Bug me, drug me
You’ll never touch my mind
Not that you want to
Afraid of what you’ll find
Afraid of the secrets
of someone in the know
Afraid of the exposure
of your elaborate show
So go on with your programme
Sticking to the script
Until the day you are aware
You’re playing in a crypt
The new can’t replace the should have been
The should have been haunts us forever
Though the new will be a healer
And receive all our love just the same.
It’s pointless being angry at fate
But that doesn’t stop the burn
The frisson on top of everyday stress
For the should have been we always yearn.
The new will have its own should have been.
So maybe we will understand.
And make a happier life will be.
At least that is the plan.
Dear Mr Hulk
I too am green
A different green
Not anger
Jealously
I wonder
Which is stronger
The angrier you get
The stronger you get
The more jealous I get
Of you
For you
Can rage and rage
And smash
While I can only seethe
Consequence binds me tight
So remember
When you condemn
Your weaker half
With contempt
It is harder
Much harder
To be human
Than Hulk
Astonished
By the lacking
The stupidity
The greed
More astonishing still
Are we
And our
Compliance
Shall we march?
Shall we shout?
Or kneel
And take it
As always
A turn our eyes away
To bright distractions
In response to my daily prompt March
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In this mess
It must cross our minds
When Parliament fails us
There is a
Precedent
To remove them
In response to my daily prompt Precedent
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The redistribution of wealth from the masses to the very rich minority continues apace. The groundwork has been laid.
First, we were seduced with the idea of quick riches – that we could join that elite. Invest in stock and shares – and be a part of our club they said – while they sold off our services.
Be free of your landlord – they said – own your own home – they say – while they sold off social housing.
Invest in your future – save for a rainy day – build your pension pot they said – while they took that money for their own ends.
With the rise of the subscription services model – we no longer own anything. Gone are record collections and family libraries – to be replaced with an intangible library
And now – the pressures start. Our kids start their adult lives saddled with debt from just educating themselves. We, their parents are so under pressure from austerity that we cannot support them. Remortgage after remortgage – after all nothing is as safe as houses.
But when the time comes and we look for our pensions – they are not there! They have underperformed or have just been stolen – gone into the black hole of bankrupt companies.
And then – surprise, surprise – there are suddenly all these companies that can help – with equity release or webuyanyhouse.com quick sale promises. All that property – that once belonged to us all – that we dreamed of passing down to our children is being hoovered up. They will end up in the hands of a very few large property magnates.
And we will be back in a feudal society once more. When everything is owned by a few – power will be theirs.
In response to my daily prompt Estate
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Respect is
Expected
Everywhere you go
Respect my rights
My views
My thoughts
We have forgotten
Respect
Should be earned
Not expected
Mutual
And reciprocated
In response to my daily prompt Respect
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Same, same, same
Same job
Same problems
Same pressure
I am wood
Not stone
In response to my daily prompt Pressure
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Insurance
Remember
we have none
On the earth
In response to my daily prompt Insurance
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From the symbol of peace
Comes a stealthy killer
Seductive and insidious
Giving all
It appears
But taking all
Even tears
In response to my daily prompt Heroin
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Little pieces
Torn from our hearts
Rearranged memories
Making pictures
To last through time
Until the days
When they are no longer
Remembered
Just seen
As a mystery
From the past
In response to my daily prompt Mosaic
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An ice warning sign
A dark winding country road
Still, they whizz on by
In response to my daily prompt Warning
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Global warming
You might think
It will bring us tropical summers
It won’t
It will freeze us
Before it burns us
In response to my daily prompt Tropical
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Is it coincidence
That those that urged us to leave
Have left
In response to my daily prompt Coincidence
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The carrot
Is getting bigger
Nearer
More tantalising
Imagine the stick to follow
In response to my daily prompt Carrot
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Eleven fifty
Nine and almost out of time
Yet still ploughing on
In response to my daily prompt Late
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Who’s in partnership with who?
Are those that fight really enemies?
Is it all a show?
Distracting us from the truth
While they steal from us
Freedom, wealth and everything
In response to my daily prompt Partnership
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Ruthlessness
Meanness
These are the traits
The media feeds us
Tells us we need
To succeed
Thus preparing us
For exploitation
In response to my daily prompt Trait
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Small
But in control
Determined
Light touch
On throbbing power
Riders
In response to my daily prompt Trainer
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Running
So fast we run
Stay ahead of the game
This is the story we are sold
Suckers
In response to my daily prompt Resolution
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Featured snippets
Knowledge panes
Keyword magic
Am I insane?
Chasing figures
Spun in the air
Where do I begin?
Where do I begin?
In response to my daily prompt Feature
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This mini-series of poems were written as part of a year-long daily poem challenge and published in my collection A Spring of Dreams. They are in a form called Pleiades (read about it here).
I chose to write seven of them one for each of the original Pleiades – the stars once called the seven sisters, and base the poems around the mythological characters.
Another spirit lost
Awash in the swell and foam
Anguished over lost love
Anger dealt him the blow
Arising from the sea
Alighting on the air
A bright bird arises
A nymph darts between trees
Afraid of the hunter
Always close behind her
Away she flees in haste
Another danger lurks
At her feet as she runs
A butterfly is born
Caressed by the wide sea
Corals catch the new child
Carry her to the shore
Colliding with bright fate
Climbing into the sky
Coronal light shines out
Cascading to the sea
Ever shining bright spark
Equalizing her rage
Encompassing justice
Ever seeking revenge
Endless pain unanswered
Echoing from murder
Electra takes her aim
Mother of he who brought
Music up to the Gods
Malice turned to justice
Magic cascading from
Mother of the world storm
Mighty God of the earth
Must meet a mortal end.
Marriage was forbidden
Mortal husband taken
Masked in a veil of shame
Must watch her husband’s pain
Most faint in the heavens
Marred by following love
Misty those lives above
The hunter is hunted
Twisting between the trees
Turned into doe from nymph
Trailed by her lover’s bow
Tumbling through the forest
Two golden horns that shine
To rise into the skies
In response to my daily prompt Cluster
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Ban
The things
We don’t like
Or understand
Don’t agree?
Are you sure?
I mean look at it.
Intimidating
Scary
Dangerous
Just take a look
At what’s happening
The rapes, the murders
Think of the children
That’s it!
You know it makes sense
Join with us
Ratify it!
Stamp it!
Make it official
Make it law!
Good!
What’s next?
Blue eye!
I hate them.
Let’s kill all the blue-eyed
Bastards
In response to my daily prompt Ban
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In neutral gear
Idling
Sitting on the fence
Not taking sides
Until pushed
Off
In response to my daily prompt Neutral
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Berry
Suet
Logs
Have become
Something
To get
Excited about
In my life
How did that happen
In response to my daily prompt Berry
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Good
Good enough
Goodnight
In response to my daily prompt Good
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Grimace
And bear it
It’s got to be
More honest
Than an empty
Grin
In response to my daily prompt Grimace
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So the soldier walks alone
The origin
Of the species
Is
Competition
Survival of the fittest
The strongest
The smartest
The origin
Of our success
Is cooperation
Working together
Against a goal
If
For a few measly coins
We forget the latter
And embrace the former
The species
Will find
Its end
In response to my daily prompt Origin
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Declaration
Protestation
Exclamation
Consternation
No explanation
No realisation
Just expectation
This small nation
Done
In response to my daily prompt Declaration
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Lace
Disparate resonances
Delicate dowagers, making doilies
And fine trim for prim and proper ladies
And
Lacy underwear
Designed to be divested
In fast passion
And
Purity
White and bright
Smiling bride
Lead to the groom
Leading to the room
And back to the
Lacy underwear
In response to my daily prompt Lace
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“That’s proper lush, that is”
And you are in a time and place
While the grammar nazis squirm
Layer upon layer of meaning is conveyed
Language
Being used
For its intended purpose
In response to my daily prompt Language
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Some of us are tourists
Some of us are peddlers
Some just love the night
Some just have the feeling
That all of this is just inside our head
How can we control it?
How do we define it?
Is it in our head?
What if we just follow where we’re led?
On the tourist trail
In response to my daily prompt Tourist
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Time to take
The initiative
Maybe
Or perhaps
Tomorrow
Already too late
It’s gone
When I wasn’t looking
While I thought
And fought
With doubts and fears
Follow on
Follow on
In response to my daily prompt Initiative
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The rumbling of the belly
Is the trap
The bait
Led us down a one-way path
No turning back
And keeps us here
In response to my daily prompt Belly
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Always open, ever weeping
The wound of inequality
But still they slash, cut down their crop
And with contempt they fill their boots
Screaming sights and flashing sounds
Headlines tinged with hate
Keep us poor and keep us scared
Or else eliminate
In response to my daily prompt Boot
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Child lacking safety
Will grow to fear the wide world
And narrow their mind
In response to my daily prompt Narrow
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This is my platform
And the train is leaving
Without me
Never got to say
What I had to say
Ticket in hand
In response to my daily prompt Platform
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My life is thin
Shallow
Two dimensional
No point
No end
Twisted
Mobius
In response to my daily prompt Thin
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Econobox
What a strange, strained word
A small, efficient, no thrills car
Feels like a word
Trying to hard
Like the marketing department
That came up with it
In response to my daily prompt Econobox
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Diddly Squat
Zilch
Nadda
The amount your beloved
Leaders
Think about your needs
They will bleed us dry
And squeeze us flat
As the weight of their greed
Bears down on us
In response to my daily prompt Flat
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The free market
It pervades every part of our lives
Every fabric of our society
Why
Why did we choose
To put all the power
Into the hands of the few
Greedy individuals
Powerful because of their greed
Who’s great idea was that?
In response to my daily prompt Market
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Upturned trolleys
And wasted lives
Stilted rivers
Fish choked
Earth poked
To the point
Of submission
We cannot leave
Without causing worse
Now our only hope
Is to turn the tools
To better use
In response to my daily prompt Trolley
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Supposed to relax
From the endless stress of work
The phone doesn’t stop
In response to my daily prompt Work
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Your flesh is the price
Your blood sweat and tears
The dividend you pay
To no one you know
For reasons unknown
But still, you pay it
On and on and on
Until you have nothing left
No legacy
No remembrance
And still
It will not be enough
In response to my daily prompt Dividend
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I can’t criticize
I am too little
Too belittled
I probably can’t
Even spell it
In response to my daily prompt Criticism
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Life
Where every step
Is a leap
Without a parachute
Forget that
At your peril
In response to my daily prompt Parachute
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A simple solution
Deport the deporters
Problem solved
In response to my daily prompt Deport
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We all see it
All perceive the truth
Children in cages
We know what it means
Here come the memes
The outraged status
Rules the day
Governments
ISSUE STATEMENTS
Then
We turn away
Muttering
Up next?
Ovens
Prepare your placards!
Or is all as it appears?
Where is the truth in what we see?
If we cannot believe what we see – we will give up belief.
And there’s the point.
In response to my daily prompt Perceive
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I love a title
My name underneath
The first few paragraphs
The format
The shape
I love beginnings
I love endings
It’s the struggle in between
In response to my daily prompt Love
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Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 
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