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TomDoubty Apr 2023
Man
“London calling to the faraway towns…”*
[The Clash]

God man, trinket man, fake leather wallet man,
Drugs man, drumming man,  dancing on the street man
Antique man, eel man, bus man, trades man
Boots man, bagel man, feed me I am hungry man,
Fit man, gay man, straight man, trans man,
Chinese man, white man, "oi-back-to-where-you came from" man
Business man, rugger man, beautiful wife and kids man
Eco man, hipster man, shouting man, shaking man,
Scowling man, scumbag man, shuffling don’t come near me man
War man, drunk man, cruising near the bushes man
Watching man, medal man, pickpocket poor man
Box man, sleeping man,think he might be dead man,
Lost man, lonely man,
Looking from the ledge man
TomDoubty Feb 2023
Gently landed,
At my side
A butterfly in golden light
Warming wings
That kiss their dust
From tip to tip

Barely touching
Your hollow limb
At my elbow
Resting there
My soft net sweeps down
I am your gentle prison

I lift you out
It feels like oil
The dust at my  pulps
I circle it there
A moment
It has no smell

I press your chest
To stop you moving
Pierce you with a pin
To keep you there forever
Frame you on my wall

In all this you did nothing
But look with love
Touching me lightly
Leaving nothing but dust
TomDoubty Oct 2022
‘Don’t do it!’
I thought
‘A suicidal pheasant!’
Dancing at the kerbside
Brain like a walnut
Chin up in his get up
He dances there
So aristocratic
Head held high
His anxious eyes
On the crossing
It’s 50/50
At most
“Go back to the scrub!”
I think

Just like us
Putting off that anxious crossing
Hiding in our finery
Small brains
Fur coats
TomDoubty Feb 2022
I find your sketchbook
Discarded in the corner
It is Sunday it is Winter
I open it

Standing tall
A charcoal cactus
Cutting shade from sun
In a bowl of cliffs
Flat desert expanse
Mojave, Sonoran
Bright Light
Places you have never been
Yet see the shadow
Cast around
Shimmer and shadow
Silent, expectant heat
The suspense of high noon

This mirage
Your thirsty dream
Your whole future  
Shimmering before you
Is beautiful
Beautiful like a dream
Like a life
Shimmer and shadow

You see all this
Cool shade
In overhangs
The long shadow
Stretching before you


20.2.22
TomDoubty Feb 2022
This grey sky
Squared by my window
Cut across by rooks
That rise and slide
In a moment takes me there
Like ashes kicked from pit to air

Blown east to the City
To loneliness and chaos
Beyond these chalk hills
Loose boweled I walk
At the kerbside braced
To the howling wind
In a Waterloo tunnel
Chip papers and diesel
Dizzy my senses
I stumble there, there and away
From the bloated rose-hip
The fragile blue ***,
Its paper thin skull
Deep under London’s tiles

Here Lies
My Dirt My Bones

Shall I go in?
Shall I go down?
London
Yes you have me now
You have me powerless
London Town

20.2.22
TomDoubty Jan 2022
don't assume
everyone is like you
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