I must have been forgotten
no longer on your Christmas list
unless I missed something,

but no,
I've been forgotten
and it's something to remember
when your friends
don't seem to bother
about the things you might be doing
or the things that might be done to you.

I must have been
but does that seem so likely?
when up on Ilkley Moor
I handed 'round the hats,

no,
I haven't been forgotten
just misplaced
like
I'm a sock lost in the washing
and they'll find me if they're looking
and they won't if they are not.

Like the sun had drained away and it rained again today,
that's how it tricks you.

me in a mankini, haha
trying to get a tan.

not a chance
so
I flicked through the back pages
of a magazine I bought ages ago
for
something to do,
nothing new in there
but
there wouldn't be
I purchased it in '63
and no,
not 1863.

tired now
I'm going to sleep
whilst
trying to keep
the shadows from dancing
across the ceiling.

awake
and he takes a look out of the window to the street which is far below him, the day hasn't quite got down there yet, perhaps the day remembers regret.
ha
but the fox barks from somewhere in the park and a car screeches past, some are too fast for their own boots, I'm fast but the Owl,
faster still.
hoots,
another sage friend to keep me company, to watch me, to
warn me that Tuesday has arrived.

One more opportunity
to get down on a bended knee
and thank them for a pay rise,

doffs cap
and struts off.

Happy Sunday
( this is not an April fool )

her body hot
her eyes are cool,
( also not an April fool )

and with her Instamatic look
she took my heart away.

I go there
now and then
when the mood strikes
when the Moon lights
my way.

I've been out there,
had my hair cut
not that cut
just half cut,
funnily enough
I might be half cut
later on.

So
I watch the screen and
the cursor is flashing
until the screen police arrive
or was that just an idling thought?

Saturday,
a get rid of the dross day,
it's hardly a candy floss day
but I believe that it can be.

that'll do
it usually does.

I'm pretty sure that when
dinosaurs ruled
they made a better job of it.

just
look at what we've got today,
fossils in the House of Lords
and in the House of Commons
where they're unquestionably
not common
two jokers in the pack and
you'll have to make your own
mind up as to who they are,
yes!
dinosaurs did a far better job.

There's a cavalcade of clouds moving slowly across the sky, I've had my eye on them for quite some time, they cunningly change shape and they think that they are fooling me, but I see them and I know them, every single one of them,
the things men do when feeling blue, I do too.
not blue now though
and I still know
them all.

Already today?
good,

the future stretches out as far as a sloth can see, but not being a sloth and the sloth not being me, I see only as far as my next cup of tea.

hey!
it's Thursday
give me a break.

I wait patiently for communion, that first sweet sip of wine.

and my radio switched over to lightwave, working well though it's still dark outside,
I tried to switch over before I went under, but stuck on this frequency she tries to alter me, words often fail me yet she never does.

I still look back on iso'
as the ghost of
Greta Garbo
saying,
'I want to be alone'

failure
is not written in your stars,
not
predestined
or
predetermined
we
don't have to accept it.

Crying?
well
we should be,

this country,
the one we call
our country
appears
to have gone
quite contrary

and we
should be
crying.

A day off
or
an off day?

what a way to wake
not knowing the time
or
if the day will break
and if it does
who'll put it back together
again?
all the Kings horses and all
the King's men?

I don't think so.

I shall now turn this water into wine

fine then,
that never worked
and just when I had them
eating out of my hand.

'I met a traveller from an antique land  'TSE'
she was hot
but fanned
by the winds of change
and
in my castle made from sand
I got hotter too.

I dream of these encounters,
chance encounters
brief encounters and
some
very strange encounters,

then I wake into a Tuesday
and no travellers to be seen.

The weekend has ended,
there have been prequels
there will be sequels,

time slips
the tide rolls in
the seagulls eat chips
not much changes.

Did you sleep well?
I did,
under the duvet and
hid from the monsters that
hide under the cover of darkness.

I expect
that one day when the monsters
have gone away
I shall find
that
they were all in my mind,
they're probably
in your mind too
and
there's nothing to worry about.

While I wait to catch up
I'll just pop into the kitchen
and make myself a cup

but then I think,
of what?

can't find the coffee ***
electric on the blink

I wish I'd thought of you instead
and then I'd still be warm in bed,

She,
just nods her head
as if to say
I told you so.

Saturday and rainin'
which is a right pain in
the wotsits.

I commiserate with those
who hesitate to conjugate,
this life
only lasts once,
but once
can last forever..

There are challenges,
but what is life
without challenges?

well,
a lot less challenging.

no easy ride for me,
'I plough the fields and scatter'
( that is not a euphemism )

anyway
I always surface and
my nose tells me I'm no rose.
still
at least I'm growing and
some ask,
wild?

Wednesday again
and
it's windy again,

Wednesdays should come with a weather warning
or not bother to come at all


and before anyone says,
Wednesdays are good
I'm going

dressed
I scuttle crablike
side on to the wind,
hoping to catch Thursday
hiding in the wings,

failing that,
I just have to make it to midnight.

Oxygen
10 dollars a litre.

yes!
your life
is being measured
on the meter,

oxygen
10 dollars a litre

I know it's about the energy that flows from you to me and from me to you.

The Universe
a never-ending mutiny of stars and quasars, black holes and red giants,
it's good to be a part of something so vast that to ask questions about it would take forever to answer.

and here I am an evolving man on a spinning rock,
someone is bound to fact-check this because they'll
think that I am taking the proverbial
when in actual fact
I'm taking a postprandial stroll.

Just checked the clock and it's not yet three,
there are another ten hours before work is done
and even then I will not be free,

nothing's for free and never will be
'cept the love given freely
'tween you and me.

Classic lines rust away
you're only a Cadillac
for a day
and then
you become A
Model T,

an ancient in a history,
and it's still not yet three.

I'm ****** if I'll criticise
when I don't see through your eyes
what you see might just be
the key we all look for.

Rot their guts
the ones who'll say
but me no buts
because they're seldom right.

***

There's a shark around every corner
and a Parker in every Corniche

then there's us
an unlikely crew
knowing we'll be fleeced
which means nothing to you,

and you in the uniform
the copper on the beat,
never see one when you want one
and never ever down our street.

Rarin' to go
and
I'd like to know
why.

the start is a capital place to begin
thus
I just open my eyes and watch the
world spin
( it comes up on red 32 )

nearly second cuppa coffee time.

Apples used to be beautiful in a skin so thin you could bite into it,
now look at them,
they're so spangled up with wax and labels to sit proudly on the finest tables,

they must be like
biting into candles.

that's modern for you,
a trip to the loo
to **** out polished pips.

Watching the chem' trails
billow like ship's sails

or watching the isotope ballet
with chemical Ali,

the things that won't fix us
only mix us up.

I'm ******* in sepia for when
I get old,
I am told that it's good for the skin,

but I'm told lots of things
it doesn't mean that they're true
and
in case you've ever wondered
the Moon
is not
blue.

missing more than we make
because we can't take the time to connect with,

can't give any of your hard-earned
frightened of getting burned?

again?

solitude sits like wet lettuce on a Winter salad,
you'll tell yourself that it's hip
but you know in your heart that it's ****

but that meeting and greeting
completing the circuit,
can turn out to be **** too.

If you're lucky enough
or tough enough and
try hard enough
you'll be all right in the
end.

Dreaming
I was on a narrowboat
floating down the Grand Union Canal.

I dream of waters
deep and still
at times pulled under
against my will
and sometimes on the
banks or shore
I wake and then I dream
some more.

A Jehovah's witness comes calling
to tell me that Babylon's falling
and
can he speak to me about Jesus?


But it's Friday night and I'm plugging in
going out on the town
and I'm up for some sin,

I have to say no
so I tell him my cat's feeling poorly,
surely
if I'm going to hell
I may as well be hung for a sheep
than a lamb.

,

Bus is crammed and I am jammed between the window and a beast,
at least I got a seat,
they don't take prisoners in Stratford.

Tube strike
rail strike
I might strike too.


Someone up the front is fukin snoring
it's probably the best way to sleep your way out of Wednesday.

It's going to be a long day except for the snorer.

All the lines are down which could be a line from a Western just before the Fort is attacked. but it's not, this is London in the 21st century and it's the workers being attacked.

Did I say that this is going to be a long day?

and it all began to cave in
because
Braverman said something like,
there were
millions waiting to
get in
and an awful lot of idiots
who were never any good at maths
believed her.

Is it
I hang glided
or
hung glid
to work?
either way
it's wickedly windy
today.

But it's Monday
I didn't expect
palm trees, blue skies
and a sandy beach.

According to the weather forecast
you're all likely to stay in bed
and keep warm,
well
it sounded like what they said
init,

and
I'm not even asking where the weekend went,
probably blown away by the wind.

Capone-N-Noreaga
chillin' out with
Lou Bega,

names are not all
about gangsta's
some are about
music.

It's a long way to everywhere
and I didn't want to go anywhere
anyway.

Sunday,
the bells on the radio show,
radio 4 should can them
and then
the real ones kick in
not one of them plays in
any tune that I know,

now
it's time to go,
to where?
not everywhere or anywhere,
she said,
how about somewhere that's different
from anywhere you've been?

I'm considering that
but
coffee first.

down in Montmatre
by the Luxemburg gardens
we start a
revolution

growing our own,
taking
food from the earth.

it used to be as it was
but now becomes different
because
we want wholesome food
like our mums used to cook.

Vegetables
and of all colours,
nature doesn't do
painting by numbers,

everything is unique.

But you get bored with it,
don't you?

I'm talking about the barriers
the trade ones
the human ones
the Thames one
the list goes on
but
I'm bored with it
why not lift them
let men be men
or whatever?

Dreams must take up very little space,
I supppose that's why so many of them
can fit inside your mind.

Imagine that
we are walking through dreams,
the ones that are dreamt and
discarded,
the ones with no endings
the ones that are cut short when
the dreamer awakes,
imagine that,

Those books that I read
all tell me it's bed
time,
I must be old time
because
I'm staying up.

Friday is late night
staying out all night,
alright
that's an exaggeration
but
I still think that way.

There is probably a magic marker that makes the daylight turn a little darker,
yes m'lady, said Parker, but this is Thunderbirds where words don't match precisely to our actions and scenes change less fluidly,

Lady Penelope smiled, and thought to herself,
Parker really needs to keep his gob shut,
then said,
good point Parker but why can't we see the magic marker?

Parker replied, because it gets darker, m'lady.

this wasn't about that, someone must be pulling my strings.

The days seem to be or
at least they do to me,
longer,
my
temper becomes shorter,
attention span is not wide enough
to bridge the gap between my ears
and
even the radio is getting on my ****,

they'll say,
he's losing it,
falling to pieces, dropping to bits,

and they get on my **** too.

aches and pains?
yeah
well I don't want the gains
take away the aches and pains
and
give me a living wage,
one that makes working for a living
worth working.

promises?
I could tile the Sistine Chapel with all
the promises I've had in the past.

I am my own architect
if you can't respect that
then let the artist die.

Lethargy
is not
a cheap spread for bread
you're thinking of Marmite
I'm thinking that I might
resign,
(and not before time)
that person in the back row
who always chips in with a comment
is absent
so I commented for him.
slim chances are few and thin between the ears
and my eyesight's fading,
it's
nothing that a lottery win won't cure.

Save
nothing
because
nothing will save you in the end.

Thomas Eliot.
dark views in dark times,
Woolnoth chimes nine
and strikes a dull note.
,
I've been here before
not that you'd noticed,
too busy
stealing the minutes to pay back
the seconds you took from the hours
you let pass you by.

We wanted to
play the ukelele
the way we
used to,
leaning up against a lampost
hoping to be noticed
by girls in pencil skirts.
times change,
fashions too
I changed
so did you.
listening to music I don't understand
from some band on broadband
and I can't quite catch the melody,
there must be something wrong with me
or just that I'm missing the ukelele.

This is just a stairway and at times you have to rest,
it's a long way to the summit and I'm told that when I get there
I am going to look my best

it's hard to believe that when life has knocked you flat and time has chiselled canyons through your features,

thank god for public seating and the alcoves on the stairway where you can put your feet up for a break,

I've seen men racing on unaware that where they're going is the end and they'll be gone,
I try to take my own sweet time.
what comes beyond those gates is anybody's guess
and I leave guesswork well alone,
all I know is
I am going home

This is just a stairway and at times you have to rest,
it's a long way to the summit and I'm told that when I get there
I am going to look my best

it's hard to believe that when life has knocked you flat and time has chiselled canyons through your features,

thank god for public seating and the alcoves on the stairway where you can put your feet up for a break,

I've seen men racing on unaware that where they're going is the end and they'll be gone,
I try to take my own sweet time.

what comes beyond those gates is anybody's guess
and I leave guesswork well alone,
all I know is
I am going home

Life in the goldfish bowl
going home with someone you don't know,
who won you at the throw-a-ball-in-the-basket stall
and
you wonder if it's your head spinning
or the bowl's spinning
and what are they doing winning me anyway?

and now I'm just a trophy
on a table in a hallway,
they didn't even name me
they certainly don't know me

that ******* threw a ball
and I end up in the hall,

life is krap.
in a goldfish bowl.

If you colour me in
please feel to stray
beyond the lines.

Lines are only there
to remind us
that we're all different
so
cross over them
and
run riot through them.

I don't want to be what I am not
and I am far from perfect,

I'm just scribbles held together
by staples.

Use lots of blues
dabs of red
and
while you're at it
crayon me a bed
so I can sleep.

It was Tuesday or so they say
and if it was Tuesday
that means it's today.

Interesting
that the reason to go on are
those things you left behind,
well
interesting to me at
four twenty-three.

must make a coffee drink
it'll probably be ersatz
because we're all on the brink
of some momentous change.


that's it

for now.