THE TALE OF THE ANCIENT MARINA.

Home.

Got a Kindle? Put something worth reading on it. Download 'The Tale of the Ancient Marina'.

If you enjoy it please donate whatever you think appropriate

Poems.

If you want to quote or copy and paste you're welcome to but please credit the site http://www.aarondavid.co.uk/

Cyril's Surreal Cereal.

Cyril’s surreal cereal went snap, crackle and splat.

It was soft, sweet and chewy like a cricket bat.

It was pink and brown and colourless, translucent and opaque.

It contained a tiny amount of sugar, enough to fill a lake.

It was as wide as it was narrow, as vast as it was small.

It tasted of every taste there is and yet of nothing at all.

It’s smell was overwhelming, being totally odourless.

It had an easy-clean formula but it made a heck of a mess.

Cyril said, “My surreal cereal shall outsell salmon and steak

Cider, salt, cinnamon and soya, think what a fortune I’ll make.”

He took it to Kelloggs and Cadburys, Quaker, Nestle and Rowntree.

They said, “People don’t want surreal cereal, they’re funny like that you see.

Go and invent something made from wheat or corn or oats or bran.

We can’t sell this stuff you’ve made, bring us something we can.”

Cyril solemnly shuffled home, sadness surrounded his soul.

To make people eat his surreal cereal had been his only goal.

He went to bed dejected, disillusioned and decidedly miffed.

How could people not appreciate his remarkable gift?

That night in his tortured sleep he had a revelation

That would bring him riches, success and ovation after ovation.

Cyril’s psychedelic sausages would blow everyone away.

He would set about convincing them the very next day.

Aaron David. 2010.

Why I did the things I did.

When I was a boy, just a kid

I didn’t understand why my parents said the things they said and did the things they did

“Eat it up, there’s children starving in Africa”.

“Don’t mix Coca Cola with paprika”.

I didn’t know their words were delivered with love

To spur me on or give me a shove

Now I am a father to teens

And I expound similar themes

My words continue that very same thread

As I do the things they did and say the things they said

Now you no longer have to hold my hand

One day I think you will understand

It’s my overwhelming love for you

That makes me say the things I say and do the things I do

When lines of devotion show upon my face

You will take the parent’s place

When you try to impart wisdom on your own kids

You’ll see why I said the things I said and did the things I did.

Aaron David 2010.

A way with words.

She had a way with words, my Mum did

She was my everything when I was a kid

She always taught me right from wrong

She made my childhood bounce along

She found the funny side of life

She trivialised the daily strife

She made sense of life’s absurds

You can do that with a way with words

She taught me compassion, how to care

For those who had no one else to share

How could this angel be taken away?

Why put a cloud over every day?

There’s no point asking how or why

Fifty-seven’s no age to die

A demon with a capital C

Took my Mum away from me

So away with words, they’re no consolation

There’s a new, shining star in the constellation

Thank you Mum for making me me

I wish you could be here to see

Your three beautiful grandchildren who

Remind me so very much of you.

Rest in peace Mum.

Aaron David 2010

The title of my novel, 'The Tale of the Ancient Marina' was obviously inspired

by 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I thought

maybe I should do the decent thing and write the accompanying poem.

For all those who love old cars, with deepest affection for the Marina

And with sincerest apologies to Mr. Coleridge, here is........

The Rhyme of the Ancient Marina.

It is an ancient Marina

And he stoppeth one of three.

“You think you know suffering son?”

“I’ve just failed my M.O.T!

“The wind it was a-howling

O’er the testing centre roof.

And on the cursed printout

Was spell’d out the awful truth.

My steering shot, my brakes shattered,

My exhaust is like a sieve

May Unipart pity my soul

And all my breakdowns forgive.

They said my carpet was a mess,

They said my boot was smelly.

They said I was as useless as

Men’s nipples or a leaky welly.

My fate it seems so ruthless

The truth it seems so hard

I am to be towed unceremoniously

Down to the Knackers’ yard.

When you buy your shiny new car

Of which you are justly proud

Remember it will one day be

A rusty, dusty shroud.

When it has served it’s purpose,

And you’ve taken all it’s got

It will be dumped in an oily yard

And left to fester and rot.

Aaron David 2010

Although I'm an atheist I had a thought...

If Jesus came back.

If Jesus came back what would he do

When he saw that some people are evil through and through

When he saw them driven purely by greed

Not caring about those in genuine need

Would he tell them how to get in to heaven?
“We can’t take you seriously you’re only four feet seven”

“We don’t believe in all that biblical stuff”

“Shut your yap we’ve had enough”

If Jesus came back what would he think

About how the world is facing the brink

Of running out of food and fuel?

“We said shut your yap you silly fool”

About how humans decide which species should die

From the mighty whale to the common housefly

About how we think we own the place

This tiny speck floating in space

If Jesus came back, what would he change?

Given the power what would he rearrange?

Would he put dolphins in charge and put people in zoos

And let farm animals live where they choose?

Would apes have run a better show

If they knew what we think we know?

Would penguins fish the seas to death?

Would tortoises wage wars to their dying breath?

If Jesus came back what would he say

About how things have changed while he’s been away

About how the west own so much and throw it away

While two thirds of the world starve and struggle each day

Would he despair at the munitions showered on his home land?

Where America has democracy planned

Would he be happy? Would he accept the blame?

When people who are different are persecuted in his name?

If Jesus came back I think he’d throw up his hands

And say “Father look at what they did to their lands”
“Look at how they kill each other just for money”
“If it wasn’t so tragic I’d think it was funny”

“Father I think you should start again”
“Build a better paradise and fill it with better men”
“Who value their lives and the lives of others”
“And don’t cheat and connive and murder their brothers”

“Let these humans burn their Earth”
“And destroy each other for all they’re worth”
“Let this planet become a burning ember”
“So you and I need never remember”

“How you built paradise and gave it to Man”
“How perfect was your master plan”
“How he destroyed it in the name of cash”
“How he reduced it to worthless ash”.

Aaron David 2010.

I wrote this for my wife, never intended to put it on the site but what the hell...

Daybreak Smile.

When I was nineteen I met a girl

Who turned my life around

She was pretty and petite

Her eyes were deepest brown

She was obviously too good for me

Our relationship couldn’t last

I’d eventually have to return

To the disappointments of the past

Her disposition was so happy

She had a smile that was so bright

She could turn the drabbest day into springtime

And illuminate the darkest night

Against all odds we stayed together

And twenty-five years later

We’re more in love than ever before

Every day it grows greater

Our three children are growing up

With lives and friends of their own

We have our happy family

And our happy home

I want to thank you Julie

For agreeing to be my wife

For your daybreak smile

For giving me this life

I’ll love you always.

Aaron David 2009.