In This Hour by Carey Lenehan

In this hour
Categorized immigrants plod, hands filled with hope
in two directions, with one expression
Muted by dispossession and unsure
whether they will emerge
on the side of freedom, or despair.

In this hour
Low flying stockbrokers fall into ruin whilst
corrupt investment bankers
massage their payoffs
from the decks of superyachts
and fondle shiftless supermodels on crack

In this hour
Copper leaves drift relentlessly from autumn trees
falling with the grey children, exhausted by Darfur,
tiny amps of current dispersing, lighting out, switching over,
abandoning the world of light
for a place on the forest floor.

In this hour,
presidential overtones speak in tongues
tangling sanity to a nest of snakes so profound
that madness always reigns
whilst the flooded and dispossessed share only one word.
Survival
No translator necessary

In this hour
hearts begin to beat, icecaps break apart
and species cease relentlessly
as office wall clocks mark time with
the tapping of keys
and nothing changes

In this hour
All will be well, and all will be hell
and all manner of things will stay the same
in this hour

Ancestors by Carey Lenehan

Carry me on your sloping shoulders
And I will try to grip on with my toes
My arms around your neck, crouched here, clinging
Leap with me from branch to hanging branch
As I swing and dangle, almost letting go
But not

Hold me in your loving arms
Clean the dirt from my eyes and ears
Wash the mud from my hands and feet
And the mites from my tummy
Hold and love me as your child, as your
Liquid eyed embodiment of self
As you

Play with me in the long grasses
Roll me on the ground and fling me
High into the air, catching me with long fingers
And confident hands grabbing me safely
As I bounce, as I tumble, never falling hard
With you

Save me as the bulldozers roar
Ripping at the trees that home us
Pulling at the roots that bind us to the ground
Scream for me, grab for me, I am falling
Through the dark branches, loose from you
Lost from you, into darkness, into nowhere
Gone Now