The first line came easily,
so I seized the moment,
then stumbled through a jumble,
half memories, half queries.

It had seemed beautiful
when I spoke it to the night
but now wasted, wounded,
like a lasered tattoo.

Two living statues,
a man of silver
and one who sits mid-air.
Crowds pause wonder stare.

A trench foot Tommy
stands lonely unremarked,
bronzed as his medal,
braced for our next war.

Dancing under digits
Spacing between words
I count them all
Each syllable
Once, twice, I heard them dancing in my mind

Floating, instant reality
Bringing distance
Separating elements
From pen to page
You sing in colour
Yet speak so beige

Words, what do they mean?
Sailing through an infinite horizon
Your thoughts like waves
Shattering a tranquil line

Logical
Emotional
Trying to entwine
Encapsulating a memory
That will never be mine.

At least five a day! Stop smoking!
Enough messages to fatten a
health  freak, sprinkling my consciousness
like drizzle pimpling a window pane.

On Dali time - I wander
a nightmare hall of mirrors.
My watch slow, slow - marching
past the appointment hour.

Incubating my ***** sample,
I watch a young man bending forward
like a scribe studying his text.
Someone silently mouthing
her missal or her shopping list.

Ping! Will William Shaw
please go to room five.
Back to the slow march.
Please let me be next.

The first round is celebrities,
probably a knockout for me.
Most people I could mention would
be lucky still to be on pension.

My geography now is history.
Leningrad has already been purged
but where have they put Calcutta?
Oh! Calcutta - the internet I suppose.

I'm told that trivia and me don't fit.
Still, not much does these days.
Pass the cocoa and Rich Teas, please.

Newton, Shakespeare and Lady Day
on the shoulders of giants I totter
science technology and poetry
politics media and philosophy
layer on layer of ideology
collide like matter and antimatter.
Rules from school and infancy
loyalty influence and love.
You ask me what makes me tick.
The clock ticks. My watch ticks.
I quietly wonder - tick, tick, tick.