John Bartholomew

John Bartholomew Dec 2019

Arriving like a flash of pure light,
A buzz,
A whiff,
A, look at me, I'm not here just as a gift

Momentous,
Crucial,
Pivotal,
Names I have plundered, on a Sunday morning call

Historical,
Far-reaching,
Consequential,
Fateful, all in a book, no author may dare claim

Evidenceless,
Timeless,
But always on trend
Oh Lord, how can it already be the end?

JJB

“Disbelief held me down inside my footsteps, making my body heavy but my heart wild.”― Markus Zusak

John Bartholomew Dec 2019

Odd Socks

Whether black or blue, white or brown
We all find each other in these quirky little towns
Love is a thing of a thousand discussions
If your English, Irish, French or Russian
Language is but a barrier as long as you trust them
Supporting rival teams but still laugh at the same stuff on the telly
She cleans his boots, takes a sniff, although he's properly smelly
Then makes his favourite desert, mmm, ice cream and jelly
For we all have our differences, let just make it fit
No room on the sofa, let's laugh, chat, here's somewhere to sit
As we don't have enough time to hold such grudges,
tick-tock
tick-tock
Because, lets face it, we are all really, just odd socks.

JJB

John Bartholomew Dec 2019

User

I took you in
We laughed, got drunk, smoked some stuff that was wrong
Went gigging
Stole ***** that we shouldn't have been swigging
You dragged on some **** of a ten pack of stolen ciggies

You used me but I overlooked this at the time
Maybe I used you as well but this worked out just fine
A free ticket to the singer of your choice
Friend or carer, you wanted my company but not for their voice
You had no money but I didn't mind helping you out
As I never asked for a dime in return, I could have gone to a tout

So now...
It's thrown back in my face from a man with no cares
He swindles a friend he's known for over 20 years
Lives life like a failed rockstar as some new hearts he'll now tear

Good luck to those who he'll now push from his window sill
As two-facedness is a very bitter pill
He'll never learn as failure is an option we look back in hindsight
Looking over the edge from these choices
But from from how many lies and to fall from what height

Thinking back it was everyone else who has always paid
So that's it now my once dear friend
Time to call it a day

JJB

John Bartholomew Dec 2019

Demons

Sober.
It's an acquired state on mind.
A conscious
A quietness
A fondness
One may say, a heir achy, from you all.

Drunk.
Also an acquired state of mind.
A derailment
A letting go of it all
An unseen hurting inside

You don't know whats happened to that soul
An incident so unforgiving its led to this black hole
The judge in you thinks your above that sad being
But in their own self conscious, it's trouble they are fleeing

(Never judge what you never know)

JJB

John Bartholomew Dec 2019

One of those days (Just like Shakespeare)

Stubbed your toe just getting out of bed
It's gonna be, one of those days

Its cold and it's wet and its not getting better
Well that's what the weatherman just said

Slap that smile on and say hello to the world you just dread
This modern world of Tristan's and Justin's, I just don't fit as a Fred

Listening to country blues on the bus as the kids turn up their Kiss
Sometimes I'd like to answer with a smile and 5 finger clenched fist

At times I'd just like to be left alone in a world of my own dreams
Where Jesus could just hold me as his sunbeam

Do the others ever ask for 10 B&H and a packet of Rizla
Heck, I've been doing so since I was a kid, yeah

For this world of my own is a place of sanctuary where I'm safe
These thoughts are my own, my dreams, my own place

Shakespeare I think had the same ideas of worlds away
Where he often thought the same, always having just like me

One of the days

JJB

John Bartholomew Nov 2019

Bottle

Sometimes empty
Sometimes full
Depends what its been used for by this downright fool
If it's Pepsi, Fanta or an orange from his own *****
He never thought it's be a place to empty his fragile groin
As a bladder with what has a mind of its own
The inevitable can happen with your mind that's now blown
As the first time its a shock and you cant believe whats happened
But be prepared sonny as you cant let things slacken
Pull up behind the biggest tree
A feeling of oncoming dread that cannot happen to me
You search all the nearest windows as no spectators here
Unzip, todger out, catheter into that empty container
This ain't the way the nurses said, hygiene, germs, ***** hands
They'd cry if they saw this is the way they trained you
Thank God for that fizzy drink, that thing you drop with hand controls, driving at full throttle
For we never learn, quick, pass the drink, as I swigg out of that said bottle

JJB

John Bartholomew Nov 2019

Graceless

Silence is sound I sometimes crave the most,
I sit in another room,
With stillness,
Just light,
Not a creak to be heard or angst within sight

Such passion, such roar
Let me just feel my softcore
As those clatterings can carry on elsewhere
Empowered in such grace
Sometimes you do not have to see it's face
To just know it's the kind of future for you

As I lay down here just looking up at the sky
The fields all surround me with their beauty
A natural aroma that sometimes can hold you
Can warm you,
Can charm you,
And now have seen you through,
Away from the surrounds that have just become,

Graceless

JJB

“When you don't know where you're going, you drive on the highway.”
― Roger Hedden, Bodies, Rest and Motion.

“the costume of the nineteenth century is detestable. It is so sombre, so depressing. Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“What a lovely thing, to shut up and listen and not broadcast anything back. There’s a certain serenity in it and even a kind of light grace.”
― Michael Harris