Three poems by Miki Byrne

Joe Average.

..

There’s a need

for armour now.

To keep barriers high.

Slit fearful eyes at

inconsequential differences

as fear drapes like shrouds.

Holds in escaping smiles,

desire to do good.

Doors slam in the faces

of those less well off,

disabled, foreign, homeless

as Joe Average

hunkers down.

Carries a blade

of self preservation,

prepares to repel all borders.

Cannot see that they

are reflections of himself.

..

..

..

Those who are Wealthy.

..

The wealthy swim like sharks

through human shoals.

Brush away small fry,

who slip and slither through

societies net.

The rich perch like eagles

in mirrored palaces,

high above city centres.

See those below who drive them,

feed them, serve and supply them,

as inferior—mere ants who swarm

over pavements, sit  in buses,

or use cars that cannot pass

emission tests and carry no insignia

of high-end luxury.

The rich breathe rarefied air.

Do not venture into warrens

and ghettos.

Have access to private health care,

comfortable homes for their elderly.

The poor use the stumbling NHS.

Return to narrow streets, small homes,

illness, poverty, insecurity

and in these places, people die.

Day, after day, after day.

..

..

..

A Brief Note on Being Vegetarian.

..

No: To meat, fish, poultry.

face, feather, fleece, fur,

fin, limb or offal.

To: Crustacean, mollusc, shellfish,

scale or eel.

Eggs are acceptable-only if free range.

I am not Vegan, there is a difference.

Yes: To fruit, veg, root, nut, tuber,

legume, pulse, seed, dairy,

flower, herb, leaf and berry.

No, to assumptions of weirdness,

anaemia, communal living,

a tendency toward New Age dreads

and a longing for lentils.

Yes to the hope of your tolerance

as you will always receive  mine.