A quarter of the day has already gone, and if you're still in bed you can't wonder what's wrong with your life.
get up
dress
exercise
destress
impress your neighbours with the grunts and the groans
shake off the shivers as you move them old bones,

I can imagine
and I often do as I stay curled up in bed thinking about you, and if a quarter of the day has gone, there are still three quarters to come,
have some fun and quit worrying.

Revisiting the Outreach
and on the way
passing by the last chance cafe,
we
stop for a mug or two
having a chat
the way old friends do,
talk about the beach and
the Outreach Cafe
and the days that we stopped by
those days when we weren't high.

It's slow now and
that's the way things go now.

But we remember
when it felt like December in July

we moved on.

Does the rain care if the sea doesn't see that it's raining?
it'll still rain, the sea will not see, but it'll still be the sea
moving blindly along on its restless quest.

We can stay at home with the gramophone
and flip through the bakelite recordings.

Gale Force
quicker than parcel force
and guaranteed to
deliver when due.

Ouside
the wind's howling
teeth bared and growling

Inside
with a Shaolin Monk
peacefully
getting drunk on coffee

#AHA
and you thought alcohol
LOL

Line 'em up, Sid,  
I've got this urge  
to shake off the curse  
of this dry desert air.  

I am  
or I was  
where I roamed  

and I faced what was there—  
dry desert air.  
Line 'em up, Sid.

miles from the sea
and yet they're here
bothering me,
well
I don't have any chips
casino or otherwise.

Sunday
And she's playing soft rock
I think
I might knock on her door.

Saturday night and
I'm as sober as a..
..and who can judge
just how sober?

The jury is out on that
but trust me
I'm home in the flat
stone cold...

comfortable
on the easy chair
She sits in the high chair
and
no judgement from her.

Nine PM.

When I was younger
I used to go at this time
now
at this time
I'm ready to turn in

Hopefully not into a pumpkin.

Nylon
a stock in trade
for the robber
or it used to be
when masks were
de rigueur,
but these days
robbers don't care

they love their fifteen minutes
in the spotlight's glare
giving it large because
they really don't care.

It's eat all you want
even if
you don't want all you eat
drink Canada Dry,
and why not?
it's in the price you pay.

The perfect Holiday.

Apologies to Billie.

She
who captured your imagination
is as real as she can be
and while you're musing on your fantasy
She comes home to me.

But there are some fancy gizmos
that perch on the end of a man's nose
to let them see what they want to see
She still comes home to me.

Thunder and lightning
or to be more precise
lightning and thunder,
He
ducks under the duvet
and there he'll stay
until it's all over.

****** if I do, and I'll be danged if I will not, because between the damning and the danging there's a whole heap left hanging in the air.

That being said, we'll speak of things left unsaid, which will be said when we've unsaid them, but only if we remember them.

the way that things go always to and don't you know
they always do go fro'.

As London unravels
tube travel's out
so
we go out exploring,

when I was a scout
I did that a lot.

We shall be happy
said
the clown
who'd flipped his frown
upside down

I flipped my egg
and agreed.

I hope you know that this is all a sideshow,
like
knocking down ninepins in a ten-pin bowling alley.

And the factories
but
let's call them cemeteries
when nobody looks
as the shop steward books
overtime for his mates,

where the gates are shut
at the stroke of nine
don't be late.

Like
the fortune tellers who can't tell that they're poor
but
they'll spin you a yarn
let's call it
a short term cure.

and there's a but in being shut out
when there's no way in
but
for the life of me
I can't remember what.

These are my thoughts when I think I am broken.

Have I written more words than I've ever spoken
if the pen is my voice, then what choice do I have?
but
to speak out in ink
or in lead
to hope that these words have been read.

We are underneath
a
bad-tempered sky,
but you and I
are
in love
and the storm
will
pass over.

For a moment
it was Paul Simon
and Kodachrome

That moment passed,
but blessed by the memory
of Summer days down by
the sea and everything so bright

I go into the night that waits for me.

They say that you can hear them as they're rattling their chains and they'll tell you each and every one of those old soldiers' names,

I go blank, but say thank you,
a response that is automated
regurgitated
for everything that seems outdated.

But the wind doesn't whistle for everyone
this is the time to get your glad rags on
and forget it all, have a ball
beacuse
it has been and gone.

It was about the cascade
the way I imagined her hair
laid on the pillow
the look in her eyes
that
smile on her lips
and me
tripping over my tongue
a stumblebum
but
was it about that at all?

These days, it's seldom surprising that
surprising things can surprise you,

we're used to things now
we watch things happen and just wonder how,
the why's of it does not surprise one bit.

Jaded comes to mind
I find that old-fashioned words
are useful.

When will we know
if we're good to go
and will we be good
when we do?

Take a look
read the first word
in a book
and take some time
read a line and
then another
and before you know it
you'll be at the end

a great way to spend
a day.

These old bones are not aching
and from that I conclude
that there will be no break in
the weather.

Come pray with me that what we see is not what we get
otherwise we're in deep, can't rely on this shower in power
to keep us safe, couldn't rely on the last shower either.

Punch and Judy lure me to the seaside
easy to see what side they're on
oh!
and that'd be the flip side
anyone
for a donkey ride?

But if
we can't save anyone
even if it's only
John
then
what does it all mean?

Too old to go on the run
and mobility scooters aren't
that much fun,

so I walk off
briskly
before the boys in blue
decide to frisk me.

We're wrong
they're wrong
and nowhere does it say
that two wrongs make a right,
so
stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

He strokes his beard
only
because his dog died,
but this does make him look
intelligent.

Christian was no relation to Jessica
even though they were both Fletchers
and they had absolutely nothing to do
with arrows.

Time sells me a dream
but it's one that I've seen
so
it puts me on the waiting list
to watch things that I may have missed
and it costs me more.

Wednesday is almost done
and so it should be,
however
it's not in the grand scheme
been
such a bad day.

we can't judge a book
by its cover.

I have counted a lot, and I don't know how,
but the days I counted, I do not count now.

I've taken up stargazing
lazing on the patio
watching comets come and go
it's easier when it's darker
not so in the daylight,
but
I might start counting them
then again, I might not.

dilly dallying
putting the time in
to make up my mind.

Winter comes in
silent, quickly,
taking off those
weak and sickly,
I hope that
Winter
doesn't pick me.

Putting on my thermals.

Diving into infinity
only to find
that it's a pool.

Dreams do to me
what
the sea does to the shore,

more information is available.

it's raining and
not because it's Wednesday
it would have rained anyway
on any day this was.

Getting sick of politics?
take an emetic and
become a critic.

There is a lot of good
it's just that sometimes
you can't see the wood
for the trees.

When we've seen it, we still don't believe it and so we shelve it.

New things and odd things are like loose cannons; they can blow your socks off or you can get your rocks off, but whatever floats your boat, no judgment from me.

We're unmade and undone, and we make out that it's fun,
I don't believe that and I've seen it.

and where do we go from here?
Christmas is soon and then the new year,
which will be like the old year,
but with a different number.

Plum duff is *** stuff; you can ask Cap' Morgan, he's more than willing to say it is so.

The Autumn evenings are drawing in
and it looks to me
like they're drawing in
wet paint,
but it's only rain.

My eyesight's not what it used to be
it's not that I can't see
it's just that I see things
the way that they are.

.
She told me to get my hair
cut,
I said,
it'll end up on the cutting room floor

but, I say
it
could be used as one of the outtakes,

She
shakes her head
in that tut tut kind of way
and
the haircut is on for today.

To be in the woods and to sit on a log
cigarette in hand and by my feet the
trusty dog, which is ancient in dog years,
bliss.

peace and why it is good for me
watching as leaves fall silently
from trees that grow so majestically,
bliss.

bugs that scurry as bigger bugs worry them
fights to the death and life for one of them
centipedes like armies marching in on them
and wood lice are nice to me as I sit on the log
that they're eating for tea.

We're all being continued in another episode, someone writing something until we're fit to explode, cliffhangers like coat hangers that hold us and I think that the good lord should have told us that this is where we're held in great esteem.

At the circus
under the big top
waiting for the drum roll to stop
and the flying trapeze to fly,

but that was a dream.

Nothing to do with poetry
just the endless routine
of knowing it's a dream
and dreaming it again.

No kicking
punching
scratching
biting
write in
if you think
these rules are harsh.

Well.
'I've been to Harlem
I've been to Dover'
but I never felt I'd
been ****'d over
until I saw that
these are the nightjars
the birds that haunt you.

Nature being full of wonder
and cowshit
makes one stop to think for a bit
on life's imponderables.

We look at the differences and wonder did we make one of those.

Who knows what the difference will be in the twenty second century ?
not me.

Thinking that the difference is what makes a difference is definitely different if only to the intransigent.
I feign indifference which is definitely different.

Trample down the outcast and
cast them out of the community
and at times isn't this what we see?

But whatever you think
there is a missing link
and tag
you're it.

what if the wind changed and your face never stayed the way it was? Is that a lie that your elders told to keep you smiling?
well,
I look at some people and figured it worked.

all those tales they told
like
keep looking in the mirror and you'll get old
well.
that one definitely worked,

so
there is some truth and I should have listened
potatoes now grow in my ears,
I should have washed them,
square eyes because I watched too much television,
monsters under the bed, and therein lies another tale.

The first day of the ninth month in the year of two thousand and twenty five and if you're alive and awake, take a moment to give thanks that you're here.

But remember
we're all installations in a gallery run by the big corporations, and they hang us when and where they can.

Good,
now that's out of the way, we can get on with the day, even though the day happens to be a Monday.

Another pest
friend request
your profile is so cool

oh yeah!

I do not believe in
those things she said that she sees in
me

scam?

and another thing
I have thoughts that are older than her.

block
shock
horror and tomorrow
another pest

my profile must be the best

haha
coffee time.

Ready and I'm waiting here
for you to whisper in my ear
those three words
that we both hold dear,
'time for coffee'

Ah!, but not the 'Bisto' one
who remembers that?
and now
I can't remember
where I was going
with this.

A bit like life
we
set off with good intentions
and get sidetracked.

Now I'm back
*** in hand
no!
not that kind of ***

the coffee ***.

She says,
Oh Sugar,
and I wonder
does
She mean me
or is She
swearing?

.. and then
She planted in me
the seeds of a thought
of where I could be
and then
I grew.

Did you ever do that thing
you never thought
that you would want to do?

it's not that important
it doesn't matter
it's not an Earth-shattering thing
not the church
nor the bells that ring
but
if you did
and it's everything to you
do it again.

Graffiti and secrets
long stay or short lets
love without regrets
we've all
had it all.

I wait for the axeman
heads up to the taxman
we're now
for the chop.

She said,
stop me and try one
I lingered on
her fingertips
kissed on her fragrant lips
and faded away.

There is a tale to tell
a
bell to ring
when an Angel starts to sing
the song you know well.

so
if you've got the ****
and
you think you're a camel
it should be easy
to fit through the eye of
a needle
and get into heaven
unless
you're also rich.

there's always a clause that
is left unread.

I wondered
did we ever see it the way we saw it?
see-saw, once now and once before,

what's a difference?
the rise
the fall
one final call
train departing platform nine
your Waterloo may not be mine.

Wasting time is a waste of time
and yet
time wastes us away.

Friday and not the Good one
no Easter eggs to feast upon
and we're all just getting on
the best way that we can.

give everyone a sedative
let them live without the pain
to
somnambulate occasionally
then
give them a sedative again.

ouch that hurts

Walked my legs off
up hill
down dale
and
I noticed that there
are by far
more up hills than down dales

nature's a bit of a cutey cat when
it pulls the mat from under your feet
then beats you with relentless heat
and then it rains.

But all's well that ends in a pint
at the pub in the town.