This is not the time to be the bad Angel by Jim Byrne

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This is not the time to be the bad Angel by Jim Byrne

This is not a poem – it is just some Sunday ruminations that might become a song lyric.

This is not the time to be the bad Angel

this is not the time to be the bad Angel
to break the rules
to celebrate the dark side of life
to cut off the kind and the good
to take a stand against the teacher and the doctor
to laugh at your neighbours clean laundry and their good housekeeping
to throw an insult at the smart wife and the caring dad

This is not the time to be the bad Angel

sometimes it’s fun to be the wrecker
smash the school windows and let the car tires down
be the champion of the nasty girls and the lawless boys
to stand behind the cutting remarks and
sneer at the retirees standing inline

In this world of the deluded and the wrecking
this is not the time to be the bad Angel
this is not the time to be the bad Angel

This is not the time

Jim Byrne, January, 2021

(The photograph by Jim Byrne is of the woodcarving in the Glasgow University Chapel.

The carving is by Archibald Dawson A.R.S.A. (1892-1938). “Dawson was reportedly ‘steeped in the traditions of Classical and Medieval sculpture to which he added an individuality and at times a puckish sense of humour,’)