I left the post office full of hope
that the numbers I had picked would all come up
and I could cope with the millions I'd win

but
nothing
not a sausage or a bean
the numbers I'd picked couldn't be seen,

the moral here is:
don't count your cookies
they've all been nicked,

I should have picked
different numbers.

Somewhere ahead of me, a light punctuates the commentary and those things I thought fall into place.

Old lags like me sewing mailbags for tobacco and tea and thrown in for free, accommodation,
thankfully not in the Bangkok Hilton.

Saturday or it could be if it was light enough outside to see,
so it could be any day really
and

somewhere ahead of me...

Yes, she said,
I'm four months gone,

oh,
do you know
what you're having?

a baby
she replied
and then gave me a look
that might just as well have said

*** off *****.

Jack is nimble
Jack is quick
Jack's made of ice
and he makes me sick.

With my night socks on
and a nightcap on my head
the only place to be is
tucked up in my bed.

It has affected my balance,
that'd be
my bank balance.

They'll crank up the voltage and believe that you're melting
but you're starting to enjoy it,

the kick from the mains that they take pains to inflict
thinking that they've got you licked
is just a tickle turning into a laugh.

see,
they can't get the staff anymore.

I expect that as people get older the older they become
and if that is true I can't see the fun in it.

Even after all those black-outs
my hair turned to the colour of snow
wrinkles creased into road maps
and
I take frequent naps,
but
old I ain't,

I can still paint the town red
but to be honest
watching Netflix in bed
is
one of my favourite things,

burning up more oxygen
learning on the go
racing ahead of advancing years,
hair
still as white as snow.

fading into the wallpaper and peeling off the walls
Kilroy in his own way has us by the *****,

They had ***** when I was a boy
ladies and gentlemen dancing with joy
and clamouring for?
they don't even clamour anymore.

A dying language
we're all going Latin
stick that in
your pipe and smoke it.

As Wednesdays go
this one went,
I know
went is not right and it
should be gone,

but what?

went's incorrect when
Wednesday is still here,
it's only gone when it's gone.
talking to myself here,
dear me,
slap me with a stick of wet celery
I must edit this insanity,

Felix licks a paw
his bag of magic tricks
is sat on a mat by the door,
I wonder what I wrote that for,
Tom is chasing Jerry,
Topcat's on the merry-go-round
think I'm going underground,
it's the safest place to be.

If a nightingale did sing in Berkeley square.
what was it doing there?
because
for a singer it was a bit out of its manor,

some say it was a wrong 'un
casing the places.
but so what
that bird is now immortal
framed in a mug-shot book,

they'll never catch it though
those West End Central bobbies
are far too slow.

Never mind the butter,
I can't believe it's not Friday.

slipping out of bed
trying to get my head together
looking out of the window,
**** weather
frost on the rooftops
snow on the ground

is this what I pay taxes for?

Do you get any more
for breaking your back?
No,
you do not
you get what you've always got
and that is a ten by six in the
local nick
where a squad of plod will
beat you black and blue,

work!
you might as well do
what the others don't do
and who'll be able to tell?

well,
you can shove that where the sun doesn't shine
which interestingly enough is Monday,

what a way to start,
the darkness of the day
the lightness in my head
feels like I'm being fed
black treacle.

and they called off the strike,
Press like if you like that.

In a few years
this'll be reposted to jog my memory,
which is a good thing
as I've already forgotten it

Soon I'll get old
and become like a ghost,
the wind will blow through me
nobody will visit me
the cat will ignore me
and I'll just be waiting
for history to envelop me.

Some will take the week off,

me,

I'll try to sneak off
early.

Serious
sad
mysterious
bad,
but
we're all a little mad
at times.

There's always one
or another
we can blame things on,
never looking in the mirror,
to see if it could be you or me,
I
suppose we see what we think that we see.

Some were burning hot
some were on fire
most were smoking Marlboro
those cowboys,
did they smoke for hire?

adverts fooled us
schooled us in the ways
of what was good for us
back in the olden days.

Look!
life's just like a
pop-up book,
and
unfortunately
pop-ups
sometimes make
**** ups

and that's what life is like.

The morning coughs up a covering of grey and I know it's going to be midnight all day.,

jesuuus
I need infrared to navigate my way out of the bed.

oh well,
doing it
is better than
talking it.

She says,
'put a cork in it'
I
hug the walls.

When you were sick and tired
of being sick and tired and now
you're just tired
and that still makes you sick

so
what makes you tick?
are you wired up wrong?
has your positive alignment
got up and gone?

I think a tonic will fix it
an atomic will blow it,
a platonic?
I knew it
but
we're all going through it
so
I get along with it
for now.

just get in line,
if you're waiting for the rapture,

people wait for ages
scanning through biblical pages
all telling me about the wages
of my sin,

and they can just go *** me
only God above can pluck me
but
I ain't a ripening yet.

There is a vacant lot
that
could be a cemetery plot
or an opportunity
to build upon it
a fairer society.

2124
a combination of a lock
or a date?

or are they
one and the same because
what's in a name or a number?

The ice cream is done
the popcorn has gone,
this day has come
and
it's time to move on,

No epiphany
only pragmatism,
keep on keeping
working
sleeping
hoping the good shepherd
lets black sheep in,

Happy New Year.
to be fair it's only 05:17 so that might change.

many blessings
j

Well
that's it from me
2023 can
lock the door on
the way out.

The radio's crackling
it
sounds like rain
on the window pane
but
I looked and it was not,

that's the thing with sounds
sounds sometimes sound like
other sounds.
it sounds like I need another coffee,
but that was a thought and not a sound
but I thought it was,

Sunday
and the day of best.

Best clothes on
Best foot forward
Best look on the good side

I'm going back to sleep.

I wanted a cap gun
they give me a spud gun
and though it were a good 'un
it wasn't a cap gun.

we gots what we was given
and no arguments.

This old river does not run so fast anymore
though the shore that I see sure seems nearer,

is someone out there trying to tell me something?
if so
could that someone please be a bit clearer.

I wanted to be
a better version of me,
no
upgrades were available
which to me was
quite unpalatable
so
I did it on my own
and
it took me many years.

and I'm still looking to be
a better version of me.

My lifetime and its work.

We knew this day would come
when the  Christmas bonhomie
the camaraderie, the festivity
would cease
I made my peace with that a
long time ago
and not in Bethlehem.

Sodem,  Gomorrow's another day,

There are many times
when you can't stop to think
and you have to think on the go,
so
when you can't stop
it's best to go slow.

I could have marched on Rome
or flown to Mecca, could have
driven a double-decker around
the streets of Cairo,
but
I didn't want to go

me,
being a stay-at-home type
never quite getting the drift
of the hype
remain
comfortable
musing
occasionally snoozin'
and
listening to
Radio 4.

No coincidence,
we have been here many times
and before?
we have been here more,

and we are still in this moment,
moving
as the minutes move,
and we shall be here again,
as we have been,
and as we have been,
we have seen
many times.

true story.


'yeah,
she came to the clinic for an ultrasound and then went down to Morecambe Prom' for confirmation'

and the room lit up for me
I'm thinking,
Gypsy Rose Lee,
she went to see
Gypsy Rose Lee,
for confirmation?

my faith in everything was restored.
Sadly,
it seemed there was another private scan,
done down on the Prom'
and
that's where she went.

the balloon burst
and the ruins of everything
stared me in the
face.

Didn't need to go to a pantomime this year because it seems like I've performed in one for the last eleven months,

a clown?
well
maybe
but that was when I ran away to the circus
which is a different tale to tell.

The cathedrals in the minds of man where they scheme and plan,
where they pray the length of the day and rave at night,, the cathedral that's kept out of sight, we have built our own and some come to call it home, some want to demolish, some want to polish the dust within, some want to bust out and some want some more, but whatever it's built for it's there and will stay slowly sinking as the day slowly goes on its way.

The word familiar
has a nice ring to it,
it brings with it
that comfortable feeling
that all is well.
and yet
being comfortable is not a feeling
afforded to many,
having no money,
is.

Lucky enough
to have enough
and
giving a hand-up to
those who don't.

Someone shouts
'humbug'
that someone
can fug
off.

This Thursday is here to remind me
that Christmas day is behind me.

She says
that being set in my ways
has to change,
I don't like change,
but
I love her and
so I'll change.

The New Year?
well,
slap me with a wishbone
I find that I'm still here.
yes,
there's a lot to be said
for a lot being said
and even more for
staying in bed
with a good,
book,

She,
gives me a look
and I can read that too..

I take the view
that Avanti West Coast Trains
should factor in
and supply a canoe
with every ticket
during the winter.

Floods,
who needs them?
not Women and children
and certainly not old men.

Watered and fed
chats with the family
and then off to bed.

Christmas day,
it
sped along
and now it has gone

I'm still here
and God willing
will be here next year,

can't wait for Christmas to come
in the meantime
someone turned the water to ***.

Wishing you all a chill out Boxing Day
and
remembering those who didn't make it.

This is no 'Caravan to Vaccares'
this is the West Coast flyer
even so I read it like a book.

Look!
the last of the stragglers taking their sorry
arses up North from the grit and grime of London. the town where anything goes and usually does

things like
saniity
honesty
civility
and of course
sobriety

a town where the pious do not thrive
a town where even the dead seem more alive than the living
a town full of giving two hoots and a finger.


I hunger for that time before. but wonder if that time existed at all.

The wind is blowing
which again is not surprising,
it's what the wind does
until it hits the wind turbines,
then it whines.

Sleeping on a cardboard box on a cold night underneath the distant stars has got to be on par with spending billions going to Mars, in that it's not understandable

we're not poor here in relation to poverty but those who have more than they need refuse to see what needs to be done.

no fun for those
frost creeping up from their toes
into their veins,

electric soup
only lasts
until on being sober
you find
that your brains are fried
if you can find them at all.

Sometimes a friendship
has to be
put aside,
that
greater understanding
and deeper connection
has to be
denied.

if we were horses
they'd shoot us for that.

When the sky met the ocean
and the world began.
where the silver birds
sang with silken words
until man
came along

can't understand the songs now
but they're still beautiful.

Mary's overdue
or will be by a day or two
which is just as well as the
wise men lost their way
they'll arrive tomorrow or
early on the following day,

Joseph is having kittens.
what will the mohel do?

The midwife who was midway through her life and funnily enough was single felt a little tingle down her spine,
but 'twas only the wine warming her up.

Christmastime
is always
going to be that time
and
there's no changing
that.

Speeding along some highway
which is the American way and
not my way, but I play along,
put a crap song on the eight-track
and don't look back
which is my way and
not the American way.

have a good day y'all.