CHALLENGING TIMES

It’s always a challenge when I am commissioned to write a poem. My response inevitably depends on the specifications of the recipient.
I occasionally receive commercial requests for poems from businesses or charities.
These are fundamentally different from private commissions, which generally come from friends or family and often require humorous rhymes for birthdays, anniversaries or other social events.
The great majority of my writing, however, is recreational and for myself alone. The challenges are those I set myself. 
Occasionally, when a topic has been designated for a forthcoming Guernsey Open Mic event, I find myself with a subject, a deadline and no poem written. 

The challenge of February’s Open Mic topic is Time and, whilst I’ve previously written poems on the subject, I decided to write yet another, Tides of Time.

 


TIDES OF TIME

When I was never sober, young and single,
at closing time, Auld Pat would keep repeating
Time’s up, please gentlemen ...
time’s up now please!   
his voice like tide retreating
over shingle,
but in my youthful, drunk elation,
half-legless, careless as a cat,
I gave no thought to time.   
Time’s up now, gents!
I’ve learned the error of my ways in that.
Such cruel education.