As honesty doesn’t come in half measures

I squared up to him-

‘In this tin is worms,’ I said,

‘I won’t mince syllables,

As I am meant to be gritty-

There’s already too many

In this bit…’

Then we went to town

Dressed as old goths

And we went to town

On each other

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It's said

"laughter is

the best

medicine."

But poetry

heals the

soul.

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I had a bream

It got away

It shot upstream

To my dismay

I just caught a minnow

With my rod that day

Next time I’ll go to bingo

I’ll catch the matinee

I came home empty-handed

And low on self-esteem

So there and then

I told my mates I’d landed

A bag of thirty bream

(By half past ten)

I had a bream

It got away

It shot ups...

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And we shall see

How these words develop

When they wrap around

The tall white spaces

Freeze-dried blocks of crystal matter

In cages our letters remain

Casting gloomy glances across the rain

The trees on fire, as are they

Who speak these words that live today

Made and given life

Now retracted, punish the crime

No-one allowed to speak their ...

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Info via link.

https://soundcloud.com/chris-coey-poetry/thepoetry-spoke

Full advert to follow nearer the 16th May - opening night.

Guest Poet - Guest Musician - Open Mic Poetry 

Every 1st & 3rd Thursday of each month.

Gallaghers Pub 

20 Chester Street

Birkenhead 

Wirral

CH41 5DQ

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I'm sorry for all profile changes and removing blogs.

I've only been connected with this site 2 months and I've made a complete hash.

I'm sorry Tony when I realised you weren't what I was looking for I should have just pulled out, in all fairness you said I could,but I'm not saying sorry indefinately.

I thoroughly enjoyed my last read at The Tudor but would prefer to travel to Manch...

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Crab Fisherman

He peers over the edge, measures out the line, then

lets drop his cloth bundle of bacon and trimmed fat,

and pulls them up, horned and furious,

two or three at a time, again and again,

their claws caught in his clever weave.

He carries them home for tea at seven,

twelve dancing crabs in a bucket of water.

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I stand before this mirror

Looking not at but through

My eyes push to recognise

Focus on a version of self

that at least holds some semblance

Or truth, I wait………..

Then ringing it comes!

And certain feelings

Lost like so many old keys turn up

And in this I re-gather

Windows open and I feel the rush

Of my own youth

Rui...

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Love

 with a long howl

 lessening down the night

Sad

 as a lost soul

falling a great height

Hopelessly

 cried

And my

incredulous heart

 hissed  ` murderer! `

.......................

And died.

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He said-

''Hey see this?  this and that?

-he pointed at the washing-

then get it sorted.''

She said-

''where's the friggin money?''

The window cleaner avoided eye contact.

She said-

''there's no tea!''

He sat quiet.

She walked into the kitchen

- touched a swelling eye-

and planned her escape.

words and foto T Carroll

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Such a disaster once had happened.

Water and fire had fallen in love

Master to hug the fire was maddened,

Was so much afraid to hug his love.

Strong arms of fire enchanted, gleamed,

All around him has brightened.

Pull over to her love water dreamed

But the flames of fire frightened.

Prideful and beautiful was the fire

With each coming day hi...

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Drunk (Spinning Wheel Blues)

Two o’clock

and feeling so high.

Walking on walls

and touching the floor.

Spinning wheel blues

in the back of your mind.

Knowing you can’t take

anymore.

Churning stomach

in time with each spin

as the room turns over

and throws you aside.

You clutch to the bed

as though you would fall

and – somew...

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I came home from work and saw GMP Defender spy plane circling where I live. I heard the turboprops as it did racetrack patterns going into clouds. I also saw a kid's balloon black on grey sky. Did Defender's camera pick it up?

Then I saw a second spy plane! A plastic Diamond DA42 prop plane. Hey, prop jets are more cool. Even crap Defender has them! You two ...

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Tugging the stockings out the drawer

Clasp up clips, leave suit on the floor

Zip up my boots, apply more mascara

Anticipate nervously the oncoming drama

Start the engine on cold autumn night

You wanted me there, and I cannot fight

Tired, unsure, aware of the time

Knowing your impatience, I blur the white line

Bright lights feed confidence, feeling unf...

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The Worst We All Feared

Do you really think,

Do you really think that you

Are allowed a place in Heaven -

     After all you have seen,

After all you have experienced,

Do you really think you will

Take these memories with you??

     What is left of us,

What is there that goes beyond

The place we are tortured?

More than that,

...

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on the please-come-in door

a bright brass knocker

and stained glass birds

rainbows on the walls

when the sun casts through

a dark scrolled shelf

hangs high in the hall

gleaming with candlesticks

cats dogs monkeys

and a clear glass train

its engine

full of coloured candy beads

glowing like jewels

up the stairs to bedtime

footsteps slow

...

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Entrenched
Behind failing lines,
These curtains of shrapnel and sharp steel
Conceal my misery,
So seamlessly, absently
I go on, numb, alone,
For sensation no longer blesses me.

Relentlessly, I force back my fear,
The absent tears never reach my cheeks
And thick blankets of earth and sand
Choke my cries, damp,  pitiful.
I fall to the boards clotted with death
As my bre...

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Stop the cuts, and stop the closures,
Private companies, trying to own us,
Globalist profits, tax payer exposure,
Figures kept under wraps, like a banker’s bonus.
Stop the cuts, ‘cos they’re completely unfair,
There’s no need, for cuts to welfare.
Why not abolish Trident next year,
And concentrate on the families living in fear?
Struggling to pay the rent this month,
Feed your...

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a random-stitched acrostic. Click on image link for full visual to see photo for text formatting.   :-)

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We gazed at children so expectantly

and after thirty-two years of that

we’re still fondling my vasectomy

while pondering new ways of losing fat.

She watches re-runs of The Walking Dead;

I’ve got live streams showing Aston Villa.

She’s relaxed as an axe chops off soft heads;

I’m tense and nervous as a Psycho Killer.

She treats cut and bruis...

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Image: Crossing into Mexico.

25.04.13: 107) Sky's grey same as yesterday

Bird's singin' crossing bells ringin'

Train's comin, progress makin' whole house shakin'

An' I'm usin' the time to capture it in rhyme.

108) At Alan's I'm stayin' baroque music playin'

Music so mellow, on flute, harpsichord or cello

As you may be supposin, I'm sat composin'

Hopin...

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Days

In the morning she was mother again,

breakfasting gaily on the remaining quarter bottle,

whilst you trekked to ‘the shop’

like a disgruntled wine waiter sent to distant cellars.

Don’t desert me held you hostage in the kitchen,

listening, as she worried at the past, for the first slouched words

that made you want to slap her.

By ...

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One swan is worth fifty sparrows

Three eagles for thirty blackbirds

and one jackdaw's worth five robins

For swan, read Brit

for sparrow, Syrian

for eagle, read Yank.

Blackbirds are Iraqis

The jackdaw's an Israeli

and the robins Palestinians.

Dead good isn't it.

Dead simple

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ON THE BLOCK

   Urban sprawl,

   Graffitied walls

   High rise flats.

   Hooded twats?

   City dwellers? 

   Cocaine sellers?

   Eyes on sticks

   And cars on bricks.

Everybody’s feeling

The youths are dealing.

   Slowly drowning,

   Always frowning.

   Trying to impress you,

   Even oppress you.

   They look rough,

   They...

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What if our total experience

is managed by forms that are

beyond our cosmic constintuency?

What if our lives are not lived but

adhered, negated?

Love and rage,

peace and imperfections.

Each of us may well be unreal,

contolled by some future government

or gaming company.

What if our hardware wears out

and leaves our skeleton wan...

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Starting as a low murmur,

White Noise,

My mood blackens,

Reason detaches itself from me.

That...fuzzy feeling clouds my brain,

Panic pushes all else aside.

Thoughts turn back to home,

Fears I can't speak of,

Getting older,

Loneliness,

Mind traps.

"Things will never change"

I see myself give up,

Leave,

Unable to convey

What ...

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Twenty years ago, 
he is waiting for a bus,
'Cos twenty years ago 
he is simply one of us.
But just twenty years ago, 
he comes under attack,
Just 'cos twenty years ago, 
this teenager is black.

Twenty years ago, 
he runs for his life,
'Cos twenty years ago, 
racists stick him with a knife.
Twenty years ago, 
this firework is far too fleeting,
And so twenty ...

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I will

Form into an black shell

Slime on the window.

Curl an ending

in an air trap

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I was not impressed by the LIKES of that masked thug seen running at a police horse and

punching it in the face - and who was later reported to be receiving "disability" benefit!

...............................................................................................

Spare us your song of self-pity

The world's had enough of that ditty!

The refrain stays the same -

...

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We smelt the piles of rubbish in the street
and read by candles in the freezing dark,
we watched for Nazi skinheads in the park
and heard the moan of Britain's long defeat.
The old paternalism kept us down
in triple-binds of accent, race and creed;
and yet we thought we nurtured hope indeed,
though dreams of aspiration went unknown.
And then the old consensus passed away
with ...

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What of you my darling

My dearest one

What of you within the warm shimmer of day

Fey careless heart

God gifted you dark night

For all your errant swirling dreams to sail

Far away across deep forever running seas

Storm and tempest ever

Tossing you upon some far distant shore

To sleep forever and dream amore

What of you my darling

My dearest one

Wit...

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messy field

warning ,

satanic wordplay is at work here

kicking in barn doors laughing

the other day i found out that cromwell got the fa-buck da digged up and hung

information is exciting

being smacked in the face was much better

there's nothing like blood

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

open wide

loyal to demonic activities

get the chanting going

...

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I thought I saw an execution there.
The fascinated public gathered round.
The cheerful hangmen stripped the victim bare
and built their gibbet high above the ground.
The rope was taut. My wildness filled with fear.
I saw him fall. I heard his final cry.
Yet when the hangmen left I ventured near
to find my fault: I'd never seen him die.
   In fact, I think he'd died some years ag...

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Iron Lady

Munchkin cabinet

Yuppie winner

House buyer

Property owner

Falkland's hero

Powerful dictator

Our duty

Look after

One's self

Union destroyer

Tory fighter

Killer Queen

Poll tax

Inner City

Culture riots

Police brutality

Shields overtime

Disperse strikers

Miners fall

Maggie rules

Crushed workers

Labour ...

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and spat it out

and for many years it crawled

before it learned to stand

where it said “I will make you now a fresh bowl,

from my family’s blood”

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http://tomarianne.blogspot.co.uk/

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what is it about lonliness that we are all drawn in to it ?

Ironicly we busy our self just to flee away from unexpected thoughts and confronting our true self

conflicting thoughts screw a way in causing a WAR within , a fire is ignited deep with in

we run away in work , school , shopping anything just to ignore the truth.

Yet when confronted Loniliness is preffered as a solution...

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Roses are red

Maggie was blue

now she is dead

they're having a do.

They're airbrushing history

re-writing the past

Big Ben's falling silent

the flag's at half mast.

In a time of austerity

they've money to burn

for the pomp of her funeral

but the lesson we've learned

is they secretly know

she's not loved by the nation

...

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Champagne water
Cashmere love
Cherry lagoon.
Water bloom.
Blossom dip.

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Mean and moody,

mysterious and handsome,

so they call you black jack,

do you fancy a game ?

Cool as ice,

disinterest in your look,

yet,

I know what you're thinking,

do you fancy some lust ?

Think you'll break my heart in two,

in you I can not trust,

yet,

the passion you've stirred in me,

electricity running through my veins,

ha...

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We are a dead steelworks

We are a dead pit

We are a dead community

We have become a dead grandmother

We are a dead altruism

We are a dead society

We are a morally-dead nation

We have become a dead grandmother

We are a friend to Suharto

We are a friend to Pinochet

We are a friend to apartheid

We have become a dead grandmother

The ...

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Suspended in the
Silent, stubborn wind.

Rubber was split bent double
Across the pitch
Like an un-answered prayer.

Ghostly, dismantled
Across a sky of open wounds
Substituting noise for silence
Over lepping lane
With fear watching over
The scoreboards.

Memories dismantled across stands
And dissolved into a absence
Half rubbed out
With justice r...

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My first and only, indirect encounter with Margaret Thatcher was in 1971, at a demo outside a private girls’ school in Leamington. The “milk snatcher, union basher” – the then-education secretary had introduced some legislation about student unions, but I can’t remember the significance of it now -  was handing out the prizes at speech day. Protesters gathered outside the school gates. I was ne...

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Hi Everybody,

Hope you can join us an entertaining evening of Comedy, Poetry and Live Music this Thursday at 8pm at Vinyl Bar, Lark Lane.  Admission is FREE.

Acts Include:

Liverpool  Acoustic Songwriter of the Year- Vanessa Murray

Talented Wordsmith – Reece Goldstrein

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Charlie Dupre's new CD "The Stories of Shakey P" is a recording of his show of the same name.  In it, the lyrical rapper/MC performer takes a swing at Shakespeare (and his contemporary Christopher Marlowe) with a really funny, fast-paced rhythmical wit that sends up the Bard while taking the living rise of out of him.

The first track sees Shakespeare and Marlowe re-imagined as teenaged rap...

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No more time for lovers anymore,

prefer the wind, the rain, the snow.

Fair weather men,

not for me now,

found love,

that will last till the end.

No more time for lovers anymore,

prefer the wind, the rain, the snow,

no more one sided love affairs,

with guys who don't care,

found true love,

once more.

No more time for lovers anymore,

...

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Those books, where’s he taken them, who died? Those were my books.
I know what the other two were. Nobody passed, nobody, the street was
like a funeral procession that had failed to appear, the space reserved
but the burial delayed because the coffin refused to enter the hearse.

Again they tried but it would not move. The road is clear somebody says,
we have to go, but the co...

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I have reposted this with some minor changes suggested by helpful contributors to WOL

As I sit upon

This empty bed

White cotton frayed

From nights

That punctuate 

This thin veneer

Of wakefulness

I look for traces of you.

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Moonlight - and you

Roses - the scent

Whispers your name

Golden hair, aromatic smile

                    Tantalizing

Laughter in your eyes

Captured - a gentle bite of your lips - sweet

The dance of rapport

Rhythm, movement

Waves - soft, smooth

                   Breathless motion

Ocean - lapping, rolling, crashing, caressing the rock...

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This is the story I’m still trying to amend,

The poem I attempt to remember.

The one where there’s a definitive end

Which finishes happy ever after.

Somewhere along the journey we fought

Against not alongside each other,

We should have been battling with ogres

but instead we punched one another.

We might have defeated the slavering wolf,

Feasted o...

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O' sprite full Maia,come attire our lands with your boundless prize,
Of joyful swelling by the natures pleasing bloom,and green surprise;
To sprout a floral bedding round the yards and shades for worthy dales--
For birds to spin their adorned bowers over the dewy boughs and vales.
Hail! to you goddess--deck the forest's lingering beauty,thus come---
Let streams do flow ...

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A winter bite that

mocks the spring, pincers its cocoon.

A life supported?

Cease one's internal decay,

Even ice melts. Love's fluidity.

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Some sources on Ghandi's outrageous opinions about black people:

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo/2008/10/17/on-mahatma-gandhi-his-pathetic-racism-and-advancement-of-segregation-of-black-people/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8410318/Mahatma-Gandhi-racist-and-bisexual-claims-new-book.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/17/southaf...

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The genial tenant in that cosy room

Has lived there always we assume,

He looks through the window onto the street

Behind the curtains so discreet.

He sits and glances and sighs

With great sadness in his eyes,

Mourning the day that he was born

I found him sad, alone, forlorn.

I sat beside him into the night

He lay with his hands clasped tight,

The years ...

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A HELLISH ENCOUNTER

The furnaces were roaring

With a foul and sulphurous smell

The damned were being tortured –

Just another day in Hell.

The air was full of ghastly screams

And soul-destroying moans

When above the dreadful clamour

Rose some shrill suburban tones…

‘So messy! And so smelly!

And so awfully, awfully hot!

And all you do is tor...

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I want to wrap my arms around you,

I need to hold you oh so tight,

Protect you through the darkness,

Until the early morning light,

Let me swim in your eyes of blue

And float down the river to your heart,

We are a union of body and mind,

Nothing will ever tear us apart, 

Let me run my fingers through your hair,

Kiss your beckoning lips with a passion, 

Ca...

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Published on Poetry24

http://poetry-24.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/dear-margaret.html

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' I looked in my soul and found you standing there...'

She rides

She rides in the dark of the night,

on her newly broken steed,

lines on her face so deep,

tracing every life she'd ever lived.

With a heart of gold,

and soul of an angel,

she's never been cornered,

being alone,

is her destiny.

Her heart racing,

her steeds hooves pou...

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Docklands.

Shiny, shiny, Armani suit

Neat, neat, neat,

 20 stone body builder circling around an unconscious man

Tied to a seat, seat, seat,

Private deserted London warehouse

In the muggy night time heat,

A hard slap and a bucket of water,

Then two rivals finally meet,

“You little slag; you try to steal my business

Now your life ain’t so sweet,”

...

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A shot of espresso

With hot water

That’s Americano

So much larger

If you want to linger

To take it all in

The cup like a soup bowl

Saucer like a plate

Steam rising before me

Strong aroma

Of roasted coffee beans

A soothing blackness

O Americano

How I love you

How I long to feel your heat

And your bi...

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I stood in the tall mirror 

on the border of puberty,

not long before i had learned to see myself.

Glass against foil, a simple trick.

Even though the foil was peeling,revealing itself plain

i believed

in something better

and i looked right in to the point where they say He hides

deep inside the ripples of glass

and i squinted my eyes

knowing ...

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Synaesthetes night out at Cafe Oto

This is an impression of an impression,
the hyperreal of ketchup in a painting,
a kid’s wax crayon drawing,
a pulp paperback, lurid and lovely,
a pastiche of unstitched pop songs.

This music tastes not of red wine but cold beer,
electronic gizmos sharpen silence,
club cut hair is feather black on cheek bones,
basket weave lantern throws...

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A galaxy is growing in my bin,

whilst comets crash into the Chinese rug, 

a blackhole bobs beside the biscuit tin,

and minute moons revolve around a mug.

The white dwarf in the fridge could curdle cream,

spacetime inside the dryer steals some socks,

a wormhole warps the washing; starts to steam,

as pulsars tick-off time like cuckoo clocks.

A silky milkyway sleeps in my sink...

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Start

Move

Progress

Then advance

Slow down the process

Confidence waning, recession

Seeds

Sprout

Black dark

Into light

Unlocks the gene code

To reproduce the next generation

Bud

Leaf

Unfurls

Catching sun

Photosynthesis produces

The raw materials for growth

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You threw me to the wolves,

one chilling winters night,

My only crime was loving you

and being a little out of control,

They tore off my clothes,

scared my face,

left me battered and bruised on the floor,

with no escape.

My defences were weak,

my spirits were low,

I laid curled in a ball,

just wanting to die.

Then he came,

fr...

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Read more …

It’s so easy when the road is straight, the destination clear.
A simple journey, targeting, the arrival time so near.
Keep a steady speed, no hurry now, relax enjoy what’s new,
After all this time the goal is right in view.

Who would have ever thought you’ld get this far when so
long ago you said, the trip seems so impossible, too many
miles ahead. Yet here you are, the ter...

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CITIZEN’S LAMENT

Oh to be in prison now that April’s here.

The council tax is rising

And they’ve upped the price of beer!

The kids want pocket money

The wife wants – well, don’t ask!

When all I want’s a simple fag

And ale straight from the cask.

Oh to be in prison now that April’s gone.

There’s nowt good on the telly

And they’ve built a bigger...

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I recently had a story published by 3:AM Magazine. You can have a read here http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/burrito-kate/

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The Union man gets up to say that rights he fought for day by day

Are quickly being snatched away. Hurrah the Union man!

He’s calling out to you and me to show some solidarity

And march beside the TUC. Defend the Union man!

The low paid worker makes a plea to call upon our sympathy.

The state affords him subsidy to make a living wage.

When public jobs are privatise...

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