This post-Covid cold
is hanging on and
on and
hey
it's a bit like me.

*******.

This is one of these days
that'll be one of those days,
a day to laze.

Yeah
Friday night
so
what shall I do,
go into town?
I wish,
but no
I'm already in bed
in my dressing gown
no town for me tonight
still got a cold
the immune system's down
cheering myself up
with a bottle of brown.

sometimes
the weekend
is not all it's cracked up to be.

What are you giving me for Christmas?
a headache.
oh.
she said,
you used that line ten years ago,

yeah
I know
and it worked.

Got a cold
and it's still only Thursday,

ah
nothing's going my way
so I'll
stay where I am.

Outside
it's a flamin' skating rink
without the flames,

There's a cull going on
and unreported too
they're getting rid of oldies
that means
You,

You'll slip and break your bones
end up in those sheltered homes
and that'll be your lot.

This was,
why don't you all ******* and leave me alone again
interaction was a flamin' pain

but that was this was
and this is different
because
love may be blind
but it can search out and find
you
even in the darkest night.

I'm fighting my demons by
hugging them tight.

Wednesday night
better than
Wednesday morning
but just another yawning chasm
I have to jump.

Oh yes,
it's Wednesday and another workday,

maybe a TV series called
Midweek Murders
is called for,

outside
the sidewalks are icy,
perhaps ice is the council's way of
thinning the herd,
they could have used grit.

Mind zappin'
strength sapping
work's krap in
Winter.

Gone
and one year on
still very much missed.

My dear sister
Susan,
thoughts are with you
always.

***

Well it's
a little colder than a witch's ***
and it might be a bit colder too,
it's
no wonder to me that witches flew
I'd fly too
to get to the sun.

This time of the year which it generally is at this time of the year when the snow sits light on the Landseer lions, a white-out but who'd spend a night out in this?

The thin veil between being a success or one who will fail gets thinner still
there will be lonely this Christmas and far from home
those who are
homeless and penniless and chilled through to the bone,

what Carol shall we sing to them?
not God rest ye because there are no merry gentlemen
but there are plenty of mental health problems,

Landseer growls
his lions growl
the winds still howl
and drown out the noise of
those crying.

The day dyes the land grey
the colours that were have
faded away.

But there are lights in your eyes
that shine all the time
making me think that
it's Summer

I'm glad that we met.

Millions
Billions
what are the chances
that any romance is
doomed.

Happen
never to happen
but we hope that it will.

..and tonight
they'll be cheering old England on
not even knowing that old England's gone

and during this sideshow
the gas price goes up
but who cares as long as
we win the world cup.

I'll be watching the radio
making the pictures in my head.

You can learn how to shave
and learn how to save
banish blemishes
build furnaces
get bigger
stronger
you can even last longer,
you can lay tiles
cure piles
and learn how to restore
lost files,

YouTube
the new skip trial and if you do
it won't cost a dime.

Mary having a mammogram
Jesus on Instagram
Joseph thinks, I am or am I,
life carries on at its own pace.

Ah,
Ahab and his crewmen will meet me
and I was wondering who'll be in hell
to greet me,
that was a book moment brought to you
by the
moribund society of Bellevue of which I'm
an honorary member.

anyway
the afterlife is just a burp
so you'll pardon me
I hope.

Earlier
I went to down to 'ackney
it was
so bleedin' cold,
gorblimey
me nuts almost crawled back
inside me.

There's Mathew, Mark, Luke and one we'll call John because that kinda fits.

then there's Esther, Martha, Delilah and one of their friends, Phoebe, don't believe me? take a look in the good book.

Saturdays roll up
coffee goes down
pork futures are looking grim
Pickens wasn't that slim,

sadly the silver screen has seen better days
ask Will Hay
Northern-born and bred
dead now,
but he was funny.

I dreamt that I'd won the lottery
and had tons of money but it
bothered me
because I didn't know how to
spend it,

that's how I knew it was a dream.

and then as you're leaving work on Friday evening someone will say, have a great weekend and you reply, thanks, but I was thinking of sewing my eyes shut and cutting all ties, now I have to consider what was said to me and whether it was said humorously or seriously and quite curiously I've realised that I don't care,

Monday will still be there
laughing at my grey hair
and I'll still be here
fearing for my sanity.

Friday is in the building.

woke again in that my eyes opened
which is as close as I'll get,

I got a coffee and that's close enough
for now.

dreams are tiring me out
too much larking about
which used to be real but
no big deal,
I'm going to work for a rest.

what will you do at the weekend
spend it in bed
get off your head
books to be read
horses led
or watch Harry and Meghan?

the
choice is yours.

Revving the engine
selecting a gear
got to start moving
it's a work day I fear
and yet
sometimes I wish for a breakdown
for the transmission to fail
and the steering to lock
for this old crock to stay
in the garage
sadly
I've been well maintained.

Wednesday seems to me to be longer than most days,
Saturday and Sunday much shorter,
Monday gets me by the curlies
and Tuesday gives me heebie-jeebies,
Thursday's not bad or it's not if you're mad,
but it's Friday that makes all worthwhile.

I'm crying to get by in a world full of very trying situations,
occupationally hazardous, absolutely ridiculous,
and I'm thinking rope necklace,
we'll see how that one plays out
but
without a doubt
Wednesday is definitely longer.

A Royal flush or just blue with the cold?

Freezin'?
can't keep your knees from knocking
two pairs of socks on to tap in
to some body heat that's surely missing.

Shrinking
oh jeez
I'm shrinking

guessing it's a temporary measure.

How long do we spend on these fruitless endeavours of will it be now or will it be never?

never's such a long way away.

we play hide and seek until our bodies are weak with the searching,
lurch into disasters which are of our own making
try to learn from the Tarot
reading the turn of a card.

Winter woollies?
well he's
getting on
and
funnily enough
I was ready for
getting off.

I am only as old as my bus pass
and it gets me from A to She,
She decides that I'm getting too feisty
and puts ****** in my tea.

Friday is on the horizon
if you stand on your tiptoes
you'll see
the light coming in from the weekend
She,
still puts ****** in my tea.

it was 3:55 when I opened my eyes
and I thought, interesting,
got more than the usual amount of
Zzz's in.

Rest ye merry gentlemen
God's on the case,
he'll be
with you when
the dinosaurs decide that all
Gods are not men.

Okay
it's Tuesday
time to put a candle in the window
and hope that Friday comes before
Magwitch.

Not to be known as a Dismal Dave
nor end up on an episode of 'Minder'
I find a smile somewhere deep down
and use it to light up London and the
town looks like it needs a lift,

my smile is my Christmas gift
it's not fancy
believe me,
but it's free.

Everything
supposedly is
bigger and brighter
tighter and lighter
whiter than white a
farce if you ask me

we are what we are
and for better or worse
you can
sell me
buy me
get me free,
limited availability.

discounts
count for nothing
when it's all overpriced,

we're being robbed blind
and
half the population don't mind,
the other half doesn't care because
they're getting their share
of
backhanders.

One more Monday and December
Santa's coming did you remember
to be good?

I was good and look where it got me
wrapped up in bed and roasting like
a turkey.

Early to work and finish by three
and that is good or good enough
for me.
there's nothing as *** as a drunken goose
or a man with a mission out on the loose,
watching for rainbows or reindeer.

Can you win the Christmas you've dreamed of?
hmm, if so
when did they make that legal
ha,
only blowing smoke from the laughter tree
I dream certificate 15 or
the board of censors would penalise me.

The after effects of Covid

7pm and I'm ready for bed
my tongue tastes like sawdust
my feet feel like lead,
it's shameful and
even poor Teddy is burying his head.

ha again,
in two weeks it's Crimbo
watch me go then.

It's all relative
says Einstein
****** on the
gluhwein

I'm saving myself for mince pies.

The sign read destitution though a destination was out there
it's just that we haven't found it, and yes, we're edging on despair, but we're on the rollercoaster now and the ****** thing won't stop.

Later, though on the same page, we got off and others got on
our time was done and soon enough like us they'll be gone,

we get no free pass as we strain to look through the smoked glass of another jaw dropping, *** poppin' day, the sign still reads destitution and there's a lot of us heading that way.

I went to see Lord Sainsbury and found him at the bacon counter, the bacon counter's a man that counts slices of bacon to make sure we don't get more than we pay for, anyway Lord Sainsbury's
a cut-out as mute as a mute swan in heat, the system is playing a rigged game, the whole shebangs got me beat.

I was thinking 'bout some working
but I felt like ****
so I took a Covid test
it didn't hurt me one bit
then the ******* came back negative
and now I can't rest

testing
testing
testing

you cannot trust those antigens
at all.

but
I'm negative that's positive

She says are you sure.

The old ones
those who sit around the Christmas tree drinking *** watching the young ones and remembering what fun Christmas used to be,

the holly and the ivy
baubles on the branches
Auntie Irene with the twiglets
and on the TV
a choice of viewing.

Ice skating on the canal
just as well there was ice
or we'd have sunk,

chunks of chocolate to keep us warm
snowballs to cool us down
life in the old mill town
was never sweeter.

This season of goodwill to all men is not going as planned
perhaps there'll be a moment when the battlefields fall silent,

when a child cries out.

Now we're all Titanic in that there's a severe lack of lifeboats.

I never thought to see the days when wickedness and evil ways
would bring us down,

Jesuuus!

Jesus on sabbatical  mapping out the catacombs
preparing several thousand tombs for those who wait in anterooms still thinking Santa Claus is weighing in with presents for the children.

Pyjamas
on by eight
but
it's Friday night
and
my beauty sleep won't wait,

saying that
I've been feeling under the weather
feels a bit old-fashioned to me
but
I've been as rough as the Bay of Biscay
and I'm not as tough as I used to be.

She thinks that I'm six years old
and tells me
to get into bed and to do as I'm told,

well
I'm telling Teddy
that
being poorly's not nice.

'That was the week that was'
which was
if memory serves
a television programme
years ago
and years ago feels like
five days ago
when it was Monday.

Yeah,
when you feeling like Geronimo
and you're ready to jump
but it's only Wednesday
and there are two more days to go,

but Friday comes
most things do
but you never get used to
that feeling of blue.

Friday!
and so it should be,
this week
has lasted almost as long,
as me.

still dark
still
Winter
still
it could be worse
but I'm not sure how.

I was thinking of Laurel and Hardy
the boys from the Bowery
'Angels with ***** faces'
Cagney and grapefruit,
Keaton and clocks
Chaplin's odd socks
Arbuckle and Huckleberry
Roy Rogers,
Tom Mix
Hollywoodland
out in the sticks,

Lanchester, Pickford,
Gish ( I wish )
Bankhead and Bow
girls on the go
with their names up in lights,

I was thinking of Laurel and Hardy
but my mind wandered off.

They can't believe it's not butter
and I can't believe it's not Friday
but
we're nearly there
we've
just got to hang on.

by we I mean me
you can do as you please.

More often than not
She'll stop me from falling
or failing,

She makes
most things plain sailing
it's still only Thursday.

Everything's unbeatable
until it's beaten and then
something else
will take its place

we never get there
but still strive to arrive at

never believe the clock
time's a beastly cheat.

hmm,
beastly sounds a bit Blyton,
ah
that time of love without the light on,
now everyone wants to carry on
and see what they are doing.

For some reason, this season seems colder than this season this time last year.

I asked, what would you like for Christmas,
she said
I want a cup of the gas meter topped up and the heating left on overnight.

diamonds would be cheaper.

Did you think about it once or twice
where once would be nice but twice would be better?

I've been poorly but now I'm picking up
watching possibilities
seeing almost certainty
and drinking lots of Indian tea,

She says
I'm hallucinating
seeing things that are not there,
but when I reach out to touch her,
She is.

is it that time already?

that time became this time became that time again,
jeez, it's getting harder to keep up with the pace of things.

Is it time for a change
all change,
oil change?
why spoil it
don't change,

so the answer is
not yet
and if not yet becomes what then,
what then?

Tuesday feels like midnight
it must be seasonal affective,
a disorder to put with the others.

one more fly in the ointment
and
disappointment

this isn't going well

I'm going well
I would
wouldn't I?

but the fly

not wanting to swot, blot or otherwise
***** it out
I try
to ignore it.

buzz, buzz
is not me getting high
it's that ******* fly.

The good shepherd driving his flock
and his flock all driving Mercedes,
if this was a lesson, here endeth it.

The babble of Beaverbrook
that I once mistook for the
be all and end all
turned out to be no news at all.

The reflection in slow motion,
time is folding in,
there's a spider on the windowsill
how do I begin to spin another day away
from every other day that went before?

How are you?
someone asked me
but I never knew.

Saturday?
it's too dark to tell
I feel that it just could be
Oh,
I'm feeling well thanks for asking

See,
I did know but didn't know that I knew it.

Mental lacerations
bleeding from the brain
just a midnight movie
playing frame by frame.

They explain it by saying that the system is broken
but we all know it has been broken for years
and the only reason we're still clanking along
is that they're grinding down our gears.

plenty of moolah for what they want to do
but have you noticed
there's **** all for you.

Cynical?
very much so.

Hope's gone off on the ghost train
the crazy mouse has come to a halt
the waltzer's doing a foxtrot
and they're feeding us with
cod's liver and malt.

Thoughts on mortality.

The second hour after midnight is when the light starts to change.

This is a lonely place,
here on the edge of an incoming day,

it's quiet enough to hear your blood pressure drop.

Crisis what crisis?

Supermarkets racking up
poor people coughing up
I've ******* had enough
of blasted profiteering.

We'll ending up paying more
for those basics that we live for


and don't be telling me that's it's due to the Ukraine or the dragging feet of cubic gas,
it's greed by high Street names
pumping up their profits
playing games
with people's lives.

Worse of now than ever
living on the never never
something has to give