Spare ribs are not really spare
when the animals they come from
wear them
or am I missing something?

wear them?
where did that come from?

but don't we all wear our bones well,
well,
don't we?

Lots
that's what's on my mind,

thanks for asking Facebook
but why are you being so kind?
anyway
I think I'm being abused
by the algorithms that
Facebook has used
but
what can I do?

percentage wise pound foolish
and that's what Joseph Addison
should have said
but he's dead
life is tough.

I'm still watching me watching me watching me and I think it's like being an echo an echo
of what could be and I wonder where do I go if I don't know?
I don't know.

I am framed in the future
lost in the post
which should be the past
but
what do I know.

hanging on by a thread
tied only by things going
on in my head

these things happen.

I should be out panning for gold
but
She looked at me and said,
I think that you're getting a little bit old
for gallivanting
so
I'm staying in
and reading a book.

I get it all out of my system
and then they inject me with
more of their poison
but what they don't know is
that
I have built  myself a chapel
of tolerance and filled it with
lots of forbearance.

let's see who quits first

I am not going to check the lottery
until I wake up and the morning has
spotted me
and I hope that'll be lucky for me
or
I might not wake up at all.

I see,
but you see more
and I would too
if I could see like you.

There is but for a there
nothing.

I have
and sometimes not
got
what I wanted
but
I did get what I need.

Oh no
this is what I show
and I know
this is what you see.

Sailors I knew
would say
any port in a bottle
will do
and that's sailors for you

a drunken motley crew.

Of course
when on the Spanish Main
you never had to use your brain
you only needed brawn.

In the main and not on the main
most people never use their brain.
which is nothing to do with me.

Remember that moment
we were supposed to be in?
no?
me neither.
I forgot
but it happened
as sure as the South Sea Bubble
and see what that trouble caused.

I've already sent my letter to Santa Claus
because I know how slow the post can be
actually
I sent two
one to the North Pole and one to Lapland
not quite certain where he lives, but I do
hear tell that it's one or the other.

Be prepared or
be prepackaged
as if anyone cared
everyone's damaged
and we still get on with it.

We'll never do it
but
we can try,
after all, we thought
tantric was somewhat
fantastic.

so
about  social distancing
keeping yourself safe
from being reeled in,
did it work?
did you work?
does housework count?

There should be a bounty
on the heads
of those who lied to us
those who pretended that they
were allied to us

someone out there must be out
there to collect it

You've seen the adverts
you know which ones,

'This could be you'

want a six-pack
look like Rambo
well
here you go
buy
our supplements
get ripped
trip up on your
own muscles
See,
how those girls will adore you
See,
how men will despise you.

Do you rate yourself
or hate yourself
only the mirror
knows and the mirror
never lies.

Thinking alright
I'll stay up late
and write into
the night
but
She has another idea

I shake in fear
because I know
She's going to say,
it's past your bedtime dear,

eh
I love her and what can I do
but
do as She says.

Playing Happy Families,
slamming their cards down
as if they're all drama queens,
nobody wins in this strife
or life,
my good lady wife asked me
to teach her the rules,
I don't even know them myself.

The country's almost bankrupt
and they like to tell us that
but they have enough to
warm their ducks
and I note
that some of them
are getting fat

meanwhile
we're all on a Slimfast
and
some of us won't last.

Cheating and conniving
they see a trough and dive in
they fill their boots
don't give two hoots
that we're hardly surviving.

I'd say *** 'em,
but why waste my words on turds
just,
flush 'em down the pan.

You drop down a ten-spot
thinking that's
a sweet spot
but you don't hit the
******.

game over.

..and you get a bit sick of it
of them being in the thick of it
but me too
and that's not a hashtag.

so much going on
how are we supposed to tell
right from what's wrong.

Facebook is ******' useless
the Press, well, they're *******
clueless
or pretend that they are

listen
and that means you too Yankees,
we're not that far away from
'Promis'
that we can forget what
can happen
when your senses are being sharpened
by the knives in your back

'Promis'
Google it
and
you'll get
Jack ****.
that's why I'm sick of it.

How far is
better by far?
because
I've got a ticket
to go there.

We're pensioned off
but I think that we all know
that we're being ****** off.

one of the
if, one of the, can be,
privileged elderly

listen up buttercup
whatever I've done
I have done my time,
paid my dues
and they pay me a pittance
which I'd like to call mine.

worked for a lifetime
and they throw me a lifeline
but
it should have been a safety net

pensions ain't worth the lives,
they are written on.

I do not want a ritual
no prayers
for this habitual sinner,
but
I would like the mourners
to have a good dinner
especially
if they are paying.

go on a great train journey and
a travel across the wide open plains journey,

other things,

see more than stars in the sky,
to never stop wondering why
the
cry of the wind is unsettling,
to
find out where it is that I fit in,
to be part of the Greensboro sit-in
( yeah I know, a bit late for that

sit out on the Verandah
seeing her
and know that I still love her

just some but by no means all
ha
I need to hire Kilroy and a ******'
long wall
to write all of it down.

A Kingdom?
but it could have been,
'A handbag'
Earnest.

Those things that we might have seen, perhaps are the things that might have been if only we dared to mention them, but mostly we laugh them off as tricks of the light,

I believe that there are spikes in the energy field
I yield to the notion that there's something else other
than the one plane, the one singular existence.

tell me
because I know that you have seen what might have been
how did it make you feel?

I'm not selling you shamrocks
nor lucky heather
or a rabbit's foot for luck
I'm just mining for information
a bit like Facebook is.

What I wish for
is a kiss for
the journey.


In the blue corner
there's a shadow
in the red corner
the sun
in the centre
is the unknown
and
it is that
from which we run.

We
could try
to escape from this
but
I hope for that
one more kiss
before
I go.

The clocks are going forward soon,
it's such a shame that this country isn't.

It seems like we're stuck doing the Lambeth Walk,
minus a leader,
like
a school with no chalk

'All our yesterdays'
feel like today

‘The lamps are going out all over Europe...'
              ( Sir Edward Grey )

It feels and looks the same to me
the worn-out mills
the closed down factory
the smell of desperation
the council estates
and the corrupt corporation
and we're all being told
that everyone's in the same boat,

I wonder
how that boat stays afloat.

The barber is more of a cutpurse
another pound on the bill
less hair on the floor
what do I bother going there for?

But I have to admit
I look a bit tidier
even
a tad regimental
if I say so myself.

She won't recognise me.

hay or hey
neigh or nay?
anyway
yesterday was
International Women's Day
and I was going to say
something about it
but I forgot
and today
She's making me pay
for it.

The caretakers or are we the undertakers undertaking an impossible task?

I have asked myself this question but cannot come up with an answer and so I pose another question

and this is a problem  but  I'm sure there's a solution
the question is what?

I could do with a Shakespeare but the old bard's no longer here
all we have are pretenders.

I keep on going knowing that I am not the only one but soon we'll all be gone and then what?

I who have seen colonialism go
stuttering as countries changed names
watched only to see
the vanity that colonized me.

But we're old now and told now
it's of no concern to us.
,
ashes to ashes

Keep your distance!
so you can't see what we're doing.

they had their snouts in the gravy
and we were being told that they weren't shady,
but we were being
robbed on an industrial scale.

and now
they'll put me on their watch list
so when I'm sniffed out and snuffed out
you'll know who did it.

Dreamt of pins and needles and
woke up with pins and needles
so
I'm waving my arm about
this must be a sign about
something.

Aha
Friday this way
and that's what I like to see
signs that are in plain language
designed, I think, for me.

The budget as usual was crap
just when we think that we've won
they load us up with another ton
of *******
and we end up paying more
for it.

She,
tells me to keep calm
but I'm still waving my arm
and
not saying goodbye just yet.

In through the window and out of the door and isn't that what money is for?

adages, pages of history being lost in my memory occasionally resurface.

we used to have lots of sayings
and old wives tales
I wonder where they went.

if Dad said you'll get what for and you asked what for?
you got what for even if you didn't know what for,

the way wasn't the light back then
it was just the way things were.

They say we're being supercharged
I think they meant overcharged.
two-pence off insurance
but they'll take their pound of flesh

poor people get crumbs from the table
and they're told that it's Battenburg cake
for **** sake
what will it take?

it's a dismal day when you're down in the dumps
they wouldn't understand that.

National Health cuts,
but what cuts and who
will they cut from?
certainly
not Long John
because
that has already been done.

Laudanum,
medicinal
like ***
but not as tasty.

I'm sticking with the ***
although ***** comes a close second,
laudanum numbed me to all but the pain,
of needing it again,

the only poppy coming my way
is the one for Remembrance Day.
and I've forgotten when that is.

You'll either love it
or
tell 'em to shove it
and they'll think you
polite
or
impolite
but if you want to
you
can change your mind
they can too.

There's nothing that's set in stone

and if you believe that
you need putting in a home.

I know,
you just woke and thought misery
but happily
I'm here to tell you,
not so.

Did you win the lottery?
if you did
please
DM me
I have an exciting investment
opportunity.

Wednesday
and you are a ray
of sunshine
don't forget that.

I'd
like a boat on a palm beach in reach of the shore and more time to spend my time doing nothing and doing nothing more
or perhaps a flagon or two of Morgan's brew could be added to the store and nothing more,

I already factored in her gin because I want her to be with me

She doesn't know it yet but I bet She's going to love climbing coconut trees, skinning her knees while dodging the sand fleas.

I'm just finding the right time to tell her.

Perhaps the bottle itself
is a message.

don't throw your junk
in the ocean.

Boiled chicken or poached fish
both come with rice in a chipped dish
or I could choose,
yes,
not to go on a diet
but
to scoop up the chicken or fish and
to fry it,.

I might try it.

She,
keeps me on my toes
She
keeps me wide awake
She,
keeps me from the butchers
and a nice fat juicy steak.

I decided on the fish
I wish it wasn't so
and
to keep the peace I'll poach it
but the rice will have to go.

The bailiff with the shotgun made us run too
and he was wild but not a child.

those were those days but these days we amble through
the memories as if we're on a ramble in the countryside
wearing comfy clothing and who knows in
what order they'll appear,
some of us don't even know what year we're in and
it's clear that some never will.

Cavemen
brave men
shame we couldn't
save them

evolution
like air pollution
affects us all
except for that
Troglodyte
at the all-night
cafe
but
wherever we're going
we've already been there
in
previous lifetimes.

It was always ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, did anyone else notice that?
I notice and am at times noticed but that I try not to notice.

Ageing is one of the signs that I'm getting older
I try not to notice that too.

It's certainly Monday and I know because I can feel it in my bones, that's probably another sign of ageing,, but I suppose you get out what you pays in.

Philosophy could be the key.

Soaked by the spindrift
to near to the shoreline
after all this time
you'd think I'd know better.

They will crush my bones
and from them
produce
fine china
and
I'll end up
on a shelf
in a glass
cabinet
and people will say
how beautiful I look
and I'll think
**** 'em.

Back at the lake, I take a moment to look and see if my reflection's still there and it is,
not much changes up in the mountains, time is almost dormant, unlike the chamois who is once again pregnant.

You can't experiment
expecting it to make a statement
it's all been done before

with drugs
with ***
at sea on the
cargo decks

we've  seen the way that Tarzan swings
the beauty when Fitzgerald sings,
the writing on the wall has been done
and we have done it all.

What are we to think if not
to think of what we are?

Wishing
'Our Father'
was farther away

the days go
the night comes
and I'm sitting here
twiddling my thumbs,
but I have
the same amount of energy
it's just hiding somewhere inside
of me.

Yeah
it's Saturday
hip...hip
which will probably need replacing.

You don't want poetry
you don't want poets' views
you want sad news
bad news,
news that makes you want to
trip out
rip your hair out
and today
this is what news is about,
blow jobs
no jobs
ten for a penny snow jobs

Peter pays Paul and robs Simon,
and now, spending time on
some rock or other
no
you don't want poetry,
you want anaesthesia

Who remembers the sugar lumps that the school nurse used
to fool you?
oh yea
and then she'd jab you with a needle that your mother would have used for knitting
and you're only nine-******* yourself at the back of the line awaiting your turn,

we never had a choice then
only a shrill little voice then
and I think they injected me
with mediocrity

who's to know now?

Taking pictures of
mental images,
these are the
ghosts that float
in silver
iodide.