Sonnet That’s Not Funny!

It is a truth which I have long acknowledged, that a man, or indeed a woman, in possession of a fascistic turn of mind must be in want of a sense of humour. Various creative events, involving Led by Donkeys appear to have vindicated my position. 

Shall I compare thee to a lettuce, Liz?

Word salad, wilted ’s served when you’re on tour;

That Iceberg’s ...

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Walking around an empty hospital

Hearing voices, standing still

It's a strange feeling

Knowing there's no one on these grounds

Empty beds are blocking

As painful feelings are unlocking

Buried away in their homes

Scarred, anxious and alone

Yet the voices are protruding

Rebounding and allusive

Screams of fun and play come across

From another world now at a ...

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A problem shared is a problem halved

and of knowledge I am starved

so here I am Dr Google

Seeking support, not a Doctors' retort 

You are there for me 24/7

Delight in a worriers heaven

A different diagnoses every night

hoping this search might be right

Speaking face to face is overrated

Full of judgement, bile and hatred

while my toy gives the answers

loo...

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A rosy glow adorns this morning’s sky,

today, we regulars pay our respects,

tomorrow, with an angel I will play.

A quiet bloke, he’d been around the world,

of Africa and engineering spoke,

of vintage motorbikes, and automatic cars,

the pros and cons of smart-or not-TVs,

of pacemakers, the NHS, and stuff,

and never took his little trilby off,

a different one from time to ...

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Hoody, vape and tatt

All night I've been sat

Another coffee will wake me up

Here's a magazine, take my cup

Alone on the ward, feeling bored

My eyes crush a matchstick hoard

Marks and scuffs on the walls

Remind me of times, restraints and all

Long days and nights settle in my thoughts

Old faces, names, and incidences haunt

Decisions made, young people blamed

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Savouring the solace 

Subverting the scene 

A spectre on the surf 

Sublime and serene  

Suffering the silence 

Shaping the sun 

Scuppering the smog 

So sane with someone 

Staffing submerged 

Sheepish and surged 

Scared as the scurried scatter 

Splurged and so shattered 

Shanked and superfluous 

Serious and stained 

So sad to see 

Striking...

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Hokey Okay - Experiences with the mental health teams 
 

The police bring you in, next thing you’re out,

In out in out, fucks your head about,

They do the okay okay and turn you around,

Claiming that your mindsets sound!

Woahhh you’re okay okay,

Noooo, ill chokey chokey,

Woahhh, you’re okay okay

Head hurts, alarms sound ah ah ah

Then you’re back in again, out ...

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Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!

(From the Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Below is what I consider to be a Manifesto of Hope, to whose motives and principles I wholly subscribe.

Public ownership of all public services and infrastructure, including ...

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You know what’s wrong

with NHS target times,

they need to take tips

from recipes online.

Where nothing’s

difficult or complex

to achieve.

Three ingredients

and ten minutes

is all you’ll need.

Ready in a flash,

easy to fling together.

A scalpel, a doctor

and hey presto,

the patient

gets better.

Easy as pie,

easy on the eye.

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But sir, it wasn’t us, that’s so unfair!

We’ve only been in power for thirteen years,

It was those nasty Europeans, there,

Made of Britannia such a great pig’s ear.

It wasn't Hunt spelled with a C who wrote

That pamphlet saying “Kill the NHS”,

It was those forinners in small rubber boats,

That made the UK an omnishambolic mess.

Oh look at that, a dead cat in the street!

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First they came for freedom of speech, but I did not speak out

Because my sources told me what I wanted to hear, 

Then they came for the Poor, but I did not speak out 

Because I was not poor, 

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, but I did not speak out 

Because I was not a Trade Unionist, 

Then they came for the Socialists, but I did not speak out 

Becau...

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General Strike Now!

Mick Lynch + Eddie Dempsey = Absolute Stars! "For the Many, not the Few in the Cayman Isles"

The NHS-hating Tory hypocrites said “clap”;

Like the fool that I was, in the cold at our door,

I cheered and I whistled for the Tory claptrap,

While those partying scumbags sicked up booze on the floor,

Set emergency alarms off; and the Met Plod did ...

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Poor little match girls.

Can you hear the people sing?

General strike now!

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In 2005, Jeremy Hunt, as Health Secretary co-authored a policy pamphlet calling for the NHS

to be replaced by an insurance system.

On page 78 the pamphlet says that “our ambition” should be the de-nationalising of the  provision of healthcare in Britain.

The book was put together by Douglas Carswell, and its authors include Tory MPs Michael Gove

Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, ...

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But sir, it wasn’t us, it’s so unfair,

We’ve only been in power for nigh twelve years,

It was our friend le Putain, over there,

Made of the NHS such great pig’s ears.

It wasn’t Hunt spelled with a C who wrote

That pamphlet saying “Kill the NHS”,

It’s old gits, and those refugees afloat,

It’s them that’s got the UK in distress.

Oh look at that, a dead cat in th...

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It might be gout, arthritis,
I’ll take some blood.

What for?

To test for uric acid, diabetes
and other things, he muttered.

I might have asked: Like what?
But with his box of needles out

I worked on breathing calmly,
averting eyes from the likely spot;
although there was no pain.

Even at this age there is something
in my look that makes him tell me
I am brave.

Good boy, or...

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His Walk inspired a nation,

100 yards to a 100 years, what motivation.

From an army veteran to a NHS hero,

Even the Queen came to say bravo.

Knighted and UK number one,

Now "you'll never walk alone".

You will forever remain in our hearts,

To heaven as your soul departs.

Rest in peace Captain Sir...

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half-dead they do linger

machines tinkle and purr

medics swathed in plastic

distressed humans a-stir

beneath ICU wards and

amid odd cavities galore

smaller fauna breathes

distant the muffled roar

who considers the mice?

they live in hospital too

a big enough challenge

without this virus stew

if you listened carefully

on dozing wards at night

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Bitter pangs

Leak puddling

To the floor

The GP

Noxiously

Unconcerned

By women

Crying 'ouch'

For sick notes

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Ode to Covid Carers.

To intensive care and virus wards each day

In every town they make their way.

Caring souls, disguised in blue and white,

To fight against the Covid blight.

Shift after shift, through night and light

Brothers and sisters of mercy face up to our plight.

Masked, shielded, smocked and booted

lonely, fearful, solely commuted

on the near empty bus and...

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Unprecedented times, the like never seen before

This pandemic has shaken us all to our very core

A whirlwind ripping through our cities and towns

The evil coronavirus wearing its invisible crown

It does not care if you are rich or poor

A Royal, a minister or the boy next door

No matter what age, wealth, colour or creed

Affecting us all, and with devastating speed

We have a ...

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Encouraged by comments on my latest blog - and reminded that I always intend to post my blogs on WOL and usually get distracted before doing so - I'm repeating a blog from a few weeks ago which I didn't post here. With thanks to those who commented on the last one!

I've been thinking about what happens next. There's been a lot of talk in the press, and shared posts on social media, about t...

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Ten weeks on,

clapping for key workers is coming to an end

Clap your hands,

in appreciation, for their dedication we commend

Every person,

old and young, women, men, girls and boys

Clap your hands,

whistle, shout, cheer, together make some noise

At the window,

by the front door, on the step or in the street

Clap your hands,

bang a drum, beep a horn and st...

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Heroes In Blue

Unprecedented times, the like never seen before

This pandemic has shaken us all to our very core

A whirlwind ripping through our cities and towns

The evil coronavirus wearing its invisible crown

It does not care if you are rich or poor

A Royal, a minister or the boy next door

No matter what age, wealth, colour or creed

Affecting us all, and with devastat...

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We live by  the hands of others

Not seen by you or me

They pass the parcel

Stand at the till

Nurse the wounded

Or keep order

We live  by  the hands of others

Not seen by you or me

Our hands scrubbed clean and safe

But…

We  live by and are grateful to others

Who have to live day by day with that terrible fear

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All remember and do not forget 
Those to whom we owe our greatest debt. 
They help us when we are in distress; 
It is all of those who work for the NHS.

Around the clock they are always there, 
And all this time they surely care. 
Though it is something that we just expect 
From those who deserve more respect.

Each worker endlessly strives 
To cure and save all of our lives. 
So sure...

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Noel and Liam have still not made up

And it looks like the millers will
never win the cup
Theresa is still in number ten
And not much has changed since
Maggies den
We are still plagued with mass unemployment
Far too many are becoming insolvent
Everywhere people sleeping on the street
Too many families with nothing to eat
Still we can't bridge the north south divide
People still wait f...

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Wake me up when the storm has passed
And the ravens have left the tower
Wake me up when the war machine
Has finally run out of power
Wake me up when the bigots
Have finally opened their eyes
And all of the presidents have given up telling lies
Wake me up when the tables have turned
And lessons have been learned

Wake me up when the big game hunters
Have finally paid for their crime
...

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Unwanted

I sit upon a judgement chair

And watch the lights

And hear the sounds

That emanate from over there

Where broken hopes

And dreams abound

You pay me well

But do not want me

Sitting there where you could sit

Taking up your place in hell

Amongst the blood

and tears and shit

I came from Spain

To ease the pressure

As hospitals began to...

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A daughter, a mother and a nurse, sleepwalks to work
On four hours’ sleep, as the moon peeps above the clouds.
The sun snuggles under the covers.
The familiar uniform bares her arms against the breath of December.
Clinical blue shrouds her worries of money troubles
And ailing family members
She wears a compassionate smile.
There are blisters on the soles of her feet,
From chasing the lost ...

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Hospitals full 
No beds for care,
Government money 
All too rare.

Dementia patients left to cope
Danger, stranger, lost all hope.
Children waiting months to see,
Counsellors to set them free. 

Schizophrenia, write them off
No one really gives a toss. 
Benefits the only way,
Stop them having any say. 

Depression that's just a joke,
Just a crushing wall of smoke,
Watch it take yo...

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National Wealth Service?

I do not want to lie under accountants sheets
when my body rattles out its failing beats.
Nor do I want to pay for every brick
on those, sad days, when I am feeling sick.
I do not want the most important thing
to be the amount of money that I bring.
I do not think the currency of health
should be determined by your misers wealth.

I couldn’t care less where the...

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Lulled and startled-

Bleeding by the babbling brook of the caged telly

Lulled and startled-

Snapped bones jar at the swish of the double doors

That shroud the curses of fun loving nurses

Skin as raw and cold as corn beef

Some teath broken

From biting the apple

This man has been picked on

Battered

And buggered

All his life

You know

He’s been squashe...

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No home, no job, just 12 good friends.

Betrayed by one who swore they never would.

Died too soon for pointless reasons.

What if God the NHS was one of us?

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