The Ice Cream Maker

All the years the gadget sat in the cold
Never a strawberry, never a raspberry
Never banana, never chocolate flavour
After the decades had gone by, I asked
In all the years that’s been in the freezer
How come we never saw any ice cream
Never did I expect your confounding reply
Slightly unsettled I laughed at your words
Which tasted like several hidden layers
Oh I made ice cream, whole pints of it
But it was so good I ate it all myself
And the gadget sat in the freezer
Held by your frozen hand prints
Until it melted into nothing
And now it’s gone

© 2021 Debbie Freeman

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Splintered

Our wooden bench is old and splintered
Yours till the end yet assembled by me
Today sitting in your place, I wonder
Side on… did I ever know you?
Facing… do I trust this identity?

Birds sing as clouds shift the sky
Space flows away from all we see
And people who sat on this bench
Spent a lifetime as familiar strangers
Waiting for another day to speak

Never A Chance

“I think you could do well,
If they gave you a chance”
After a silence, she spoke to the page
Full of dreams and creative leaning
Pleased at the praise a childish squirm
Yet her meaning was missed by age
For they never gave that chance
Undrawn, unacted, unsung
Unheard words and dances undone.

I hear her today as her eyes met mine
Our fleeting glance affirmed through time
They got rid of her in only one term
Her insight and care had not complied
Terrified of loss in floods of rare tears
Begging to escape them and fear
But I will never forget how she saw me
On a page of illustrated poetry
What if they had listened to her
What if she had been the one
Who by seeing my soul set it free
Allowing creative truth to run
Chasing a chance under blazing suns.

 

© 2019 Debbie Freeman

Hidden

Birds, Trees and Hedgerows

I have been missing for a while, occupied with other projects, but today I’m posting this photo poem in response to the disgusting netting of trees and hedges in the UK. Building developers want to stop wildlife and birds interfering with their plans. So, because it is illegal to cut down a tree with nesting birds, this is how they get round it. Sadly wildlife is frequently trapped. Cruel and disturbing is an understatement.

To quote Chris Packham, our beloved TV naturalist, ‘…it’s a shameful indictment of mismanagement and a brutal ignorance of how to look after the countryside. Sickening.”

The article ends by saying, ‘…useful management tools to guide animals away from particular areas.’ Surely everyone loves garden birds – robins, wrens, blue tits, thrushes, blackbirds and our favourite cheeky sparrows plus many more.

Everything that is netted is to be destroyed and it’s happening throughout the UK. All in the name of greed. And do not tell me they are building ‘affordable’ housing. Round here no new build is affordable. It is horrendous.

What upsets me, apart from the obvious, is the ignorance shown throughout the world regarding nature, especially trees. Without them we die, they are our lungs. Why is this not understood? There is something very sinister stalking our beautiful planet.

Please share this picture if you wish, however, those in the UK, I urge you to sign the petition to stop this awful practice: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/244233

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writeinthewoods

Unwanted Things

Daybreak… yet I prefer sleep
Hiding in the soft shadow
Eyes shut against unwanted light
Night is a place of nothing
Cocooned by a black blanket
Shrouded under starlight
Stillness in the unknown
Hearing gone
Thoughts nowhere
Remembering even less
Safe from waking dreams
Wandering silent lands
Until birds begin to sing
Sun filters through the veil
Pulling the unwilling soul
Back into cruel memory
As a voice once said,
“Dawn breaks into darkness
Forcing us to see unwanted things”
And I am slowly awakened
Awaiting the clarity
Of what the unwanted brings.

 

Fabric

Woven by a spiral of stars
Carbon based creatures
We are

Somewhere within the depth of cells
Dark creation dust
Will tell

This story from the edge of time
Inhales us backwards
Enshrined

Fabric unravelled down a twist
Single pure threaded
Rare wisp

One floating golden stitch unsewn
Drifting boundless voids
Unknown

 

FABRIC by Debbie Freeman

Ten Seconds

Ten seconds sooner… I smile at the back of your car
That whoosh and the roar as you tore up the road
A bid to win as you slid in the gap with inches to spare
Arriving ten seconds sooner ~ and I am there.

Ten seconds later in a pile of dust and rusty parts
Blue lights announcing the phone in your hand
I slide past remembering when a wise voice said
“Better to be late in this world than early in the next.”

Dedicated to the wise words of our Dad, the best driver ever.

Trees

Tides of Difference