Life Balance - a poem

What's in a word?

A nuance? A feeling?

An agenda for change?

A deep-rooted meaning?

Words are weapons

So choose them well

Save the big ones for showdowns

That send someone to hell

It's a licence you're born with

So you must bear the consequence

Of changing a meaning

With the wrong choice of consonant

It's crucial to choose

The right refinement or tweak

So don't say 'next Tuesday'

If you mean 'Tuesday week'

Life may find 'balance'

But you prefer to 'equilibrate'

You may find a 'grey'

You'd rather call 'slate'.

You may find a girl

That you love but you hate

Or believe that your future

Must in fact be called fate.

You may find your choices

Have made you hardbitten.

Or you may perform feelings

Like they'd been scriptwritten

And to be at your best

You choose not to advance

From what you've suppressed,

From your favorite trance.

These are cute little subtleties

On which to orate.

But they're kind of important

These shades of slate.

If you think that your talent

Is divine inspiration

Or used to love 'Enders

But now you're more Coronation

If you lived for your work

But your life was blunted

And been fired then claimed

That your head was hunted.

If you've been a blond strawberry

And not known you're a gin-ger.

You might think you're all that

And still be a min-ger.

Is a bet just a game

Or a risk that you hedge?

Is a perfect life balance

On a razor's edge?

The debt's just the same

To the principal lender

But it's how you choose your words

That displays your agenda

You might find what I found

And I don't want to go on

But I've just had a butchers

At Synonym.com

If you Google the source

The whole engine's in strife

There is no synonym

For what we choose to call 'life'

** For purposes of subvocalisation "gin-ger" is meant in the street sense with 2 'hard' 'g' s

Be afraid. Not that afraid

We are living in chilling times.

Turn on the TV and there is disaster. Disaster with a dusting of miracles from wreckage. But disaster nevertheless.

Children today found silent and motionless in cars.Terror levels elevated.Peace treaties straining.

Do we lose something at these times? Or do we gain something? Gain something as we...become?

Well, I am afraid we lose something.

We lose perspective.

But we gain resilience.

We gain sensitisation but we lose sensitivity.

We gain a tough shell but the cracks don't superglue as well as they used to. We've tried it once too often and a complete remould is required. And that's going to cost.

At these times it takes something huge. Or perhaps something infinitesimal to put our worlds back on their illusory pedestals. So I have something for you.

I am going to give you nine words. Nine words that will give you back your perspective.

But they will challenge your resilience.

I am going to give you nine words that will force you to realign the darkness. That will give you a glimpse of how black the vortex can get so you can appreciate the light you're clinging onto.

Some of you will be changed by this and you should not read on.

For some of you, this will be a scream. For others it will be The Scream.

For some it will draw a line under what you thought was achievable in the world.

What you thought was right,fair, what you thought you "deserved".

Well, I am sorry. But you've already been misled and I take no responsibility for that.

Since when did anyone get what they deserve?

You deserve nothing.

So take your place in the resilient generation.

Or join the queue for cognitive therapy.

In yet another week that balanced terror with horror, many of us could see only one safe place.

But we are not celebrities and we are not in the house.

For us it's been another week that reported the gap between affluence and poverty, another week that has taken a step closer to the final division of humanity into those two separate species - the haves and the have-nots.

For those of you who absorb all these horrors, I offer nine words.

For those of you who shield yourself in cocoons, I offer nine words.

Nine words ripped from today's headlines.

"Michael McIntyre signs 'golden handcuffs' deal with the BBC".

A note to travellers in time

Dear Time Travellers,

If for technical reasons you are unsure of the year you have arrived at, you may find yourself asking for clarification from the first person you meet.
Why not ask for the year first, to save time?
This is because the usual response to 'tell me the date' will generally not include the year. (Most contemporary humans take this for granted and will not realise you unusual situation).
It will save you getting angry.
It will save irritation, annoyance and disbelief in your subject.
It will save you saying 'No, what year is it'.
Believe me it's the best method all round.
And if you would like to bring some clothes with you, IKEA have some nice backpacks in at the moment.

My two world records.

So two fellas have just made a new world record for jumping a thousand feet off Dubai's new tallest building, and parachuting to gentle safety.

Well, I have jumped two thousand feet from a plane. And that was moving.

So where's my world record?

It shouldn't be a world record because it's high. I want to see the world's lowest base jumper.

Although having just jumped off my leatherette pouffe holding a paper towel above my head, I think I may hold that world record too.