My thanks go out to Steve Platts, who has kindly sent me one of his poems – Optimist Crime. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I do. And have a listen to the fantastic audio version on myspace too.
Optimist Crime
by Steve Platts
Still with the taste of toothpaste,
Watching the rat-race
Men chained to a suit case,
Commuters
And early morning coffee-shooters
Eyes glazed from the haze
Of their computers
As bleary eyed students,
To tired to make nuisance
Find new uses
For laptop computers
Peer-groups are clear groups
As fear loops round cuppa soups
As new suits in old boots in new suits
Grow new roots but no shoots
Catching snatches of the world in front of me
So sick of reality, as seen on TV
Frosted glass and smoke and mirrors
Blending bad news into horrors
Sending shockwaves seeped in sorrows,
Too tired to tarry on such stories
On this sunny sleepy morning
Content with funny snorts and yawning
Everyone a place to go,
Their paved pathways set in stone
Everyone their face must show
If only to a telephone
I wonder what would happen if,
We all stepped off and cut adrift
Would anyone be truly missed?
Sure that’s one less email answered
And one less plastered,
In pubs after
But surely in the scheme of grand-things
One day off wont lead to bad things?
Maybe this views just romantic
Are world is after all so frenzied frantic
Or maybe its just laziness
To lie back and hope for best
I suppose that’s the crime of the optimist
Natures little pest.
I suppose that’s the crime of the optimist
To take it all in stride and jest.
I thought I saw Jesus, leaking secrets
To passers by, by means of a leaflet
But the men made of wires
Deleted his flyers
And left them to flutter
Like butter in fires
Amazing what contempt
That a nutter inspires.
Because we know its wrong
To connect beliefs with bombs
To avoid delays to this service
Please report all, that makes you nervous.
