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John Bartholomew Jan 2022
74%
Waking up and checking the battery on your unplugged phone
(why did I check Facebook at 3am and not plug it back in?)
74%
The start of any relationship at blistering pace then the brakes apply
(It happens to us all and we don't know why)
74%
That dream holiday, the arrival, the meet the people, the leaving to head home as youve just had enough now
(With the bragging that just ends up in a row)
74%
Discovering new shortcuts on that upgraded mobile phone, I'll never get bored of this!
(A month now gone and someting better already on the list)
74%
Augusts new car off the line and youre proud to say its yours
(January hits and its now become a bore)
74%
Netflix has a new hit and its grabbed the worlds attention
(It's now series six and its falling to bits and needs a formal suspension)
74%

We all seem to plod on at this number on a daily basis, and it does us all well.
You don't need to be one hundred percent all the time, or we'd all just mope and dwell.
So raise a smile when needed, and speak to those who sometimes need it.
For life is too short to for hang ups and woes, it's just led how you see fit.

JJB
John Bartholomew Dec 2021
Two words that I'd longed to hear
A death of which had no cheer
That hero of many a long year
Where Mos Eisley pirates would begrudgingly raise a beer
For once a crazy man who had no fear

And as he spoke those words to his son Kylo Ren
He knew he had regained his trust
His one and only Ben......

Hey Kid

JJB
"NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS"
"YOU LIKE ME BECAUSE I'M A SCOUNDREL"
"YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES I AMAZE MYSELF"
“HOKEY RELIGIONS AND ANCIENT WEAPONS ARE NO MATCH FOR A GOOD BLASTER AT YOUR SIDE, KID” - Han Solo
John Bartholomew Nov 2021
Wasn't life simpler before the Internet
That Sunday phonecall to the parents
And a stroll to the bookies for a bet
Catch up on a Friday in the pub or local bar
Have a laugh and a chat with mates about,
The footy, the birds, their next best car
And always the one who will tell the odd little lie
About the women he's had and flings he's spun
But reality is sat in Fleet services eating a pork pie
Holidays on Teletext with the Algarve at 99 pound
Flicking through to the exchange rate quickly
Right, let's book, who's looking after the hound?
Kids had Short Circuit who could read a book in seconds and say Johnny 5 alive
Such a cumbersome machine on tank like tracks
But on this we all did thrive
When affairs were conducted in phone boxes and coffee shops
Where no one carried a camera to grass you up
And then the husband finds out to bang down the door,
Never mind, KNOCK KNOCK!
If they're simpler times now, then on your head be it
But give me that 20 minute load up cassette games, and the choke on my Punto FIAT
For I loved simpler times,
That's just the way that I see it.

JJB
John Bartholomew Sep 2021
I've become so stressed
Every little thing,
from what dress to a salad with cress?
I have forgotton what makes me even tick
What makes me smile,
from words on the crossword to my morning sick
And from my tick onto my tock
What still fits ,
What do I wear from my joggers to a frock
To calculate my brain from maths to a sudoku sum,
these used to be so easy
Jeez, what have I become?
My legs just keep kicking and are now so restless
A kick now inside out,
this babys just wants h** final exit
Still months to go but getting all so bigger
Every day some more weight on,
I cannot wait for its final ****** trigger!

JJB
John Bartholomew Sep 2021
No date no time
Just in these arms of mine
Nothing could prepare you
That tea your final brew
No last words
It would have been somethimg absurd
Obviously to just make you laugh
Thundercats on TV with that ginger brat Snarf
A cartoon to throw me back to my youth
Oasis on the wireless with aint that the truth
Those final tears as we cuddle and regretfully cried
A day never to be relived again
The day I died

JJB
John Bartholomew Sep 2021
Thats nice
Oh, I like that
It'll look good on the shelf
Now stuck in that drawer, gathering ill heath
The football programmes
The bottles of bleach from the Tenerife sun-tan
The school nativity play from your neighbour Stan
All shoved in the closet
With the receipt for the apartment deposit
Gathering dust for that day that you want it
Forgotten in the turns of time
Like that vinegar once bought decayed in brine
Stuck in the cupboard behind the lemon and lime
We look at it and always sadly mutter
I love it
I'll use it one day
This endless debris of useless, worthless, selfless,

Clutter
“Out of clutter, find simplicity.” ― Albert Einstein

“Clutter is my natural habitat.” ― Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

“...that once were urgent and necessary for an orderly world and now were buried away, gathering dust and of no use to anyone.” ― Patricia A. McKillip, Alphabet of Thorn

“I like working among ‘creative clutter’. It gives me a sense of activity and achievement.”― Fennel Hudson, A Meaningful Life - Fennel's Journal - No. 1
John Bartholomew Aug 2021
Restraints, complaints, lifes been on the taint
Thrown us into a world we'd all never known
Lockdowns and get downs but not to no jazzy funk
A life we've all unwantingly been thrown
Whats right
Whats wrong
We didnt think it would last this long
Still covering our face from the deadliest of bugs
The nay sayers
The everyday prayers
The fools on life support who just didnt care
Anxiety attacks
The toughest of men who normally have your back
Just break down when their world immedietely turns black
There is a light though in from this 2020 tunnel
As we grab it to the ground and hit back with a pummel
Suffocate it in a headlock and **** it as it stumbles
For we are better than some poxy Chinese manmade curse
We'll watch it die and lend it no nurse
As we are stronger than this and not here just as a rehearse.

Better Than This.

JJB
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