Rise and Shine loses its appeal when you wake up and feel groggy,
like your brain is saying, Good God he
lives,

however unlikely if you wake up just like me
take it easy,
we're all getting there.

I think that the mains tripped
it can't have been me
because
I was standing innocently
next to the girl
that I adore.

She
could if
She so desired
set me on fire
but
I'm burning anyway
every way
and
She knows.

If someone could take me from waking up early and keep me locked tight in my sleep.

I dream.

disjointed
sometimes disappointed
a ragbag assortment
I rummage with glee.

She nudges me
and I fall into a winning combination,

I dream.

It was the 'Glass Onion'
and it made us cry
when we knew for certain
that John would die.

Strawberry fields
were never forever
that was for sure
a lie.

Can you hear them in the corridors
slamming doors and making people jump?

I put in the earphones
but
can't hear myself think
weird?
not me,
the line, 'can't hear myself think'

it's an old saying which goes without saying but I said it anyway,
back in the day, Mum used to say that when we were playing, our playing usually ended in fighting which is what brothers did back then,

and now being sidetracked into a memory
I've forgotten what I was going to write,
how's your Thursday going?

Can you hear them in the corridors
slamming doors and making people jump?

I put in the earphones
but
can't hear myself think
weird?
not me,
the line, 'can't hear myself think'

it's an old saying which goes without saying but I said it anyway,
back in the day, Mum used to say that when we were playing, our playing usually ended in fighting which is what brothers did back then,

and now being sidetracked into a memory
I've forgotten what I was going to write,
how's your Thursday going?

In a thousand years time
I would sail down the Rhine
if it was still there,
something tells me that it
won't be

there'll be
no ocean
no sea
and
no fish for tea,

in a thousand years time
we'll have lots of sand
and
sod all else.

Sneezing not wheezing,
it's a breeze in the dark.

****
wrong answer
please redial.

what the nook and cranny?

sometimes I go funny when the
connections short circuit,
the doctor says,
that I'm a misfit,
She says
I'm perfect
the way that I am.

I was thinking about living abroad, and then I got bored with that thought, so I bought a bottle of *** punch on a hunch, scrunched down on the sofa, played my lotto, had a few drinks, got blotto, and then thought to myself,
"What about living abroad?"

some things go in circles
some in a square,
some never think nowt
because some do not dare.

Time is catching up on me
let's wait and see,
but I let it drop
the bubble pops
and I'm behind the times.

Feeling crushed
rushed
pushed into a corner?
take it easy
if you find me
get behind me
we'll chase the blues away.

There's a lot of Wednesday still to come
and I'm already feeling numb,
but
I'm ready to get out there and
toil away
Wednesday's not beat me yet.

The Lego man in his Lego house
made Lego love with his Lego spouse
while his Lego cat caught a Lego mouse
and all was well in Legoland.

It's how it seems, and it's instantly portrayed in a million different memes, but sometimes, it's not how it feels.

A heart thing, the doctor tells me, and another thing he'll say is one fine day when the weather looks a bit crook I'll take another look at you, make an appointment on the way out,

and now I'm  worried,
what did he mean
'on the way out'?

quickly searches for a meme.

We're dancing on the embers of a fire no one remembers
and this life is being ****** out of us,
up the chimneys, we spiral
like candy floss,

there is
sweetness in the air
but that's just death
it gets in everywhere.

Then to the room where the shades are drawn
a bit like the day before we were born
why fear?
we're here
we always have been.

She came upon me in a rush,
I tried to scream but She said,
shush
it's for your own good.

Better get my hair cut
better than my throat cut
and I've said that before
it's on repeat
it's on repeat
and I've said that before.

five twenty-one
the time
not the year
though I fear
it may well be

the dawn of the dark age
another page we turned
more bridges that we burned
can anyone be cross?

Teddy said to me
what do you want to be
when you grow up?
I said to Ted
well,
not a friggin'
glass-eyed bear  
that's for sure.

We'll
call them gentlemen
them in pinstripes
and
patent leather
and
like penguins
they flock together,
safety
in the numbers that they cook up

but every time
they *** us up
and up we look
from
the floor
nobody can ignore
that.

Writing Lost in Spider Trails
nails one more poet to the door,
but raise those webs of wonder high
and stop the ****** war.

it's when you're in the lifeboat and the ship's already sunk and the waves are eight feet high and you feel as if you're drunk
then your brain goes on hiatus like that hernia you had
and the captain says
as a matter of fact, things are looking bad.

but things have always looked the worst just before the morning sun
the man who gave me that little gem is the one known as Ben Gunn and he rose to prominence from the pen of Stevenson.

just ramblin' here and it must be time for breakfast.

Should have been in Reno
at the very least Denver
or 'Frisco
but they wouldn't let me go
so
I'm sitting here in Wapping
chopping firewood for a shilling
and She's off out there shopping
God's got a lot to answer for.

Here on the edge of obscurity where the prophets sit back and study me, looking forward and I might say quite anxiously to what obscurity has got in store for me,
but it is
filled with incredible people from the known world and way back to the Neanderthal,
the forgotten ones
the ones who'd never be forgotten but were
they're all there and I'm going to be there too
unless you
remember me.

When you're up for what you're up for
and the magistrate says, take him down,
turn that frown into a smile and tell him
I'll see you in a little while.

he'll worry like a terrier
add another year to the stretch
he's already given ya,

but you'll forget
sat in the cell
watching the colour TV.

That numbing feeling
scrolling
through Facebook,
but it took that
to make me relax
oh
and a bottle of wine.

Then I listened to
my heartbeat
to check that it
was still there,

work?
jeez it was tough today
no time to play
it was nose to the wheel
and I wondered
quite idly
what the **** am I doing this for?

Routine?
I need it
it feeds me,
She tries to lead me astray
and I say
not tonight darling
but then it is morning
and I have a smile on my face.

Eight of the clock
and I'm getting ready
for what?

Are you feeling or fuelling my appetite?

no!
just work
and it can be
gruelling.

It's
Sunday and no day to slack
no rest for the wicked and
no looking back
so it's
onwards
like those Christian soldiers
I wonder if they got dipped
in your eggs.

It's called the economy because we're always economising and we know that someone has their hand in the till getting their fill of our hard-earned,
in the end
they'll do away with cash
put it all on the credit card
tell me if you think life's hard,
oh, you do?
imagine that.

Saturday and I'm working
Sunday and I'm working
the taxman's out there lurking
rubbing his hands in glee.

But I'm good,
I have to be
or
She,
will give me that look.

I imagine, still,
racing the wind down the hill,
hair flying behind me
and ahead of me
waiting to catch me
Dad with a smile on his face.

Giving me a makeover?
yeah
poshing me up so they said,

I shook my head and replied
this ain't 'My Fair Lady' guv'
you can shove it.

Something in the distance and somehow coming closer,
I lock the door which leads into tomorrow and wonder if
but no, that can't be so
and so
I climb out of the skylight to reach out to the midnight which
is always there hiding in the background.

and if we remain the same the same cannot be said for the sounds around us constant in their change,

the blind man does not see that the beggar doesn't care and the beggar doesn't see that he too could be the blind man,

I think we have always been
suspects in the grand scheme
and who are we that we can deny
that may be so?

Although it's possible
that we could be
the man in the lineup
for all to see,

fingered
ouch
that's possible too
you'll say it's me
and I'll say it's not true
it's you.

but if under suspicion
is one more condition
we have to abide by
we may as well die
or
try to live with it.

I used to wear tight pants
now
I just pant and wear
Oxford Bags.

Sometimes
I think that a pair
of plus-fours
would be eight.

but that's me

I suppose as I usually do
that your first childhood has to go
before the second one kicks in,
I'll wait,
so what's new?

Fanciful perhaps,
but we all seem to be living in a time-lapse
or maybe it's just a memory that speeds on its way
through me.

I will not get tired of this,
the happy ending and I mean a happy ending,
but not that happy ending,
this is a message,
not a massage.

a wing and a prayer and
I'm betting you
that you'll buy it,

we know it's *******
and none of us will make it
but
we don't want to end it
and so we carry on.

worn threads and dead ends
peeks into the past,

dimples on your cheeks
and
cascades of waves when you
lifted your head.

Where land meets sea
She'll wait for me.

At times
sometimes
I dream
full to the brim
and swim in your eyes,

at times
sometimes
when
my mind's a blank screen
She,
comes to me in another dream.

Oh ***
u have me being an adult
like it's some form of
an occult
and I've not yet been in
love.

if this dream is
what defines me
dream on.

and we will be one
with the one who finds me.
I hope it is her.

and it was.

it's getting quite biblical out there,
those who pray have this to say,
haha we told you
here comes the rapture

but I'm a bit, Mother Shipton
in that, I keep my eyes on that shady crew
because
who'd ever believe that Jesus would save but a few and leave the rest to stew in their own juices?

The door knock
witches, wizards,
or a warlock?
the only way to find out
is to move out
from your comfort zone
which is
as we all know
behind the barricades
of the fortress
you call your home.

The light's on
the hamster's in the wheel
someone is at home
so tell me
how does that feel?

I slept heavy
and not because I'm putting on weight
it was
the dream that dragged me under
into that deeper dreaming state

and I woke up feeling drugged up
shrugged my shoulders and I got up
because that's the way it is.

If only I had started to do it when I knew it had to be done, and it would have been, should have been, could have been ready by
now, but you know how things go when you become a bit slow
and the years start their advance,

and yet, even now girls ask me to dance,
but only to their giddy tune,
my answer's
no chance.

now I have to do it
I have no more excuses to give
and you're wondering what?
if you're not, why not?
or is it
that you have to do it too?

In the army when you pass out they give you a parade,
when I do it at home they leave me on the sofa to sleep it off.

Ruminating,
how does that not sound like
I'm an old goat?

But, ha,
I but a lot of times
but it's allowable
here in my citadel.

Tuesday and I warm my toes
because heaven knows it's
getting colder.

Chaotic or Quixotic?
aren't they the same?

Wind turbines are in
and usually the way.

What's for dinner?
I asked,
whatever you're cooking
She said,
and everything connects
but
maybe not on this timeline.

tilt and we all will
then reset
back to nil.

One needs to look no further than the nose that juts from your face, that which you seek you will find and you’ll find it in the same place,

because I remembered that I forgot but then forgot what I’d remembered,

It could be that or it might be this, She says, never mind dear, and gives me a kiss,
some things I never forget to remember.

Keeping things tight
letting the light out
a little at a time
but we all shine
don’t we?

And we all vibrate
we are a song on
some celestial soundtrack.

In trying to justify
the means to an end
I tend to prevaricate
bluster and obfuscate
and then
there is no answer.

Me,
I can't think about the water that's gone under the bridge, on the edge of my being I know I was swimming away.

Those thoughts are put away and one day they will melt into me and everything that I've ever felt.

She mops my brow and I wonder how she manages to cope
I hope and I always will
that she will still
this beating heart.

after this is done
when our tears are dried
and we cry no more
there will be time to
have fun,

patiently just in case she
might change her mind
I wait.

...and when you thought you knew it all
they showed you that you knew ****** all
and that’s all there is to it,

Feel like ****?
been on the binge?
I expect nothing less
than you wanting to
whinge.

I’ve seen all of that and more  
walked through the open door
into a brick wall
yes
I’ve certainly seen it all,
but
I still know ****** all.

05:20
plenty of time to get ready for nine
but I’m leaving at seven,

Everything is mathematics
add this
subtract and divide
provide the answer
miss the deadline
plenty of time
to work it out again.

I went fell walking on the fells
and I never fell once

but I’ve fallen and risen and fallen
and I believe that
track records are there to be broken
so it’ll be more rising
surprising for me because I’m a tad lazy.

No one is out there
apart from the soothsayer
and she’s saying a prayer
for what has not yet been.

Cheese and wine’s fine for them that like to show off,
but a ploughman’s lunch and a pint of ale
is the holy grail for us
and just who are us you may ask,

well
pin back thee ears and I’ll tell ya
we are the bricks that built the bridges
the picks that cut the canals
the Tommy’s that went to war
and
the bodies that never came back

Off the beaten track?
and I may well be
but I have a ploughman’s
and a tin of ale
and
a host of tales to tell.

Scroll down
roll your eyes
scroll again
repeat as and when necessary,

if you feel the need
read your Facebook feed
and believe.

Before Facebook,
to know
we had to look and see
or sometimes go to the
library
and now
it all appears as if by magic

and that’s the trickery
we
are ****** in and blown out
into the vacuum
and when the vacuum’s full
Facebook’ll pull another one out from
its hat.