They took you from the hospital
They didn’t know why you had died
They wanted to do an autopsy

It took 3 weeks
We couldn’t see your body
It wasn’t fit they said
And eventually we got

A Report
Brain - 2 and a half pounds
Body - healthy, unmarked - not emaciated
No needle marks on the arms
Liver - taken for analysis
Traces of Tuinal and Physeptone
They cut, weighed and analysed you
But couldn’t find the reason
Why you had died
Drowning on your own *****
In a mental hospital

My mother took you to her hometown for burial
To the cemetery hedge where you were conceived
Later she told me that whenever you cried
She shoved a dummy covered in malt into your mouth
And then she would leave you
Her bundle of idle words, looks and *****

Poor Dorothy looking for escape
The war child who knew no softness or comfort
Poor John a quick coupling in the dark beneath the cemetery hedge
Begotten from chocolate, stockings and a Burslem teapot

Baja California
Tequila drawings on the wall
A big fat policeman against the door
The drunken band plays on and on

Baja California
Cheap motel bugs on the wall
Pimps and ****** out in the hall
The neon light goes on and on

Baja California
Mescal tequila throat on fire
Burnt rubber takeoff screeching tyres
The dirt toll road goes on and on

Baja California
Mother ******* on the front lawn
Daddy waiting for the doctor in the dawn
And the pain goes on and on

Baja California
Shanty houses complete with TV
Pumping in the American dream
While the children scream on and on

Death stalks
On velvet paws.
A pounce, a flash of claws,
The small and helpless in its jaws.
Fat Cat!

Milk calls
Emptying lap.
White drops make warm nightcap.
Silky shadow dodges a slap.
Fat Cat!

Warm bed
Invites slumber.
Contented purr thunders.
Muddy paws on bedclothes wander.
Fat Cat!

The Tickly Monster's coming
To tickle you off to bed
He'll tickle you on your tummy
He'll tickle you on your head
He'll tickle you on your tosies
He'll tickle you on your thumb
And when his tickling's finished
He'll say that its just begun

Come back home
(Uncompromising the hand that pushes away)
To the stiff back
And the cold shoulder
That leads to a pain in the neck

After you died
She brought your clothes
In a black bag
Saying maybe I could use them

I took them out
And you were there
I held them to my face
And breathed you into me

I put on your coat
And felt its arms
Holding me in
A warm embrace

Your strength and comfort
There for a moment
And then gone.

Never balanced
Two extremes
Just a dream of solid things

I watch from afar as we rut on the bed
Your breath laboured as you reach your inevitable ******
You ****** deeper and my angel cannot fly
Pinned down as it were by the tired worldliness of it all