The Outside Inside

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY

THE OUTSIDE INSIDE!

A shady summer room;

Peaceful in the gloom,

Suddenly invaded

By something quite unshaded!

A dazzle on the wall

A geometric scrawl.

The rectangles competing

With diamonds! What a meeting!

A zebra-crossing at the centre

Says 'Stop the sun! It must not enter!'

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WAR AND PEACE

We live in the best and the worst of times;
Medical breakthroughs, heinous crimes.
But maybe it was always so;
Man soars high but Man sinks low.
The difference is that, nowadays,
Everything's in the public gaze!
Because of global communication
We're involved in every situation.
News from another distant place
Is taut, immediate, 'in yer face'!
'No man is an island' any more!
I wince at the world's remotest war!
I beam when, by satellite, I'm assured
That some obscure illness will be cured!
Maybe all this modern tension
Results from modern misapprehension;
That everything is affecting 'us',
Benefit and blunderbuss!
Tribal conflicts once took place
In some strange far-distant place;
Not heard of for a month or two,
There was nothing that one could do.
In this frenetic modern era,
All is instant, louder, clearer.
But I don't think the human race
Is any more brilliant, any more base
Than it was a thousand years ago.
Well-being was always matched with woe.
'The best of times, the worst of times'?
I'll blot it out by writing rhymes!
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