Not the eyes
because they hold the soul and
if She has taught me anything
it is always the eyes.

You will return
because you burn for me.

And so adamant
that
I have written this on
parchment

it must be so.

I dreamt that it could have been me
running free,
over the fences, Grand National Day
at Aintree.

strange indeed
it must be something
in the feed
they're feeding me,

imagine that
running free
pay your license
says
the BBC.

*** it
I'm off tomorrow
not sure where
until I get there.

So
we're not falling
we're floating
in a free economy.

They're stitching a hem on the universe and
making it look very pretty
it's a pity they can't put one on this town
but they like it to look..out..
...ship ahoy,

we're sailing in dangerous waters if
we
think that they can't sink us at will,

an election is looming
I am cheering
because it's time to give another the chance
to rob us folk blind while we're sleeping,

the universe is coming along nicely, although
there's a thought we might run out of thread,
the universe just keeps on expanding
I am glad that something's well-fed.

The word jiggered fits the bill.

difficult to get back to it
harder to stay away
work is as work is
and I need a holiday.

it rained too
did you notice?

o yeah
get ready
get set
get wet,
sounds a bit saucy
but it's not
I haven't got time
for that.

All I said was
I love Wednesday
and suddenly
The Addams Family,
is breathing down my neck.

But this morning is drab
and even I
with the gift of the gab
can find nothing else to say.

How's the summer
grabbing ya
jabbing ya
I'm cabbing it home.

You can
call it what you want,
I know
what I'd like to call it,

got absolutely sodden
and those
people with the big umbrellas
sod em.

but I'm home now
chillin' and
willing the rain to cease.

People disappear
or perhaps we leave them
somewhere in the rear as we
go marching on,

sometimes I miss them
wish I was with them,
have I disappeared too?

and then quite lazily
a memory floats in,
it sinks again only to swim
in a deeper sea than me.

The day is upon me
and
so is the duvet

it's time to get up
and no!
not to any mischief.

and looking in the mirror,
is like looking at a passion killer
so
ladies
you're in no danger.

She laughs out loud,
and says that I'm living in
cloud cuckoo land,

The week begins on a high note.

I can taste garlic,

She says,
it could have been arsenic
so
think yourself lucky.

I do
and I said that before.

I used to be a pioneer
and now
I'm just a pensioneer

out here
on the frontier
boldly going on.

A hundred scents in a dollar?
wow
that's a smelly currency,
but in the land of the free
they can do as they please

in good old blighty
which used to be capital,
we still put a seashell
up to our ear
to hear
the latest news.

Sunday
dawn has not broken
it's just resting
testing the air for scents.

The algorithm
is not
dance music.

Sideshow Mel,
or
was it Bob?
can't remember now
but
one of them got the job.

Both are a little bit
leftfield of Springfield
so
I keep my wits
about me.

I know that you will take
what you want
and then say,
that I gave it.

It's been three days
and not one chef
has made it to
my hitlist,

they're all quite decent,
unlike that other chef
I once knew
who
wanted me to measure
the diced vegetables
he
was definitely on the
danger list.

but three days is nothing,

three months in
and I'll be hoping,
hoping,
but no more bowing and scraping
them days is history,

She says,
so are you my darling,
ancient history.

Here's to guesswork
which actually
is a lot easier
than real work
but
doesn't pay as much.

Don't be taken in
by a bag of crisps
a crap sandwich
and a fizzy water,
I am the real deal
and worth more than
six quid
or seven quid if you're
in the airport.

Such as it is
it is and could be more.

that's my offering
take it or not,
but
to be honest
that's all I got
at this time.

I miss the days
when I was better
than this,

She says,
but you're good,

and I have to agree.

She says,
don't look so smug.

...and now
for your
disappointment
entertainment.
oh
wait a moment,
it's
not for you at all.

and as it happens
which happens all the time
I'm back and tied to the yoke
but it's fine,
I was getting wearier not working
than I ever did when I was.

if there's still life in the old goat
there is still hope.

Things coming in from the sea,
yes
it's that mist out there that frightens me,

something or some thing could be hiding

She says
but we're miles from the sea
and that worries me even more,
things are advancing.

Well,
this isn't getting the grass cut.

But times like these are few and far between the Devil and the deep sleep of the just,

one could bust a gut doing too much by waking up,
a bit late to realise that
when I opened my eyes to find the beer in the glass from last night had gone flat.

The coffee was hot but it's not now
somehow time passes and things cool.

This is still not getting the grass cut and my stomach feels like my throat's been cut so it must be time for breakfast,

at last the point of no return
got to go now and watch the
toast burn,

have a good day
even if it is Monday.

Sunday
and the sun is rising
put your eyes in
and take a look.

another hot one
so
get your shorts on.

I love the way
light covers me
in different shades,
the way it sparkles
and in sunlit glades
the way it fades
in and out between
the leaves,
leaves me breathless.

Green grapes.

What a palaver
here we both are
sat in the parlour
drinking a sherry
and who do we
thank for that
yep
Francis flamin' Drake.

If you have been affected
by the Eurovision Song Contest,
you may be eligible for absolution.

I am certain
that behind the curtain
there's a wizard waiting

nil points for imagination
but
I still feel full of nul points
and
that's the situation,

I have to do
something new
to
revitalise
to
re-energise
but then I compromise
and have another coffee.

She rode in a surrey
which was not made in Surrey
it was the Studebaker of its day
and now it has had its day
because of the Motorway
and
automobiles
and
tyres
and wheels
and
speed

suddenly I need
an automobile.

You have to face it
time has the edge,

there have been lots of edges
some we've gone over
thinking that was the finishing line,

time has the final say,
but look at today
we've had all the time in the world
and yet, done nothing with it

that's the beauty of it
and
the cruelty within it.

Summer and some aren't
that's the way I look at it.

Today looks like one of those days
and by one of those days, I mean a great day,
the sky a
sky blue that flits through my eyelashes

opening the sash window
I shout out loud to let everyone know
what a great day this will be
and
some sad sack of something
reported me to the
noise abatement society,

I'd say
it's still a great day
but for the gagging order.

When you understand it
you can turn your hand to almost anything,
oh yeah!
that's right
put the lathe operators out of business,
said the lathe operator.

Good luck with leaving no carbon footprint to save the environment.

Trash and more trash making more trash
and good luck cashing in on that.

What happens when they fill all the landfills and there are no more landfills to fill?

we'll probably find that out in about ten years according to Google which is sat on my lap thinking it's a cat and making a whirring sound.

If this is the best of it
and we have been blessed by it
why is the baby crying?

The Midwife was halfway to being married
but she carried herself very well
the priest on the day didn't see it that way
and knew we were all going to hell.

Then at my beck and call,
the bill said it all
surprise me said Cilla
who drank sarsaparilla
and looked like a killer
dressed all in black.
but
back to the best of it
and
if this is me being blessed by it
you're welcome to the rest of it

I'm going fishin'
again.

..and if you've ever wanted to get back to where you were
I am here to tell you
that it wouldn't be you there
it would be
someone
a billion thoughts away
and
that's my thought
for the day.

now
a billion and one.

I know that they make up new words for old things to make us think that old things are new things and things are not getting better but worse,
do you sleep at night wondering if one day they might change the night and make up a new name for it and if they do would it be the same for you?
so many worries and worries about worries
it's no wonder I worry.

I will take some time
open a bottle of wine
and then take some more time
to take time to drink it
and by that time I'll be drunk enough
to not worry about worry and stuff
and nonsense.

Jason
Jeremy
Bethsheba
Bellamy
Frank
Hank

we went through a lot and
then settled on
Gaston

so the bear has a new name
we had a good game
and now
we can have a picnic.

It was all that moaning and groaning which presented me with the idea and thus after much deliberation, self-medication and things we don't mention I have come to the conclusion that,

there are ghosts that live inside bedposts!

well,
I suppose it's to do
with the
housing crisis
and
rising prices,

but
it's disturbing
and
it disturbs me.

Hilda was walking the dog
and even though it was a firedog
no one corrected her.

One pint of milk in a plastic bottle for ninety pence!
have we lost all sense of what basic means?
frikin beans one pound and forty
well
fork me a frankfurter
let's go the whole hog.

Give a dog a bone
and your broth's gone,
you scoff,
but half of you don't even
know about bone broth.

Funnily enough
my conclusion is that
buying fast foods
don't make you
any faster
and buying good food
only makes you poorer.

it's either innuendo or out the window,
si
magnifico said Alberto the Spaniard who was hard of hearing even on a clear day,

of course, it's always your Mother or Manana down at the Copacabana,
didn't Freud say that?

I practised it for years
and got so good at it
that no one noticed.

We will get there because there has always been where it was and we knew but never acted upon the information, so "you are here" according to the map and you cannot argue with that.

Another memory to keep
and one more notch
on the brainstem

which is where my memories
are dredged up from.

unusual?
it's downright incredible.

The woman with pearls for eyes,
the world is her oyster
the guys all adore her
but
she sat down beside me
and proceeded to ignore me,

in a leisurely fashion
or so I imagine.

A long time takes a long time
I expect it'll be worth the wait.

aw ****
it
becomes the bedtime
can I rhyme it?
no
you fukin *****
tomorrow
be a long time
to rhyme,

go to sleep.

I do wonder what was the choice
when I had no choice
only the voice that richochets

and in the voice the echo that says
take the sick you need me
and I
who could not feed the need in me
would not listen
to this one who was forgotten,

I remember then
and
I guess you do
who I was
but
I'm still me
in
a different century.

I heard that Sadiq Khan was on the streets of Newham
and I thought surely he couldn't be begging
because that's the only time that we'd see him,
but it was probably votes he was looking for

well
look no more,
someone else got the keys to the..
..oh wait..

News
Breaking Now,

somehow
it looks like it looked like in 1388
and here we are
waiting for the
Workhouse to open.

We take these little diversions
and call them conversations
and we're designed that way

the alternative
a
blank canvas
and
no paint.

I never felt that seven-year itch
maybe it was a glitch in the system
perhaps I was standing in the kitchen
thinking of how she has chained  oops
I mean changed me

definitely for the better.

I know very little
but even that knowledge
in the wrong hands is dangerous.

Fire and storm
only one keeps us warm
but we cannot discard the
other.

Whatever wills us to live
also wills us to die.

Erring on the chilly side
the wind's a bit on the wild side
I think that I may stay inside,
and read myself a book.
I took a look through the bookcase
in case I saw something that I'd fancy

well
Nancy Drew's a mystery,
a cup of tea and a biscuit
and I'll bury my face in it.

I see that those bleeders have still got their beaks in
******* up the last of the wine,
about bleedin' time we got shot of them
put the flamin' lot of them
in the chokey
and
that'll do for me,

cast them all out into ***** and sod 'em
and
for good measure you can sod 'em again.

yeah
we'll have new Mayors yoked to the same old chain
telling us it'll be different but you know and I know
that it'll be more of the same,

I'd go fishin' but it's raining and I blame him
in Downing Street for that.

There's always a catch but it's not always a
'Catch 22'

on the shore of the biblical Galilee
Jesus
gave catches for free,
it's true and if you don't believe me
ask him or her or ask any one of them
who were there.