breaking your neck to see
what's behind you
knowing that they'll find you
wherever you hide.

but you've got thick skin
don't let them grind you down
don't let the ******* win.

if we're already sunk
there's no more damage
can be done
by going out
and getting ****-faced drunk.

The morning
seltzer dissolving
and the bubbles
echoing
in the chambers of your heart
when your head is a canyon
long since abandoned

there is no more gold
to be found.

I asked
are we finished yet
and was told by myself,
you've not even started yet.

*** this for a lark
which, by the way
is still asleep.

and it's not chocolates, Forrest,
life is a box of tiredness
where you're so sleepy
you put your socks
on the wrong feet.

I thought it was a plus sign
but it's a cross,
something else to hang around
my neck and weigh me down,

the sky
rock salmon pink
I think,
pretty.

always the to and fro
to stay or to go,
I think
that's the real question
William.

Cream in my coffee
because the
milk went sour
which we all do
at times.

I could be writing
something about second sight in
the third person,

but I'm eating crisps and drinking
Guinness
and Guinness they tell me or they used to
is good for you

and not only but also
it's Nigerian Guinness.

But I could be writing and
not getting tight in
this fine Summer evening.

*** it
I'll have one more
and that may be better
for me.

What about when we're not
together,

do you care
anyway?

Little Bo-Peep had sold all the sheep
and concocted a tale to tell.

I'd like to sleep too,
but I bought all those sheep
and now I have to count them.

so much for nursery
the shepherd is cursing me
and Bo-Peep's dad looks mad.

What has that got to do with anything other than a brain wave and that'd be the brain waving me goodbye,

the sky looks promising
promising what you ask?

tasks:

puts on a shirt
***** collar
wonders who he should follow
on social media
gets needier
needs feeding
has a shave
shaking hands
face bleeding
and someone in the audience shouts
bleeding ugly.

Paracetomol
wears slippers
harder drugs are not ok
so
the pills
shuffle in instead of kicking in

life *****
Henry says
so do I

even the hoover has something to say.

They wine us on minus and tell us
it's Chablis and we
lap it up.

nothing new there
we're back where we began
swimming in the swamp
trying to find a ladder
trying hard to not get cramp.

and why is it us that are minus
when that lot put nowt in the ***
why are we swimming
never ever winning
it's only those who have already got.

whine
whine
whine
we do it all of the time
and that's what makes
my swampmates
very good friends of mine.

Let's boil this down
burn the pan
a show of hands
the total ban.

Truths will be
as they often are
few and far
and further still
where the will of man
lies on the
shifting tide of sands.

They call if gentrification
but it's more like
desertification
giving us no notification
of those things
that are likely to change.

hierarchy?
there is a part of me
that stays apart from me
peek a flamin' boo
because I can see you.

Jekyll and Hyde
one's just a quack and
the other I can't bide.

and when we arrive in
thinking that we survived in
we'll find we were blind to the
truth.

This is about as random as the lottery
and there's a lot of me that agrees.

I saw Margery on the seashore
where Margery sat and saw me.

Later in the day, when we'd walked ourselves into the early hours of evening, we sat together on a dune and watched the tide come in,

a bit late for a Ploughman's lunch, she remarked, so we had a fish and chip supper at a local hostelry which charged me an arm and a leg for it.

Lovely beside the seaside, but so expensive,
it doesn't surprise anyone that the seagulls
are all thieves.

Dinner?
posted on Instagram!

life becomes the sham
and I'd love a Babycham.

Britain formerly great
hasn't posted of late
but
it's alive and kicking
although somewhat sick in
someone's Facebook feed.

I need the Captain or the Comrade
Morgan or Smirnoff and then I'll
get off to sleep.

There was time to relax
to take off the yoke
and ease our aching backs
but not much at all.

The pit pony was the only one
younger than me, and he could see
better than I.

The Spedding steel mill  was a light that could ****
progress gave us the Davy Lamp
I thank Humphry for that innovation
and they made him a Knight
good job he invented that new kind of light
haha.

fukin' back's still aching
they're still taking
and we ain't making
much at all.

she says,
what man is
not full of
**** man

she
uses the word
man
a lot

it used to be the thing
when she was young
and full of
that thing
they call gullible.

Sun baked
skin caked
with the salt
from
oceans of tears
she
wonders where
the years
have gone

and says
**** man.

Somebody talks
my ears are on fire
my eyes out on stalks
my skin starts to itch
wish I was rich?
oh
and one more oh to go
I'll use that oh later

You can never have enough 'ohs.'

Sunday
did you want a blessing
to get dressed up in
and go down praying?

and Jesus on the tambourine?

my dream is my instrument
of torture.

Drop me a line
with a hook
on the end
go on
let's pretend
when we both know
that
you don't give a..
..shucks
I didn't mean to write
shucks
but
you knew that
didn't you.

If you didn't get to where you got to
it's not you.

Someone out there is pretending to be you,
and has arrived at where you should have got to

it's true
but you won't believe it.

I should have got to a lot of places
but ended up in Benidorm
with the expats and pensioners
and those who were prisoners
back in the day.

I'm just rattling on here
battling against and not with
the fears that engulf you or
someone who pretends to be you

and me here
beside the sea
in chains.

Those who have never been real in their lives
want to talk to you about real life.

cloud cuckoo springs to mind
signed on the dotted and sealed with wax,

lacking facts
they whitter on
regurgitating,
gouging out their right from the wrong

another song played out at 78RPM
crackles from the shellac
raising hackles on the broad back

but everything's bent
the wind doesn't have to blow
to sway us and we
know.

what happened to the narrative?
what happened to the give and take?
well
the greedy ******* took it all
for Christ's sake.

Life is one big fairy tale
in that
it sets you up to fail
but
not to fret
you'll get there yet
you just have to roll
with the punches.

it could be much worse
you could be like me
writing rhyming verse,

Curses, shouts Long John
a relative of Kim Jong?
or was that a
slip in the fabric of time?

In conclusion
everyone needs to rein it in
and get off their high horses,

and again
while the management play
I am again scheduled to work
Saturday and Sunday.

lazy *******.

Some
may wonder why
they even bother to
put themselves out
and try
to do
the right thing
when everything
seems to be against them.

I also wonder why
and when I do
I can understand
what you
are going through.

There is a light
however dim
that makes the road
a little less grim

but
the batteries are failing.

Because you cannot spot the difference
does not mean we're all the same
and sometimes what you're trying to spot
is yourself by a different name.

differently
describes you and me
those and them
and yet
we're still all flowers
from a single stem.

For the same old new
we got lamps for you.

no genie?
how mean we become,
a few shillings in the bank
and suddenly
we're all Frank Bruno
although
defending what's yours is
the thing to do,
ask Frank
he knew,

one of the good guys.

When I am blinded by that brilliant flash
it won't be Jesus that's on my mind
it'll be a bottle of wine
and as the world we know sinks
I'll be sinking a glass or two.

She says
I won't be able to find the corkscrew
but thanks to Baldrick
I have a cunning plan,

screwtop bottles.

As I look into her eyes
yesterday comes back alive.

I see
the meadows where we'd go
the river that ran slow

the light
the dark
and
we were there
in the park
the band played
and we stayed
for what seemed
an eternity.

She qualifies my
existence.

..when you know it's time to go
and you need to take that leap
but you keep on looking back
knowing there's no chance of change

there is no new identity

whatever is out there is meant for you and me
and the first steps take us nearer to our goals

From nought to sixty
in three seconds
is unlikely to fix me
I
need a slow build up
to build up
to
that moment
when
everything comes together.

I am a jigsaw with one piece missing
and can never see the whole picture,

but there are a million pieces
so
in time
who knows.

They say we're triumphant
and that they'll build us an arch
and we'll be quite thrilled
until they inject us with starch
and
we will look quite stupid
in a central location
holding up the roof in
St Pancras station.

I need coffee.

I believe that what changes is us and that
we probably get fed up with the old us
and decide to make a brand new us,
the old us is rejected in favour of the new us.

a bit like politics
without the *******.

You always count on her
so why not
make her a necklace from the
beads on an abacus
and make it official.

A kiss on the lips
a gun on your hips
who's in control?

She says
you do what I say.

collateral
yeah
there's always damage
and yet
we manage to survive.

I'm surviving until you *******
or until you're *******
but
I'm an awkward cuss.

After some serious thought
I have decided that work
gets a nought out of ten.

jeez
even I got more than that on the Richter scale.

I have a hunch
said Quasimodo.

Judy
because Judy knew me
and Punch
was not best pleased
but
seaside outside
and the show's on the beach

I built my sand castle
counted every grain
now
the tide is coming in
I'll have to build it again.

Anyway
I have things to do
not sure what they are
but definitely things
and
yet again
I am scheduled to work
not until later though.

Wishing it would take longer to get ready for work
but wishing won't make that so,

I know that
you know that
time to close the door on the flat
must
remember the keys
turn off the gas
double check the lights are off
then I'll be off

some say I already am

*******.

have a great Saturday kidz, play nicely.

Woke again and before five
probably alive
but hard to tell.

Made it to the coffee jar
it wasn't far
but far enough.

aha and now awake
ready to work now
but not quite

another nap
perhaps 23 winks
don't want to overdo it.

Already done that bruv
gone through the whole gamut
got fed up
and stopped.

what you do
is not up to me
it's up to you

but it'll **** ya
take the luck from ya
and put ya down.

just saying bruv
it's a hard time
coming back.

We're not being chemically coshed
we're being brainwashed
easier and
cheaper

keep a diary
wire me the details

shambling down the stairs?
take the uppercase
just in case
they're watching.

oh
what a way to go
under a star sign,
librium
******
thalium
want some?

one may consider the ramifications
and fukin do it anyway,

what the man gonna do?
lock you up
throw away the key
feed you on bread and water?
nah
there's not enough of the man left
to catch a fukin cold.

Cutbacks to the front line
no more doughnuts
no more kickbacks
just a bunch of sad sacks
in uniforms.

Jeepers
today came quickly,
I only went to sleep forty winks ago
and
lo and behold
I looked and got old,

today came quickly indeed.

New and shiny
very tiny though
I'm sure they used to be bigger
in fact
everything used to be bigger
and even through
years of rampant inflation
things are definitely smaller.

We'd have been there by now if there was where they said it would be,
a possible reason is that, there, is expanding at the same rate as the universe or
there, is not there at all and we've been fooled.

seems like it always seems like and it always seems like that.

Don't worry about me
I'm getting on a bit
although
I worry that
I'm getting off on it

the night has come
and me
on my second ***
which some
would deny me.

deny me thrice
said the man
with the nails
through his hands
and feet

judas hangs
swinging
in the wind.

How do you express it
when you
don't know what it is?

the feeling that you're missing out
but always included in.

crying here
but quietly
not wanting
the neighbours
to hear me

how do you express it
when you don't know what
it is?

Oh
so ******* soially awkward
don't you dare
to walk towards me

I'm disappearing
into the ambience
you can  call me
an ambulance

I feel so sick,.

We imagine that we imagine
but we are not imagining at all
this **** is real
and that's got my seal
of disapproval.

come lay your head on the
bones of the dead,

here lies
the lie of the twenty first
century

nothing will prepare you
for the taste of the fruits
of evil.

if we're to meet our doom
and still
no room at the inn
how do we begin
to believe.

It's going down,
the home front
in an Eastern Town.

Mach 3 Jets
the bomb
the gun.
buried in debts
under a smoky Sun.

They're paying
we're paying
so many praying
for peace.

and at a loss
for something to say
I kneel down
and pray in silence.

I wanted to jump and pumped up with excitement,
I jumped.

Playground swings are fun when you're young
and she said
but friggin' dangerous when you become older.

No rest for the wicked
for them, there is no relaxation as they gather the tax in and make people poorer in a once wealthy nation

and the poor
who then sit around with nowhere to go because their money has gone,

to be
classed then as lazy, which is mind-blowingly crazy

who do we see to complain to?

There's not much to go on
when
there's not much to go on
but
we go on
relentlessly

marching towards the end
almost as if it could be a
beginning

and who's to say
does tomorrow come after
yesterday
or does today?

I want the release
wanting peace
but
there's always
another
war
to fight.

Smoked a cigar
Ravi on the sitar
moving on to Bihar
trying to learn
some Hindi.

Whoever danced the rain dance,
congratulations
you won.

Sunday and no Sun day
everything is a choice
or so it's said,

I choose to stay in bed
She has other ideas.