Blockhead

He had a disability
and didn’t mind that you knew it,
tumbling around on callipers -
his attitude was ‘screw it’!
Spasticus Autisticus -
an anthem for the broken.
Poet, musician, human being,
not some crippled token.
A war cry in this normal land
for those who were disabled
and through their bloody mindedness
became the walking, talking, enabled.
He hit us with a rhythm stick
all along the Kilburn high road -
entered, stage left, with walking stick
and a roly polio goad.
This giant man looked you in the eye
and dared you to feel pity
with his sex and drugs and rock and roll
and innuendo littered ditty.
So rest in peace singer of songs
that discomforted the unwary -
your legacy lives forever.
You were brutal, raging, scary
but you delivered love and happiness
In your grizzled cockney way
and you hit us with your honesty
each and every day.