Perspectives

by Derek Morrison

HGV-blind-spotMind of driver
Place to be
Mental toolkit
Survival key.

Don’t perceive
Road like you
Insulated box
Sans environment cue.

Street metal
Raise no alarm
Holes and bumps
Cause no harm.

Thorn and gravel
Or scattered mire
Zero influence
Low profile tyre.

Don’t understand
Why you weave
So much road
Perceive you thieve.

Many cyclists
Driver be
Many drivers
Want cycle free.

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Deflation

by Derek Morrison

Fine time for a puncture
Fine time for a puncture
Attribution: Wesley Trevor Johnston [CC BY-SA-2.0]
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Gods, they smiled
As plans you told
Group cycle ride
Despite the cold.

Out in countryside
Rain like spear
Bad day for puncture
Mused he at rear.

The assassin thorn
Lay in silent wait
Its pointed dagger
Was someone’s fate.

Heavens pouring down
Prayers for release
Coffee stop pending
So pace increase.

The waiting assassin
Struck the blow
He at the rear
Didn’t even know.

Speed fell away
Group unaware
Pedaled onwards
Dry to share.

A slowing pace
Insufficient heat
Magnified loss
Once on feet.

Shelter priority
Fix can wait
Primary risk
Hypothermia state.

Leaden hands
Fingers blue.
Inn gave respite
Hot drinks too.

Repair was painful
Fix was slow
Fingers seized
Felt like toe.

Coffee stop
One was gone
Post rain and coffee
Search party spawn.

But happy ending
After transient fear
From my being
He at the rear.

Gods, they smile
As plans you tell
So plan for breakdown
In weather hell.

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Energy draining

by Derek Morrison

Wind Turbine
Attribution: Mark McLaren [CC BY-SA 2.0]
Solar farms built in northern climes
Skyline monuments — wind turbines
But how to store the wind and sun
Not thought about as policies spun
And so we pay to Grid not feed
If wind and sun they have no need
Renewable energy going to waste
From policies made in unseemly haste.
Green power storage first must be cracked
For move from fossils to be backed
Much conversion figures in this quest
Although no solution has yet proved best.
But a certain irony has come to pass
Green electricity is turned to gas
Or it can be used to power a pump
Moving water uphill for later dump
Or compressing air can be its fate
For driving turbines at later date.
But wait …
Here come the disruptive events
For hydrocarbons now cost fewer cents
Oil’s demise has been much tracked
But now the shale is truly fracked
And the Arabs then lowered the price
So we embrace again our fossil vice.

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(a longer version follows)
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