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2.7k · Mar 2017
Anjuna Beach, Goa 1976
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
An aqua-marine dragonfly
hovers in the clarified
light of dusk,
I walk slowly
the risen earth pathway
through the vibrant
green fields
on the outskirts
of the village.

A bell tolls once,
arresting in silence
the moment of foot-fall,
making real
the careful route
along the trodden path
to my house.
2.1k · Mar 2017
Poem for the Black Rhino
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
I'm a little funny looking
I must confess,
all chunky boxy & truck-like
with 2 big old horns
that look quite deadly
but really we just
use them for show mostly,
oh & digging around
in termite hills,

I do hear though
that you humans
really cherish them
for folk cures &
help with your
***** & such,
you know
important
scientific stuff,

but then again
we can make a fearsome
fearsome charge
at a land-rover
full of folks
all with their
cameras & such,

at least we used to
till we became
fucken extinct!
Anger!
1.7k · Mar 2017
God Bless ...
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Tamla Motown,
my soccer team Tottenham
for so many sweet memories,
my old girlfriend Stella ... I know
I should have Stella,
I know,

tigers,
brown bears & the lowly centipede,
Charlie Chaplin, that old ****** son of a gun,
Laurel & Hardy, just because ...
Tarkovsky movies ... Toshiro Mifune,

anything with custard,
apple pie,
fresh bread,
Indian folks for the way they
shake their heads for yes,
Indian folks for their god
that charming Ganesh,
books,

Sci-fi movies ... lots of them anyway,
children laughing,
children playing,
& thus playgrounds,

serious folks who pay attention,
Anarchists ... of course,
my old grannie for her
attentions,
English food when it actually
works,

trees,
birds, bees,
old Chinese folks up at dawn
to collect cans,
& my Facebook friends,
take care you all now.
Oh my yes!
1.7k · Feb 2017
The Immigration Act of 1917.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
The Immigration Act
of 1917,
barred
"all idiots & imbeciles,
feeble-minded persons,
epileptics,
insane persons,
... persons with chronic alcoholism;
paupers,
& professional beggars,
and those with tuberculosis"

It barred ...
"felons,
polygamists,
prostitutes
& their traffickers."

Trump & Bannon's
Immigration Act of 2017
bars Muslims,
able-bodied Muslims,
needy Muslims,
starving Muslims,
fleeing Muslims.

Muslims in refugee camps,
student doctor Muslims,
short-sighted Muslims,
limping Muslims,
school-teacher Muslims,
ordinary Muslims,

in a word,
Muslims.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Did you see it?
That brother can do it
oh yes indeed he can,

like a young trout at dusk,
in a sweet still lake,
like a pouncing cheetah,
from many yards out,
like Wille May in the outfield,
for a soaring high ball,
like the most monstrous of great whites
rising from the dark depths & exploding
out of the ocean seal prey all clenched
in its merciless jaws,

like a cobra after transfixing its quietened mark,
like the most glorious of lithe pole vaulters,
like the most dandy of sweet young gymnasts,
like the great bull Magic Johnson springing over all & slam
dunkin' that rocketed ball as the whole court is helpless & the
people rock & its more points on that board,
that brother did it

just tore that Southern Hate right on out
of their White Pride hands,
brother just plain did it.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Sure as heck wouldn't fall
for that "Oh its my favourite
book & I keep it by my bedside
trick" & gather chubby Christian
flunkeys to pray over & anoint
a fascist idiot child,

Would see right through using
a grieving widow as a prop for
a photo-shoot extravaganza,
& then talk of record applause
lines like this was America's
Most Talented & he was a cheap
*** promoter milking the crowd,

Wouldn't for a second fall for
the Syrian children carry an
infection to the nation & must
be denied entry because you
never know but of course we can
because deranged white folks are
more of a threat,

Sure as **** could tell the difference
between a good apostle & that
scheming White Supremacist
Bannon & the bald dude who
endlessly talks of his overlord
being obeyed or **** sure you'll
all be for it,

Would most definitely not need
a golden crapper to rest his fat
white *** on & a golden stroller
for his special one & lacquered
mirrored sitting room that looks
like a hillbilly wet-dream version of
of 'how rich folks dun live rightly,'

Would most definitely not be seen
wearing that stupid red hat which
more than hints at a long gone
world with shades of whiteness
& exclusion & don't come knocking
on my door you pitiful wretch you,

Would never in a million friggin'
years have voted Republican &
sided with a lying, duplicitous
con-man with all the shades of
darkness that usually are reserved
for the actual Fallen Angels.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
White Knights
like to dress up
all hooded & ****
with slit-eyes and
pointy tops
to their
sheet-thing

& they come out
when its real dark
& burn stuff
& parade all around
shadowed bonfire-lit
in secluded fields
like lost
& deluded
drooling idiots,

they think they
walk the walk
& feel real fine
& fancy
with their grand wizard
lord of this & that
& pathetic hokey redneck
power-tripping
*******,

but lord no!
white knights
ride no gallant steeds
possess no magic
potions
have nothing
but a desperation
born of impotence
& sullen
bitter & imagined
loss.

white folks grandeur!
oh spare me so,
from evil
in its many disguises
& from very real
& dangerous men
hood-less
brazen
& right there
in front of us.
Martin Bailes May 2017
Americans ... Is it just Americans you're talking
about here Trump? ...
those chosen,
those special people,
those singular red-blooded people,

because I'm a little confused here
as you didn't seem to consider Syrian
refugees as bleeding the same red blood
even when it flowed so freely for them over
there in their pitiless homeland,

& Hispanic immigrants,
they bled red too,
or being rapists & murderers
was it a tainted red?

& black folks?
was their blood red?
from reading your White Supremacist
re-tweets I figured darker skinned Americans
had some innate handicaps or un-American
tendencies & thus their blood was a might
different to us white folks,

& Muslims?
do they bleed red too?
or is it a special breed of red,
an Islamic red?
a special sort of red that favors
deportation as says Brietbart news
or that forbids them entry as per your
unforgivable attempt at en-masse criminalization.

There was no bleeding of the same red blood
as you appealed to the lowest denominator in
white folk bigotry during your successful rise
to top of the heap in Republican vengefulness,
bitterness & just plain Supremacist American
red blooded horror was there?

No, there wasn't.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Would you rather the majestic pure white polar bear had a home in this world or that Paul Ryan took a slow, slow boat
to China & then turned around & came back, & then again,
& again?

... the humble Praying Mantis was able to bask in the sunshine
on a leaf of its choosing or that Trump was locked away for
70 years in a dank & dismal people's cell?

... all the bees, & all the dainty flying creatures could buzz here & there as was their want or that Mitch 'Gruesome' McConnell was marooned forever on a distant deserted isle?

... the startling life-form that is coral could take its own sweet time covering rocks & outcrops & undersea crags or that Mike Pence quite suddenly & terminally lost his ability to function in any way whatsoever?

... the soon-to-be starved nomadic people, the soon-to-be flooded
coastal peoples & the soon-to-be parched farmers of India were to be given direct financial & physical assistance by expropriated & toiling Masters of Industry & sundry media lackeys?

... that the delicate flowers, the tall & mighty trees, the vital green, green grass could just a go on going on, & anyone, anyone at all who ticked that box declaring Climate Change a hoax be pitilessly overseen constructing vital networks of deep, deep canals, oh for the remainder of their natural life?

... Would you rather one less Republican politician or one less soaring & majestic wind-tumbling vulture?

... Would you rather ...
Seriously angry this day.
1.2k · Feb 2017
Martin is Trumped.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Martin may have been
******* by the Trump,

no matter what words
he strings together
the other side
holds trumps,

& Martin's only human,
but the other side
seem of baser
matter,
fabricated out of
cast-offs & junkmetal,
empty gourds
of echoing nothingness,
aching voids,
fathomless chasms,

with truncheoned guardians,
subservient menials,
boot-licking lackeys,
fawning & scraping
Goebbel-like go-fers,

Trump might have ******* him
cos Martin is plumb
tuckered & its
only day 30,

but of course
Martin has the luxury
of not being from
South of the Border,
a very poor man,
a junked-up hillbilly man,
a desperate man.

Martin can give in
to his so-heavy fatigue,
that could be
his choice,
& he's lucky
that way.

******* I'm so tired
of this idiocy.
1.2k · Mar 2017
“Oh Let Them Eat Cake”
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Trump sure knows how to
share the sacrifices,
spread that butter a little thin
on his own toast,
as say ...
when he weekends
at Mar-a-Lago,

that opulent palace-like estate
with its Flemish tapestries,
lavish oriental rugs,
& a Louis XIV-style ballroom,
with $7 million in gold leaf
on the walls,

one-more-time ...
$7 million in gold-leaf
on the walls,

& it is here that he relaxes
every weekend
this Sun-King of ours,
this Oriental Potentate,
this Pasha in crushed velvet,

the cost of these jolly
jaunts is $4 million
each weekend,
oh … & there’s $4
million a month for
Melania & Barron too,

poor young Barron,
who one does
feel for
in a way.

So … at the risk
of sounding like
an early 20th century
Bolshevik & drawing
attention to inequalities
& injustices & wealth
& rank luxury at the
very time when hungry
& lonesome old folks
are to be deprived
of basic nourishment,

I'll say:
"The revolution is not
an apple that falls
when it is ripe.
You have to make
it fall."
CHE GUEVARA.
1.1k · Mar 2017
Mr Escobar ... Deported
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Jose Escobar, 31
Deported: 2 March, from Houston, Texas

Jose Escobar, from El Salvador,
has a son, Walter, & a wife
Rose Marie Ascencio-Escobar,
a U.S. citizen,
now home alone
in South Houston,

Jose Escobar moved to the US legally
from El Salvador with his mother
when he was 15,
and both qualified
for protected status.

His mother erred in filing
renewal paperwork when he
was still a teenager,
his protected status lapsed.

Mr Escobar spent years trying to
sort out  his status and received
a stay of deportation
from a judge in 2012.

But with Trump  
the deportation process
started up again
& he was detained
at his check-in with Ice
& flown to San Salvador.

His family is devastated.

"I'm begging President Donald Trump to look
into my case and see if my husband is really
destroying America,"
his wife told reporters.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
So frightful beautiful harridan
your extended & startling tongue
red rapturous rolling eyes
dark, dark skin,

sword, sickle & trident
already stained,
dripping ...
& lapped by the dogs
at your Divine feet.

Around your neck
glazed eyed
silent,
threaded, beaded
blank faced,
your victims skulls,

surprised no doubt,
at your swiftness,
caught in mid-flight
in activities bold
& terrible.

Lieutenant William Calley,
Captain Ernest Medina,
Lieutenant Frank Barker,
So, so many from Charlie Company
guilty on that fateful day
in My Lai 4
South Vietnam
March 16
1968.
975 · Mar 2017
Chuckles
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Giulani ...

looking much like

a radiated & mutant tortoise

from the walking dead,

& the always golden-hearted

Judge Jeanine Pirro

casually chat

on Fox News

all chuckles & smiles

about Muslim bans

& refugees,

while youngsters

languish in camps,

die in cities,

get cold

in mountains.

Chuckle on
you two
chuckle on.
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
"I don't care ...
I don't care ..."

Well I would to be honest ...

I'd miss them those long-hairs
with their bongos, flowers &
hula hoops, long skirts, velvet
jackets, bells & sweet scented ****
& smiles & trying just to be happy
& leaving you all behind with your
exploitation & misery & wars & death
& sullen brown slow decay,

I would care,

"if all the hippies
cut of  
all their hair"

I would.

Hendrix lives ... by sweet Jesus yes he does!
965 · Feb 2017
Don't Call Me A Liberal
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Because in my day dreams
& in a heartbeat,
the Coke brothers
would be re-educated
digging deep wells
in Flint Michigan
till they found pure
clean water.

Kobe Bryant's wife
would have her
million dollar ring
expropriated & broken
down for drill bits
to use in the digging
of Flint wells by the
same Coke brothers.

All Kardashian holdings
everywhere & anyhow
would be seized by
the state & sold to the
foreign precious stone
market & the proceeds
used for funding
school book buys.

Trump Tower would be
occupied and stripped
of all its false veneer
while Barron's gold
baby carriage would
take pride of place
in The People's Museum
of The New Dawn &
groups of school children
would field trip to marvel
& learn.

Fox News executives
would be arrested along
with Limbaugh, Hannity
a multitude of talk-show
hosts as enemies-of-the-
people & re-educated
digging canals from the
high Rockies through to
San Luis Obispo to help
water the farms which
would now be unionized
& minimum waged & there'd
be taco trucks on every
corner for free workers
lunch & luxury campers
for naps from the burning
midday sun.

History lessons would
be for real this time,
buffalos would be
encouraged mightily
to breed and roam the
western lands where
Indian tribes would
return to pastures
of old & they'd house
themselves in teepees
hand-sewn by bankers
& hedge-fund managers
lodged in converted
L.A. mansions with armed
guards for the duration.

The NRA leadership
would be hog-tied &
immediately put to work
in foul prison conditions
producing ploughshares
from swords in blazing
merciless kilns & every
Sunday they'd be cuffed
& 'compassionate-leaved'
to the closest cemetery
where they'd visit the
graves of the fallen
children & granmas
taken by ricochets.

Prisons would use
psilocybin cure-alls,
golf-courses would turn
into adventure petting-
zoo play grounds,
Syrian children would
move into Hampton
mansions,

Detroit & West Virginia
would be declared
emergencies & the
entire overseas hidden
off-shore accounts of
the top 1% would fund
roads, bridges, schools,
doctors & nurses,
teachers, professors
& crossing guards.

Trump himself would
have to restore all the
gravestones in all the
Jewish cemeteries in
all the States,
& then,
& only then,
could he have
his lunch hour.

Because in a heartbeat
I could be far worse
than that & perhaps
in some ways it's a
good thing I'm not
the boss.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
The rich get it good
oh yes they do ...
they don't send their
boys to die in foreign
wars that are usually
being fought in response
to some pressing $ value
for them & their friends
despite all the lies &
justifications coming
your way,


& they own the tv folks
that you & your buddies
absorb & who tell you of
a world that they wish
you to see & by design
also teaches of how others
are coming for you & you
are best off by voting
for another very rich man
who obviously can best
represent your interests
... quite obviously,

& having fooled you into
believing basic compassion
is communist in nature &
that really its every man
for himself in this vicious
world & that coal is good,
& climate change is cooked
up by the biased intelligentsia,
they can continue their base
pursuits & just keep on raking
it in,

& continually stressing that
anyone from this shining city
on a hill can make it big-time
like Riche Rich ignoring of course
basic facts such as class & race
or where you were born & into
which family of what colored
skin they have again succeeded
in their narrative of oh good
god how wonderful are we!
& lets just a keep on with the
way it is cos there's no alternative
really & any its close to Maoism,

& whilst all this is going on
they manage quite stealthily
in a way but perhaps also in
that great American tradition
of the sly feelgood huckster
they get you all seeing Jesus
through a salesman's eyes
as if Christianity was negotiable
in trade-offs & reservations &
justifications for bigotry, bias,
profit & shallow mercantile just
plain someone else making
a buck of you all,

& rich people get the best of
everything don't they really,
schools, hospitals, retirement
plans, all of which they fool you
into voting to cut, cut, cut,
which leaves you poorer folks
worse off & those rich folks
with just more gold coins to add
to their piles in off-shore accounts,
fancy real estate, & investment
portfolios,

its all pretty simple really,
they pretty much own
your *** & you keep
on a handing it
to them
don't you.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Just in case,
you know,
just filling you in,
a word in your ear,
having a little
mention
& such,

Muslims breathe air,
like snacks,
wear clothes,
bite into apples,
make babies,
just like us.

Some like soccer,
Monopoly,
Spongebob Squarepants,
even going for
a short walk,
actually
just
like us.

They too marvel
at the starry night sky,
caress soft fur,
love their children,
read books,
like music,
which is
just
like us.

The fact
this needs
pointing out,
is a tragedy
of such proportion
that my poem
just ends
right
here …
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
From the street below
comes drifting
into my
scented room ...

to grow
& grow ...
the sound
of many voices
harmonious
in song,

unable at first
to comprehend ...
but then realizing
"Om Namah Shivaya"
is being repeated
over & over ...

a hymn of praise
from the mouths
& hearts
of women
& girls
to the Great
Lord Shiva,

& it will continue
all evening long.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Freshly bathed & shivering
in the cool weak sunlight
of the early morning
the boy returns
to his bed,

the quiet young couple
who sleep gently nearby,
prepare their first
sweet smoke
of the morning
as a string is drawn
back & forth inside
the chillum pipe
to clean it,

& then the hashish is warmed
so as to soften it before  
it's crumbled & mixed
with the tobacco from
a broken cigarette
kneaded in the
palm of the hand,

a small stone is placed inside
to anchor the mix yet
leave room for air
to flow & then
a damp rag is
wrapped around
the narrow end
to cool the smoke,

the woman holds the pipe
quite intricately it seems
to you at first but it's just
to create a space
so as to draw the
mix deep into
her lungs,

"Bom Siva Shankar"
intones the man as
she places her mouth
upon the joined hands
and draws that first
fiery draught
of purest black
Afghani hashish.

The chillum circulates
& the day has begun
as the youth of a
rejected Western World
envelop themselves
in the smell of dung
fires, incense, &
the Krishna chant
from the small
idol at the
corner
nearby.
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
This tuesday April 25th in the year of the lord 2017
being in a good, good mood & wishing to send love
& solidarity to all innocent living beings upon this
fragile lonesome earth I hereby declare my complete
& undying love for the lowly but almost beyond magnificent
Praying Mantis,

that sweet  & oh so delicate creature,
that green being which rests so tranquil upon twig & branch
legs as hands, as in prayer, as pleading, attentive & so, so
quiet,

All Power to the small green creatures & all recognition of
their undeniable right to walk this earth in peace & joy as
any of us oh so arrogant two-legged blundering creatures
supposedly made in god's image,

I have seen god in the form of the Mantis, & sure enough
its beauty & light is beyond magnificent.

Beam that love now.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
“That’s what America is about,” Carson said. “A land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less."

Ben Carson is a might confusing
because he is without a doubt
a brilliant brain surgeon
& yet,
& yet ...

according to him
he communes telepathically
with wild bears,
can calm armed-robbers,
stabbed his best friend,
& now sees slavery as
some sort of Welcome
To the Land of Liberty
All are Welcome Act.

Ben Carson is an idiot
because well ...
where to start,
well how's about millions
of folks forced to board
ships naked, afraid,
chained in rows,
as SLAVES,

& yes, half of all slave infants
died in the first year,
survivors lived on a basic
nutrition-free gruel,
there was diarrhea, dysentery,
whooping cough, blindness,
skin lesions &
convulsions,
& they were
SLAVES.

but to Dr. Ben Carson
these terrified, beaten,
chained, whipped,
SLAVES ...

were immigrants
just like you
and just like me.
854 · Feb 2017
Quebec.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
6 Muslims
were killed
in Canada
in one day
last week,

this is
a higher
figure
than that
of Americans
killed by refugees
over the last
20 years,

the killer
was a white guy,
a Supremacist,
and as far as
I know
Trump has shared
not a word
of sympathy
or condolence
on this tragic
crime,

as of today,
not
a
single
solitary
word.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
It's over, its done ...

American Christianity stumbles forward
toward a cruel topsy-turvy world where
help is weakness, compassion is cruelty
& divisive isolation is preferable to
welcome & concern.

American Christianity is a corpse that reeks,

a veritable Walking Dead of pink-tied
Conservatism that picks its leaders
based on a sort of simple country-boy
belief that a fat white man in a suit who
holds aloft his momma's old bible while
same the same time preaching division,
exclusiveness, hate & bigotry is somehow
the best Christian choice & God loves that
man so,

they do this,

they continue to do this,

this rural fundamental upside-down way
of seeing the worst man as the best man
just because he spouts for some phrases
& gets all blessed & such by richly dressed
ministers of the lord who anoint him as the
Chosen One, which is so far off the mark
as to leave one wondering who? who?
who are these representatives of God's
word on earth,

these shiny shoe lackeys, these fork-tongued
well-heeled sybarites closer to Lucifer's
world of consumption & the almighty dollar,

American Christianity should just call it
a day, just give over for awhile, take a
breather & read a book or two, for the
harm they cause to fall on the rest of
us through their ignorant vision is just
way, way too much for them to be able
to claim any affinity with Jesus
the humble Son of God.
823 · Mar 2017
Officially fucked ...
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Well ...
that's it then,
we're officially done,
game about over ...

life as we know it now forever
changed by some ignorant
two-bit hustler in the White
House who signed off today
on a 'freeing from regulation'
something Capitalists have a deep
yearning for, look it up, & thus leading
to 4 years of pollution, toxic gases, rising
seas, dying wildlife, flooded villages & soon
worldwide shortages & drought & death ...

but America will be o.k. with it's hamburgers,
beans, & Doritos ... so I guess its just tough for
the rest of you's cos we'll be just dandy in this
here Land of the Free.

******* you Republicans till Hell freezes over
& the humble bear hunts for the last time.
... coming sooner than later after this morning.
822 · Mar 2017
Madurai, Southern India
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
The beautiful children
holding lengths of thread
with large hornets
attached,

tied by one leg
and flying again
& again
around
their heads.
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
You all do realize I hope that
Republicans McConnell, Rubio,
Chaffetz, Hatch, & Paul Ryan
all forcefully denied Obama's
2013 request to Congress for
authorization to strike in Syria
after Assad's use of chemical
weapons in the city of Ghouta,
they all answered an emphatic
No! ...

with various shades of political
double-talk, America First, &
"oh look where it might lead"
pontificating & conservative
posturing,

but now! ...

oh now when Trump launches
a missile strike they're all praise
and "God Bless America" &
proud, & pumped & feeling
like real Americans again,

oh good god the hypocrisy,
the shallow interest driven
ethics, the lies, the brazen
pretence & self-serving
awfulness of these cold
calculating humans of
ours.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
48 Jewish Community
Centers in 26 states
received nearly 60
bomb threats in
January 2017
alone.
"It's horrible and
it has to stop."
he finally said,
about a week
after he was first
asked about it
and replied,
"It's not a fair question."

What is a fair question Trump?
Your answer to whether
you'd condemn the KKK,
"I don't know anything
about David Duke, Ok?"
followed by ...
"I don't know anything
about white supremacy"
really Trump,
is that so?

Yet you read their twitter
feeds & pass-on their
statistics & such from
the likes of JewAmerica
& White Genocide.

Too of course there's
Breitbart News,
'Deport All Muslims'
& 'Hoist it High & Proud,
the Confederate flag'
that Breitbart News,
Bannon's
Breitbart News.

& "Hail Trump, Hail Victory."
came the call that day,
from the cream of
the supremacist
crop that you nodded
at, whistled so softly
to, courted really,
truth be told.
Anti-semitism?
"One of my favourite
daughters is Jewish."
She is.

So I love
those Jews,
I really, really do.
735 · Mar 2017
L.S.D.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
"The realization
                                not the knowledge,

for this wasn't verbal or abstract,

         but the DIRECT, TOTAL AWARENESS, from the inside,

so to say, of LOVE as the primary & fundamental cosmic

          FACT.

I was this fact;

or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that

this fact occupied the place where I HAD BEEN."


Aldous Huxley, English writer, died 1963.
A quote respectfully, deeply so, arranged on the page by Martin B.
715 · Feb 2017
Hey Trump! #2
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Hey Trump!
Yes you ...
You colossal donut you!

A fact is a fact
because it's a fact,
not because you
say it's a fact.

You may say:
"Nobody better ... "
but elephants don't
fly south in winter,

"The best, the very best ... "
but spiders cannot
navigate through
heavy seas,

"Immense numbers, immense .. "
but zebras will not
snuggle with lions.

"Honest man, so honest ... "
but igloos are not
built by three-toed
sloths,

"Mess, its a mess ... "
but Mitch McConnell
is not the most
handsome man alive,

"Fair, very fair .. "
but rich white guys
don't work hard
& pick tomato crops.

A fact,
is a fact,
yes it most
definitely is.
708 · Feb 2017
Republican Jesus.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Republican Jesus is not all that keen
on feeding the poor
to tell the truth
food-stamps lead to dependence
don't they,

Republican Jesus winks & nods
at wives on the side
third wives
& trophy wives
oh good luck to you son
on that one,

Republican Jesus hates softness
& gentleness
& just plain kindness
it reeks of communism
& caring
& sharing,

Republican Jesus will **** for Christ,
sleep with his guns,
caress his ammo
his lock, stock & barrel,
tongue bullets
not wafers,

Republican Jesus loves money
loves money a whole bunch
gets excited
over money,
caresses himself
while watching
Lives of the Rich and Famous,

Republican Jesus has a private jet
with gold commode
& caviar,
sips the very best
of everything,
& feels no pain.

Republican Jesus has flipped it all around,
all the love for the destitute,
the feeding of the five thousand,
the humility,
the simple loaves & fishes,

Republican Jesus has the ethics of
a hyena
& the honesty of
the cuckoo bird,
the warm-heartedness
of a hungry great white,
the vision of a mole,
& the promise
of a golden future
built upon the backs
of the less
fortunate.

Republican Jesus is the real deal
isn't he!
706 · Apr 2017
Kristina Palten walked ...
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
Kristina Palten walked ...
yes, walked,
through the Islamic country of Iran
an ancient land & a journey
of 1144 miles on foot,

day one she cried with fear
& yet as day followed day
she was met by strangers
giving food, water & offers of
shelter for the night,

she shared breakfast,
lunch & dinner with
Islamic families from
an Islamic country,

& Kristina Palten
leaves me with a
genuine feeling
of warmth & sincere
respect,

Kristina Palten
I am in awe
& send my
very best greetings.
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
As evening comes
we drink tea
& all watch
as a blind man
approaches slowly
along the beach,

feeling his way
amongst us
to ask
for the same
as the tape-deck
plays the song
"Helpless ... helpless ... helpless."
666 · Mar 2017
Madame La Guillotine
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Leslie Howard
as the Scarlet Pimpernel
is a pure joy
to watch,
all big-collared foppish
tight-trousered dandy
& dainty eyeglass
peering,

& there’s scheming
from the glum & slightly
hunch-backed Robespierre,
weeping aristocrats,
in tumbrils,
& innocent playing
children,

oh so-tailored families
all huge-coiffured hair,
cravats & handkerchiefs
& cocky young jackanapes
playing chess,

the cheering crowds
all coarse & ugly,
with knitting bonneted-crones
anticipating as the drums roll,
& the blade falls,
to a mighty
cheer,

we can see
our own bewitching
Marie Antoinette,
our own sly & whispering
Rasputin,
our gold-folly Sun King,

but I cannot say
I want Madame
La Guillotine
to be set up,
in the square
this time,
no …
no that,

but a victorious
cheering mob,
does sometimes
haunt my dreams,
I confess
to say.

“I send them to the guillotine for the future happiness of the human race, but I do not allow torture.”

Robespierre
662 · Mar 2017
Superbad
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Bad ...
bad like Vasquez from Aliens
all strut & ******
balancing on her
heavy Latina hip
a friggin' phenomenal
machine-gun thing,
& then sharing the grenade
with that **** of a lieutenant
& blowing themselves
& the alien
sky
absolutely
high.

Bad ...
bad like the little officer
in Master & Commander,
only about 12
at most,
along the way
loses an arm
& at the end
rallies the men
as they board
the French vessel
all shouts & "at 'em men, 'at em"
with his one arm
aloft,
his fancy hat,
just fitting.

Bad ...
bad like Chaka Khan,
Neil Young rockin'
All Along the Watchtower
backed by
Booket T,
bad like Ali, Jimi,
Patti & James.

Bad ...
bad like the Irish guy
in Dead Men's Shoes
who gas-mask wearing
& so merciless
runs them down
one by one
whilst chatting gently
with his younger brother
who we realize
near the end
is actually
already dead
& he's avenging
for his brother,
with his brother,
in his heart.

Bad ...
bad like Bela,
***** Riot,
& the Isley's
playing
Machine gun
live
in 1973.

Bad like panthers,
tigers,
leopards & pumas.

Bad ...
these aren't just words, I mean it.
652 · Mar 2017
Dream Fragments ...
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
A convoy of trucks crossing the desert ...
dust ...
& a constant passing
in the moonlight,

dead parrots in a flowing stream,
jewels ...
in the palm of the hand,

white women
wearing long dresses,
whales ...
in the deepest, deepest
part of the ocean,

smooth fingers
caressing her thigh ...
dark hair ...
twisting in the wind.

Amidst the forest
& fields of lush, lush green
the ladies dance
in their red,
their yellow
& their blue,
while the studious men
watch from afar ...

what dreams!
Dream on.
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
Leaping & striding
comes a passing chaos
of ashen men,

adorned in chalks
of blue & grey,

glorious in cloth
of red & gold,

with a tiger-skin
glimpsed rippling
upon shoulders bare,

& as royalty
perched atop elephants,
beasts lumbering & bedecked,

ancient people
their mouths to shell & trumpet,

to announce
the moment
this late
afternoon.
651 · Mar 2017
Nostalgia #37
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Playlist by the fire
as we drink tea
& roll one,
circa 1983.

The Cure & Talking Heads,
Big Youth & The Congos,
Killing Joke & Dennis Bovell,
Patti Smith & Misty in Roots,

Mike stroking his long
long beard,
Kim always up & down
like a yo-yo,
I hung loose as the guy
from next door put his
head round the door
to see if we had anything,

he was a laugher that one,
used to watch the snooker
on a small black & white
tv with the sound down
while he listened to Keith
Jarrett play his piano,

nice guy.
628 · Feb 2017
Tiny Hands ...
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Tiny hands hold little of substance,
... tiny fingers clench such bold lies,

tiny hands lunge at windmills,
... tiny fingers pick at fool's caps,

tiny hands grasp at follies,
... tiny fingers rifle through goodness,

tiny hands push at paper tigers,
... tiny fingers pull at dogs tails,

tiny hands read bad fortunes,
... tiny fingers get burned at dark flames,

tiny hands hold scary puppets,
... tiny fingers dabble in darkness,

tiny hands hold very few aces,
... tiny fingers roll stones up mountains,

tiny hands signal empty alarms,
... tiny fingers dig earth from fresh graves,

tiny hands hit left, right & centre,
... tiny fingers write false warnings,

tiny hands wear gloves of fool's gold,
... tiny fingers mine gems of bad fortune,

tiny hands smite the wrong enemies,
... tiny fingers bless sinners foreheads,

tiny hands just plain bewitch us,
... tiny fingers dance all devilish,

tiny hands brandish proclamations,
... tiny fingers tried to dazzle us,

tiny hands promise tricks abundant,
... tiny fingers draw forth distractions,

tiny hands may try to fool you,
... tiny fingers attempt to sooth you,

tiny hands don't grasp in friendship,
... tiny fingers signal dark forebodings,

tiny hands announce arrival,
... tiny fingers will not gain entry,

tiny hands do try our patience,
... tiny fingers do toil and trouble,

tiny hands hold no great promise,
... as tiny fingers dance before us,

while tiny hands show much misfortune,
in the teller's misty reading,
in globe's so cloudy
and all muddy,

as truth be told
on our
misfortune.
620 · Mar 2017
Funkadelic ...
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
If you will **** my soul,
I will lick your funky emotions.

Hey baby … what’s your thing?
What say we touch each other?
Oooh yeah … fly on … fly on …

Oh such sweet sounds,
such goodness
such …
uh huh … oooohhh yeah,
Lord ….

& the band plays …
boom boom boom boom ba boom

& the bass rolls on,
feel that baby?
let me kiss your mind.

& the ladies sing …
bah bah bah bah bah

& the drum snares on,
the ladies return,

oh Mommy what's a Funkadelic? ...
I do so love this song.

It helped me a lot
this dark
& just plain wicked day.
Martin Bailes May 2017
Kissinger's in the House today,
trailing choking ****** fumes
kicking aside limbless tiny bodies
too, too innocent by far,
all dripping entrails & shattering
dry bones gladly underfoot
as he lopes horrendously
all death rictus grin & such
as he once again justifies
to St Peter at the gates
the millions crushed, obliterated
blown into tiny misty red fragments
as he played his all-mighty diplomatic
history lessons on a helpless, distant
once green & fertile land.

Forgiveness? Ha!
610 · Feb 2017
Victory Lap.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
It’s a riding of the golden enthroning chariot
around  the tumultuous roaring coliseum as of
ancient & fast declining Rome,  
all amidst a clamoring sea
of simple red-hatted whiteness,
as he absorbs, just soaks right on in,
that honest folks love.

All the while smiling
like Vinnie in a bar in Queens
chuckling over his latest conquest story,
as he shares weak Martini’s with his
drunken & besotted lieutenants.

His time to gloat & sneer at the weak & fallen,
the small boy’s big day out,
riding in papas fancy car  
while tossing out empty favors
& a smirking Royal glance at the limping
trembling, so victorious
hopeful rubes.

No, it’s not a thankyou tour,
it’s a Victory lap.
606 · Feb 2017
Winning
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
We have to start winning wars again ...
"We never lost a war,
America never lost,
We never win a war
... & we don't fight to win,"

Bone-spur golf-playing draft dodger
Donald Trump offering forth
more words of wisdom
& his master plan
for America's future
& military might
& winning,

& what this actually means
a $54 billion military budget
with all the cuts that entails
& a possible use of 'all'
available weapons in
an effort to prove
this fighting
to win,

& perhaps we should
never underestimate
just what exactly
this man will do
& just how exactly
he will do it to
prove this point
& be the winner

& perhaps we should
tremble a little
at this point,
because ...
as usual,
its all about
... winning.
586 · Mar 2017
Hippy Camp
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
'73 ... '74
oh, 16 or so,
a news headline
in that conservative
of newspapers
The Daily Telegraph
engaged me,
'Hippy Camp in the Himalayas
Broken up by the Police'
or as close
as I recall,

& from that
moment on
my ambition
was clear,
my future
set,

Dad might
have preferred
college or
a decent job,
but heck
no ..
a hippy camp
in the Himalayas,

& as soon as
school was over
off I went
on the
Magic Bus
to find
a home.
Bom Shankar
Martin Bailes Apr 2017
There is a small town in the far north
of India which sits just about the
base of the Himalayas & I had a
a small adventure there as I played
the game of bailing out some friends
on a dope charge from the stockade
where the chief smoked hashish with
a smile & a jailed sadhu who’d chopped
someone’s head off in a ritual because
he became the goddess Kali for awhile
taught the four of them some yoga,

but mostly I remember it because of the
complete & utter peace I found to be just
sitting by the river & letting the sound of it
as it tumbled through the rocks wipe my
mind clean & I was at peace at last,

but I moved on after awhile to the town
of Simla further north & there I saw a
dancing bear & the Himalayan snows
& so I guess there are always new places
to be aren’t there.
India
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Mr Douglass is doing well
doing big things
in America today,
big things,
being noticed,
yes he is.

Ben took me with him
& I met some too,
Black folks
that is,
great people,
great people,
and Omarosa
and Paul
lovely folks,
lovely,
but the Press
is unfair,
unfair.

and African-Americans
love this country
and did big things,
& I like them,
I really do.

All this shallow
near incoherent
rambling
from a man
who questioned
the very legitimacy
of America's first
African-American
President,

questioned it day
after day

for two
toxic
& racist
& vicious
years.
Martin Bailes Dec 2017
Well that was last week
& this is now
& yes …
it actually is
to him
This President of the United States
who has just endorsed
an accused
child-molestor …

THE PRESIDENT OF THESE HERE
UNITED STATES
HAS ENDORSED
AN ACCUSED
*******!

“He denied it”
says Trump,
of Roy Moore
this man who has 8,
yes …
8 women accusers …
together with witnesses
from the time,
& corroborative evidence
from the time,
& tears …
from the time,
& fear …
from the time,

& if there’s special
place in hell
let it house
Trump
& Moore
& Moore’s enablers
& Republican justifiers
& equivocating TV hosts
& the Evangelical apologists

& as for Trump
& as for Moore …
the moral bankruptcy here
leads me to simply say
in anger, disgust & horror …
may the dark pitiless depths
of a sulfurous burning pit
be their’s for eternity,

or close to.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Oh yes ...
no its true,
******* & dancin' at Studio 54,
just like a jungle patrol with ever present
chance of immediate death
or dreadful injury
from claymore mines
or ****-smeared
bunji sticks,
or a bullet from nowhere
that shatters your head
and leaves your brains
all over
the man
behind you.

Oh yes ...
no really,
seducing an upcoming starlet
in his luxury pad,
well its just like
coming across
the charred
remains of
napalmed children,
weeping mothers
shell-shocked granmas,
no! ... it is!

Oh yes ...
seriously,
dining on rare steaks,
lobster & caviar
in his effort to
impress and
get a piece,
is just like
cold rations,
wet clothes,
leeches,
& festering
oozing wounds.

Oh yes ...
uh huh fa sure,
Trump's New York days
compare so well
to 58,000 U.S dead
and oh yes,
several million Vietnamese,
bombed,
shot,
obliterated,
incinerated.

Oh yes.
Donald J. Trump,
had it hard,
by God
he did.
554 · Feb 2017
Quantify.
Martin Bailes Feb 2017
Its hard for me
to quantify
my loathing
of the NRA,
but one example
comes to me
like Sherlock
and his enemy,

at Reichenbach Falls,
Lapierre and I
would tumble
into waters raging
foamy white
& crashing angry,
& in his ear
I would whisper,
as my clutch
it grows yet tighter,

the names of all
the fallen children,
sisters
brothers
sons
& daughters,

Jenny,
Patrick,
little Michael,
Darnell,
Malcolm,
Sophie,
small Tyrell,
and when I'd
reach the very end,
I'd begin again
my tragic list,
all interspersed
with curses true
with ****
and ****
and ******
you!
Martin Bailes Mar 2017
Having removed my shoes,
how different!
as I enter the temple.

                                                     By the bank of the river,
                                                     pointing to God,
                                                     - the washer-man.

The young prostitutes
laughing
as they bought new shoes.

                                                      Smo­king,  
                                                      with an old man,
                                                      I cannot pretend to be otherwise.

Just one fresh salad
would lead
to twenty-one days sickness.

                                                      ­ Night-time has fallen,
                                                       hundreds of thousands of bodies,
                                                       lying draped in the streets.

Tied to a coconut tree,
drying in the sun,
the tail of a manta ray.

                                                       Believing he was Kali,
                                                       he chopped off a head,
                                                       yet his smile was so gentle.

Twilight on the hotel verandah,
witnessing huge black fruit-bats,
cascading from the trees.

                                                       That cloudy afternoon,
                                                      ­ a boy & I chased a rat,
                                                       our shorts & sandals dancing.

From the fog by the bridge,
softly the transvestite would call,
each winter's moon.

                                                       As I wander the temple
                                                       swallows dart to & fro,
                                                       - the cool stone!
Beauty
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