I left everything, and made you my everything. Just for you to stab me in the back. Down on my lowest you left. I thought you had my best interest, instead you squeezed my heart to death. And instead of giving it back you left my heart on the shelf. Haven’t let me seen taeden, you got him thinking I left him by himself.  Left me for dead, I was sleeping in the car by myself. Cold and lonely, I did...

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A cigarette glows
reflected in the truck windshield
careening through the city night
These headlight beams
fruitlessly searching
for something gone
The Grand Rapids highways
never take me where I want to be
not even close

I drink awhile at Anchor bar
a quarter spinning on the table
thoughts go round, keep coming back
'til my skull's swimming too
Two more beers
heads they’re mine
t...

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As young men, we ran through this town
chasing the madness
at the bottom of every bottle
and the warmth of teenage smiles
honeyed with the promise
of new experience

Spinning from bar to bar, pushing the limits
of our bodies capacity for self-destruction
and regeneration
snow melting from our clothes
as we sat and drank and laughed
in the Christmas evening air

Tonight, we’re trying ...

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03.04.21 

Empty spaces 
Filled to the brim 
With everything that won't make you feel 
The same as you did before 

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We met there in the bar
most nights
the same drink
the same table
conversing over troubles
we leaned on each other 
in those long nights 

This night
I sit and wait
at the same table
with the same drink
you hadn’t arrived yet
and I linger for hours
wondering 

Nights like this pass
was it something I said
was there someone new
what was it keeping you

Then you arrive one night...

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How many times must I rinse off the moon

And unpeel the stars from my skin?

Have someone ask what were you drinking?

How many times must I try clinging to lamp lights?

Try configuring keys into shining beacons?

I cannot see in the dark

Yes, blackouts steal my sight

But when finished,

I wake up feeling feverish

And fear ferments and festers

The night can be sticky

H...

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Wanting life easy but living it hard                     

Dons his sick kilt and has one for the road

Gone to repeat the story he’s been told   

In the bar where he hasn’t been barred.             

Scotland is playing, they’ll win or they’ll lose      

He orders a pint, the fifth of the night                

Loneliness fades and the world becomes right

An amber-flecked al...

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MY FRIEND GINNY

You're a nice sensation when you are on my lips

I love to touch you with my fingertips

I like the feeling when you are going down

You say nothing, and you never frown

You're tall, slim and as cool as ice

When you touch my cheek it's very nice

Oh love is blind, yet I can see

You're my favourite G and T

Oh my, my, my, my G and T

How I love you ...

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Did you ever try to accept me,

Instead of avoiding me?

Or drinking me away?

Because I tried everything,

Just to make you smile at me,

But I could never make you laugh,

But I smiled constantly -

Like a fool.

Caring for you.

Because sometimes I couldn’t sleep because I was too excited to be in love with you

But sleep to you was like a breath -

And I was always your p...

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Teenagers, cycling across the Dales
up country roads in the seventies sun
wheels turning, chests burning
on our way to Tan Hill Inn

Too young to drink then
we'd sit in the garden 
catch our breath and if we're lucky
maybe the northern lights
I'd take photographs
thinking to myself
one day I'll bring my wife here
one day I'll bring my children
if I have any
and we'd cycle home

All...

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They know what he drinks

and that he likes it in a glass with a handle.

They know he never comes in on Tuesdays.

They know where he sits,

and how all of his stories

have changed over the years.

They know his kids and grandkids,

although they’ve never met,

and on the day that he doesn’t show up

they know who to call.

(Originally published in t...

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Silenus In The Brewery Tap

light fights its way

across a peeling window frame

and crashes lazily

upon a dark wooden table

where a man sits

stooped by work and alcohol

so that he seems

to stare for guidance in a pint pot

that stands half consumed

while froth slides down its sides

street noise scrabbles

to overcome the slow whumpwhump of a ceiling fan

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Wrapped in whiskey 

Tender words roll off your tongue

like how I roll this blunt for us

Car ride to a party we'd rather skip

Turns into an L ride that helps us tolerate

the people you call your friends

You allow alcohol to consume you

And I act like high is the new sober so you let me drive

Stumbling like you can feel the earth's rotation

I play the pillar

the earth's...

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We all hate the government
but what can you do 
just drink in the evening sun
talking with old friends

A little place I know
when our graft is done
we go…

Cobbled streets, thin passageways
snaking pipes embrace the buildings
in the shadow cast by evening sun
standing with good friends

A little place I know
let’s grab a bus
and go…

Who voted 'leave', not one man here
I'll sta...

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The Prelude to the weekend

where people drink till the wee hours of the night

hoping to finally take flight away from the stress of the past three days.

Knowing that these moments never last forever

that is why families stay tighter than leather.

fly under any weather.

Distance is obsolete when it comes to this family

varying directions we may be in our lives,

yet when we r...

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Happy.  Genial.  Merry.  Jolly
Blottoed, blasted, etched and blitzed
Mellow, foggy, hazy, squiffy
Tipsy.  Tiddly.  Brahms and Liszt
 
Dazed, zombied, tanked-up, trollied
Ganted, gubbed, guttered
Bladdered, blathered, leathered, plastered,
Sozzled, sloshed, scuttered
 
Hammered, battered, caned, mangled
Spannered, mullered.  Half-cut, lashed
Twisted, warped, slammed, wasted
Wrecked, ru...

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The lights are dim,

The band plays loud,

The audience are the usual crowd.

There's John and Jim against the bar,

Commenting on the lead guitar.

Leanne sits with her best mate Sam,

Shouting over the music, how she loves her man.

Her man, Brad, is at another table,

Flirting with a lass named Mable.

Then Wobbly Bob staggers over the floor,

Empty glass in his hand as he o...

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Red wine, devine - gush great Niagra!

Rose blush my lips, the female viagra

Pink screen my vision and grape stain my teeth,

Crush days to hours and press days to weeks.

Red wine, sublime - course through my veins

Make white my black, make barren my frames

Hide red with rouge and slur a fake smile

Extract the poison, inject the denial.

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I grab the beer pump and tilt the glass,
Whilst his slime and sleaze harass.
He slurs his words and winks his eye,
And gives his chat up line a try.
And still I smile so courteously,
The customer's always right you see.

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supping at the Silverback Inn

the glass stops halfway to its destination
and the sands of time are quicksand
as you survey the crowded saloon bar
in the gently creaking Silverback Inn

see him
the one with the paunch
I remember him
he was a bully
at school
a right hard case
look at him now
fat and old

the stained and sticky floorboards agree
whispering taunting mocking
all that...

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BEER, GLORIOUS BEER

Beer, glorious beer. It’s such a great thing that anyone can experience.

As for me I like ice-cold strong lager and a pint of real ale with the kick of a mule,

they all get you pissed if you have ten pints, so let’s have some more, it’s so much fun.

Beer comes in all shapes and sizes from all over the world,

from Chinese rat piss to Dutch thunder brew.

Yo...

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Life in the city starts at ten

With tanked up teenagers acting like men

Ladettes in skimpy skirts are all dolled up

Falling around in the road, having had too much to sup

The clubs are bustling, dance music rings out

The bouncers evict a fella acting like a lout

In the bars the booze flows like an industrial machine

And shouting and raucous laughter becomes par...

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Offend a Daily Mail reader – today!

In our miniscule existences upon this planet Earth

There’s precious few occurrences to occasion us true mirth

So listen up real loudly, those with brains and minds to spare

Who still hang on to plucking out true hope from thinnest air

Here’s the solution, if you’re open to such play

Just offend a Daily Mail reader today

...

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