SALES TALES

This annual event
A cold evening spent
Outside, standing in a Que.
It's the rule
For many a fool
Though not for me or you.

Waiting for a coat or hat
Or other such unwanted tat
A late present for the wife.
Left the house on Christmas night
To miss out on festive delight
These idiots need to get a life.

Burst through the door
Knocking others to the floor
To get your hands onto the prize,
Last year you didn't want it
In fact, you even called it shit
But you're now crawling over it like flies.

Every Christmas there's sales
With the same sorry tales
TV news reporting on the rush.
There's plenty of sadness
As with broken bones in the madness
Some innocent pensioner is trampled in the crush.

Half price Jimmy Choo shoes
With six inch heels in various hues
A bargain too good to be missed.
No cash... It's getting drastic
So she melts the plastic
A sale item she couldn't resist.

So take a look at the stats
And stop acting like prats
Because every year you're losing sleep.
What you think is a bargain
The shops tried selling again and again
But, they'll get rid as they know you're a sheep.

Phil Hall December 2013

JUST LIKE ANY OTHER DAY

JUST LIKE ANY OTHER DAY

When the festive lights are fading,

And the tinsel’s in despair.

When all good cheer has dissipated,

Resolutions lie broken everywhere.

The headache’s just receding,

After toasting in the New Year.

The cost of all this merrymaking,

Crippling debt is now the fear.

After all the hearty back slapping,

And the renditions of ‘Auld Lang Syne’,

It’s a return to children murdered in Syria

And the world in fiscal decline.

I look with disdain at this revelry

The supposed friendship and joy,

As, just like any other day,

The brutal killing of a student boy.

A family wiped out by a madman

An innocent man stabbed in the head,

Don’t talk to me of a happy new year

Let’s be realistic instead.

Just as the tree is discarded

The turkey carcass rotting away,

All the false camaraderie and peace

Is forgotten for many a day.

Phil Hall   January 2012

CHRISTMAS... GIVE IT BACK

CHRISTMAS… GIVE IT BACK!

So now you’re bored with Christmas,

The decorations all pulled down.

No more merrymaking

Or late night shopping,

 Staggering whilst drunk around the town.

No more hopeful dangling of mistletoe,

In pursuit of that stolen kiss.

No more carol singing

Or yawning at midnight mass,

From now you’ll give church a miss.

No more pulling crackers 

And the giving of expensive gifts,

There’s no more festive cheer.

You’re empty of the joyful spirit,

The hearty raising of a glass of beer.

I say this to you,

 You have no right no right,

To celebrate this day of days.

Because, this is a Christian festival,

The birth of Christ, as in nativity plays.

The tree is symbolic

To our everlasting life,

Did the Magi give gifts in vain?

Many don’t wait for Epiphany,

For their Christmas to begin to wane.

So, give back the true meaning,

Let’s stop this commercial drain.

Please, go and stick 

That ridiculous light covered house,

Where it will cause you most pain!!

Phil Hall     January 2012

THE GRAVEYARD

Come take a walk
Through the graveyard
Of my head.
Where the ages of self
Lie buried deep
Dormant.... Dead.
Stop and look
At the inscriptions etched
Upon the stones.
Hear my voice calling
Soft on the wind
And rattling my bones.
My childhood distant,
Laughter and learning
In mists of the past.
Only returning on dying bed
When I'll cry for my mum
That breath my last.
The marbled teeth
Rise from manicured grass
Though not in ordered row.
Haphazard, the jutting fangs
Between bleeding, sensitive gums
Of living earth they grow.
Sit in the shade of my memories
Under a tree filled with fruit
On flaking wooden seat.
Where you can pick
And taste the the ripened flesh
My knowledge you can eat.
So visit this walking graveyard
Say hello before
Its too late,
The memory is fading
With neglect and age
Forcing closure of the gate.
Phil Hall  December 2013

SEAGULL IN FLIGHT

SEAGULL IN FLIGHT

Look out over the ocean

What a beautiful sight,

Effortless, inspiring and magical

The majestic seagull in flight.

Wings caressing the wind

Sailing the oceans blue,

Plumage of powdery white.

A memory for me and you.

Her call is the oceans song

She glides over sea and sand,

And as Neptunes' messenger

She eyes those clinging to the land.

A reminder of distant summer fun

And children's delight,

The beautiful memories

When you see a seagull in flight.

The sand beneath your feet

A taste of ice cream on the tongue,

These are nothing but events 

Without her haunting song.

Photographs of family holidays

Would leave the mind in plight,

Without the crash of the waves

And the beautiful seagull in flight.

Phil Hall  October 2013

LOST LOVE SUICIDE

LOST LOVE SUICIDE

Hold a gun to your head
Pull the trigger
Dead.
Many things left unsaid
Yesterdays news
Read.
Lost love suicide
Anguished tears
Cried.
Should've talked
Hopeful prayer
Tried.
Walking, so alone
Could've called
Phone.
Love now flown
Angry words
Thrown.
Desperate appeal spent
Flowery epithets
Sent.
Friends shoulder lent
Their ears
Bent.
Lost love suicide
Far away
Denied.
Physical rollercoaster ride
Romance over
Died.
Phil Hall  December 2013

FAILLEAN

(Press to play)

FAILLEAN

She stares from cold battlements

Wind and salt spray her only friend,

Her lover afar, far from home

The banner snaps in agitation 

It's lord marched to war alone.

Hair as red as a dragons breath

Faillean feels so alone

Standing in her velvet gown,

Her maids in waiting back away

From their lady with darkened frown.

His kiss a distant memory

Though imprinted upon her heart,

Does he lie dead on a battlefield?

Forever their souls apart.

She placed her lips to 'widowmaker'

His sword to keep him safe,

His wolfhounds bay to the moon

She shivers, a queen no more....a waif.

All gleaming armour and plumes

Her warrior lover gone to fight,

A dread enemy of spear and axe

Of iron and muscled might.

The bards, they sing of glory

Scribes scratch heroic deeds on mottled parchment,

Faillean only sees her man afar

The crash of waves her lonely lament.

Her eyes strain toward the sea

As green as the depths set in skin of milky pale,

The song of death washes ashore

And she sees the feathery sail.

The longships beach in ungainly rush

Faillean with heart pounding runs toward the sand,

Men stand with banners low, broken shields all

Though they've tasted victory, she can't understand.

Then she sees her man, her warrior, her love

No man smiles, grim and grizzled tears fall from embattled cheek,

For he is slain, his blood still pulsing from wounds

Faillean cannot find words to speak.

Her lovers champion steps forward and bows low

'Widowmaker' lies in his hands, enemies blood enstained,

Legend will tell of his epic deeds

And the victory her warrior gained.

His men carry his broken body

To the Cairn for his funeral pyre,

Faillean dressed in her wedding gown

Then steps quietly into the fire.

They loved in life 

Now they love in death,

When the sea wind blows

It's a lovers breath.

Faillean still stands on the battlements

Looking out to sea,

But her warriors by her side

And forever he will be.

Phil Hall  December 2013

COMPOUND EYE

We can view the world
Through a compound eye,
Multi faceted questions
Always asking why?
No food on the planet
But, rockets in the sky,
No drugs for the sick
The wealthy getting high.
My head spins around
My glass is empty and dry,
Lethargy is inbuilt in me
Can't be arsed to try.
I'll make circles around the light
Just like a maligned housefly,
Because just like them
We walk through shit
Until it's time to die.

Phil Hall  December 2013

A WARRIOR'S LAMENT

A WARRIOR'S LAMENT


As the sun sets slowly
On the blood quenched earth,
The warrior stands alone
A dead youth at his feet.
His spirit flown on ravens wing
To fly above the battleground,
Lifeblood drained without pity
Encrusted on the killer blade.
Spirits soar amidst the carnage
And the warrior touches iron,
The rush of battle rage fades
And he looks to the sky.
Stars glisten on the velvet tableau
Visions appear to his battle weary eyes,
Iron birds scream through the air
Darts of flame racing from arched wing.
Strange fire breathing beasts do battle
Monstrous metal sea creatures in bellowing rage,
They thrash in the sea in a deadly  embrace
And the warrior stares in wonderment.
He walks slowly toward his victorious men
Iron clad killers of leather and fur,
Of sword and shield and spear
Or the wicked edge of a battleaxe.
Where they sit, with ale and mead in flow
Another army appears in silent march,
Lines of helmets and short sword
Arrayed all, the same dress of brown.
Somewhere a solitary horn calls
And the ghosts step out in line,
Rat a tat tat, they fall, one by one they fall
Yet still they march, to die for their cause.
The warrior feels their impotence and pain
He slashes his sword at the faceless enemy,
And sees the future, a world of pain awaits
Where wives and mothers live in abject fear.
He feels the stars quake as the heavens gout fog
An enormous sulfurous cloud billows endless in the night,
The wind, acrid and scorched holds a million screams
As children cry, their lives torn from their throats in terror.
A door opens, a portal into the night
He sees many people in strange striped attire standing,
A sweet smell drifts silently past his nose and they are gone
Naked and burned in heaps, countless dead, the warrior weeps.
He sees the future
A world of war and battle,
Of warriors dying and false glory
Never ending pain and suffering.
No winners
No losers,
Just death and misery.
Widows and orphans,
Disfigurement and displacement.
The warrior sees it all
The glory of slaughter rises like bile,
He shivers and looks at his sword
Its edge has sent many to the otherworld.
He wants no more....
No more death, no more destruction
He lays his sword and shield on the ground.
He walks past his men
A warrior no more,
He is man.
He disappears into the darkness
The warrior leaves forever.


Phil Hall  December 2013