Chicken drumsticks
hot and spicy
washed down nicely
with an ice cold beer.

A fly is walking on the window pane
it's probably the same fly that walked up from the sill
I will
watch it for a while,
oh
and it's on the outside of the window
so
it doesn't worry me.

I can walk too
but not up the window pane
and I can't fly,
sigh.

If life is a series and I am on episode nine,
how much time is there left
before I have to find something else to watch.

They flocked yesterday and then swooped as if food was the answer to what ailed them and if it was food
then the system has failed them,

this is *****
not Bethlehem
and the son of man
is seldom welcome
unless he comes bearing
burgers and chips.

They that would be might pray today
or go down the pub and get ******

I have to go to work and
lay these ghosts to rest.

A bit previous
as Arthur,
would have said
if he were still alive
and not as he is,
dead.

but that was Arthur,
always half into something
shady.

Today
I have to work
from
midday until it's dark,
but
I'd sooner take a Steinbeck,
and sit out at the park.

..then the lights came on and it was all over which was peculiar in that the lights usually go out when it's all over, but this was a film I watched at the Odeon Cinema, the one with the Wurlitzer that rose up from out of the floor, can't remember which Odeon it was nor what the film was about, I only remember the lights coming on at the end and thinking that it was strange, now I think that thinking that was strange,

maddening how memories come at you in a random order, some to encourage you, some to attack you, some to caress you and others to slap you.

But it's Friday so it doesn't matter.

..and in another town,
the rain still pelting down
and I think
how I used to pelt down the road
fast and slim
now
I amble
the rain still pelts

life can be unfair
a bit like the weather.

Thought I was watching the screen but it was just my socks going around in the washing machine and here's me thinking it was an English football game.

good for me
that I remembered.

Anyway a special day
deserves a special wish
and
I wish for many more.

They asked me when was the last time I ate
I said, I don't remember but not of late
and they fed me
then I remembered the corn that waved to me
from the fields by the meadow
and I wasssssssss that long time ago.

That's what you call a brush-off,
given the ***'s rush and told to
push off,

it all evaporates
creating steam
and it's easy to feel
like it was all a dream.

But you have to get over it
or you'll go under
and end up blowing bubbles.

I hardly sleep,
not since Bo-Peep
lost her flock of sheep
I mean
how the hell did she do that?
a
flock of seagulls
I understand could get out of hand
but sheep?
seriously?

Occasionally I am focused
but there are distractions
you
are one of them.

I wanted to go but you know
how things are,

I have
got to keep working to pay off the car
keep some clothes on my back,
the alternative being
naked and walking
people talking about me
and
looking and seeing
and me being
me being
me.

There are more hurricanes than they can make names for so they make names up which is what they always did but they hid that from us,

who are we then?
we are the fallen upon hard times men
the men who don't know when to quit men
the men who shovel **** men

I wonder
but then I see the names they gave us men

when did we surrender?

I have met and made uncomfortable
the most unusual kind of people,
it's a knack and I cannot deny it.

When I used to be
before I am
it was easy going,
but now
it's tough
and so am I
I have to be
just to get by,

I still meet and make
them that think it's a mistake

*** 'em.

It's a Tom, not ****, but Larry,
not Harry and Larry's the cat
that got rid of that at Number 10,

let's see what he makes of the next tenant.

When you bite the bullet
find it's made of chocolate
and realise
nothing is as bad as it seems.

Mondays have a tang to them,
I'm
not thinking of a dynasty
just musing on a mystery.

Getting old is like being told that age is just a number.

Young people like to tell old people that as if it's a fact, I attract young people, they must think I'm so gullible

I'm fukin Gulliver or Moby ****
take your pick.

In London
they don't care
i
could be
Fred or Ginger
having a binge
and they
would be none
the wiser.

You
stick your face in the iPhone
and hope that someone will
call you
and in case they don't
there's always the Compact,

ask your mother
She'll tell you.

because She called time
told me
it was bedtime
and why should I complain?

each time a fascination
to which I make a
dedication,

oh jesus,
they gonna make me a saint
and
if they aint they should.

There is silence in the canyon where the cannon used to thunder, is there time to reconsider before I finally go under,
the answer's not forthcoming and the time is running out as I look back at it all and still don't know what it's about.

I shall eat chips and fish and peas
and go to bed at whatever time I please
get the operation that fixes up my knees,

She's not listening.

If you take as you find you find you don't mind
how ridiculous things become.

I'm home early,
can't say it worries me
because
work will be the death of me
and I wonder if I'll know.

well
I skipped to my Lou
didn't realise it was
square dancing though.

songs that they might have
but never did
so we got rid of them
and now
we're the old men
watching the young men
and thinking
little ******* if I was only
fifty years younger
but then
where would that take us?

She looks at me
like
she's looking at a tree

woodenly

my stomach still knots
and
the butterflies still fly
seems like I am still
that
kind of guy
so
I'll be skipping to my Lou,
until the skipping is through.

yippee ki-yay

I had a quick look-see
but today doesn't look
like it's looking for me

incognito
is the place to be
it's a bit like Poundland
'clear up on aisle three'

She says,
have you seen it's raining?
I asked
if that was a film at the cinema
She's on about the weather
I asked her whether..
..She said
No.

Incognito
I go there often.

There'll be clapping and cheering
someone get the beer in
there is football on the telly tonight.

I have employment
and
get the greatest enjoyment
in telling you that
because
I'm not too fond of soccer
I'd sooner watch milk turn sour,

so I'll be toiling away
and not watching
the match of the day

let me know who wins.

If you have been adversely
affected by the results
of a recent General Election
I just wanted to let you know
that you may be
one of those
entitled.

Well done to the winners
which
is not us
whoever won.

We will go on until the going on is gone and then someone will win again and it won't be us and that's how it will always be forever and ever ah, but this isn't a prayer or is it?

but just in case it is
Amen.

I'll have to get my hair cut
ruled out the wrists and throat
and
aiming for a more settled look,

until I saw the fukin prices
jeezuz crisis
now
I'm thinking to let my hair grow,
put it in a ponytail
add a bow
and a couple arrows?
oh
not that kind of bow.

ok.

Some call it a
General Election.

I prefer the term
Clinical Trials.

There was a time when a cottage pie
came with its own cottage, but now?
now?
nothing, nada,
times sure is getting harder

so it's back to eating shepherds?
shepherds pie
in case you were worried.

time for more tablets
said no Moses
never.

We shoot the pigeons
pollute the oceans
and
destroy the forests
and then harp on about
how wonderful nature is.

Oxygen tanks
concrete and steel
a flashlight for sunlight
and how would that feel?

pretty **** I'd imagine.

I don't have to be woke
to be awake to the possibility
that if this carries on
it'll be progress that is
killing me.

I got parole from my job role
they let me out two hours early
they're probably thinking,
he'll soon be late
and we'll have to go to the wake

well
wake up sugarplum
if you come you come
but I won't be there
I'll be treading the boards
elsewhere.

*** it
I ain't doing too bad
for an old rustbucket
I might need an oil change,
otherwise
I'm good to go.

All I'm saying is
George McCrae
has a lot to answer for.

It's not the past that rankles
it's the manacles on your ankles,

come on
get with the program
sixpence from all good booksellers.

he rattles on
figures from a
past long gone

on his door,
a sign that reads
do not disturb.

you floating through
the things I would do
but that's another story.

As I recall
it only gets to be complicated
when you become a teenager,
anything else
is just the way it is.

Those eyes that shimmer
make me shiver,
anticipation
is the best.

On a hot day
from a distance
everyone shimmers

isn't it good to know
that
everyone has the glow
about them.

Sunday comes along with priests and nuns and the sun's nowhere to be seen.

I wanted a second opinion, they gave me the third degree

I wanted to see what the holy one saw and they only showed me the door.

and there we have it
it's becoming a habit.

..and you know
that it'll never be
that way again,
but
this way is okay
not so much a way
as a pathway
which is more than likely
the right way

I think so
therefore
that might be so

..and so is not
a needle pulling thread
whatever you may think.

Funny how we all produce,
and
it may be some attraction
to those who love
production
but
we're being reduced into
'Pulp Fiction'
and
fed into the furnace.

I was looking for something to write
and I had hoped it would be happy
but
it's only truthful and sad
if
you believe that sort of thing.

Buy a one Euro house
in a one horse town?

not on your Nelly
not even on my Nelly

belly laughs from the chapel
because there's always a chapel
even in a one horse town.

Anyway
too much red tape
and from that
there is
no escape.

and you'd need to learn the lingo
meet the council
because there's always one of them
Saturday night and not even a disco'
head for the chapel, a game of bingo,

not on your Nelly.

another kook.

thinks I'm so clever
until I spot the odd socks
which are only odd when not paired up
hmm
an analogy to the single life,

see
think's I'm a
clever little canary
but
I'll end up down the pits
smelling gas.

Saturday
and there's no rocket
can't be science then
it
must be Sunny.

Scary thoughts.
( bedtime in Bedlam)

when they switch the machine off
and my lights go out
I'll still be able to see you.

We expect a reject and that's what we'll elect, there's something in Latin about that but I can't remember what.

Montana always sounds like the place to be
wide and open and possibly free,
it can't be any worse than this
or can it?

they got shot of
the
Blackfeet
the Chippewa
the
Little Shell Chippewa,
the Kootenai,
the Pend d'Oreille
the Salish, the Crow,
the Sioux and the Cree
I think they might think
of getting shot of me.

I'm gone fishin'
if anyone asks.

ta da
and that is that.

I haven't put the radio on
She said
'you're getting fat'
and so
I'm wearing shrink-wrap plastic
in our high-rise council flat.

it might work better
if I wore a sweater
but
I'm already sweating

getting into the shower is
going to be fun.

inter..what's the word?
you decide
but I thought action, ha
you naughty boys and girls.

I'm dropping my aitches
better than dropping my britches,
She laughs
which is music to my ears.

mine?
like a nuclear bomb
a magnitude of eight
but
I knew it'd be great.

Sunshine sometimes beats Moonshine
in a game of rock, paper, scissors.

aye here I be
waiting to see
what tomorrow brings.

'put him down'
shouts the clown at the back
no one listens
either to him or to me,

waiting to see
what tomorrow brings.

You can feel it in your water
and if you can't
then you oughta

this is going to be
a magnificent day,
six other cowboys
agree with me.

Get up there
get out there
and
do your thing,
this day
can only bring you
happiness

It was the telephone ringing that brought me back
bringing with it a touching of memory,
a conversation from '73
but the phone's gone along with '73
murdered in its sleep by new technology

*****
iPhones me
Sam sings to me
I could be going gaga
and it's only Thursday.

we became the elephants in the room and didn't know it.

for **** sake
so what
if it's melting
the tarmac
it'll make no difference
the council will still show their
hesitance
in doing anything useful
like
addressing a problem.


useless don't cover it
horse ****
might.