January
the month of sorrow
filled or so you think
with a better tomorrow,
hey
think on
those tomorrows
have gone

I'm quietly happy
the doc'
prescribed for me
a happy
tonic.

Not payday
but Sunday
let us pray.

At the church of 'the blood of our saviour'
that denies you the favour of free thought
and we thought,
it cannot be that he died for me
but supposing as we do that it's true

let us pray.

All this time
and there's still time
but you say
there's no time for this.

Reluctantly I digress.

Time is not the tissue of lies
nor the Kleenex we wash our
eyes with.

Oh
not digress
I mean suppress
thoughts that depress me.

Nearly Sunday
I want it to be Monday
or any day.

Happy?
I am
a happy man,
She says
you should be
you're married to me.

Dull and grey
but the body wash will
clear it all away,

the weather?
Oh
I don't know
they keep predicting snow
but
it hasn't yet come.

Stretching now
because I'm shrinking
how
did that happen?

Someone shouts 'age'
and it's
obvious to me
they're reading a different book
and not being on my page
of course, they'd shout age.

I think I'm evolving backwards
which is ok if I was going that way.

Two days in and still living the dream
and yet
in a parallel World, all I do is scream,

I send a parallelogram
which is something like a telegram
to the parallel me in a parallel World
which I cannot see,
it reads:
stop screaming. stop.
you're only dreaming. stop.

Funny thing, dreams,
The President
was in the Methodist Church
when Lurch launched into a vicious tirade
Captain Scarlet in brocade
and the rest was obscured,

some things leave you wanting
and some would want you more.

I dreamt of a White Christmas
got a pair of socks instead.

Worked today,
not much,
such is
New Year's Day.

Happy New Year.
which has been fact-checked
and found to be true.

Windy?
yes
but it's not me
outside there's a gale blowing
which could bring snow in,

I'm working
yes!
once again it falls on me
to keep the economy
going.

Wishing for all of you
that which was fact-checked
and found to be true.

Blue
is not the only colour that you can feel.

I have knelt at the banks
only to kneel with no thanks
when a mortgage is what I must pay.

The new year is upon me
and I am still here,
aw Jezuuus
did you not hear my prayer.

It's on a day like this
when we look back on the year and
wonder what will we miss?
strikes?
tax hikes?
have you been deflated by inflation?
you may be entitled to compensation,
but
we will miss those relatives and friends who
have passed
and for them, we should say a prayer.

Care, after all
is part of the package
a part of the Christmas message.

It could be thought that the things we were taught were all true,
but you and I know that all teachers on occasion lie.
I do not count Jesus as part of the equation
the creation is a fact,
well, maybe not in seven days,
but
there are many ways to educate
state-funded being the least likely.

When you're grabbing at straws
did you ever stop to think of the camel?

We get by
some get drunk
some get high
I get frustrated.

Silent Night?
never in Stratford
not with cop cars wailing
sailing through red traffic lights
no flamin' silent nights here.

there's a different kind of quietness
in being homeless,
where words
are frosted on cold lips,
where your tongue
slips into hibernation, where
only the mind screams out
and where even dreams are dumb,

numb to it?
you shouldn't be.

It seems that after you've done your training in the army
they give you a passing-out parade,
no one gives me a parade when I pass out,
seems a tad unfair to me.

We have loved some and lost some
and this year's been a long one
and if you need this
here's a kiss
to remind you that I survived,

buzzin' about like a blue-arsed fly
and doing so only to try not to die
or it might be the pills that the Doc'
is so keen on,
him thinking it's something else
that the old will get hooked on,

I dunno
never will,
She says to me
take a pill
and the year ends
as years tend to do.

Credit cards barcode the body
social media overloads the mind
we've been signed in,
we're being bought out
and brought to our knees
by the government's policies.

But I feel sure that twenty-twenty-five
will be a great time in which to be alive.

We turn back on ourselves
to find ourself,
it's at times a long journey,
but the sights we see
remind you and me
that it's worth it.

All singing and dancing,
but
that's kept for a night in
which happened to be
sometime back in '63.

Did Santa
feed the reindeer, dear?
I asked of her
quite innocently,

She looked at me with
the look that She gives me
and asked me
was that a joke?

No
no
no, it cannot be
but I see that it's true
there's still work to do.
wonders if
should I call in sick?

but you know
and I know
that's not good for the
economy.

What a relaxing time Christmas can be,
said no big family ever.

Was it good for you?
said he,
She never replied.

But it's fun and the sum of all good wishes.

There'll be more

Blinded by the flares we'd thought behind us
thinking how in hell did that mustard manage to blind us,
we wandered home as ghosts alone
wondering did this war define us.

A full belly
a bit of telly
an afternoon
with family and
friends,

had forty winks,
methinks
I'm getting old

but I think again
not yet.

If only I'd believed it was butter
I wouldn't have to work today,

but we all know that belief gets in the way of disbelief
and disbelieving is the way that things are going,

I put the blame squarely on Google,
what could possibly be worse
than a multiverse in your own
backyard?

and now
I think it might be butter
but I still have to work
how is that right?

I surrender to the inevitable,
and become irritable
but am I not invincible?
She laughs and says,
you're incredible.

Because
I was wired
and not
into the mains
but somewhere off-grid,
my life leaking into
the drains

yeah
everything is sharp then
and you know the why and the when of it
and how your life turned to **** then,


but recovery
is only the upholstery
there has to be a framework
to work on.

Back to the season of Goodwill
and he
quickly looks in the kitchen drawer
and pulls out a happiness pill,

suspended in animation
still at Waterloo station
waiting for a late train.

some cover the cracks with 'smack'
some use lines of *******,
the happiness pill works wonders
and cures all kinds of pain,
but
I used up all my medications
no more prescriptions for me
I'm
settling now for a digestive
and
a streaming hot beaker of tea.

So
That's okay then
you'll call me
when you want to then

meanwhile
I should smile
to hide the tears
then?

So
you think that Santa's coming
but it's just the lousy weather
that's making him breathe
a little bit harder
and yet
you're sat there quite excited

jeez it would help if you saw someone
with degrees upon their wall.

Tardy?
hardly
awake before I have to be
premature
something or other
but
that's me
and I make no
apology

She loves me
anyway,.

Did you see her
and
did you say,
Ave Maria?
if not
it doesn't count when
the sum is being totalled
and forfeits being made.

In leafy glades when we're laid to rest
and we know with our souls that
we did our best,
it's best to keep your fingers crossed
just in case.

The end of the year
and most of us are
still playing it by ear
but twenty twenty-five
is just around the corner
and most of us are
going deaf
how will we play it then?

The elongated eyebrow.

Nothing for nothing unless you put something in and what you get out is now't like what you put in.

Three blind mice
didn't get very far
the Farmers wife drove
a Mercedes Benz
had a 40 gauge with a
telescopic lens,
blind or not the trio
got shot,
three blind mice.

Not relevant?
but the elephant in the room needs
room to manoeuvre and
who's going to hoover up later?

Randomness, a pick of sorts all more some less or
like a drawn-out game of chess,
the elephant still leaves a mess,
the castle takes the Queen.

A cat went carol singing on a cold December night
couldn't read the words to sing so
stood under the light,
three blind mice
see what you've become
the words in a song sung under a light on
a cold and dark December night
well
I never heard such a thing in my life,
three blind mice.

This skyline
the story of our timeline
from Neanderthal
to
shall we have a coffee dear?

So near
so far
and far should have been fat
but there we are
stuck between
don't give a ****
and how have you been?

I need to make a dinner
a repast for this sinner
think I'll have a drink instead
and then
I'll go to bed,

this skyline
a waste of my time
which is rapidly
dwindling.

Some times
when I think that I must be
slightly off-key
or somewhat disturbed
I look around me
and think
Nah,
I'm good.

That chariot race had no place being in my dream,
old Romans should not roam about *****-nilly
and I lost.

I don't dream like I used to
I think the colour's running out
the screen they're played on has turned  grey
I don't dream what I dreamed of yesterday.

You look better now that you're older

and that's a fukin lie that people will tell you
knowing that soon you will die
but
I'll outlive the lot of you,
Black Spot and Blind Pew
notwithstanding.

Not planning on giving up the ghost
this is not no snitch here.

Work,
today was hard
much to do
and few hours in which to do it
actually
today was ****,
but I didn't want to say that.

A bright spot to lighten the glum
big boss man, Jamie,
gave me a bottle of Guyana ***
that
I will treasure
measuring out each tot
making sure that it hits the spot,

Now that I'm indoors
twenty-one floors up
I will take a sip
or is that I will sup?

Free day Saturday
unchained
Marley
would approve.

Lacks lustre
needs a polish
speaks only English


My CV suits me.

In my head
I'm already in bed
horror
shock
not even
nine of the clock

I'm on my way out
one of those oldies
you all talk about

See you at the beginning
of the way in
to tomorrow.

Can't decide if the days are getting longer,
am I  getting older, whether work is that much harder
or is Christmas the elephant in the room?

Busy little lickspittles can never tell the time
involved as they are in pouring out His Lordship's wine,  

I know the date and time, the year it is and what
is mine and She?
ah
She says are you writing poetry?

not likely
I lie,
but
She gives me the eye
and we
start rhyming.

Half awake
Half asleep
the question arises
which half do I keep?

Yesterday
I
almost burned out
turned out it was a false alarm.

Today
which it probably is
I'll take things a bit slower
and
go at a reasonable pace.

The question that arose
where the answer is on the tip of my nose
or should that be my tongue?

That guillotine is still there
biding its time
waiting to share the joy.

We know Wednesday is Midway because there's always a battle to win.
Barging my way through the canals that have cut through this green and pleasant but soon I shall land and take a stroll along the rolling hills and time for those pills to kick in.

Knee-**** reaction to
should have packed in work for the winter
but
don't have enough fat to hibernate
and my blood's too thin to coagulate
so
it's carry on as normal
which is a mighty big ask if you ask me.

They call them irrelevancies
but for some they're festivities
and the others in poverty
don't care what you call them
as long as you
treat everyone equally and
give them all a fair share,

let's all take a crack at
giving some back
it's not likely to **** you
but will you take that
chance?

Tobacco and gum
and a bottle of ***
point me in the direction
of what I've become,

we all go wild in the West
dreaming of who shoots the best.

even though it's a con
we still mosey on
I mosey on too looking for you
dreaming of who shoots the best.

Odd
how things even out,
nothing is the end of the world
unless you make it so

my tip:

wait until the dust settles
but go in wearing a mask.

Left out overnight for the wolves to feed on
and when the morning came
I was gone
not eaten but eating,
growling
and prowling with the pack
dreaming of the moment I'd get my own back.

I probably need some surgery
or possibly
something that's sugary
oh
cut me a slice of Mum's apple pie
and then I can die
quite peacefully.

Ugh.
Seven on a Sunday
which is the time and not my age
just in case you were wondering
and still raining,

decisions to make
go to work or take the day off?

I know
I'll go

done,
and I will be.

I tried to imagine if I wasn't me
who would I be?

wind and rain and work again
I need but what?

actually
not a lot.

She says
a silencer to silence you
would do

and if I wasn't me
it might.

I need some anti-freeze for my knees
and all points North and South.
Plumbing into a thermal
gets my blood flowing
and I know that She's going
to join me.

Winds that whistle out of tune
and I'm going out to work very soon,
frightened I might blow away
scared of going out today
I could stay here and call in sick
mumps or measles, take your pick

but
no, I'll go and be a star
which will not get me very far
because
everyone's a star today
I wish that they'd all blow away
and leave me shining on my own,

changed my mind
I might stay at home.

In the afterlife which comes after life
will we still have to dress up on Sundays
or will those fun days
be behind us?

and will we still have to pray for Jesus
can't we just shout out of the window
and won't he hear us?

There's a lot that I can't understand
about the bible and the
Holy Land

I think I'll hedge my bets
Until Lot gets
a new wife.

Don't tell him
that you told me
about her,

but Facebook be like
Like and Share.

haha #abandonedplaces

ps Facebook added the crazy emoji.

11.50.

I want it so much that it burns
want to touch it so much that it turns my head.

Want to hang on that thread and I know it's perverse
I want to walk on the edge of the known universe.

Let me glide down the slide of humanity and see the stars as they appear to me, hold on to the rails of those cold comet trails and wander through all of eternity.

I want to see the empty page before history, watch the mystery of birth in infinity, crawl through a wormhole as if like a blind mole and see my soul being balanced by divinity.

In this cycle of rounds where the sky becomes ground, the beginning, the end where time starts to bend like moments we lend to the minutes that send us exploring in space.

I want to come face to the face that gave me the zest, that which gave sight to my eyes and sent me off on this quest of learning.

Still turning my head hanging on to a thread in the bed of a cataract where thoughts become abstract and reasoning keen.

This is where I will be seen and will see
all that I will ever be
or have ever been.