I do not wish to suffer but suffer I
   must
Cursing my ill luck and the mad
   excesses
Of a selfish insensitive owner
Obsessed with destruction, both mine
   and his;
Occupying a spot here in the High
   Street
Opposite the Courthouse and its
   official Clock
An eyesore, a common talking point
Squeezed between more fashionable
   premises
Which seem always to frown and
   grimace
Expressing major reservations,
   unambiguous opposition.

Housing curios, oddments and
   selected modern junk
We sell little, our few customers
   dribbling in
Only to supplement their journeys
   while waiting on the bus
Or to eye with a morbid curiosity
That sickly creature seated behind the
   counter
My luckless tyrant of an owner
Against whom all conspire
Who seriously in debt, is helpless,
   cannot pay up
Hounded interminably by mysterious
   moneylenders
Who after giving a little now expect a
   whole lot in return.

With fuel running low for my boiler
My heating system, it is unreliable
Volatile, treacherous in Winter
My ventilator rusted through
Erratic at best, chronic in Summer
The damp in the walls and ceiling
The dry rot, the wallpaper peeling
Encouraged by years of neglect
Of being used, unscrupulously
   tampered with,
In need now of meticulous care and
   attention.

My owner truly a derelict, a dissipated
   soul
Spending more time in the cellar with
   a bottle
Than on any other shop floor level
(Among his friends, the mice, the
   cockroaches and spiders)
Who trying to stay awake, eventually
   must capitulate
Caught by that Ghost Ship that drifts
   slowly North
To where the icebergs loom large and
   ominous out of a damning fog
It's compass frozen, it's wheel
   unmanned
Nothing but shadows and wind in the
   rigging
As he floats off into oblivion, off the
   edge of the earth
Where exist such shapes that can
   never be said.

                               II

Is peculiar though, my owner
At times displays a certain poise and
   grace
Hinting at a time in the not too distant
   past
Which was not altogether bad or
   harmful
But unusual as it might seem
Was quite on the contrary, fruitful !!
Him featuring as being both proud
   and distinguished
Far removed from today's pitiful
   wretch
Whose solitary doubts and fears have
   all but taken over.

And maybe I do find it hard to
   sympathize
I after all being the one offered up
   now in sacrifice
Him there with little joy, love or hope
With only complaints and grievances
   mounting up
Filed away in offices at City Hall.

                                 III

Whereupon the hour, every  hour, the
   Courthouse Clock it chines
Ever vigilant, ready to track it's quarry
   down
Where in the corridors of power this
   very moment
City fathers, town planners and
   architects have gathered
To discuss whether our future lies in
   this town
To argue out the case, the for and the
   against;
While below the vile demolition man
   he stalks my borders
With his heart of ice and ghastly  
   drunken laugh,
No! I do not wish to suffer
Indeed, I wish I could be like any other.

A Bus Ride
I took the bus into town today its passengers were
mostly elderly, old women and generally fat as women
of the land tend to be, busy feeding the family they
spend too much time in the kitchen yes, I was the oldest
but would not like to have slept with any of them
and according to their lack of interest in me, it was mutual.
That is ok; they are good at putting flowers on graves.
I was not buying much just wanted to get out of the house
I will be moving there it's good to know where the cheapest
lunch cafes are situated, that's where the Portuguese
bank staff and workers go both groups are equally bad paid.
Going home three hours later the same women on board they
were animated had bought skirts, blouses, and shoes at
the Chines shop less than half the price of ordinary shops
theirs had been a good day.

Lua cheia
Shining in the sky
During the most
Beautiful Summer night
During the Summer I stay up
And at night
After dinner
I sit in my balcony
And I glaze in the sky
There in the sky
I see the
Lua cheia
That takes my
Breath away
I am feeling so grateful
That my father
Made the
Lua cheia
With his holy hands
Before he made
The human beings
Also when the clock chines
2 am in the morning
I go to bed during the Summer
And the next day I get up at 3:00 pm
Also I feel refreshed

The gush

    The moon is full not completely round
but elongated and so near I can almost touch it.
A pity the moon only reflects the sun
it diminishes it somehow.

The Chines planted apple trees at the back
of the moon
if they bear fruit, it will be bitter and never harvested
it will cost too much to pick them.


The apples will fall by themselves
down to earth like bitter tears
this should teach us not to tamper with nature
it will take 154 years before a moon like this reappears

Food Revolution in England

That was what a middle-class paper wrote
and it could not be more wrong.
To eat this esoteric food, you need a thick wallet.
most people in England are poor and since
the food industry has taken over
People, eat pizza, fish and chips and occasionally a Chines meal of chicken and rice.
They have unlearned how to cook a nourishing simple meal.
Yes, we need a deep social revolution.
The paper in question “the Guardian” appear not to notice
the rampant poverty we live in,
Instead, they talk about luxury restaurants where you need a workman´s wage to enter.
To write this article is fraudulent, pandering to the haves
and poking their noses at the hungry in the street.

Crabby morning

He looked down into the toilet bowl
had shat and flushed, 80-year-old **** going to waste
down a drain and into the sea.
70 years ago when he lived on a farm human and
Animal waste was used as a fertiliser the waste had
been useful potatoes grew big as did cabbages.
He had read the Chines collected stuff dried it and
Made it into powder and sold for strawberry farmers.
He had a shower and shaved, used proper blades
no electric shaver for him, he hadn't drunk coffee
yet and was cranky.

The water well
There is near the houses a deep well
you can´t stick a bucket on a rope many ropes are needed.
They used to hire a man usually the village idiot
to spend his life hauling up buckets of water.
Villagers believed the water came from the Yanjing river
A man who had gone to school disagreed; it is a deep
underground river, he said. For this, he was disliked.
One day he fell down the well, but since it was not
manmade and smooth a big stone sticking out saved him
from falling all the way down.
Broke his leg in the fall, he did.
With a dangling leg he had to claw himself up, however
they gave him water to drink, his struggle made him thirsty.
When he got out, he spoke a strange language
the villagers, thought was Chines, it never struck them
he was stark raving mad.
Now, an electric pump was installed, they saw him limping
out of the village talking gibberish.

Armaments
  

Now that the debacle of Afghanistan is behind us
we have to find something else to keep the war machine going
“Aucan,” an alliance of Anglophone countries are formed
A defence of the Chinese who dares to build
their navy.
Canada was not included too many French speakers live there
and they talk about peace with the enemy which everyone
Is too polite to answer.
I can´t see why Britain is here, but they do speak English
and has a long history of meddling in far-east countries.
Nuclear submarines, to counter any attack, after all the Chines
are fine trading partners,
we poor people buy our shoes and socks
in Chinse shops.
This; is about money and the stupid people who run our world
hopes a nuclear war will never happen

Lua cheia
Shining in the sky
During the  most
Beautiful Summer night
During the Summer I stay up
And at night
After dinner
I sit in my balcony
And I glaze in the sky
There in the sky
I see the
Lua cheia
That takes my
Breath away
I am feeling so grateful
That my father
Made the
Lua cheia
With his holy hands
Before he made
The human beings
Also when the clock chines
2 am in the morning
I go to bed during the Summer
And the next day I get up at 3:00 pm
Also I feel refreshed

Lua cheia
Shining in the sky
During the most
Beautiful Summer night
During the Summer I stay up
And at night
After dinner
I sit in my balcony
And I glaze in the sky
There in the sky
I see the
Lua cheia
That takes my
Breath away
I am feeling so grateful
That my father
Made the
Lua cheia
With his holy hands
Before he made
The human beings
Also When the clock chines
2 am in the morning
I go to bed during the Summer
And the next day I get up at 3:00 pm
Also I feel refreshed