Poetry: Louis Kasatkin

By Louis Kasatkin

Louis is editorial administrator at www.DestinyPoets.co.uk and founder of Destiny Poets and in his spare time is a civic, community, political activist, blogger and general nuisance to the status quo!

 Louis Kasatkin

More than Words

Those words that used to mean so much
more back then,
mean a whole lot less than that now;
Keep on repeating repeating the
words that you borrow and steal,
keep repeating that till
you've convinced yourself
that you asked and paid for
every thought stolen
every truth borrowed;
Quote plagiarise paraphrase,
every aphorism saying axiom
allegory parable metaphor analogy;
Warp it into something something
then something else again,
build a tower a babylon of words,
watch them rise and
stadiums echo with adulation
for their orator;
Your words that used to mean so much
more back then,
mean a whole lot less than that now.

Sclerosis

The lights change
traffic crawls past
the discount stores
the charity shops and tanning salons,
off-licences and bookies,
the barbers and Greggs;
Another bleary-eyed morning
drab and dreich,
the cityscape wears the weather
like a mourning veil
pulled tight across its face;
Shuffling off their coils of ennui
in dribs and drabs
the denizens answer to
the day's tolling bell,
unprepared,
looking the worse for wear.

Setu, April 2018