Are you sure your right / forever / if so / how lucky can one be / but what happens now / I’m cancelled / as the star of James TV / I can see your protecting arms around others / but there’s little space for me

A puritan polemicist / who’d dare argue with you / but they say if you truly want to lead / then you need to listen too

Let’s examine this apple / it’s bright and red and round / would you like to share it / slice it / lick it / choke it / then toss it to the ground / in the same way you treat nuance / as the sheriff of this town

If you’ve solved the world / then I’m so proud of you / I’ll keep on / forging my way / fumbling on / making mistakes / knowing it won’t be long / until your cancelled too

Because what you believe now my love / soon will not be true / and when it’s not / in a shot / we’ll all be judging you!

A helpful teen
with girly friends
on holiday
in Newquay
let the lesson
commence.

Can you do me a favour
if you're off to the shops;
pick me up tampons,
marked normal on’t box

Yep, no problem at all.

Wow, a real mouth stretcher
a jumbo wodge porker
it slaps the ground
as it drops from my mouth

But Lisa and Liam are playing charades
exchanging sniggers, a ***** gaze
and don’t notice it slip under the sofa
to die.

Should 16 years old boys
know what they are?
I eyeball bus stop ads searching for clues
as I arrive at my reckoning
the Aldiest, Aldi, I’ve ever seen

I stakeout the aisle
containing ladies’ things
You know, lipsticks, cotton pads,
water that smells
I check for security
before I begin
some premeditated
drive-by
purchasing;
Yes, just like when I buy condoms

****. That’s one massive box!
a gargantuan bedrock
why didn’t she say?
how will I lug that all the way?
Shall I say they’ve sold out?
And each box is different
pluralist rejoice!
but none providing normal
as an option or choice
  
A shop assistant enters the aisle
at high noon
I’m forced to ask.
**** it, **** life, **** me in the ****!

Excuse me, Tracey (ooh pretty name)
what size do you buy
when you’re investing?
IN THESE - I ****** a box into her face
I still don't know why to this day
She reaches round me
'here you are love'
and rushes to safety
under plastic tassels

As I heave home my prey
what hero’s welcome will I receive?
a metrosexual epithet?
a badge of honour?
a heraldic coronet? Nope

SUPER! what the heck?
How big do you think my ***** is?

Now
I grew up in a house,
3 brothers
no daddy
and mother rarely talked about
what went up there

Lisa, settles and pulls me aside
Places her hands on my arms
‘Now, close your eyes’
Remember
last summer
after the fair
We swapped cidery kisses
on the bench by the tree
when it got dark
you put your hand up my skirt
what did it feel like?
A warmed poached egg…

…Strange, but ok
But not like Cheddar Gorge
Not a draughty, cavernous, unending space.
a vacuum, encompassing time and space!

…goes unpunished.

Matthew’s at the window
hope leaking from his eyes
he listens for your car exhaust
as another passes by.
What time is it? What time he say?
Mum; he’s climbing up the walls!
lower your expectations love
he might not come at all.
Last week it snowed in Plymouth,
my friends Dad walked to site
12 miles there, 12 miles back
returning late at night.
That’s what heroes are made of
promises kept, not frayed
someone who loves his children through
the ordinary days.
It’s easier now we’re older
you’ve started to get in touch
spouting gimcracks of wisdom
pretending to give a ****.
But I see the holes you made
the look in Mothers eyes
the times she had to bare her teeth
to make sure we survived.
So, let’s just call you Simon
because a real Dad, you know
wouldn’t leave his gorgeous boy
waiting at the window

A pelican shares a tale
of the warbler’s latest slide
claims the last time it saw love
was in freedoms taffy tides

If this is all I wanted
I’m a hoggish hurricane
swallowing oceans, stars, your hopes
to continue feeding dreams

The breeze is fully baked and wild,
as Poseidon offers her hand
and whisks us over surf and strips
and maybe back to land

In the back, there’s a buckled atlas
where scribbles plot out plans
outside, honeyed dunes shoulder
the burdened placed by man

A pelican shares a tale
of the warbler’s latest slide
claims the last time it saw love
was in freedoms taffy tides

But if seconds count, we made the boat
with at least five something to spare
and as we wave to strangers lost
a tonic boom cups my ear

‘It’s hot as the stinkin’ mud!’ she hollers
as Helios doubles down
isn’t it just, but this is a must
for those from out of town

And as our ferry kisses Carolina
I sense I’m lost and free
so, if you find this in a bottle
please, don’t look for me

I've not forgotten how
We loved out loud,
The taste of cider sunsets
On the cold English ground

Just butterflies shudder these lilac skies
as our little black books flutter
for a beauty that can forge through utter
cynical views of me and you
and break through wall to burst through

Is it the chase, we all aspire
Paris night, in evening attire

She bottles it up and sells it for gold
a magical ride, for the young and old
and when I remember, I smile to myself
of a chance once taken, not left on a shelf

Until the stars fall
or innocence sets in my eyes
I continue to waltz
In search of butterflies