Poetry and Creative Writing for All

Mac Macdonald

	Mac Macdonald won our Top 5 Poems of the Month Online Competition - March 2006

Respect

Remembrance Day is here again
We sit in church with servicemen
We think of those who left before
We think of those who were adored

As I look round this holy place
I see young people smiles on face
I start to wonder if they know
Why to these churches we still go

I look and see a laughing lad
A smiling lassie it’s nice I’m glad
I picture now inside my head
the mates I lost, those gone, the dead

I smile softly to each in turn
My boys, my lads, my eyes do burn
I see them clear they’re smiling back
They look so peaceful dressed in black

If I could talk with them today
I just don’t know quite what I’d say
But what I wish is to join them soon
I’m tired down here I’m out of tune

But as I left the church today
A young lad took my hand to say 
For what you did and those you lost
I thank you Sir for such a cost

My day was made by what he said
His eyes they told me, he mourned our dead
And as I looked back one more time
He raised his arm to salute so fine

My eyes they watered a tear escaped
I could not speak my throat it ached
He stood so proudly arm still raised
I saluted back - God be praised

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Our Hearts and Minds

In a place some call the "Emerald Isle,"
for the past year or two has been home.
I'd never have guessed the effect it would have
on a man with a heart made of stone.

I knew not a thing of "the troubles" out here,
but I learnt as my life trickled by.
The country so fine and its people so warm,
sure this "war" it was surely a lie.

Of all of the folk that live here in this land,
just a few are enough to cause strife.
And to make themselves heard and force us to hear,
they've made themselves God and take life.

Some good people stood and said what they thought,
they raised up their doves made of card.
But those men without faces just mocked what they did,
and continued to fill the graveyards.

The political people from this side and that,
they spoke, promised, turned and condemned.
But the one thing they all could agree without doubt,
was this peace that's been broken must mend.

So here we are now and my son's turning ten,
and my daughter she's just become eight.
And it hurts in my heart to watch them grow up,
in this land that's torn up with such hate.

I watch them at night as they watch the TV,
and they hear about murders and all.
And it's now I realise that to give them a chance,
it’s off we must be job and all.

I don't want to leave this place I call home
but I know what I do must be done.
I sit in my porch as the night wraps us up,
watching dreams fade and sink with the sun.

So we've packed up our bags and we're leaving at last,
this most beautiful country we love.
And I hope with my all that the peace does return,
and you'll no longer need your white doves.

My thanks for your time and may your God bless you all,
may the peace that you search for come through.
For understand this if you don't find it soon,
even God may give up and go too!

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Fire

Flicker flicker fire and smoke
My flame it burns my smoke it chokes
I can be friend I can be foe
But will you learn? The answer’s no

In your house I bide my time
Small and flickering working fine
But if you don’t protect your home
I’ll make it mine and all you own

Silent first you’ll hear me not
Licking round your baby’s cot
Up the bunk of sleeping kids
As what I do you can’t forbid

And if you wake to hear my roar
It’ll be too late I’m at your door
Suffocating, burning eyes
Another family sleeps and dies

But there is one that warns of me
A friend to you so easily
A smoke detector is its name
It warns you of my deadly game

But as they need new batteries
Or checking on a Saturday
You can’t be bothered, we’ll be all right
Thanks to you I’ll kill tonight

And when I visit kill and maim
I hear those words each time again
“I wish to God I’d checked them out”
Regret will eat you up no doubt

So to your family please be good
Check detectors when you should
Don’t be lazy don’t cut cost
Or all your loved ones may be lost 

So when you give that goodnight kiss
please think of me and think of this
If you don’t check things I’ll be round
to burn your house down to the ground

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A Helping Hand

Blinking faintly just a spot
a distant light or maybe not
Is it them come back for more
or is it mates in teams of four

I crawl a bit to hide my form
and nearer still the light comes on
Nearer yet to me it gets
I check my rifle prepare for threat

Then quietly a voice I hear
“come on son, have no fear”
A friendly voice thank god for that
I prepare to move from where I’m sat

The voice gets nearer almost here
I know I’m saved I lose my fear
I see a person just ahead
ready to move (my legs feel dead)

Now I see him now he’s here
his face I know but still I peer 
“I came to get you don’t be scared
your job is done, you’ve been spared”

I take his hand my legs now work
I stand beside him and start to smirk
I see some others coming through
there’s old man Stan and Connor too

And as I walk with him a while
I see more mates and start to smile
But all these mates weren’t they dead?
Have I been injured lost my head?

How obvious it soon became
Mohamed, Allah, Christ (just names)
Standing there with all my squad
The hand I took was that of God

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Submission Guidelines: Poems of no more than 30 lines in length each will be considered.