manifesto
dripping lead pipes lead to razor blade epiphanies
and the time machine is broken and this fucking headache behind my eyes will not
shift
and i have control of the stock market but not my hair colour
and my lava lamp tells no one who i am and my poetry bo...
Thursday 31st December 2015 1:05 pm
mechanics
We are only alive for a cosmic second
and each gluon and quark and photon
and electron individually is like a nebulae
if you look at it hard enough and each
millimetre of our bodies contains
1000000000000000000
atoms and quantum theory tells us that
the universe is made up of the reaction
that takes place when a blanket of things
that are everywhere and nowhere at...
Wednesday 30th December 2015 9:16 pm
this is the end
everything here is slate grey and forgotten
its raining ash
there is a statue of a man with long hair and lightning
it’s raining ash
i kick through people’s lives like autumn leaves
it’s raining ash
in secret windows candles burn black crow cries
it’s raining ash
there is fire in the sky and ice in your lies
it’s raining ash
the screaming stop...
Wednesday 30th December 2015 6:55 pm
tiffany
the longest journey
i ever took
a cinema in barnsley
you 15
me 16
an hour of tentative finger steps
each knuckle flexed a thousand miles
each pad exhausted
your soft breath
urging me onwards
like a faithful trainer
in hyde park
at 5am
until i had swum the channel
ran the mile
(as will smith saved ...
Tuesday 29th December 2015 12:56 pm
junk 2
Attention Beneficiary,
my p*ssy is wet
I am the only daughter of Hon Dr. Kipkalya Kones
are u available?
I am the only daughter of Hon Dr. Kipkalya Kones
i'm looking for a quickie tonight...
I'm not sure
i'm 29/f with a very tight pu$$y and a$$
I'm not sure
Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars
Let me check
Wait, it's safe!
Almig...
Monday 28th December 2015 3:39 pm
volume
Heard you at the door
Waiting for a war
Why lie
Let you take the tour
Laying on the floor
Why try
Heard it all before
Wounds still rubbing raw
Why cry
Curse the fatal floor
Call the fucking law
Too shy
Burn that fucking whore
It’s her fault were poor
Why fly
Kicked along the floor
Now she screams no more
Why die.
Tuesday 22nd December 2015 8:56 pm
one sugar
Your colostrum tears melted through the yews
(on the sirens breath evening breeze)
I picked my way through the orchard (sliding on the rotting downfall)
You were kneeling where the cats were buried, by the verdi-gris whisper of a pond
It shocked me to see my mother clawing at the mound, tears softening the dirt where
(Ralph – 14 y/o – natural causes) lay crumbled and forgo...
Monday 21st December 2015 9:35 pm
shit robin
The shit robin sees the worst of you
The seasonal drowning of long suppressed sorrows
The pound shop perfumes and wrapping paper plasters
The curled plastic needles of the good old Christmas tree
Unboxed and toxic, stood in the corner, emaciated
The shit robin sees the worst of you
The festive fights and discount blusher plastered on cheeks
(so as the bairns don’t get sca...
Sunday 20th December 2015 11:46 pm
the anxious poet opens his rejections
Unfortunately, we will not be able to publish your work. You are an awful person and frankly, your poetry is shit. Thank you for your submission.
These were close but, in the end you are an arsehole so I decided not to take any this time. Good luck with placing your work you sad little fuck.
At this time, we will not be able to publish your work. I encourage you to submit for a fu...
Thursday 17th December 2015 8:26 pm
mrs dalloways 15 minute haikus
“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun / Nor the furious winter’s rages.”
Clarissa:
How strange it all seems
While my storm rages onward
So another quells
Peter:
Oh to swim again
Alone among the Soft Rush
Longing to surface
Septimus:
A life now taken
Sweet relief floods the senses
The sheep and the shears
Thursday 17th December 2015 11:50 am
a life sentence
one day i am sure
that i will read a line
in a book or from a
poem that will explain
beyond doubt what we
are and why we exist.
i think realistically
we are all just waiting to
find that line and when we
find it we will finally
close our eyes and sleep
sweet dreams for ever.
and even though
no one has ever written
that line the thought
that...
Wednesday 16th December 2015 9:32 pm
The Flower Ladies of Tallinn
The sun rises over Raekoja Plats
Flooding the ancient square with pastel beams
As from all corners come a-shuffling
The flower ladies of Tallinn
Tourists glide past with steaming elk pies
And carved wooden trinkets
As the ladies who welcomed Hitler
(for he was a step up from Stalin)
Set up their creaking tables
The ladies lay out flowers and ornate berries
P...
Tuesday 15th December 2015 3:38 pm
trunk
This morning went i woke
There was an elephant at the breakfast table
He wore guilt red lipstick smeared across his lips
His mascara ran charcoal tears down his coriaceous cheeks
His jaw painted with blue and yellow rage
He stank of semen and severance
Of one against none and all against everyone
He dressed like a little fucking girl
A disgrace to his family
...
Sunday 13th December 2015 10:12 pm
∞
the single best
day of my life was when
i read a book about quantum
theory and it said that everything
that can happen will happen and that
there are infinite universes with infinite me’s
and infinite you’s and infinite colours and infinite
feelings and to me that was the greatest thing that ever
happened because if there is just one single universe in which
we are happy...
Saturday 12th December 2015 2:26 pm
take to the track
t-shirt
trainers
treadmill
train
to
triumph
train
to
take
to
the
top
train
tough
talk
tough
training
tires
trainers
trainers
threadbare
try
trendy
trainers
trendy
trainers
tremendous
the
track
tests
training
torque
tested
traction
tested
thrust
tested
trying
to
take
the
three
...Saturday 12th December 2015 10:00 am
julia
all the baking hot pennies you pressed to your legs
the raw puckered flesh
(and royal reflection)
a punishment for things you never did
can be counted and changed
spent on a rocket ship
to fly around the sun
because on Tuesday night
you hit him back
now the storm has passed
and the world looks like your daughters green eyes
Wednesday 9th December 2015 8:40 pm
inter vivos
Carrions of clan and kin spin above
Slit wrists slick with gore not yet clotted
Throat torn open exposing crimson jewellery
A gathering the likes of which she never witnessed
Hallways full of dust and death swept clean by fair weather
Steaming piles of local news and pills not taken smother the carpets
Suicide luncheon served in her abandoned house while uncles light cigarettes
...Tuesday 8th December 2015 7:52 pm
causa mortis
I found by my bed
A dried out husk
Brittle and boneless
So I gave it my eyes
Slid out the milky corneas
So that it might see
Cut out my tongue
Thick and coiling like a serpent
To give it my words
I sliced through my ears
Like sweet Vincent
So that it might hear
My daughter’s true love
Shaved my head army clean
So one day it may feel
...
Tuesday 8th December 2015 8:58 am
60/16
Hello.
It is me.
I am writing to tell you
What not to do.
What not to think.
What to discard as anger.
What opportunities to take.
Which to avoid.
How to treat your wife.
And daughter.
How to mellow.
Relax.
Keep healthy.
Clean.
Well fed.
But not too well fed.
Not to drink.
Smoke.
Take drugs.
To appreciate what you have.
Let that be your d...
Monday 7th December 2015 7:38 pm
cat
You had turned up with a fresh bruise
A navy blue palimpsest on a glass jaw
Seaside tears trailed down from eyes
Half closed through fear and swelling
You had brought the Webley .22 rifle
Given to you by your maths teacher
And a pack of bullets stolen from him
Alongside a hip flask of Bristol Cream
As usual we barely spoke of dullness
Of substances and fracture...
Sunday 6th December 2015 10:44 am
gecko
I had never been to a birthday party before
and really i had never seen how other people lived
so when we pulled up to this enormous house
and dara ran outside i just laughed and then
his mum took my coat and his dad gave me pop
then we played games and sang songs and later
on he showed me his present and it was a gecko
which is a type of lizard but i didn’t think anyone
wo...
Saturday 5th December 2015 4:11 pm
drain
My breath paints opaque on the drab, teary window
As I watch the umber monster lunk and lumber down the lane
All flash bang glamour and neon safety signs
Leaving behind macerated kerbs of sod and shimmering puddles
Scuttling behind are three ludicrous, papaya tinged workers
Swearing and sighing and singing rude songs
One guides a hose from the beast to the gaping, ...
Thursday 3rd December 2015 1:37 pm
Fight or Flight (my second ever rhyming poem)
I’m hyper-aroused in Aldi
There’s a mammoth down the meat aisle
I’m frozen, fawning, fleeing through fear
As a sabre-tooth tiger lopes past the beer
I’m sweating and smothered by a lack of my box
A spear flies past me and lands in the socks
My adrenal medulla is full of dismay
As a brontosaurus destroys the Christmas display
There’s a cascade of catechol...
Wednesday 2nd December 2015 3:28 pm
serenity
Halfway up a pale cliff face in Dover
Caught on a skeletal wisp of scurvy grass a
Silver plate necklace spelling out M U M glows
Luminous in the leering moonlight a
Shadow remains of this beautiful life
Tuesday 1st December 2015 6:07 pm
amy
The world
Smells
Beautiful
Just after
A storm
And
The best
Thing you
Ever did
Was
HitHimBack
Monday 30th November 2015 8:49 pm
after the storm
The radiator clicks its cast iron ribs
Quiet ruin strangles the evening
Plastic chandelier filaments flicker
The omelette sits untouched
Smoke alarm screams blue murder
We are dying on stage in a packed house
Champagne stains the anniversary flutes
The side salad wilts
Smokeless smiles haunt our faces
Small talk can’t escape our lips
Gossamer threads hold us...
Sunday 29th November 2015 8:11 pm
the storm
I stand at the window
Hoping the next bolt
Will be the one
That strikes our house
Shorts our circuits
Burns us to the ground
While you sit in your chair
Knitting a mauve scarf
Coming apart at the seams
The storm lifts
The cloud lingers
I ask you what’s for dinner
Its omelette.
Saturday 28th November 2015 9:20 pm
Beaujolais
I am late as usual
I exit the green room as the music fades
I walk on stage to pin drop silence
Tough crowd
I take a sip of wine and raise my arms
‘So you came to see a show?’
Silence
‘Well, here is your show’
I cross the stage to the turntable I had set up earlier
I lift the arm and drop the stylus onto the record
The static hisses and cracks and then Big O picks up
...Friday 27th November 2015 1:23 pm
soup
At
Best
Came
Death
Eternity
From
Gods
Hands
I
Just
Know
Life
Most
Now
Operate
Poorly
Quiet
Ruin
Strangles
Triumph
Ultimately
Vapid
Women
Kiss
Your
Zen
Zombies
Yearning
Cross
Ways
Vultures
Umbrella
The
Sky
Rile
Quickly,
Press
Onwards
Nothing
...Wednesday 25th November 2015 2:15 pm
heavy shelling
the pathway to the red front door of number twenty two
was bordered by two immaculate waist high hedges
parallel laurels clipped and choked by a mothers pride
a post downfall nirvana for slugs and snails of all kinds
fat umber leopards mingled with aspersa and pomatia
leaving the route to the house a pyrrhic battleground
the cost of a war between gi...
Tuesday 24th November 2015 11:38 am
a fine vintage
On my second week of university
Just eight days into sweet freedom
I developed what can only be described
As a raging case of haemorrhoids.
For shame, For shame
A heady mix of donner meat, Lager
And copious other poor lifestyle choices
Had led my rectum
To stand down
And my innards had
To misquote Jim Morrison
Broke on through to the other side.
I left...
Monday 23rd November 2015 4:25 pm
The Beverley Westwood UFO Adventure Club
The Beverley Westwood UFO Adventure Club
Met Friday night by the cattle grid
Wrapped in thermals and charity shop raincoats
Hip flasks full of whatever we could steal from our parents
We’d shiver and tremble as our breath exploded before us
Cold nights full of hope and high tales
Lying on our backs (avoiding the freshly lain pats)
Staring up at the milky Jackson Pollock stars
...Sunday 22nd November 2015 12:57 pm
shadow (a tanka horror story)
There are tiny burnt hands
Bursting through my inner walls
Bringing mercury
Where once my blood flowed through me
Gasping for air I thrash awake
Unsettled I rise
Finding not my wife’s safe frame
A space next to me
Where once my world did slumber
Now emptied with cold menace
Noises struck me cold
Laughter and crying as one
The piercing ash scream
...Saturday 21st November 2015 8:10 pm
stain
The stain in my brain
Hitches along my brainstem
Sits in the back seat
Sweating and swearing
His tin foil hat shining
Like a beacon in the dark
The stain in my brain
Uses my neo-cortex
As a thermal blanket
To shy away from the mercury
Sliding through my gyri
The stain in my brain
Busks in my medial temporal lobe
But can’t remember
Any good tunes
...Friday 20th November 2015 1:52 pm
bile
the shining white box i draw around my synapses is crumbling
away with the drip
drip
drip-feed of senseless misery and i long
for the surface of the moon and the ebb and flow of cosmic flotsam
but instead we are stuck still like a cliff of burning light ero-
ded by piss and sweat
and praise the lord and allahu akbar
and mantras and chants
and the se...
Thursday 19th November 2015 1:38 pm
bite
The perfect steak is medium rare
Barbaric and sexual, moist and forgiving
Its caramelised skin and soft pink interior
Its salty crunch and earthy, primal bite
The flesh melting in the mouth
The juices gliding down the throat softly
Washed down with a good red wine
And a sauce made from blood and butter
When I come to trial
And they put me in the chair
...Tuesday 17th November 2015 12:11 pm
once upon the sea of blissful awareness
i lie in a field and speak to god/godot about the
click clack asphyxiation cut throat cash flow
scarlet shame when each day dark side death
shadows and suicide note sunbeams wish wash
over my face paint hope and hatred i fly i lie i
cry hoarse please get me off this shit shot fucked
up ball of spinning hatred and insanity fuelled by
turpentine dreams and fat cat green chasing ...
Sunday 15th November 2015 2:28 pm
mitochondrial blues
there are times when i can taste my heartbeat
i can feel my blood slipping through my ecstatic veins as it
rushes from my brain to my bones to the
beautiful stars
and it is cold out tonight but i feel like the eyes
of god are
burning burning
a hole into my thoughts and desires and
he sees what it is that my soul thirsts for
and it is to walk backwards into the sweet
...
Sunday 15th November 2015 9:41 am
i got those human blues
well i woke up this morning
and i turned on the news
its november the fourteenth
i got those human blues
think i’ll write me a poem
thats what i’m expected to do
sympathise with the families
tell them i feel it too
i got the human blues yeah
lord knows i got those
human blues
my daddy blames the niggers
my mummy blames the jews
i think i’ll bla...
Saturday 14th November 2015 2:16 pm
marrow
1.
tight lipped
rose red
clip wings
force fed
caged bird
dull blade
piss stain
lets pray
2.
my swiss army wife
my servant my life
my oyster my pearl
my hostage my world
3.
(such tumescent beauty
such persistent frailty)
a white whisper of a woman
4.
-cut and burn leave and learn-
just get this fucking thing out of...
Friday 13th November 2015 1:49 pm
shot
i remember fondly
the piquant taste of scotch
the spirit of my yesteryear
now haunting my dreams
rich to the tongue
poor to the throat
saviour of our marriage
destroyer of our love
the bottles beating heart
like a metronomic diary
of my downfall
but see how i rise
from ashes and anonymity
to stake my claim
as husband, father
a smokeless p...
Monday 9th November 2015 2:11 pm
maps
1.
its nine thirty and i am at school and
we are outside on a warm day and
its the first time i appreciate the
shorts they make us wear because
my legs are warm and my arms are
warm and guy taylor and me are
walking past the playground area
towards the beautiful woods that
we are warned about at the start
of each term but we can’t resist
because the trees look l...
Sunday 8th November 2015 2:08 pm
blackbird
i remember the first time i saw your heart break
how you held the tiny bird in your demure hands
all feather and splinters and shattered dreams
and the look in your eyes that asked me why we
had spent all night prizing recalcitrant snails out
of their sealed isolation and poking the terrified
remains into its eager beak while it was wrapped
in a towel of purest white and how i...
Friday 6th November 2015 2:56 pm
whisper
“All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.” - Jack Kerouac
so many people living
their lives under such
burning white stars
with such wonder and
passion for unity and
need and will to give
and kiss and love for
all these people who
said yes to life and yes
to each other who did
nothing in fear and did
nothing with regret or
hate but instead...
Thursday 5th November 2015 3:19 pm
Les Bulot
in my dream i am back at les bulot
cautiously probing the fish soup
afraid of trawling its depths and
finding myself hopelessly out of
my comfort zone wishing i had
opted for the sirloin steak
which you were now pushing
around your plate with the silver
cutlery making blood and cream and
the lissom pomme-frite mingle
sensually on the bone chine plate
and now you a...
Wednesday 4th November 2015 1:57 pm
Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
tracking through the frozen
murmurous pine
iced needles cracking beneath my feet
my mind fits and shifts its fix
towards the burning carcass ahead
the glittering monument to christ the redeemer
flames licking and sucking at its skeletal frame
the heightened lust of ownership
coursing through my withered veins
we drag the screaming fanatics behind
...
Tuesday 3rd November 2015 7:18 pm
i got the sad sad blues
when life gets you down
your wife makes you frown
and the rain just keeps on getting wetter
just remember were a notion
spat out by an explosion
and soon you will feel so much better
Tuesday 3rd November 2015 5:28 pm
cineri gloria sera est
The day that you left me
Things began to turn
The wallpaper bled butterflies
The taps all spat out treacle
Water turned to blood
The fridge door hung limp
Jagged fangs bursting from inside
Thirsty for my sweat
The cooker turned atomic
All flayed souls and napalm shadows
Hate filled nocturnes and placental arias
Spiders crawled from under th...
Sunday 1st November 2015 8:22 pm
boo
Go back to sleep honey
No need for those tears
Daddy will make certain
To cast away your fears
You see
There’s no such thing as monsters
No ghosts to terrorise
So lie back down and try to sleep
Just close those pretty eyes
You see
If we can chop up mummy
And hide her in the shed
I’m sure that we can deal
With the thing under the bed
Saturday 31st October 2015 8:29 pm
Spice
The kitchen filled with heady perfume
Sweet cumin and star anise
Aromatic fennel and mace
Black gold brought back on steamers
Opulent saffron – sensual gossamer strands
Sumptuous vanilla – pod lithe and supple speaking of seed and semen
The crackle and snarl of the spice trade
Hits the fiery smoke of the dry copper pan
Produci...
Friday 30th October 2015 10:20 am
emma #2
Those gentle evenings
Where cherry blossoms fall
And gather in the curve of your back
Where candlelight and bergamot
Breathe softly in my ear
Where lullabies slip
From your sighing smile
And clouds sweep ebullient
Like candy floss dreams
Across your silent stare
Those late nights
When you are sleeping
And my thoughts are left
To dwell inside once more
...Wednesday 28th October 2015 12:04 pm
emma
The dunes of time have shifted
Weightless memorandum
Reshaping lands and dreamscapes
The ticking of the clocks
Willows have shot through ether
Tears like falling bombs
Limbs quickening pressed to flesh
amantes sunt amentes
Stars have sighed their final
A panacea for kings
Ebony and ivory
Now slate grey slabs forgotten
And through it all
You sto...
Tuesday 27th October 2015 10:30 pm
brine
Legs splayed aboard a clipper
You taught me knots and tender things
Of soft shackled edwards
Of stevedore and pile
How to kiss and pine
And long for the dark
Among the cardamom and spices
The fog of discovery
The thick scent of new lands
The nidorous smell of life at sea
The fragrance of your cunt
We spoke of rum and exploration
Of choco...
Friday 23rd October 2015 2:31 pm
cartography
We talked about your last goodbye
Not last like final
But the last time you said it
Chronologically
You said it had felt sensual
Knowing you would be away for a week
Knowing the light would shine somewhere else
For those blessed seven days
I told you what had happened
One day in
When my typewriter grew fangs
And the microwave meals you had left
Lined up in ...
Thursday 22nd October 2015 11:13 pm
11
Since my brother and I
Sit stitching wings
Onto butterflies
cross stitch
knit one
pearl one
Release from the jar
We speak not
Of family matters
Of trivial demeanours
Like our mother
Lying in effluence
While my father
Unravels like a spool of thread
We speak not
Of the debt
The dogma
The destruction of
Our beautiful wives
Since my broth...
Wednesday 21st October 2015 10:27 pm
sherlock
Beset with pockets and
Guidebooks yellowed
With patience
And steel
We pounce upon
The viscera streaked
Landscape
Echoes and ephemera
Within grasp
Hovering inches above
The graveyard of thousands
Thick sod and thicker rain
Harassing the beams
The flow of blood
Downhill
Eternal
Scratching at soil
With thick set fingers
Digging the holes
...Wednesday 21st October 2015 1:12 pm
sandy
we’d talk about foxgloves
and pink sunsets
how the mayans ate chocolate
with a hint of chlli
sweet and glossy
in ceramic cups carved with gods and men
we’d drag ourselves through fields of brambles
and nettles
to get to the spaces we knew
havens amidst minefields
our legs streaked crimson on white
our sport socks clotted with blood and sweat and...
Tuesday 20th October 2015 2:45 pm
OH IMPERIOUS MAMMON
OH IMPERIOUS MAMMON
Assyria
Babylonia
Stitches defiled by immortal greed
DEFILE ME STILL
Lay your jade upon me
Lay your hands upon me
OH IMPERIOUS MAMMON
I LAY DOWN
AT YOUR FEET
Slide inside my throat
Play inside my mind
MAMMON
DESTROYER OF ALL THINGS
DESTROY ME
Cancer switch shifting within
Picking at stitches
Picking at stitch...
Monday 19th October 2015 4:08 pm
discharge
Placental imbroglio drips off the chins of lepers
Innocence stained rouge with the sick swell of sweat
They pick and pick
Pick the stitches of cancerous limbs awash with foetal decay
Crouched in ineffable agonies tormented by crow shit musk
Lithe succubae smother bent and broken spasmodic muscle
Propinquity towards death shelters virgin chest panic
Panic Panic
Drum beat shi...
Sunday 18th October 2015 3:14 pm
noir
i wish i was
dressed in a
suit of light
so i could
show you all
how dark it
really is
Saturday 17th October 2015 8:39 pm
needle flight blindness
...Hard wired
Hard fuck
Tough luck
Shining...
...Neon light
Neon beams
Semen cleans
Broken dreams...
...White noise
White boys
Piss flaps
Night caps...
...Golden shower
Final hour
Needle
Flight
Blindness
Saturday 17th October 2015 11:39 am
syrup
i am a small pink cube
moving slowly amongst
green and blue triangles
CUT ME
OPEN AND COUNT MY
RINGS
i am a
collection of neuroses
count them with me
one two three
to be heard
is to
embolden
and sometimes
CAPITALISE
unless
you have
been heard
already
(i find your teeth
at the bottom of
each bottle)
...
Friday 16th October 2015 2:11 pm
car wreck(ing ball)
don't you ever say
i can't live a lie,
we clawed,
at
the ground
i just closed my eyes and swung
hit so hard using force
i never meant to crash so hard like a wreck
i never meant to crash so hard like a wreck
all i wanted was to kiss so hard to love and kiss
love and kiss love and kiss
love and kiss so hard
and now, we're ashe...
Thursday 15th October 2015 4:57 pm
blast off
i have the
same dreams now
as I did
when I was ten
to be free
to be happy
to own a rocket ship
so that I could blast off
away from everything
and be free
and happy.
Thursday 15th October 2015 11:25 am
marmalade
take drugs and
fuck girls because nothing
is waiting but worms and
trees and the
deepest blue sky
Tuesday 13th October 2015 5:27 pm
Neruda
at that age I was summoned
abruptly
it touched me
violent ...
i was without
words
i was without
winter fires
it touched me
and
poetry arrived.
Tuesday 13th October 2015 3:45 pm
Poetry and Mental Health
Hello.
I have just written a blog on Poetry and Mental Health for the literary magazine Under the Fable.
I'd love for it to get more than the usual 14 views, they are a small magazine and could use some exposure.
More over, I'm quite proud of the piece and would like to know what others think.
It can be found here.
medium.com is awful for formatting but the words should speak for ...
Sunday 11th October 2015 10:53 pm
the split
Earlier...
We had walked We walked
Hand in hand
Through snow Through
To the patisserie
Where we bought
Oven warm bread warm
And salted butter
And paid in change
We waited
A little too long little
In the doorway doorway
Staring out at the cold ...
Sunday 11th October 2015 4:14 pm
spaghetti junction (rewrite)
Dinner times were brutal
The small talk barbaric
We dined on each other’s failures
The whole family as one
Seething and silent
He would get home from work
And sink his fangs
Into whoever looked tender
(we tried to look tough)
His blood boiling
The kettle whistling
The rend and rift
I stayed silent
Played dumb
Took my medicine
...
Saturday 10th October 2015 12:58 pm
porcelain
Bruise the night
Burn the flesh
Unused skin lay down
Amidst the thistle
Legs spread wide
Miles away from town
Led from heaven
Into dusk
Though the glance was fleeting
Eyes roll back
Lips apart
Chance the fateful meeting
Friday 9th October 2015 8:40 am
Psalm 1
For the Lord
Yields
Wicked delight
Blessed is the one
like chaff
that the wind blows away
like a tree
whose leaf does
wither— wither— wither— wither— wither— wither—
Therefore
the wicked
sinners take righteous
delight
in the law of the Lord,
and
and
whatever they do prospers.
Not so the
fruit in season
...Thursday 8th October 2015 11:51 pm
Britain First
Britain First is committed
We abhor culture
We abhor Islam
We oppose the revitalisation
of our farming and fishing sectors
Britain First is committed to a tidal wave of crime
Britain First will halt all further British wildlife
British wildlife will be severely punished
British wildlife will be severely punished
British wild...
Wednesday 7th October 2015 3:07 pm
Cryptic Crossword 26696
Oh, very sad
We cut and ran
Looking fit Losing wings
Looking fit Losing wings
Nothing like slender girls
Fast food returned
Slender girls
Funny girl with wig
Funny girls
Returned
Sad
We cut
And ran
Basic stripping Caught in the act (Like Macbeth) Caught in the act
Model turning on model half unbuttoned In the act
...Wednesday 7th October 2015 2:28 pm
Junk
What will happen if we find an end to our universe?
are you ready to please me? i will make you my s3xslave!
It's Foxy Time!
It's Foxy Time!
It's Foxy Time!
It's Foxy Time!
What will happen if we find an end to our universe?
Too many newsletters? You can unsubscribe.
What will happen if we find an end to our unive...
Tuesday 6th October 2015 12:44 pm
garibaldi
I was walking
Behind a girl
She was accosted
By a tramp
Who asked her
For some change
The girl stopped
And said to the tramp
To wait there
While she went into the shop
I stood back
Sensing a poem
Unfolding
Like a flower in the rain
The girl emerged
With a pack of biscuits
And a coffee
And gave them to the tramp
Who promptly threw them
On the...
Monday 5th October 2015 9:14 pm
Fed
‘How does he do it?’
‘Do what?’
‘Stay so god damn thin’
‘Maybe he works out’
‘No way. He’s scrawny
I don’t know where he puts it’
The thin man paid in cash
The thin man
His green car
Reggae on the radio
Is this love
Is this love
Is this love
Is this love
That I’m feeling?
He returns from the shop
The thin man
Carrying a bag
...
Saturday 3rd October 2015 1:49 pm
Luke 10:25
To the elderly lady
Who stood in the middle of the road
Waving at each car
That passed her by
Hoping to be noticed
In her NHS gown
I am so sorry
Nobody stopped
And waved
Or maybe
Wondered
Why?
At 3pm
On a Thursday afternoon
A lady closer to one hundred
Than most
Was all alone
Waving frantically
On a busy main road
I am so sorry
That no on...
Friday 2nd October 2015 6:30 pm
Orchard
Like rotting fruit
I found her
Hanging from the tree
The note she left us
Simply read
‘This life is not for me’
Wednesday 30th September 2015 2:06 pm
incarnartion
Those days of bruised skies
And sweet frailties
When I proclaimed to the world
I would never become you
Seem so long ago
And now my wife
Lies alone
Crying
And I look down
And see your hands.
Sunday 27th September 2015 1:23 pm
Blink
Wet concrete
I spit out my tooth
Tea stained enamel
Silver filling
Blood follows
I can hear the siren
Its drawing closer
The blood mingles with the rain
The tooth is washed downstream
The ambulance is here
Its midnight
My chariot beckons
I blink
No one sees
He comes to my bedside
And tells me all things must die
I stare through him
At th...
Thursday 24th September 2015 10:53 pm
6
Alarm goes off
6.54
Sit bolt upright
Swing legs out of bed
Left foot down
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Foot in slipper
Right foot down
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Tap
Foot in slipper
I will fucking murder you
Walk across room
Light swi...
Sunday 20th September 2015 1:48 pm
Tallinn Square
The thing I remember the most
About the Baltic winter
Was the old ladies
They would stand in the square
From incipient morning
To hate filled night
Their tables stuffed with wildflowers
Plucked from their gardens
A panacea
The redolent air
Heavy with nature
The ladies woollen coats and scarves
They were there whenever we passed
Selling the...
Saturday 19th September 2015 5:42 pm
one of my turns
Dazzling watercolour set
Abandoned through
disillusionment
Pours gently and quietly
Into festering open sewer
Painter trampled underfoot
By monochrome clamour
Hurtling towards
Nine fifteen to Euston
Rotting leaves
Fall like verdigris tears
As linoleum factory
Shits out endless filth
To enable people
To walk more comfortably
On kitchen floor
...Friday 18th September 2015 3:48 pm
bonsai
The bonsai tree
You bought me
For my eleventh birthday
In its little round bowl
Blue crackled glaze
Sixteen years old
A microcosm of beauty
Placed into my naive hands
Along with a booklet
A pair of scissors
And a hopeful smile
Lasted three weeks
Before my childhood neglect
Caused it to wilt
And perish
The cracked soil
And parched leaves
Silently s...
Thursday 17th September 2015 12:59 pm
Corinthians 2.4
Ben Underwood
Lost his eyes
To cancer
When he was three
I often struggle
To choose
Between breakfast cereals
Such as frosted flakes
Or coco pops
Using his tongue
Ben Underwood
Learnt echolocation
And ‘saw’ with his mouth
This allowed him
To live
I left the hob on
Again
Ben Underwood
Had glass eyes
And an iron will
...
Tuesday 15th September 2015 5:58 pm
where the wild roses grow
Dawn is the best time for roses
When the flower weeps
With new beginnings
When you can sit and watch
The petals unfurl
Turning from tightly packed bud
To proud explosions of colour
When my roses bloom
I feel like taking every single person I see
And screaming
‘this is why we are here
this is beauty
why can’t you see?’
The vase on my coffee table
...
Monday 14th September 2015 10:23 am
soft
Tonight was full of pale questions
Sparkler trails
An acoustic strum
We lay on the bonnet of your car
Like they did in the eighties
And spoke to God
The heat of the engine
The chill of the night
The warmth of the memories
You had left the tape deck playing
The Kronos Quartet were on fine form
Endless symphonic epiphanies
You looked like a God...
Sunday 13th September 2015 10:36 am
noddy holder
For me Christmas as a kid meant one thing
Not presents or family or debt or suicide or Woolworths
Not arguments and alcohol and the Simpsons and chicken and stuffing
Not puddings and crackers and cheese and crackers and resentment
Not bottled up tension or bottles of gin or cards and stickers
Christmas for me was my Gran’s Bronchial cough
Every year we would travel south to see h...
Thursday 10th September 2015 3:56 pm
?
If a man can saw a shark in half
And a woman can shit in a bed
Then surely I can get away
With this.
Thursday 10th September 2015 10:56 am
the tent flaps of perception
We both smoked two bowls of salvia
And sat in our tent
Next to a crumbling abbey
And a pack of feral scousers
Shivering
Expectant
A minute
Ten minutes
Twenty minutes
Nothing happening here
Move along
Except
You are now made of jigsaw pieces and fire
And my thoughts are coming out one letter at a time
Wheeling off an alphabetic merry-go-round
Landing at ...
Wednesday 9th September 2015 2:06 pm
absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
Sometimes I stare
At the enamelled absinthe poster
We bought from a thrift store in Montmartre
An overpriced attempt
To become more cultured
I look at the lady
In her green dress
And her green hat
Pouring green liquor
Into Emíle Cohl’s cup
And I remember
The night before we bought it
We sat up all night
In the cemetery where Dumas was buried
(I had to tell...
Monday 7th September 2015 8:59 pm
clamour
My wife wheezes vague accordion notes in bed next to me
A bolster cushion clamped between her pregnant thighs
To raise her swollen belly
A black cat purrs affectionately beside my ear
The rumble of content occasionally broken
As she rearranges her frame
In the room next door my daughter clutches an overpriced teddy
Sailing away on a sea of childhood dreams
One leg...
Sunday 6th September 2015 1:52 pm
blanket coverage
the business men of Kolkata
drive orange Lamborghinis
as children spit out their teeth
and choke
on the fumes
the business men of Kolkata
design and approve
high rise towers
luxury apartments
with marble
and gold
as the children lay blankets
atop shit and piss
to sleep
the business men of kolkatta
tell their wives and mothers
they hope to inspire
...
Saturday 5th September 2015 3:28 pm
shutter speed
Media exposure
Should not equate
To sympathy.
Do not be told
Who to love
And who
To ignore
Again.
Saturday 5th September 2015 11:33 am
brooks hatlen
I used to work in a car body shop
In Holloway
We specialised in top of the range cars
Alfas
Audis
Porsche
Now anyone who knows Holloway
Will automatically know
That if you drive a nice car
In Holloway
You are a drug dealer
Or you are lost
The place I worked
Was directly opposite
The women’s prison
And the saddest thing
Was the ladies who were let out
...Monday 31st August 2015 8:02 am
push
Do you really think Bob Dylan felt this way?
Or Bukowski?
Or Kerouac?
Or Plath?
Do you think each tiny little discrepancy?
Pressed down on them
Like succubae
Each late library book
Push
Each overdue bill
Push
Each rejected poem
Push
Each time Allen Ginsberg let the cat out
Do you think he hung at the door?
For five minutes afterwards
In case they ch...
Sunday 30th August 2015 2:33 pm
fun house
It must be Wednesday
She is wearing the red dress again
The way it hangs from her
Like silk draped on a medical skeleton
its cold outside
we writhe together
like serpents
the fire blazing
inside and out
iggy sings fun house
we are sky high
our lips touch
the sky is golden
She has taken all her posters down
Implanted memories ripped from the wal...
Saturday 29th August 2015 11:48 am
the poet dies
My beautiful Grandson
Yeh.
I am dying
And like, wat?
Treasure these days
Wat mate?
These days of mammalian hills
These days of beauty and wonder
Yeh?
Treasure them. Never let them go.
Rite.
Before the shapeless weight of time
Presses upon your chest
You wat?
Before the sultry whispers of eternity
Kiss your soul with kindness
Mate. I don’t know wat yo...
Friday 28th August 2015 2:30 pm
wings
As a boy
I used to play with ants
Not the usual
Magnifying glass cruelty
Although I see now
How cruel I was
Misguided
I would take the ants
Carefully
In my fingers
The tiny bronzed Adonis
Submitted to my will
In my garden
We had a flaccid cheap washing line
The green plastic kind
Befitting of poverty
I would take the ant
Place it on...
Thursday 27th August 2015 10:43 am
qwerty
An infinitesimal space
Between the fleshy ringed pads
Of my forefingers
And the cool plastic conformity
Of the keyboard
Between the secret of life
And the hopelessness
Of reality
Twenty six keys
Endless arrangements
Containing the meaning
Of everything.
Monday 24th August 2015 5:12 pm
kirigami
This life dictates
We stumble past kings
To consume the flesh of visions
We let our blood
For a glimpse of jade
Eternal ferment
Teeth chatter from the walls
Viscera pour from the ceiling
Outside spring bursts forth
Parturient symphonies
I wake up an angel
I wake up a demon
Kirigami arms
Blistered smile
The factory be...
Sunday 23rd August 2015 10:45 am
switch (for michelle)
Mad fat Michelle
That’s what we called her
Behind her back
To her face
We didn’t care
What could she do to us?
We were kids
No one could touch us
Let alone
Mad fat Michelle
They crawl through the walls
That’s what she said
Through the empty power sockets
If you left the switch on
You’d see her shuffle round the science lab
Frantically flicking the ...
Friday 21st August 2015 12:27 pm
stung
It started at one a day
An annoyance
Gold and black
Pointless aggression
One a day is painless
But as we slipped further
And further
Into the depths of frustrated idleness
They began pouring in
Five a day
Five an hour
Dozens an hour
Still we sat
Talking
Watching television
A wad of kitchen paper on the coffee table
Ready to pounce
...
Wednesday 19th August 2015 10:23 am
30
When I get home
From town
I like to put on some classical music
Vinyl, of course
Make myself a herbal tea
Snack on some seeds
Whilst completing a cryptic crossword
The Times, of course
I like to lie back
With a challenging
Yet inspirational
Piece of literature
Russian, of course
And as I drift off to sleep
In my Egyptian cotton pyjamas
I like to pretend
...Tuesday 18th August 2015 11:09 am
lost
Surrounded by people
Smiling and laughing
How I am lost
In this wonderful world
Monday 17th August 2015 7:38 pm
swallowtail
There is true beauty in this world
True genius
There are people who make music
That soothes the soul
People who paint pictures
That release the dreams
Held inside
Like trapped insects
Waiting to escape the jar
There are great thinkers
Philosophers
Cursed by their genius
Doomed to ask why
Not just lie down
Drinking from the tap
Running on ...
Monday 17th August 2015 10:38 am
Haiku Selection
All published in various journals. Just dug them up.
For man is sculpted,
Rent and ripped by time and space,
And returns to dust.
We entered with naught,
Leafless and blinded by light,
The snake eats itself.
Eternal ferment,
Parturient symphonies,
Play out in real time.
Gossamer eyelids,
Fixed shut through my vain rapture,
See what I have done.
Stars efflorescent,
Cre...
Sunday 16th August 2015 4:32 pm
a rich vein of form
Each night
When I sit down
At this desk
I slit my wrists
I cut my throat
I rip myself apart
First letters drip
Then words pour
Until I am left drained of life
Excreted onto a page
For all to see
Slices of life
A smorgasbord
Of hostility
Repressed fears
Depression
Words
Letters
Meaning.
Saturday 15th August 2015 3:25 pm
Mayfly
What purer than a mayfly,
What more divine and true,
Than seeing just one sunrise,
Then facing Waterloo.
Friday 14th August 2015 10:47 am
Ctrl B
The realisation
That you have nothing
Worthwhile
To say to anyone
Is only slightly more disheartening
Than the realisation
That you have plenty to say
And no one will listen
To a word of it
Perhaps if I
Move the w...
Thursday 13th August 2015 1:43 pm
Brenda #2
Brenda
Brenda lives on a to-do list
An annoyance
An albatross
Her son bought her a CD player
And a Dean Martin album
Something for you to reminisce over mum
That’s what he said
Remember the good times
Before your brain started rotting
Your bones started grinding
Your breath started catching
Air fresheners fight against the smell of piss and r...
Tuesday 11th August 2015 3:26 pm
spaghetti junction
Dinner times were brutal
The small talk barbaric
We dined from each other
The whole family
Seething
Father would get home from work
And stick his fork
Straight into Mother
His blood boiling
The kettle whistling
I stayed silent
Each of us dreaming
Of ways to die
Dessert was a dish
Always served cold
No time for coffee
Jus...
Sunday 9th August 2015 9:50 am
II
As the standard of technology increases
The standard of humanity falls
I’m not sure there is an app for that.
Saturday 8th August 2015 5:18 pm
sterile (i am not)
I can barely meet the glances
Of my hospital corridor friends
Momentarily consoling each other
With eyes that say
‘You are here too
I understand’
But while they are here
To see their loved ones die
Or to console their friends
After an accident
I am merely lost
On the way
To the ultrasound unit
To see my new baby
For the very first time.
Friday 7th August 2015 7:28 pm
pang
We walked with hinged smiles
Through man-made wreckage
The clawing and pawing
The desperate howls
Explosions of remorse
Whenever they grew close
We would blend as one
Human parentheses
Afraid of their touch
Ashamed of their needs
We passed through this detritus
This Verdi-Gris whisper of humanity
Until we reached sanctuary
Free of mind and memory
...Sunday 2nd August 2015 10:57 am
Arlo #1 + #2
Arlo #1
The black kitten
We rescued
Is sat on the bed
He is chasing his tail
Aimlessly
When he does catch it
It shocks him so much
He instantly lets it go again
And so the cycle continues
Arlo #2
Arlo
Is only four weeks old
And already
He has learnt
To shit where we tell him
To eat when we tell him
To play when we tell him
I...
Saturday 1st August 2015 1:16 pm
you reap what you sow
Let the weeds grow through our bodies
Let the roots grow through our bones
Let our sinews splinter
Our heart and lungs drown
In the desperate race for the sun
Let our sins bear fruit
Ripe and majestic
Let our hands and feet stretch
Far beyond the stars
Aching for light
Let our blood turn white
Let our screams fall silent as whisper
Let our tears drop like blosso...
Friday 31st July 2015 4:35 pm
notes
Most people check they have
Everything
Before they leave the house
-keysphonebag-
I have to have my notebook
No notebook
No notes
No notes
No inspiration
No inspiration
No poem
No poem
No release
No cathartic self indulgence
No rhythmic therapy
People pay shrinks thousands of pounds
My notebook cost fifty pence
Who’s crazy now
When people ...
Wednesday 29th July 2015 3:51 pm
seen but not heard
To the BBC News,
When I look outside my window
I do not see famine
I do not see rapists and murderers
I do not see pit-bulls mauling children
I do not see poverty
Or Aids
I do not see the failings of the health system
Or a cocaine snorting politician
I do not see people growing old
And dying
I do not see gangs of feral youths
Stabbing immigrants
For iPhones
...Tuesday 28th July 2015 1:48 pm
Brenda
Brenda moves with glacial elegance
Her dress floats and folds
Her partner has never looked better
The way they move together
Almost like making love
He leads her across the ballroom
Their feet skating as one
Their fingers entwined
As Glenn Miller serenades them
The moonlight shines through
Painting their faces
A spotlight on their smiles
First I held him li...
Monday 27th July 2015 11:36 am
counterpoint
To the person who beat me
Abused me
Took my lunch money
Stuck gum in my hair
Called me fat
Called me poor
Called me shitface
To the person who had all the friends
All the girls
All the money
To the person who made my life a misery
Who instilled the belief I was nothing
Who made me dread week days
And who haunted my weekends
To the person who...
Sunday 26th July 2015 10:53 am
the fear
I remember a time
When my breath would burst forth from my lungs
Eager to greet the day
When the music was all that mattered
When I would dance until my legs could take no more
When people would seek me out
Eager to see me
To speak to me
To ask my advice
I remember a time when
My body
And my mind
And the world
Were synchronised
I got it
It got me
We ...
Saturday 25th July 2015 2:08 pm
chained
He lies on his semen stained mattress
Sickly womb light stumbles through his curtains
Casting pallid symphonies on his gaunt facade
In his mind
He sees a falcon
Drawing a muddy streak through the azure sky
He longs to be like that falcon
To be truly free
Not chained to his murderer
His silent assassin
The falcon descends
Its prey in si...
Friday 24th July 2015 11:45 am
neighbourhood
That woman could hang up her laundry each morning
With her suburban facelift
With her self-preservation
As if she was pasting up the sails of her clipper
As if the wind would blow through the sheets
Taking every drop of blood and regret with it
But I knew
I knew what went on in that
-House-
That she called a home
I listened through the walls
I heard the howls...
Thursday 23rd July 2015 1:18 pm
the berlin wall
We were sat on the U-Bahn in Berlin
My soon to be wife and I
After a long day shopping and sightseeing
A tramp boarded at Gleisdreieck
He stank of his own shit
Wretched and base
Freshly lain
He shuffled up the middle of the train
As people leered and ogled his plight
This once proud human
That bleeds the same colour as all of us
Reduced to a foul shit stink
My w...
Sunday 19th July 2015 4:36 pm
network
‘the problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence’ – Charles Bukowski
1.
The bastards and brawlers
Scorned and subdued
Pissing up the factory walls
As others walk through
The bastards and brawlers
Vilified and humiliated
Staring on
As they burn the books
The bastards and brawlers
...Saturday 18th July 2015 2:05 pm
palm polly
The memory of our first kiss
Swims to the surface of my soul
Whenever I need it to release its heady balm
And remind me of why we fight
Your exquisite skin
Like china
I brushed with my knuckles
Checking the voltage still remained
The sparks flew
As they always had
The rain beat down upon us
But we were dry
The people stared
But we were alone
Your soft, col...
Friday 17th July 2015 2:02 pm
scythe
He came to my bedside
And told me all things must die
I stared through him
At the teeth chattering on the walls
At the decaying bouquets
At the bodies piled up
In the corner of the room
I took his hand
And he smiled
Thursday 16th July 2015 12:30 pm
lost highways
Later on we walked down to the jazz bar
Where Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington
Threw out wah-wah dreams
The trumpets whispered mysteries
Martini false dawns
Hi-hats leading us through the looking glass
We danced until death
Folding into each other like a deck of cards
Until we could take it no more
And as the saxophone reached its violent crescendo
And the jazz man c...
Tuesday 14th July 2015 5:08 pm
free
Stood at the apex of the hill
All laughter, fun and sun sun sun
Adolescent astigmatism hiding the dangers below
We cast off like two clippers
Sailing to freedom
Flying down the steep incline
The grass tickling our soles
Naked as the day we were born
And twice as innocent
We floated onwards
It was the one time in my childhood
My inferior age stood me in go...
Sunday 12th July 2015 12:31 pm
sober
Friday 31st January
That was the day I gave up drinking
The last time I would wake up on the sofa
Drenched in piss and regret
My wife sobbing in bed
Alone and tired
The last time I would poke chunks of my own vomit
Through holes in the sink
Because I couldn’t reach the toilet
The last time I would scream blind at my daughter
For daring to ask me a question
For dari...
Saturday 11th July 2015 1:50 pm
drop
I crawled through the viscera of my early twenties
Caught between the metronomic thud
Of self harm
And elation
Huddled together
Like cattle in a storm
The lights
The bass
The molecular
re arr a ng e me nt
Of every part of me
Heartbeat
After heartbeat
Drowning together
In an ocean of serotonin
...Friday 10th July 2015 1:27 pm
virginia
I am being eaten alive
By the earth
The fire
And you
With terrifying speed
And abject reason
You have grown through me
Choked
Chided
Creeping
Creaking
My noble intentions
Throttled
Left to burn
As I breathe my last
I can do no more
Virginia
I never loved you
Thursday 9th July 2015 12:14 pm
voices
I open as Sylvia Plath
Awake, Askew
Cock my eye
Morning Dew
By breakfast I am Ginsberg
My cereal howls
Sex and Jazz
Trashcans rust and curl
I leave the house as Wordsworth
And wonder lonely through a crowd
Arrive at the track as Bukowski
Gamble on the lunchtime horses
Smoking a cigarette
While outside
A sparrow sings
As the day wears on
I am Cummings
...Tuesday 7th July 2015 11:57 am
dysmorphia
Sometimes I stand there
In front of the mirror
And my stomach grows
My thighs fatten
My chins double
As I stare at myself
I can feel the food inside me
Bloating and distending me
From inside out
I rush to clothe myself
In case they no longer fit by the time I am finished
In case my fingers become too fat
And sausage like
To do up my buttons
I feel sick at ...
Monday 6th July 2015 5:45 pm
claret
I was meeting her at the end of the road
The sun blasted through the Rorschach leaves of the maple trees
Bursting through in spots and splatters
Throwing a Jackson Pollock on the walls of the factory
The scream and wheeze of people felt as alien as ever
Everyone looking down
At the screens of self imposed loneliness
They held in their hands
Suddenly from the monochrome hord...
Sunday 5th July 2015 10:43 am
economy domine
Athena sits
Her once gleaming eyes
Now milk dull with fear and hatred
A once great titan brought to her knees, exhausted
Sensing defeat, she allows memories to overcome her
As the biting ropes cut into her legs and arms
Binding her forever more
To those she fought
To overcome
Friday 3rd July 2015 4:05 pm
beach
Today I took my daughter to the beach
Where water meets dirt
As a great man once said
Where roses bloom too early
Dew droplets
Drip
Seductively
From the petals of youth
Where lost souls
Dreamers
And the dreams they dream
All go to die
To be snuffed out
Where the grains of time
Meet the ravages of age
Where the brine picks out a heartbeat
Tick Tock
...Thursday 2nd July 2015 10:32 pm
plasters
I have always collected paintings
Always on the lookout for another piece
Something to go there
Next to the door
I have pictures of women
Their backs turned
Japanese ink drawings
Of cranes
I have splashes of colour
That mean something different
Each time I see them
I have scenes of desolation
And of hope
I have idyllic cottages
Crumbled apartment blocks
...Tuesday 30th June 2015 8:19 pm
top hat
In my attic
I found a collection of old home videos
From the previous tenant
An elderly couple that I cannot name
Most of them were beyond repair
But a few still worked
Sucked in enthusiastically by my VHS player
Grainy footage of a young couple dancing
(Cheek to Cheek)
Alive again in my mind
As Fred sings
And the couple move
Sedately
Like swans courting
A...
Tuesday 30th June 2015 3:01 pm
fed
He returns from the shop
The thin man
Carrying a bag
Full of food
The thin plastic handle of the bag
Cuts his fingers
Leaving red marks
That fade
His wife sits
In the bed she has spent most of her life in
Bloated
Obscene
Spilling out of her purposely undersized clothes
Covered in sores and weeping flesh
Weeping eyes
He passes her a carton of cream
‘D...
Monday 29th June 2015 4:58 pm
garden
I
Remember a time
That I use to hate the rain
As it meant I couldn’t go out and
Play
Now I pray for rain
Because when it rains
I don’t have to water the garden
Monday 29th June 2015 12:17 pm
burial
Where I live
When the fog comes
The fog comes hard
Rolling in like an endless army
Clogging the sky
Blocking out the sun
Playing its silver symphonies
Across the hills
Trapping you inside
With all your fears
With all your doubts
Lost to the world
An imposed oblivion
Weightless and
Timeless
Until the fog clears
The sun shines
I am reconnected
To...
Sunday 28th June 2015 7:58 pm
ouroboros
We are all
Just looking
For a way out
The drinkers
Poisoning themselves
Every night
The drug takers
Shooting poppy seed sublimity
The god fearers
Hoping for an exit strategy
To pull out without bloodshed
The weekend hippies
Rolling and laughing
In mud and shit and Buddha
Desperate to dilute the banality of existing
As a doctor
Lawyer
Teacher
Ni...
Saturday 27th June 2015 10:20 am
brahms
When I was younger
Not so very long ago
The best thing I owned was a radio and
A pair of headphones
The ability to block out noise was crucial to my survival
I used to tune the station just out
So that there was always white noise
Static safety
Blocking out the screams
The smashing of plates
The threats
The actions
Classical music was my choice
As the songs w...
Friday 26th June 2015 9:36 am
registered trademark
To me
Humanity and Teflon
Have always been analogous
The more money you throw at it
The longer it lasts
But all it takes is one abrasive incident
One idiot with a metal spoon
And from then on
Each and every little thing
Chips away at it
Like a cancer
Or a fork
Thursday 25th June 2015 2:38 pm
twelve eyes of evil
When I was 20 I went insane
Not faecal smearing insane
Or Hit me Mac insane
But that quiet
Creeping
Insane
The kind that eats away at the brains
Of everyday people
I was working in London at the time
Need I say more?
And it just hit me
(Mac)
I couldn’t move
I couldn’t breathe
I was gone
The city and the job had chewed me up
And vomited me out
Like...
Thursday 25th June 2015 2:08 pm
safety net
My first real friend was Godfrey
And for the first few weeks of our friendship
I always thought
Who calls their kid Godfrey?
Then I met his Mum
And I thought
He got away lightly
Together we shared our first experience of alcohol
I was thirteen at the time
So a late starter where I grew up
We stole a bottle of sherry from his Dads booze cupboard
Snuck round the back...
Wednesday 24th June 2015 11:57 am
photo
Seven years ago I tried to kill myself
I had a dead end job
A dead end house
A beautiful wife that I couldn’t satisfy
I had just come off an all day shift
Seven in the morning until eleven at night
Yes, people do still work them
More than we like to admit
When we are driving home in our Audi’s
At five in the afternoon
I was pretty bummed
It was dark and I was walki...
Tuesday 23rd June 2015 3:49 pm
lawn
I remember him now and then
When I’m feeling brave enough to recall my childhood
Mr. Strathclyde
He was a welcome break from the ceaseless banality of the suburbs
I’d see him every Saturday morning on my way to work
Damp panatela clamped between his gums
Stained string vest and pyjama bottoms
Smirking like he’d just told a racist joke that no one had heard
‘Morning sport’ h...
Monday 22nd June 2015 5:31 pm
maize
As I pish pash down the monstrous streets of Paris
The rain makes the cheap neon shimmer and shiver
I am approached by a creaking vagrant
Shuddering and Grunting
Coughing and Wheezing
He pushes a shopping trolley containing maize
I secretly wish he will pass me by
But of course he does not
‘Want some corn’ he asks
‘That’s maize.’ I say
‘That’s not fit for human consu...
Sunday 21st June 2015 2:08 pm
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