PROBLEMS NEED PERSPECTIVE

                                                                     CII  (102)
I've just had a horrible week,
Everything that could go wrong - did.
I was 2 minutes over parking time
And it cost me thirty quid.

My car did not want to start
When it did a tyre was flat,
I saw a chip on the windscreen
Now what on earth what did that.

I slipped, twisted an ankle
And fell with a painful crash;
It was only sprain thank goodness,
Not a break or a smash.

Then we had a power cut
And when the lights came on
The telephone was not working -
All computer connections had gone.

The weather has been terrible,
Gales - sleet - snow and rain;
I felt really fed up
And started to complain ...

Then I thought of the Japanese
Their suffering - stoicism - restraint.
My problems are mere pinpricks
I'll not utter a word of complaint.

January 2012
First anniversary of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

BOMBAY - CITY OF CONTRASTS

                                                                      101

This is a tribute to Bombay
The city of my birth
A place of enormous contrasts.
Wealth and squalour - sorrow and mirth.

The rich live in luxury dwellings
With everything money can buy,
Marble floors - silks and jewels,
If they want it, no price is too high.

The poor live by the roadside,
Running water's the drain overflow,
They live and they die on the pavement,
There's nowhere else they can go.

It's a town of many contrasts,
Religions - colours - creeds
There is generosity - kindness
And corrupt and evil deeds.

Near squalid, rat-infested slums
Where mange dogs root around,
In small patches of tropical green
Birds and butterflies abound.

It's a chaotic, congested city,
But the sunshine seldom fails.
|It's a measure of our tolerance
That peace nearly always prevails.


January 29th 1988

IT'S GOOD TO TALK and TALK and TALK

                                                                100
Some people cannot live without
Their personal mobile phone
A chattering companion
So that they're never alone.

They carry their phones everywhere
In case someone should call,
Or stand there - like Thisby -
Talking to a wall.

Even the rising cost of calls
Does not seem to deter
A compulsive conversationalist
Or true entrepreneur.

They ring in buses, trains and tubes
And I've heard their warbling call
Above the sound of an orchestra
In the Royal Albert Hall.

For many modern drivers
It is now de rigeur
To phone while they are driving -
Goodness knows how they change gear.

But the worst telephone-driver
Was a man I saw the other day
Exceeding the legal speed limit
In the usual M25 way.

His left hand held a telephone
His right lay on the steering wheel
From which he regularly lifted it
To emphasize or appeal -

Pointing and gesticulating
To his listener - unseen -
While driving somewhat erratically
On the highway of the Queen.

I've never had a car phone,
They're useful, I'm sure
And if I saw any dangerous driving
I could  always telephone the law.


July 1997