate

spew from nostrils flared.

Snarls break the silence,

teeth are bared.

Steel-blue shards of ice

like arrows fly, from

eyes unwavering yet

hiding fears.

When we are dead, others

will shed the tears.

We didn't want this

never-ending war game.

We were thrust into the abyss,

to proclaim our Government's fame.

Camouflage

When at war you paint

your face, to hide

from the enemy.

At home, washed clean

of camouflage, you smile;

to hide your fears from me.

Freedom Fighters

Warriors of a darker kind.

Hooded, stained, to disguise

their identities.

Trained to rescue prisoners from 

hostage situations, oil-stations,

zones of war.

Territories where genocide and

revolutions reign.

They scrutinize the sitrep

then advance.

Not speaking; signalling

one to the other.

Shrewd in their quest to

answer the plea to free

those in distress and, 

dispose of the enemy.

Sidewinders among a 

nest of vipers.

Skirting the blood-red sands of war

and when it's o'er,

returning to the normality of home.

Secreting their camouflage away,

until the arrival of another

war-filled day.

Exodus

Crushed, maimed, pushed and targeted.

Refugees head for the border.

Fleeing their homes, a place,

where they should feel safe.

Instead, thousands are dead; 

others dying, lying at their

countrymen's  feet.

Brothers, sisters, children,

hide and wait with weaponry.

Followers of a Dictator who,

orders them to attack their brethren,

seal their fate.

to kill those who oppose his regime.

Aftermath

Rattling, roaring rumblings;

shake me, wake me 

from my sleep.

Memories collide, I'm stumbling

into thoughts so dark and deep.

I'm hearing loud explosions.

I'm fighting in the war.

I can't handle this exposure.

I'm feeling insecure.

The sound of guns, bombs and weaponry,

penetrate my mind.

Threatening my life, my sanity.

Myself I cannot find.

I'm told it's post-war syndrome,

searing through my head.

Prior to this I'd never known ,

what its like to be the walking dead.

Exodus Of A Viking

When death called was your entry

to Asgard made swift,

by burning upon a pyre;

or did the Valkyrie claim you 

on blood-red meadows of war?

Did the High One Odin greet you

from his golden throne in Valhalla,

or did Huginn and Muninn betray you;

forbidding entry there?

When death called did Mighty Thor rumble by,

in his goat drawn chariot?

Was he armed with thunderbolts and Mjolinik,

to herald your coming to the gods and 

warn humans of your imminent death?

Before death called did Frey,

bestow peace and fertility upon your home,

or did your life stay barren;

rejected by the God's duality?

When you entered Valhalla was it

through an arch during the night?

Did you dine on pork and mead, 

with Odin and the slain?

Did you sup bright drink from the stoups

handed out by the Valkyrie?

If Valhalla claimed you at daylight;

did Odin urge you to join the violent armies

of the dead, fighting in Asgard's meadows,

outside the hall?

Will you be there at Ragnorak,

when the gods too face their destiny?

Will you witness death call to them,

as it called to you?

Dominion

On the day I had a

python wrapped around my neck;

I realized you had a

stranglehold on me.

Hypnotized by the

stealth of the tarantula

that traversed my palm, I

thought of the harm you'd

caused; with your devious ways, the

twists and turns of your lies.

You interwove the intricate pattern

of our lives into a web so taut

I couldn't breathe.

De-oxygenated, my individuality

was squeezed from me; I became

an extension of you.

When I watched the

Goshawk perched on my wrist,

tilt its head, stare back at me,

flap its wings and fly; I

recognized, I too could be free.

So I fled away from ownership,

and your continuous tyranny.

Shot Down

Your spitfire mouth shoots

words of wrath into the room.

Zoom, you go, leaving a 

vapor trail of venom

floating in the air.

You never did care.

It seems your ploy

was to bleed me dry.

You've lost the game,

now go in shame and

play with another toy.

Reject

When I was fifteen I was your reject;

below the standard that you required.

Now I'm thirty-two, you view me in 

a different light and you

expect me to be flattered and forget

the hate you fired within me.

Seeing you now I realize,

how blessed I am to be free.

Unsullied by your puffed up pomposity.

You've aged beyond your years.

Today, I am the prize you

will never have. You are

the reject now, so

go lose yourself in tears.

Detached

He stands motionless;

detached from outside contact.

Discarded words of love 

amble through the air.

Shoddy, meaningless words

that attempt to gain entry

into a mind consumed with hate.

A labyrinth of disjointed thoughts.

Bullets of anger turned upon himself.

He detests everything he represents;

what he has become,in the name of love.

He is a vessel drained of content, 

tarnished, cracked, rejected,by

the one he loved. Displaced in favor of

a nobler trophy. Now she returns, tired

of her new toy. Her pleas of forgiveness

melt into nothingness. She kneels before

his rigid form. He wavers and yearns for

her fidelity, knows that it will never be.

A game she plays in the name of love.

He releases himself from her clutch, and leaves.

Love is lost.

Crossed Line

Invisible yet I know its there;

so how come you ignore it?

It's not difficult to comprehend;

so why do you step o'er it?

You don't cross the line 

when its painted on a

pitch or other places.

At traffic lights you stop at red;

with me you just go crazy.

Respect is what I ask of you;

is that an ask too far?

The line is there,

you know it is.

Don't cross it or we're through.

Raptor

A raptor in human form.

Devouring the essence of

my being and extracting

all emotion from me.

Your pestilent presence

twisted my mind.

Molded my body into a golem.

Weakened I was unable to resist

your demands.

You discarded me, flung

me on to the streets. I was

destroyed by depravity and 

the lust of men like you.

I was your means of survival.

A money machine to

provide you with a

luxurious lifestyle,

while I starved.

Now I've escaped from

your talons of greed.

Fallen victim to

another pestilence.

Dying, I will soon be free.

Burned

Teenage years have disappeared;

flown by with youthful dreams.

Ambitions lost in flames that seared;

and promoted pain-racked screams.

Like the tin roof upon our shed;

my skin is rugose and scarred.

Your heart is empty, love has fled.

I'm imperfect now and marred.

You remain at my bedside;

yet it is quite clear,

I see your  urge to run and hide;

to travel far away from here.

Your apathy to my situation,

is evident to see.

I've endured your former degradation,

this stance is new to me.

Your wedding ring has been removed,

a clear, unspoken sign; I'm 

not the man that you once loved;

your marriage vows are in decline.

I could make it easy for you;

be clement and pretend,

that I've become indifferent too

and I want our love to end.

It's not for me to decide our fate,

I will leave it up to you.

Whilst lying in my bed I'll wait

and pray your love stays true.

Magnolia Bare

Stripped of dignity, magnolia bare;

free from adornment, trinket less,

alone.

Roughened , snarled edges, plaster- swirled walls,

hallmarked with fingerprints of grime.

Patches of unfinished paintwork, peeled away;

like the armor of your toughened skin,

hiding years of poverty and the pain of being alone;

in this your home.

Yet still you smile, stand tall and proud,

honing your wit..

Challenging non-believers who say you cannot succeed;

when they in truth are failures.

Hiding behind their credit-card barriers,

building mountains of debt.

Secreting treasures in their Aladdin's Cave.

Hoarding everything, owning nothing.

Taking, never giving.

Showing disdain for those who struggle to survive,

in their world of gain.

A world you refuse to enter.

Remain steadfast in your self-belief.

Time is on your side.

When their house of cards tumble around them;

they will hold the joker and you the ace.

Clutch it close to your heart, safe in the knowledge

you will reach your goal.

Yet those who sneered will be;

stripped of dignity, magnolia bare.

Free of adornment. trinket less,

alone.

Living in a home with roughened, snarled edges and plaster-swirled walls.

Hallmarked with fingerprints of grime and patches of

unfinished paintwork peeled away.

Without the armor of a toughened skin, they will not survive their years of 

poverty and pain, in their new home.

Skin Deep

The tarpaulin of your skin

once taut, unscathed; is

now a landscape of scars, tattoos, criss-cross cuts

to camouflage what lies beneath;

the pain of living with abuse.

At the touch of a blade,

red rivulets stream.

Trapped between two nowhere's, you

dream of freedom from fear.

Yearn for youth and pain to pass.

A brief spell of relief as

you watch the flow;

feel the waspish sting of the cut

soon to be hidden from view.

It is a secret, known only by you.