Pick and choose,
what are you scared of
there is nothing to lose
it's a win-win.

But we've been
where win
wasn't an option
where
there was no pick and choose
you took what they gave you
and hoped for the best.

This was like breakfast time in
the last century
a
bowl of cold porridge
from the century before
and if you complained
you got 'what for'
there was no Oliver
no one asked for more.

I am still the rough draft
a page that once laughed
an oceanic tide
a mad fairground ride
a note on the side
on the A4 of life.
untitled, as it was

( today )
Erased
rephrased
and
those days
have passed.

Looked into the wishing well
wished for heaven
it gave me hell
but a long time ago
is a long time to know
what ailed me
and what
if anything failed me

now being proofread,

Happy 12th to:

'by the dead undead who do not know
that this is where we are and there's nowhere left to go '

People have wings that unfold
or so I am told,
angels
in disguise?

I've seen them
when
the spirit is within them,
let's
call them holy men
women too,

just people like
you
and me
trying to see
the good
in everyone.

Already fed up with the weather?
pull yourself together and wrap
up warm,
there's a storm coming this way
and
while politics plays politics
there'll be no change.

Sick of the rhetoric
and how they'll do it all
just come find me and tell me
when it's done,

Parliament
until they stop running off at the mouth  
in that fancy cathedral located down South
and do something,
anything except nothing,
I won't be voting.

They're calling it
and once again
we're
falling for it,

it's only the one percent
that are doing well
the other ninety-nine percent can't even
******' spell.

it'll be higher taxes
and
higher rents,
the only cheap things
will be our lives.

Off-grid sounds so good
to
live in a tree made of real wood
and
not that plastic crap.

I'd do it tomorrow
if I could.

Now.
them men what think they're gonna break me
think they'll take me to the hill
and then they'll stake me
to a cross that's laden down
with iron nails and a thorn crown

that's what them men are gonna do.

Getting sick of all this **** that still surrounds me
so
I'll go wash down by the Sea of Galilee
have some fish for a late meal
then I'll see just how I feel
about those men who think
that
they are gonna break me.

Too far away for a day trip
so Australia's out,
no doubt
there's somewhere else
I can go.

I know
Selsey Bill
said,
at the end of
'The manhood peninsula'

I never made that up
said Bill
as he sipped on his
iced lemon tea.


From Wikipedia.
Wee passed by Chichester observing only that there are many small Currents of Fresh Water, and breaking into the low Lands by the Flux of the Sea between it and Portsmouth in and about the Islands of Selsea and Hailing, But all Passages into the same from the Seaward being Covered by the East Burroughs the dangerous Rocks called the Oares, and the Sands of the Horse; There is no Room among them for any improvement for the Navy nor did there appear to be any Place fitting to Build a Shipp of the 4th. Rate within any of the Havens of those mentioned Islands upon the enquiry which was made thereof about 4 Years since by your own Directions.

thinks of 1963
and I wanted to be
a train driver
or
an astronaut

and then came
1969
puberty
a time of exploration

and now in 2025
thinks of
trying to stay alive
until
1969
comes round again.

Poor people can't afford to 'spill the beans'
because they need them for sustenance
and abstinance ain't a problem that they
have to solve.

yeah
yeah
a million housewives
and every day
they sharpen their tongues
ready to slay

best to keep quiet
whether in the doghouse
or
the poorhouse,
that's what I've found.

and we're always unsure
because
even though we are poor
we're not stupid.

Edited
your life is being forfeited
what would your forefathers say?

Different strokes for
modern ways
and the olden days
are long gone.

This government
cramps my style and
it 'gets my goat'
I'm getting my coat
and going to skedaddle.

Doing a Josey...
off to the badlands
they
cannot be worse
than
this.

Silenced
by this flow of words.

Go into that quiet space
and before the mirror
watch your face
alter with the winds that blow.

And if time is all we have
then grasp it
hold it tight
savour it
and
make it last

even as change changes
change, changes change
and chances appear

'see a penny
and
pick it up'

Lady Luck has little to do
but watch.

When you think that it's you going mad,
but then you wake up and realise
the whole country got there before you.

Now you're sane,
but you have to fit in with the lunatics,
shame,
but you can do it.

When your body starts shrinking
and you think that's it's linked in
to a Facebook post that you read
it's only
a media doctor who's just there
to **** with your head.

I've said it before and
I'll say it once more
Facebook is full of
misinformation.

This is not like it was in the sixties
except for politicians and
the ******
they're the same or almost.

And almost is what we've become
drying out under a digital sun,
hair bleached white
by the liquid emitting..
pitting our wits, or we would
if we had some,
attempting to gain some equilibrium
and
weighing the odds against a sieve full
of slogans.

It can't be all bad, though, can it?
I'm disappearing
into the foregone conclusion
and
what once was the clearing
is now no more,

it's a hypermarket where you drive up in
your car and forget it while the low
paid workforce then park it.

dark init?

You pay the bills
rub in the cream
take your pills
it's still Autumn
and you can't sleep.

nothing works the way it should
not even
a lucky rabbit's foot.

So
shut the windows
bolt the doors
stoke the fire
and wait,

but my hair's turning grey
while I'm waiting.

I Watch as the day untangles from the night, and there's a slight chance of rain. The radio squawks, so now I ask: is not watching and listening multitasking? if so then I bask in your applause,

can't find my socks
which rocks me to the core
I cry as I crawl around the bedroom floor
but eventually, I spot them
consequently,
got them
now wondering
what all the fuss was for.

Post insights are telling me
that the average age of my
page viewers
is well over a century.

Specsavers have saved me
and
I become the darling of the
elderly.

Another tea, Maud?

I tried so hard
but it seemed that
I couldn't reach her
never once
rea...lising
that she was the teacher,

and she taught me so well.

Memories
are just wheels that turn round inside me
bringing me
to this time where you stand beside me
and they go round
again and again
until they stop
and you find me
wanting
to learn so much more.

They made bonfires from the ruins of empires and from the ashes, new empires arose, but a rose by any other name is just a bleedin' nuisance.

The gardens are tended, and the well water is sweet.

The dandelions roar into life at dawn, and the lilies swim in the pond, the hydranger's in danger of learning to spell and all is well.

There is still work to be done when the sun comes up
there is always work to be done.

No slugs or snails and the dog's tail is docked
( moans from the animal rights )
but the cuckoo spits on anyone who *****
on my parade.,

You should share
knowing that we'll never get there,
but
isn't sharing halving the disappointment?

We will not see the great epiphany
and there'll be no rapture
no screams of delight
all that we'll have will be the endless night.

Giving it all to charity?
why would we
or should we,
could we not keep it all?

It's the coffee that keeps me going
and knowing that we'll never get there

still trying
vying for the front row
putting on a good show
and hoping for the best.

The not so tasty one
the one with a face mask on
who could it be?

She says,
it's me!
are you blind?

only to your beauty.

They know we're numbers
and now
we'll know that we're numbers,

binary coded on the way to being
railroaded.

No pass and you can't pass go
you can't go anywhere.

We'll be scanned, scammed, and
rammed from the rear,
is this the year of the reset?

Those fabricators
though today we just
say, digital creators.

My masterpiece
took pride of place
on the mantlepiece,
an ashtray carved from
balsa wood.

School was good for nothing but teaching
and the teachers were good for nothing at all.

however woodwork was God's work
whereas metalwork was in a
class of its own.

There are always mysteries to find
on the mountains of the moon
or in the backyard of your mind
look and you shall find.

We don't have to travel
on the inward arm of a spiral
because
everything is here to see on the
outside looking in on me.

The doctor said he'll operate
and
tells the nurse to intubate.
if this asylum is to be my fate
I'm going to go with BUPA.

The washing machine went on the blink
I think the problem is drainage,

it's probably a block somewhere
or it could be a sock
slowly drowning,

I'm calling the plumber in

because
I'm pretty useless
when it comes to these
new-fangled things.

This being the twenty-fifth day of greatness
in the well-being of our oneness,
and we woke up late.

Expect as always that something's afoot.

They deny what we rely on
the **** crows thrice
that's one more than twice
which is more than we can take.

I make this up you know
and if you didn't know
you do now.

On and offline
more often
than a drunken
tightrope walker.

Change the climate
take man back to primate
let them swing in the trees
**** were they please
eat figs and greenery
grow with the scenery
drink from the lakes
and
chew on bananas and dates
or
stop burning coal
just dig a big hole
and bury your heads
in the sand.

Heavy headed?

it's the morning
you haven't
put on weight.

But would you care if it's truth or dare when actions have no consequence?

What is the relevance when relevant is redundant?

We're marching into the furnace and complaining of the cold while our skin is blistering, and we're going in complacently.

If it's only me who sees and everyone else disagrees
there may be a problem.

Grandma said,
Don't go,
but I dunno
Idaho
looks a likely place to be and grow
and I have heard
that Tea Kettle Cave is one to save
for the album,

boys will be Boise.

Grandma says
Dayum.

How we laughed at
Death on a hovercraft,

we were young then
nine or ten.
but now we're not
and death's got
the last laugh

If you think that you're 'over the hill'
there's a pill you can take
it'll make you feel brand new
and ready once more for the climb.

but you know it's all a bit Sisyphus
when
they call you by name, and it's
Narcissus.

No pills for me
herbal tea will be just fine
.

That obsession
could not be beat
it tasted so sweet
on my tongue,

but I should have run
should have hightailed it out
what in hell's name
was I thinking about?

There should have been a danger sign,
a warning
telling me of the minefield ahead
and there wasn't
that
doesn't mean there shouldn't have been
if there were, I wouldn't
be here in the state
that I'm in.

'No time like the present',
but it has already passed
and I see that nothing today
has been built to last.

Misery is a solitary endeavour.

So we don't dwell on what has
been and gone,
we look to the future and hope
to move on.

It was Monday before
and
it'll be Monday again
then
it'll be Monday again and again

I see a pattern emerging.

Not a sign, a signal or omen
that they were homing
in on me
using
infrared tracking
but they arrived
and I was backed in
to a corner

lucky really
I could have been tucked in
by a coroner
because
they had guns
and lots of
them.

The best laid plans of mice and mink that skate around thin ice then shrink into the water colours of a painting.

I am blessed be that She took me for better or for worse
Grammarly pipes in with a get off your **** and begin something new,

ah
a sculpture based on lemon curd and not a single word was heard when I realised this was madness.

It's okay
I'm out for the day, which is better than being out for the count, ask Monte Cristo, he'd know.

Books and the looks when you look at the books and wonder which one you should read,

read them all and escape
it's
never too late to learn.

To like what you do
does not mean that
you can do what you like.

There are rules to adhere to.

Which is a shame
when there is no one to blame
but yourself.

Back to the clock, watching
hands playing hopscotch
around the dial,

in a while or some time later,
maybe
I'll make a *** of tea
or maybe
I'll sit and watch the clock

even the choices I make
take some time.

It's probably highly propitious
to think that I might be
a genius
( quickly checks dictionary )
and yes!
that is me.

Unassuming

Shall we be
as we have always been
the great unwashed
the unseen?

The world may change
but we shall have seen her in all of
her glory
or
maybe that is the story we tell ourselves
as erosion bites and the nights last longer.

But we're as lean as lamposts
and as fit as fiddles
except for the  coughing and the
fat that spreads around our middles.

I live with the thought that we are
what we've bought.

I'm not ready to buy the farm just yet.

That old trailer owned by my Dad
had nothing to do with 'Breaking Bad'
don't even think my Dad could cook,

Mum could though
so
you never know.

this arrangement between the trees
and the leaves that leave the trees
endures,
every year, the same

So
Trip Advisor
and
LSD.

not
a trip
they
can tell me about

an easy mistake
to make.

Monarch,
the airline
not the butterfly.

Dandelions do not growl
we behead them anyway
to
make tea

and daises
that make chains
to tether us
to yesterday

hauled off in a handcart
'bring out your dead'
the plague is upon us.

Sounds from another time.

A dollar to a dime
that time will come again.

Yet
here we have it all
the welfare..wait!
the nanny goat?
I'm getting my coat
and leaving,

still breathing nitrous
they tell us it's good for us
and
they'd tell us anything
to keep us quiet.

Barkeep.
'One more for the road'
a long one
a strong one

God give me strength.

Half light
at
half past midnight,

it is never truly dark
but we insist on having
the demons
to keep us wakeful and
they're spiteful
downright ****** awful.
but
we live with them as
they live with us.

Crawling out from somewhere
and again it wasn't
somewhere I hadn't been before

no windows
no door
only the sky
full of my
ancestors
watching me die,

stumbling to or
stumbling from
it doesn't matter
I stumble on

and at St Saviour's
where they try
I drink soup

All it takes is chilli flakes
some prawns and oil,
garlic, tomatoes,
fresh bread and toil
and
Voila
here on the table
we are both able
to taste the fruits
of my endeavours.

Moses parted the waves
the people cheered,

meanwhile
here in blighty
if I've so much as farted
they'll arrest me.