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Desperado Dan

Desperado Dan

Is a man with a plan

To cash in a bit of Kensington

On some high grade *****

Cos right now he's got a couple of scores

But not a great deal more to loose

 

You see, our Dan is a master of the modern day quill

He works an open office, clocking in and out at will

But after reading all the greats from his and every bygone age

He lives in a time where the mp3 subverts the written page

 

So night and day he hums away

Searching for that hit chorus

And he knows you can't cut corners

When it comes to tanking up on creative juices

 

A Desperado is larger beer spiked with tequila

Some say it's for scoundrels to make charming girls easier

But our Dan's quest is noble.

He has a dream we'd all like to believe in

He simply wants to do his whole life’s work in just one evening

And a Desperado seems to conjure all six hats within one head

So if two minds are better than one...well, nuff said

 

He dilutes them at first, pulling the wool over his own eyes

Until, catching reflections on the glass, he sees through the disguise.

And before long you'll find him chugging straight from the bottle

Then, in a blur of paper and pen, Dan writes like there's no tomorrow.

 

He writes and writes and writes some more

a couplet, a bridge, an underscore

Ploughing verses like trenches through the ****** white paper

Dropping napalms just to see what pops it's head above the wreckage.

 

Then, surveying the new landscape, he quarries in every direction…

 

Linearly; because it's most straightforward like that

Circularly; because they used to think the world was flat

 

Logically; because... Well duh!

Laterally; which gives the brain a stir

 

Diagonally; some kinda a + b = c rap from back in the day

In reverse; because sometimes we unknowingly face the wrong way

 

Unapologetically

Down dead ends

Just to see the view

 

He picks up clichés and looks under them for clues

 

Desperado Dan

Calls for desperate measures

As the evening wears on

He indulges all his earthly pleasures

 

And down they go with a Yo ** **

What a ***** desperado!

***** I say! Now he's mixing with ***

Still his pencil flies with a blistered thumb

 

'E starts to drop 'is H's

And forgets to cross his l's...sorry t's

He paces back and forwards

An he talks like mushy peas

 

Rummaging frantically through chaotic pockets

Conjunctives falling to the floor

He can't find the word he's after, but who cares? There’s plenty more!

He begins to vengefully split infinitives in two

And hurl metaphors across the kitchen

Sending mountains of ******* up ***** of paper flying

Like snowballs after the thaw

Which slowly melt into puddles of lonely vowels and consonants.

Long after he has gone.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

But all that was before the "Doodley Dee"

And his dream came true with a change of key

The song which people can't help to hum

From OAPs to the I-generation

And people hummed it all over

And in all sorts of weather

Until someone decided we should hum it forever.

And they paid Desperado Dan for every hum

Not bad work for a blistered thumb

 

So now our Dan seems a lot less desperate.

From time to time he evens finds an hour or two to rest a bit

Sitting on the veranda of his studio in the south of France.

Applying the finishing touches to another comedy romance.

Sipping a very fine Sauvignon, no Desperado in sight.

 

They're all safely packed away in the cellar

 

Just in case he gets the urge

 

Late at night.

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Written by
kevin-campbell-davidson
Scottish
Published
Sep 21, 2011
Lines·Words
79·619
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