Night Shift Poem by gerard rochford

Night Shift

You’re sleeping with your back to me tonight.
I reach around. Still sleeping you say: Later.

Down at the lily pond the amorous frogs
are singing through the darkness for a mate.

I doze till morning when the voyeur sun
nudges your promise as you turn to me.

A deer moves passed our window; cherry blossom
decorates her mouth moistened by dew.

When we make love the deer tip-toes away.
We disengage. I leave to make you coffee.

The birds and the bees are busy finding food
their music gentle; in bed we watch the news.

A suicide bomber kills himself in error:
the president kills, again and again, to plan.

Britney enters re-hab once again.
The poppies flourish in Afghanistan.

A boy steps on a mine when fetching water.
His blood and bone colour the desert soil.

A Nigerian girl is stoned to death for love;
her villagers starve as rich men steal their oil.

My love and I are warm beneath the quilt;
with fair trade coffee to assuage our guilt.