Half of me thinks that I'm twenty-six
and a quarter of me thinks that I'm not,

the other quarter has identity issues

and this is what I got to work with?

Picasso gets pearl drops
I get cough drops
what's fair about that?

I'm giving in my notice
not that anyone will notice
it'll just be another
of them crap signs.

..and soon it'll be that time
like it was the last time
and the time before,

the door lock
clicks
and I, the rock,
remain
if only
to **** on the *** of pain
and say
I was here
that time
like
I'll be here
the next time..

..god willing and the tube running
I'll be trotting off to work soon

happy Wednesday,
but in Bedlam
they always say
that.

we'd have to sail for a million miles across the roof tiles of our youth
to catch one moment of its grace,
and
then to face each forming star far away, but come what may that's what I'd do, I'd get
a room in the universe with a view

and I know heaven ( biblically)
she stands beside me
looking enigmatically
and
I see a planet explode in me

the universe is such a **** place.

Life
can be nice and wholesome
but sometimes
it can be
****** gruesome
and yet
we go through
the good or bad times
and at the end
think ourselves
very lucky.

When
Monday feels like Sunday
has the world
turned upside down?

and why am I
still in my
dressing gown
when
I should be out there
in London Town.

Everyday's a holiday
away from the reapers clutch
so
when Monday feels like Sunday
I like it
very much.

One step closer to going over the top
time to stop and take stock of the situation,
hilarious or precarious?

to laugh at or to launch off
'that is the question'

Sunday
and the daff's are doing well
and so is that ****** church bell.
I have prayed and prayed for it to stop,

one step closer to going over the top.

hymns are playing on her radio
the batteries are dead on mine
and
the coffee's gone cold in the ***

one step closer to going over the top

So
you creep into the bedroom
wearing a hangdog expression
and she says all is forgiven
and then
oh
for god's sake
you wake up on the sofa
the dog slobbering over ya

another dream.

I'm keeping the pin in
keeping on going
stopping this grenade
from blowing me away.

but it's always been
as it ever will be
the future has always
been looking for me
and
here
I am
waiting to go
but still
wanting to know
even more.

What memories that send one around the bend as we try to remodel the scenes.

The knave of hearts.

Time in its place and She with the face that launched a thousand trips,

he, meaning I slip into the seat on the back row
quietly watching the late show and wondering if
it's all dreams

and I, meaning he
looks at the crumble his body became
but knows it's still sweet

Apple and rhubarb, some custard and bicarb
all the ingredients for life or experiments
and
intensity
where would we be without that?

She sat right there
on the rocking chair
believing it was
a rocking horse,

of course
I never believed it
until she rode away.

That
'son of a gun' ***
is not a bad one,
cheap
but not nasty
and
it's Friday
so
I'm letting my mind unwind.

signed
Long John.

now
had I put my glasses on
it would have been a
can of spam
so
I'm having bread and jam
for breakfast
and
it's
as if you didn't know
Friday,

where has the week gone
and who cares anyway?

Elmer Fudd
weren't those cartoons good
him
chasing the wabbit
trying to grab it
catching hold of
my imagination

and then
Supermarionation
when
Thunderbirds
were go

I wanted to live in
Marineville
meet up with
Atlanta Shore
but
Commander
Sam Shore
put the block
on that.

As it happens
which
happens now and then
Thursday
came calling
on me
once again,

I should feel honoured,
should get a knighthood
for looking this good

but Thursday is the
bonus day,
the day before
the best day,

all the same
I hope Thursday
goes away and
soon
so
Friday
can come
calling.

Seen it come
watched it as it went
and it's all a gamble,
nothing ventured
nothing spent
apart
from the hours it took
for a quick look
at life.

On a brighter note
( lit by yours truly )
because it's lighter now
and things are in focus
( not the Focus made by Ford )
I move from underneath the point
of Damocles sword
and see the way ahead.

The Wednesday fugue or funk
whichever one,
I sink or I'm sunk
jeeps
this time on any day is enough to give a sensitive soul the creeps and as time moves forward it presses me to move with it when all I want to do is remember it's Wednesday and to keep feeling blue, but I'll snap out of it, catapult on into the day that always seems so blasted long.

Is work killing you?
if not why not
everything else is.

That
legal entity identifier
the lei

what's it about
and who's an entity?

he sits pensively
and projects
future outcomes
based on
present incomes

but what's the lei about
and do I qualify?

The best thing about Tuesday is that it's not Monday, it's still a workday and one day I'll work myself away and all that will be left will be a pile of sawdust on the floor and then someone will come along, probably singing some really ****** song and sweep me away, but today I will not work myself away, there's still lead in the pencil and I'm still writing or still not right in the head.

yeah
to whatever he said,
but this is me at 4:23
and
I'm saying nothing.

I bet we won't be reset
oh no,
poor people'll get
*** all

we'll become the reject
hurting from neglect
drawing pittances of pensions
but not them
not the faceless men
the couldn't care less
men,

Man it makes me
sick
but not that sick
otherwise
they'd
hospitalise
me,
then
intubation
resuscitati­on
more medication
monitors
machines
robotic dreams,

no
not that sick at all.

I take the red pill to remind me that it's Monday
I took the yellow one yesterday, Sunday,
I haven't got a clue about the blue one
but I'm hanging on to it anyway.

It's a brand new day
and
I'm in the secondhand shop
wondering when I should pop
the blue one,

do you get the gist
the weekend's gone
and it's sorely missed,

perhaps the blue pill
is one full of hope.

It was an occasional table
occasionally used as a chair
sometimes it stood by the window
at others, it stood over there,

that's the thing with change,
things change.

I put on my boxers
which is as near to fighting
as I'll get today,
made my morning repast
listened to the newscast
and
watched the sun as it rose,
(which is a rose,
by any other name)

Sunday aha
it gets better
Summer
and it gets hotter
I might not even bother
to do anything today but pray

nah
too many are doing that and I don't
want to overload the system.

We are the un-ones
known as the Apocrypha
hidden away forever
from travellers and
truth seekers

in the labyrinth of the Vatican
it all ends and begins again,
the light will shine on
me and mine
eventually.

Getting old and wrinkled
is like getting into a hot bath
and getting wrinkled,


except you're old.

I thought it was Bethlehem or was I in Rotterdam? it could even be Potsdam, turned out it was Nottingham and the Sheriff was hot on my heels, alarmingly or alarming to me that feels like you're breathing out words in my ear and all this and more when the Sheriff's so near

oh dear.

he
dreams in black and white
because a colour license costs more.

It'll
not be a spaceship
that gets us there
it'll
be a slip of the tongue.

Barbie dumped Ken again
and Action Man got the
action he craved.

it's
a long-running saga
plastic burgers
cheap lager
somewhere
on the Costa Del Sol.

Listen up,
Friday comes with its timer set
you'd better get ready to run.

Wearisome and then some and then some more and I wonder if this is for god's sake, why and what for?

Thursday, someone exclaimed
and again I wonder why.

My eyes are running which is more exercise than I need at this time of the day and my nose is running too, my face looks like one of them there Picasso's, a bit lopsided and with oddly placed attachments, but it'll be alright when I shake off the night and wake to the morning..

That's about all or nothing else to stir my imagination, this early I can hardly stir my tea, but change is coming and it'll more than likely be my underwear, Mum said, always wear clean shorts in case you're in an accident and need to go to the hospital,

ok
'one more cup of coffee' as Dylan comes on the wireless set

Dropping off?
well
there's not much of me left to go
a bit mutton-jeff but that's just age
dontya know,
everything else is in place
and
although my face looks like
the tracks at Clapham Junction,
mostly
I function
like a well-oiled machine,

but
it takes it out of you
when everyone shouts at you
I
must get a hearing aid.

Static sticking me to the bed
the fog's coming in and it's
mostly dead
quiet,
the only sound is the
lonely sound of a seagull
calling
somewhere up there.

Blue sparks
from
an ocean where
grey sharks
swim freely
but
I'm nearly awake now,

all is well.

I thought I'd take a picture of the setting of the sun but the camera was the wrong way around and I took a picture of John,

that's me
Mr back to front
and ain't got nothing to rhyme with that
(otherwise, Facebook would block me like I blocked out the sun)

Still
it's only Tuesday and Wednesday may yet come.

That feeling
of waking up on Friday but knowing it's only Tuesday when it could have been a good day and you want to slip away into another cosy dream,
well
that's how it felt but not anymore
the Greenwich Pips have aged me an hour
and you can't wash away age with a
freezing; cold shower

but seriously,
who thought that Tuesday was a good idea?

closes door.

Raining cats and dogs
and the frogs are feeling frisky
I was thinking of going to work
but
it all looks a bit too risky.

I started running when
I saw
that Monday was coming
it caught me
and that taught me
a lesson,
next time I'll hide.

They tell you you're a burn-out
when you go and turn in
something that you turned out
in the second grade
but
nothing's ever simple
when your cheeks are dimpled
and you're popping pimples
two hours before a date,

the square dance turned into that
but you always knew that
and still, you keep on trying
to keep the guys in tow.

The hippie asked
when's Summer coming man?
that'd be never man
replied
the weatherman
who was good at things
like that.

I am looking for a gun to
fire my imagination,
there must be one
and I'll keep on
looking
until I find it.

and I found a threepenny bit
dated
nineteen fifty-three
down the back of our old sofa
which we now call a settee.

I'm still looking ******* on
pineapple chunks that I found too
but I haven't found a gun yet
perhaps a catapult will do.

That sound bite excites me,
and the memory delights me,
a
Saturday moment
awake for a while.

I have never seen philosophy
like this,
that'd be a Facebook (like this)

inserts emoji
just
so you know me.

touch the cat
and see who loves you,
my view
is
touch the cat
and you'll get fleas.

jeez
some can't even get a like
that'd be a Facebook (like)

getting a life, by comparison
is easy

See,
up in the North,
where men are made
we take things with a pinch of salt
and a tall glass of lemonade.

The sign on the building said,
IRONWORKS
which is good because
*** all else does.
Northern humour
best before
Watford Gap.

Everyone's a genius
but if that is so
it makes the word genius
meaningless,

I think it's ok.

remember what the teacher said?
do your homework and you'll get a good job
which was bollix
i did a nine-to-five mundane
Monday to Friday and they made me
redundant
and now I'm working at home
doing the ironing
part-time Tuesday evening.

are you fed up with it?
no!
not even a little bit?
****,
it must only be me
that can't see the sea
for the ocean.

Today came
it usually does.

it's a bit like Friday
but it isn't yet
which is a shame,
I was all set for today
being Friday,
that'll come tomorrow
which as we all know
never comes,

I'm here
getting ready to go
and not to the great beyond
just to let you know

there's only one thing that will
take me away
and that's the weekend
which is not today.

Oysters and olives,
so
what gives? you might ask
or you might go with the flow
and drink Retsina
dance the Zorba with Polyxena
drink more Retsina,

oysters and olives
count me in.

I don't know when
but the song does say,
that
'we shall overcome
some day'

not today though
unless
the song means
overcome with tiredness
and even then
I'm not so sure,

I might just be getting
one of the symptoms
of belonging to the system
and longing for too long
has brought
this thought on.

either way
we shall
overcome
someday.

Earlier
when I woke and I thought it was Christmas, but it was two in the morning on Wednesday and it wasn't even December so I felt cheated and when was I never?

The candlelight cheered me and the wax dripping burned me which in turn slowly turned me into a miserable old goat.
But
there are obstacles worse than this to navigate, said the Oracle in a delicate Delphi blue tone, there are people in cubicles all over the world whose only job is to answer a phone,

Imagine, good morning forever,
for breakfast and dinner and tea,
answering the phone is a hurdle too far
and the wax is still dripping on me.

We used to make things,
lots of things
and
we used to do lots of things too
and now
I can't remember
what we used to make or
what we used to do

can you?

they say
it's an age thing
but
I can't remember making them
either.

That first encounter,
the
'take me to your
leader'

I should read a
different book,
before bedtime.

Well
this is a fine how do you do
a four-day week unless you
count the weekend

Another Bank Holiday, please,
and make mine a double,

the barman ignored me.

Tuesday
and with a pinch of salt
I make my way into the day,

not old, just seasoned
.