Monday is a pain in the ****
or in my case a pain in the back
gonna have to hack into the
pharmaceutical cabinet
and get a painkiller
or six.

I think my body is breaking down
which is a change,
as it's usually the bus I'm on.

an inner voice says
sleep it off,
yeah right
I'll do that
and
perhaps the pain
will sleep too.

either way
or any other way
it's still Tuesday
tomorrow.

Hot but not like night
more like a slow burn
waiting on my turn,

under an unusual moon
which is unusual
because
it’s just after noon,

I am silvered
old glass
through which
if we are to believe
all things must pass,

I can’t wait to feel that.

Monday?
well it's still dark and
I can't see it
so
it might be Friday,

Distraught?
caught between the Devil
and a dumpster of a day
but
we can't say that
because then it becomes
a self-fulfilling
however unwilling we are.

the vertical hold
is still slipping,

Cooling down
the sun ends its journey
at least for today,
but wouldn’t we
if we had our way
ask it to stay longer?

I used to burn like the sun
until I aged
and I understand the rage
it must feel
as the seal is set.

Tomorrow or Kingdom will come,
my bet’s on tomorrow because
it’s been tried and tested and found
to be true,

if you wish you can bet too.

We walk
only then can we run
and it’s over before its
barely begun,

I think the moral here is
‘don’t run’

that’s probably why there are
signs to that effect in
school corridors,

so good to know that
slow is the way to go.

Fifteen
and I'm hanging from the rafters
afterwards I'll be bouncing off the walls, that's if and when she calls.

But it would be villainy to describe me in the usual way
and that's because
but you know why
so why should I say?

Saturday,
incoming,
that's not a warning.

My mind explodes into activity
my body takes slightly longer
but I'm getting there.,

coffee's almost done
the toast got burnt
but
hey, **-hum.
nothing ventured
nothing gained.

it rained last night
I heard it in my sleep
I heard your whispers in my ear
and felt a lonely tear fall.

But it's a new day
going to be hot or
so they say
and they'll say anything
that you want to hear,
so be careful,
that is a warning

It seems that
you have to have
at least one
to buy
two for one.
I had none
not two
nor one

it was a waste of my time
and I haven't got a lot.

I'm waiting for the call
when she says,
I forgive you
and that's all
it will take
to stop this ache

I'm waiting.


Mar

because it's going to rain again
here I am
and I'm going to write again
even as the night again
comes in to silence me

well
it's only poetry,
but it is produced by me
and not by some **** chat ..pt

do you see
what's going to happen here
if we allow it to continue?

once we have the spies in place
there'll be an uprising and we'll
meet these monsters face to face

no internet to get in the way
just us and them
and then we'll play
at being real soldiers.

So,
I yelled to Billy,
hey Kid,
go get me my Colt
he came back with my horse
and of course
them cowpokes and even those
slow folks
laughed.

they ran me out of town
slowly
because it was the old me
in the Old West.

To get off the dole
I got a job
selling vacuum cleaners
down
in the dustbowl
wow
did I clean up.

but I fuked it up
bought a Peacemaker
and shot Billy up

they's fixing to hang me
at Noon.

If we are not an amalgamation
of mistakes, heartbreaks,
misery, love, loyalty,
and continuity,
then who are we?

answers on a postcard to:
wish I was there.

On the Camino
where the penitent know
they will meet their salvation
in Santiago
only
by the grace of god.


at the cathedral
each step a labour
for
every step a favour
and the bishops coin it in,

Ah
the wages of sin are
riches indeed.

can't boost a car no more
can't get in the door
and if I could
wouldn't know how to
start it
everything's electronic

*** me!
I'm a dinosaur
just call me
Fred Flintstone.

Some snakesy dream slid up on me
and slidIng almost hypnotically,
she curled herself inside me
and pried my senses awake.

There I was
ambling down aisle three
where they used to have such things
as coffee
desiccated coconut
and
Madagascan tea
but
they
and by they
I mean that
***** of a superstore
changed the layout
and now
I can't find nowt.

Seems to be always Siesta or mañana
or sometimes a fiesta
when does the work get done?

never
under the eyes of a blistering sun
is the answer.

There are no more mad dogs
nor Englishmen,
no fe, fi, fo, fum,
but there is the sun and
even giants who no longer
smell blood
have fun.

What about banishment
as a punishment?

banish away
there are so many other places
with the same things going on
so no one cares today
this is why the King holds no sway
has no say
not worth his time to banish
anyone away,

put them in the Tower?
and they'll be
a sensation on Instagram
within the hour, even
before you get back to the
palace.

I began by beginning because
no one ever won by not winning
and the day opens wide for me
almost as if
it’s a gaping hole waiting for dentistry

and to move on
I fill up with four star,
coffee not petrol.

I’m still the first
they’re all lazybones
still
tucked up in their beds
in their holiday homes
meanwhile
in
Maside
I’m tucking into
breakfast.

I am a product of that environment
forced to eat
Marmite as a punishment
but I grew to like it
and life's been **** since then,

I jest
of course, I jest
I'd laugh my socks off
if I could find them
even
get my rocks off
and
I wouldn't mind then
if it took some time
when
there's
a lot to be said,
for making the punishment
fit the crime.

Wednesday
and so what?
it's
something I try to get out of
but seldom manage to do.

The owl did not appear
I
wanted to see her
she
never came.

I sent her a postcard,
‘ wish you were here ‘

No owl!

I fear for my sanity
no owl
to guide me
I
ride out alone.

it could be worse
Earth could be trending
even as the universe is
ending, with
aliens bending all the rules
to come and watch as
headless fools
run around like politicians
who disappear up their own
pontifications.

A sudden burst of energy
startled me,
sent blood rushing to my head
got me jumping out of bed
but now my body feels like lead
I'm going back to sleep.

Not much changes in this place
Well,
maybe the shape of the clouds,
the shadows that time allows
and
the hands of the clock,

perception perhaps.

Oh, and
the tap on the door
which used to be on
the sink,

figuring things out to
factor things in,
but
sequencing is not my thing
I
am a random seed generator.

This would be so much fun
if it was four hours later
and the sun was shining.

I practised sleeping for most of my life
and not to blow my own trumpet
I was an expert at it

seems now
that I've forgotten how to do it.

Whatever your politics
they're drowning in the channel
but they still want to put them
on barges.

We stand as a beacon in a sea full of sirens
willing the sailors to the harbour and home.

Of course
it's the seas in me that drive my passions
but the tide turns as so do the fashions
and I fear what the future or fate may bring,

she sings to me silently through eyes that
flash brilliantly and I am brought
to the edge of this world where I drift
blessedly into her arms.

No Greensleeves here
no Elizabethan Reggae
only trees
which are not really green
except in the summer,

the roses are still dreaming
of the sun rising
there’s a while to go yet,

things flit past
but only bats,
so no worries
they’re heading back
after a night out.

Lighting a cigarette
because I’m old fashioned
and don’t Vape,

taking a moment of pleasure,

making it last forever
is more difficult.

Lead the drunkard to water
and
some silly sod
will turn it into wine,

but it's not what's in the cup that will **** you
it's the inevitable passing of time.

the forgotten fears of our teenage years
the way we walked the walk as if the path
would never end

If
it was never like that
it could have been this
when you
miss those you never missed and
that kiss was a statue that you adored
when love is as broad as its long and
and that's the song we sing to bring
us together
to weather the storms,

to spend some time over a glass of wine
and to watch the tulips grow,
I wish that I knew how to know how to
do that.

Let me get t     s straight
     h
          i
I don't want to go yet
and you don't want to wait,
this
is how things are.

Some things are set in stone
or at least one thing is
and that’s Excalibur,

pull a rabbit from a hat
and it’s just a trick,
but pull Excalibur from
the stone
and it’s still Excalibur
in the hand of a King,

I
think the name has a certain
ring to it.

Quasimodo disagrees.

You give your heart and soul to them
and they will hurry you
worry you
and later
when you're old
they'll dig a hole
for you
and bury you.

Granny said that the Germans
dropped incendiaries on the fields
outside her house,
she was very upset
.
Grandad said he'd get his gun and
show the *** what for

I think what for was a metaphor.

Gran was easy going
never having been anywhere
except to do the shopping
and pop into the bookies
for a bet,
Grandad was a gruff man
he'd been a
Major sort of miner
digging coal out of
the pit

and I think what for and why
did the fires fall down from the sky
but
I wasn't even born then,
when only few remember.

What if it’s all a big joke
cracked mirrors and
swirling smoke,
how could we defend
our riches against the
poverty that’s undeniably
within us?

A case of six of one and
half a dozen of the
Russians,
oh
did I say Russians?
I meant of course,
others.

Not one to be swayed by the news
I listen all the same and form my
own views
which broadly speaking are
inevitably biased
and that’s
programming from the day we were born
there is no chance to escape from what becomes
the norm
all we can do
is laugh
and if you laugh too much
they send you off on a retreat
to somewhere like Stalingrad,
oh,
did I say Stalingrad?
I meant of course
Hastings.

Behind facades
the Devil plays cards
drawing an ace from
the hole.

Masks.

we all wear them
some share them
blurring faces.

If you haven't guessed already
said he
knowingly
the Central line is showing me
many masks,

some happy
some sad
some make me glad
that mine is neutral.

another day at the workhouse
which is like the ale house
except there's no beer,

some say it's the poor house
but it can't be
he said
knowingly.

Yaay it's
Friday
and the best way to start any day
whether it's Friday or not,
is to
just believe that it is.

My ancestry is
the river calling me
as it makes its way down to the sea
and hearing my name
I flow with it
blindly
but
knowing more,

We forget, don't we
and isn't that a part
of who we are?
can't carry all the burdens
can we?

she carried me
across a thousand streams
when I was weak

I seek her pardon
she was the matron
I behaved
like an outpatient,
impatient
wanting and
waiting,

I carry my burden too.

If nothing else remember this,
the ones you look up to
are the ones, who, given half
a chance
will turn around and *******
and you know who they are.

keep your powder dry
and your gun eye
open
is my advice.

( 20 minute poetry )

Unusually quiet,
almost but not quite empty.
the central line suits me
being centrally situated.

It's a trek all the same
I break my neck just to stay in the game
even though I know that the dice are loaded.

Thought explodes in me and echo right through me, did I say that the central line suits me?
I probably did.

Could I go out on a limb?
well, once, but now I'm fatter and slims just a memory that tries to get out of me but is more often than not trapped in.

At three I'll be free
or
as free as one can be,

the central line suits me
have I already said that?

Thursday and it feels exactly how it felt last week
but I was younger then!

so it's true
time waits for no man  or anything other than the
keeper of the clocks and that occupation is a reserved one.

In my drawer full of watches which I never wind up
time only seems to stand still
but I can hear my heartbeat, feel my own body heat,
and sometimes I cheat and pretend.

The sun

old,
creaks its way across
the sky
and the earth
going  in the
opposite direction
creaks too

a dance of tambourines
filled with the dreams of man
and beast.
it's
music anyway
and
I'll take it any day.

Roads that twist
turnoffs I missed
and
turn-ons I never,

but we all reach that
send off
the tail off
when the light falls off
and often fail to notice
the signs.

Midway is one way to describe Wednesday
or halfway if you're that way inclined.

The idea of being here tickles me and
I try hard not to laugh out loud.
So
I'm getting up and I'm getting on with it,
it
doesn't do to sit and laze when things
are needing to be done,
that being said,
things are always needing to be done
and I'm not getting any younger
I might just sit here a while longer
and wait for the sun to rise.

It all becomes so tiresome,
tiresome and then some.

But being the son of Northern folk
I turn that tiresome into a joke
and fall asleep
with
one eye open
because one can never be too sure.

the knives are out
and
they hide them well,
but
I see them all the same
it's just another series in the game
where the outcome is uncertain.

To drift without direction,
aimlessly across a
star filled sea

where consciousness
eludes me.
unconsciously and
unconditionally
freely,

I'm drifting nearer
to me
to
who I am.

It must be the plan,

ah,
the engineering of man
comes full circle.

Teams are what they are
and they will always be
A or B
whatever you see,

but all as one team?
that never
seemed likely to me.

Well of course it would be
Monday
attempting to wake me.

Now it's time
coffee and toast
as I
watch the ghost of yesterday
slip under the waves and fade
away.

Lowering my defence
I slip into the shower
and rinse off the last
of the weekend,
surrendering
to the coming day.

I have a line and
No!
it's not *******.
more a line between
being crazy and holding on
to keeping sane,

my arms are tired
my hands are sore

but I weathered every storm in
the story that was read
and now
almost at the epilogue
and nearly time for bed
I
think of letting
go.

Poor thing,
if you've never been scared
never even dared
my love goes out to you.