The glue that keeps your eyes shut
yes
I could do with some of that.

We see
are seen,
we will and have been and it all looks a muchness
when locked into a dream,
but the key
yes
the key is you or me or them and them could be a ten
and wouldn't that be perfect?

He rambles on and gets nowhere which is somewhere if that's where you want to be.

I have been there, had tea and been seen there and there's nothing there to write home about unless you want to moan about it.

Anyway we have to wake up to stake our claim on the day
almost as if it's a gold mine which I suppose every day is.

When you 'give a little whistle' and nothing happens.
not going to believe in Fairy Tales, Josey Wales, Vapour Trails or any ship that sails on an incoming tide.

And now I'm waking up and it's only Tuesday, should have done a Rip Van, twinkled like the star I am,

She gives me the eye that says to me without a word, 'absurd'

I think so too but don't say because that won't make it any less of a Tuesday.

They is not wired up right,
the light's on but are they at home?

no
they're out and about and up to no good
and up to no good is not good

I used to be
wired incorrectly
but now
I am not
and I is not up to no good,
because
She,
will not allow it.

One look and that's all that it took to know that I knew her long before Facebook,

she didn't remember me and that's how it will always be.

If
and it's a mighty big one

what if we are cosmic dust
and just specks in the eye of
the universe?

so what
I'm still a lot to vacuum up
he boasts
until his missus roasts him

ha
and She always does that
which
keeps me on an even keel

If you are reaching the age of majority
but not yet touching on any maturity
don't worry
you're not in the minority

we all have our crosses to bear.

It's been a long haul
but we had a ball.

Monday the same
said Friday, by name
a friend of Crusoe
you know
him
of story book fame.

I was tired
I slept
woke up wired
ha
must stop playing these games.

Moving on as we do
coffee for two
toast and jam for me
She wants honey on hers
hmm
Goldilocks springs to mind,
I find the honey

the bears are miffed.

I see no sun
and no ships.

In the olden days
this period was known as
Summer.

I'm not sure what it's called
these days
but whatever they call it
it's not working.

Blink and it rains.

Brain's fogged
veins clogged
time for
radical intervention

but wait,
ain't it Saturday
kebab and beer day?

I can't see any way
of having my cake
and eating it.

If you're waking up to this
hold the thought that the
day can only get better.

It's all a bit Daktari
crosseyed
and where the **** are we?

in the doldrums
reading the Dharma Bums

Kerouac
is he making a comeback?
did he ever go?

When i look out of the window to see what goes on down below
I wonder why I look out at all
because all that I need is inside me
She says
I beg to differ
but She
is the exception to my rule.

I am used to the used to of being
of seeing things as they truly are
She says that I am far better
than those things that I've truly been

and I'm learning to speak in a language
one that isn't my own mother tongue
and still when I look down below me
all I want to do is to run.

Those stitches that stitched up my socks and my britches,
Mum was a wizard with a darning needle, but then again she had to be what with me and five others to wash cook and care for.

Dad was a soldier and he soldiered on, kept us going if things went wrong and now they're both gone.

They all go in the end and we are left to tend to things as best we can,

they're still looking over my shoulder though.

Politicians can remember things that have yet to occur
I swear they are the cleverest of the clever

we're here and alive in our wildest dreams,
every one of us starring in someone's scenes of utter delight

woke up in a sweat?
can't remember
ask a politician
they'll give you an answer.

I looked but could not find a vaccine for
Election Fever
so
we're all going to die of boredom
with our masks on
it'll be just like being at one of those *****
held in the halls of fancy mansions.

Global warming but it looks like it's raining and it is almost the middle of June.

Galoshes and Brolly, my don't we look jolly
let's all have a splashing good time.

Friday again and again and it's almost the middle of
did I write this earlier?

Later now and
the coffee kicked in
blood pressure rising
put my teeth in
get ready to go
but
No!
no, I'm not working today
hip hip
must get a replacement hip
hurray
or
hurrah.

there's a lot of systems on the go
and one thing that I'd like to know
is where are they going to.

I wear lucky charms to keep out of harm's way and they seem to work,

I appear to be working too, if clockworkly is a word then that's how I'm doing it,

wind me up and watch me stop, made in China and sold in a second-hand shop.

Am I allowed out
or not?

They gab on about Eurovision
and then scream at the ref' for
being as blind as a bat,

that was defo a penalty
or perhaps just a free kick
or maybe
we're grasping at straws.

I won't be watching Euro 24
because
'quite frankly my dear....'
I don't give a ratz ***
for the game.

It was alright
no!
it was good in the old neighbourhood,
we knew everyone there
but here,
here on Takealook, ( free and it.... well you can guess )
no one knows anyone

Fakeabook
is a busybody nod your head and tut shop.

As far as I'm concerned which isn't that far to be fair they can take Faceachebook and dump it.

Who's moaning now?
I could have been if I'd sat up and seen some of it
but I took it easy, rested up a bit and I'm still fed up
with it.

Don't get too excited
that shower of Shinola
may be on the way out
but
they've taken everything
with them,
we've been done
ripped orf
that ***** rotten lot
have had the lot
and we ain't got
a ***
to **** in.

So it's back to
mudlarking
parking our arses in the park,
and begging for scraps
cooking the ducks
as opposed to
cooking the books,

where's a friggin yacht when
you need one?

funny thing is
we wore the masks
but it was them
that robbed us.

Old people are getting older
so I told her that I was going to get older,
but added, not just yet.

Coming up to six of the clock
I have woken and taken stock
of myself,
nothing appears to be missing.

And
it's the middle of the week,
Thursday
playing hide and seek
Friday in the wings.

Positive,
is another charge on
life's credit card,

I have a healthy balance.

A rose by any other name
beware of her thorns
She'll make you feel pain
the kind of pain that'll make you feel
that you'll never feel pain so sweet
again.

Tuesday and?
what did you expect
that rose in Spanish Harlem?

and who remembers that anymore
when you can buy them
a dollar a dozen
at the Walmart next door.

Start late and finish early,
not complaining
which makes for a nice change.

When the sun shines for more than a day
and Summer may or may not be on the way
I
shall take time out to play
truant.

more houses
more police
more nurseries
more bursaries
not sure about
more universities
but I'm guessing so

more or less of
whatever you can guess
and cheaper too,

more prisons
more schisms
more money?
nah

and it looks like a giveaway,
till they get into power
and then it's a takeaway,
am I talking Chinese?
nah

we've been here before
heard all that baloney
and more,
just get on with it.

Pitter patter
and what time you wake
doesn't matter
because you know that
it's raining,

June and Summer soon
not soon enough for me.

Sleeping late
or
just practising for the long one?

'I can't believe it's not better'
the wag at the back shouts,
it's butter,
you can't believe it's not butter
which is no better.

I'm already tired.

not everyone wants the whole
kit and caboodle
some will lead you on and only
want to kiss and canoodle,
then they'll leave you high and dry
make you sad
make you cry

because when you're fourteen
it still hurts.

It's just a crowd
not mad nor hastening
but ambling and taking in
the scenery

typically I am in a hurry
push past as I rush past,
and then I forget
where I was going,

who knows in
what order
the brain works?

There are some that need some saving
and some where the saving is done
and the ones who cry the loudest get
the Devil on the run,

I was out there shopping for bread rolls
but the evangelists reeled me in
so many souls and so few bread rolls
that be the price of my sin.

Grammarly is having a heart attack
red and blue lines everywhere
I carry on murdering the language
because in truth
what the hell do I care.

yes
heathen that I be
I work tomorrow
and Sunday shall see me
sweat

but only a little bit because
I use a deodorant
which deodorises
so
where does my sweat go?

Do I keep it inside me?
how awful.

Do you remember the way they said it was going to be?
I don't
can you refresh my memory.

oh!
that's it
yes
pile on more ******* and by the time they've dug themselves free
they'll ask
do you remember the way they said it was going to be.

Promises
no
don't believe them,
even Grammarly
reacts adversely
to the grey men.

stick with the program
become what you always were
the free men.#

Vote?
you may as well cut your own throat.

Between a rock and a resting place,
a face appears before me
carved out from the unforgiving stone
not yet a cemetery

She weeps for her son
knowing only this
that the story will go on

I'm having a cold beer
writing a postcard
wish you were here
and
at times I think they are.

I presented her with a bottle of Channel and
as you can see the manufacturers made a mistake with the spelling
,
although it cost me two shillings
I didn't begrudge the price
she was nice
nicer than the perfume
and now I do
begrudge the price I paid

Thinks.

with that cash
we could have gone to
Windermere
if I look hard I can see her
enjoying the views
until some gobshite asks her
'what perfume do you use'
and she says
cheapskate over there
didn't buy me any
to wear

and that was that

what I could have spent the cash on
and in fact did
was
Channel.

Saturday
and what's that all about?
wasn't planning on staying in
and haven't planned to go out,

I'm still thinking
Rodin shakes his head
and looks for another muse.

Uno
dos
bingo,

yippee!
I won another turn on
Duolingo.

When I never heard a word that's said and there's a mandolin playing inside my head and today looks better than it did last night,
and
She says
'you heard me, right?'

it being that is not so much middle age spread
as contentment.

Past my bedtime
nigh on the morning.

sky still blue and
here I am
with you
in the pink

it makes me think
not all is bad.

so many people that I have known
are at that place growing daisies
am I just lazy not joining them?

Crescendo
I googled it
can't remember
if it hit
the spot.

Good and wholesome?
not guaranteed
not food
not drink
not even ****

we could starve and
halve the housing crisis,
start a new religion
find fights
we never knew we had
but
we'll sit here and contemplate
with two genetically modified
wheat cakes on the sofa

we can't or are not able
to afford a table in the kitchen
and the kitchen's in the outhouse
where the dog we used to own
used to roam
however much we shouted
'out'

and
we're like the home,
falling apart
needs renovation
modernisation
but the local corporation
ignore our pleas.

..and now it's Mumbai,
so why
is it still called
Bombay Mix?

Someone up to tricks
playing a joke?
I'm not lighting a cigarette
I
am just blowing smoke.

Oh
and Blackpool rock
is not rock.

In fact,
it's
not me
it's
a facsimile
which
most indubitably
looks incredibly
like me
but isn't.

Thursday
the big kid dredges words up from Millwall Dock which makes a change from dead gangsters and old Packards.

Mum says
don't go near the water, it's dangerous, but bath night is another kettle of jellied eels which feels a bit like do as I say and not as I do, but who can I complain to?

Ha
it's Friday and somewhere in the dark I nearly lost it.

To do or not to do
is that even a question?
well
there's a question mark
so
it's definitely in the ball park

and I note
that americanisms creep in
now and then.

Thursday night and I'm quite alright, thanks for asking, don't forget, it wasn't Covid that killed me.

Friday lurking
and
' by jove' I'm not working,

you never do
someone shouts.

and the winner is
not what you'd expect

we're not even mentioned in dispatches
now
that we've all been pensioned off.

to keep the home fires burning
we cut down Sherwood,
Robin was up to no good
robbing the rich to give to the poor?
yeah
for sure he was.

Rapunzel is selling her hair on
'only fans' because that's only fair,
it's a growing business.

but it's the taking part
or
the taking apart,
putting the cart before the Limo'
the horse had to go to feed
the hungry.

We're nearly but we'll never get there
Rapunzel is balding
she's sold most of her hair
Robin went Soylent
or did he go green?

these things you never think you've seen,
you've been them on the silver screen.
you just forgot

I could fly to Rome for nine quid,
*** me
cost me nearly that much to get to
Battersea.

Prices are wacky
and so are we
for paying them.

Are you awake?
She asked,
shaking me and
suddenly
I was
because
I had to be
to stop her
shaking me.

She,
picks her moments
like some
pick cherries
randomly
off the tree.

It seems so reasonable and yet we get so irritable
Weetabix or Sticklebrix?
that's all I said
when
She asked what was for breakfast,

So now She's having toast and honey
thinks I'm made of more than money
She bought it though,

I'd better have some Complan
they say it's good for building up a man
so
are compliments.

The trick shot
when the planets line up
and Joe Davis,
with his celestial snooker cue
pots the lot.

How desperate we were to get there and when we got there we found that it was more unfair than it was  back there where we were,

following this?
if so
blow a kiss to the ten year old
who's dying to be a teenager
soon to be an old ager
and dying anyway.

Hardly a sound
but for the squeaking
of..
.and here I was going to write old bones, but they're not so old that they can't be told they're not so old,

thank the Lord for Castor oil.

Aw jeez
there you are
crying about Armageddon
when you should be
listening to the beating of your heart.

Where do you start at the end
when all that you have is yourself
as a friend
and not a particularly good one.

Carry on?
I'd say so
the PC brigade would say no
*** 'em.

we're heading into the abyss
I'm thinking of what I would miss
as we kiss on the way down.

It's no Funday on Sunday when you have to work away to make your way,
can't even play because they only do serious
it's
seriously maddening and yet funnily enough not far from the crowd.

there
I said it out loud for all the good that it did
and as god is my witness
I will do more and produce less.

but that's for tomorrow
and today is for today
still time to play,
game on.

Making love
is making a memory
of how close
two lovers can be.