sgt. pepper

Okay, so it wasn't 20 years ago to the day, but it's in a similar timeframe and inspiration (just like time in the never ending cycle of my life) is currently in short supply.

In any case the following poem was written half-a-lifetime ago, and where it not for the wonder of web-based-databases replacing hand-written food-stained jotting paper, it would have been consigned to a careless history. I recognise it as my work, it ring vague bells deep in the recesses of the person i was during my teenage years, and for that alone i'm grategful the for chance of a (yet another) gratuitious trip down my memory lane.

Winter No More

In the midst of this fighting
We, both battle scarred
And broken boned,
Know that there shall be no victor -
No-one shall justly claim reward.

Punishment however, is handed freely
(I see and feel her heart so torn),
For me, the punishment cuts deeply
And I shall fear the winter no more.

July 1989

With an inevitability that bores even myself, the poem was inspired by a song, Wonderland by Big Country, a band that - hand fully on heart (were I to believe in the symbolism of such matters) - helped shape my future self more than anything less uncool at the time. There wasn't much around less cool than Big Country (or myself for that matter).

It's nothing more than the over-wrought musings of someone too naive and lacking in any real experience of relationships to understand that it's not a big deal to disagree and argue with your girlfriend. But that's okay, because it's a concept that I was wrestling with at the time, trying to make sense of the abject misery that followed some minor exchange of incompatible views. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was a bit of a pushover back in the day, but I'm happy to say I've grown some balls since...

fear the winter no more
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