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John Bartholomew Aug 2023
Stood alone in a field of ever change
The others seem to catch on and evolve
But to me I'm happy staying put, stuck in my ways, a little strange
Liking a risqué joke, a mild poke, a barrel now sadly broke
Words we now cannot use
But arise in slapstick, a rarely lit fuse, mosty after a wee drop of *****
Kids now think we are all the same skin
As if nothing happened in 10,000 years and its all thrown in the bin
And if you disagree, have a voice, have a choice, you now live in sin
For being told how to live is an everyday occurance
Speed limits, different cynics, all told to coinline with this BBC
For our thoughts are now banished, no longer to be free
And sadly, people are beginning not to see
That you do actually stand alone in life, leaning into the breeze
For we all are really,
just,

A Lone Tree

JJB
John Bartholomew Aug 2023
Watching the high street bustling by
I'm not sure if I'm disgusted, ill digested or just want to cry
The buildings, the streets, the people, all want to make me weep
The Turkish barbers, the tattoo parlour,
All just a front they must keep
Friends with carers, soon with pallbearer, a life they cannot lead alone
Sat on street corners, dealers with quarters, all nattering on their mobile phones
Most smoking a vape, different flavours to take
So many races I could not name
Nowhere to park
The place an old mask
Of a generation now mostly all gone
Just jump online
Amazons just fine
For those shoes to be dropped at my door
We just sit in our seats
No longer a heartbeat
Our old friend
The British High Street....

JJB
#buynow #byenow
John Bartholomew Jul 2023
Taking your money doesn't give me anxiety
I'll keep scrounging from this inept society
The more I can get that just keeps fuelling me
And the drugs I get, oh, the varieties!

My kids don't even know I exist
Mostly a one-night stand out on the ****
Just mates of my dealer and ones of my sis
It starts with a sniff and then onto a kiss

Yet we breed them
We need them
To harbour our woes

We feed them
We house them
Just to keep us on our toes

We curse them
We nurse them
Not every good deed shows

And then we cloth them
Rarely dethrone them
As politicians, they hate to be exposed

That scrounger
On his sun lounger
Slurping Pina colada
In the sun where no one can harm you
Away from Kerry and the sniveling Garda
And Donal who wrongly barred you

The fingers I show you are now two
As I laugh at the times you said I'd never pull it through
Watching the locals just dancing in their tutu's
San Migual please Pedro and, of course, one for you!

Paddy Scrounger

JJB
John Bartholomew Jul 2023
She broke my Hert in Beds
So time to get my own back onto which this spree it led
I spread my love all around the Shires
With some still left hanging on the wire
From Dorset to Devon were the ones from heaven
Losing count in Cornwall but sure it was near eleven
Never crossing the mire to the depths of Wales
And not considered the trip across the channel,
I prefer a fry-up to a plate full of snails
Through the Sexes onto God's garden Kent
Posh girls aplenty so time to build my tent
But the North was always great and a whole lot of fun,
from the bland to the bold and even up the...Oh Matron!
Glasgow slid to Edinburgh and then onto Perth
I tell my friends that these are the cities to unearth
Now time to delve back south to the places I know best
I just needed a midlife crisis to get it off my chest
Now to add the county back to the Shires I forgot
Jeez, there was a fair few, Bucks seems like a fair good shot!

JJB
#midlifecrisis
John Bartholomew Jul 2023
Sat staring at my computer screen
(The monotone)
Wondering if this really is all a bad dream
(Feels like a lobotomy)
Work so dull I just want to scream
(Someone please clobber me)
My thoughts so dusty and dry
(Bus ride home, some hellish geometry)
Blueberrys grow through the side of the fence
(Free food from our Gods own apple tree)
But somebody please put me into that long sleep,
And out of my own failed misery

JJB
John Bartholomew Jul 2023
Ripped from stem, like we had no life at all
Our petals just in bloom, now never to be seen fall
Yellow, red, or blue
It's life as true as you
Giving pollen to be carried out by the bees
To impregnate the hay-fever sufferer along with the trees
Just a passing phase once summer has gone by
To be planted in the shade by novices who do but try
But we regrow, we divert, we regain new powers
So never underestimate the strength we have,
us,
Broken Flowers

JJB

💐
John Bartholomew Jul 2023
What's left at the bottom of your pint
The disguards, the mouthwash, the unwanted kerfuffle
Measured up to society
A load of ****** trouble
The majority queued at the job centre
The dreamers, the wash-ups, old Ken still clutching his Fender
Better off in a tidal wave
I really hate to tell you
But that's life and has been since day one
They come and go, these forgotten days of fun
Sometimes you have money, others you have none
But think big, think tall, better days will always come

JJB
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