Sometimes we'd arrive at work at the same time
and I'd always be plugged in to my white
headphones, fresh from an mp3 trawl

That morning he caught up with me as
we entered the packed lift 'Hey Lee
what are you listening to today?'

I thought about making something up
but just answered 'Psychedelic Horseshit'

    2nd floor
        3rd floor
            4th floor

and he never asked me again

I wore a beret to the office today, and people had **** to say
I wore a baseball cap pulled down over my injured eyebrows
I wore a sombrero on an Edwardian picnic

I wore a beanie to bed every night and I think it helped a lot
I wore a balaclava that was frozen to my mouth
I wore a bucket hat because it fits my face
I wore a fedora before it was cool Reuben
I wore a kippah and family pearls
I wore a trucker hat that said
    BRIDE
while my wife wore a button down that read
    QUEEN

I wore a trilby then, and of course one smoked
even if one didn't enjoy it

I wore a kufi and a Public Enemy T-shirt
I wore a Santa hat and each child took my picture
I wore a homburg hat, carried a bumbershoot umbrella
I wore a panama hat to a polo match on a cloudless day
I wore a mortarboard and robe, looking tall and clear-eyed
I wore a tam o'shanter, and had Brave **** written on my back
I wore a pillbox hat to my wedding and still get compliments to this day

I wore a visor and brought a sarong with me every single day
I wore a top hat, a ripped up suit, and dead flowers in the pocket
I wore a deerstalker most of the day Saturday, and I never do that
I wore a stetson with crossed sabers, yellow cord and sgt stripes
I wore a dunce cap and was summoned to the corner for the rest of the day

I wore a boater in summer and a beret in winter.
I did not look as good as this girl

I wore a pith helmet, a veil, a bee proof space suit,
leather gloves up to my elbows

I wore a Phrygian cap of doeskin lined with otter

I wore a turban then. In a flash we were
in each other's arms in an unrelenting hug

At breakfast on our second morning
I noticed she'd taken the same items as before
from the vast and sumptuous buffet and
perhaps foolishly asked if
she didn't want to try different things

'they've got smoked salmon, and eight types of bread,
honey from their own bees
and there's an egg station!'

she said: 'once I've made my choice I stick with it
it just keeps things simpler'

jokingly: 'I guess the same goes for your men too'

stupid, stupid boy

ladies and gentlemen, that
was my ex-wife

"Do you remember there used to be a couple
who they played those dragon games with.
Heather and Ray. They came down
from North Wales and stayed in a B&B.
His hair was even longer than Geoff's but he was very polite.
She didn't say a thing all weekend.

Anyway, they'd just gone to bed in their room
when there was a knock on the door. They
thought it was the landlady but it turned out
to be the chap who'd had the room before them.

He'd come back for his drugs. He said they were
hidden behind the toilet. Well, they didn't
want to upset him so they let him in
and he got his drugs and that was the end of that."

Some days are for consolidation
some days are for transformation

You cannot hide your vestigial tail
your belly is ***
your jelly is hot
stumped cut off salamander trail

I am the secretary of my sensations
my magic is my weakness
you must invite me across your threshold

It's pretty uh *******
only four miles from your house
say it's semi mediaeval, but
great stuff for the launch pad, and
something about the bleakness, the
overbearing concrete structures

Some of the evenings may require consolation
some of those nights end in devastation

Lies are exotic, and the truth
the truth is pretty basic

You don't hear much about James T. Farrell anymore

The novelist and short-story writer known for his
realistic portraits of the lower-middle-class
Irish in Chicago, and best remembered
for his Studs Lonigan trilogy

A consummate realist in viewpoint and method-
who now will ever read the Danny O'Neill Pentalogy
or the Bernard Carr trilogy

He wrote about people who were
victims of injurious social circumstances
and of their own spiritual and intellectual shortcomings

He depicted human frustration, ignorance, cruelty
violence, and moral degeneration
with a sober, relentless veracity

And he determined that he would write
"regardless of the consequences."

"I have a lot of work to do," he said.
"I write 20 hours at a stretch;
I hate sleep and I fight it."

His sentences follow one another
like bricks in a well made row.

His prose is simple and direct,
powerful and blunt.

His courageous stance against Stalinism
took a toll on his literary reputation,
and later, as the naturalism he employed in
his best fiction slipped out of vogue,
his work fell into neglect and his star dimmed.

there was a lot I liked yes there was a lot I liked

the familiar and popular attributes

Z said we were mirror imaged, like twins

we could have been related back in the old country

but then there was her term for the locals which was quite frankly unacceptable

the long story about how she'd meant to end up in america but got stuck in this hole for 20 years

the time she spent in soho hanging out with [pop star #1]

the time she told the nobel prize winner he was a fake

the time we went to see a film in leicester square and she saw a couple she knew but didn't introduce or even acknowledge my presence, as I stood right beside her

I mean, come on!

we did it yes we did it but kissing was not encouraged

I didn't ask but she read me some of her poetry and I quite liked it - "it's biological!"

she played a lot of Massive Attack and explained how every song had the most meaning

she brought out 'the puff' and laughed 'you no good at this!'

while she was cooking I set fire to her curtain
she didn't notice and this isn't relevant

'I hoped tomorrow we go for 5 mile run
but now we drink two bottles wine and puff so maybe not
since you choose to stay'

when was 5 mile run on the agenda
and was I not invited to stay?

I was out of my depth and I liked it/ didn't like it