PUSH 18

PAPER AND INK NO 6 CHILDHOOD

WE ARE FLASHY PACKAGING

who hasnt had enough
of 
being 
shipped out 
too early 
unfinished and rushed
in
these
same
faulty machines
with 
their 
dripping ports
and
undependable sensors ?

 from smith-nephew.com

POP POPS

1. AIRWAVE OF FM OPIUM

uselessly i am in a cafe

radios
on
like
anywhere 

its
soft bleats 
canned icing
on
the
day turd

too early for anything and summers over 

 from thehungryhousewife.com

 

2. GO IN ON YOUR NEW BIKE, LIKE THAT WILL HELP ANYTHING

theres wet cheeks
on
school kids
dressed in sober adult black
and
ushered by force / relief / love
back
into
the
school machine

 from medicaldaily.com

3. ONLY ME HERE, HOW IS THE CHEF SO BUSY ?

useless in a cafe
i
stare
at
sausage pastries
and
a
full tupperware of eggs 

its all
naked
soft
somehow disgusting 

from pinterest.com

4. EXPATS MISS BIRTHRIGHT DREK

tiny
englands corner
tries
out
an
autumn suns ballshine
for
size 

finds it weak / cold
and
fitting 

 

from rebloggy.com

1980s SCHOOL WAS

COLD ELECTRO

the electro from Soho and Basildon

is

cold as a Chiltern cave

and

speaks

to

my alienation

much more

than

the pop stars

poncing about

like

pompadour peacocks

on Top Of The Pops

on wednesday

after

The Muppet Show

from www.festivalsforall.com

I WAS GOOSE

at

school

everyones seen Top Gun

so

everyones an Iceman or a Maverick

but

because

i 

am in a low pressure flat spin
and

i

watch

1950s allegorical westerns

on

BBC2 instead

apparently

that

makes me Goose

not

Gary Cooper

from www.squadronposters.com

SPAMMING TEFALS

everyone is slapping everyone else

on

the

forehead

then

shouting SPAM or TEFAL

or 

punching legs and arms

with

the

middle knuckle sticking out

then

shouting DEAD LEG or DEAD ARM

and

we

all

call each other FASCISTS

tho

no one

knows

what it means

from youtube.com

FRIGGING IN THE RIGGING

untouchable big kids

make

cudgels

in

woodwork

banging nails thru balsa wood

to

hit smaller kids with

all

the

way

home

reciting Beastie Boys lyrics

in their faces

like gospel

bruises and wounds

lied away

round the supper table

from thebyronicman.com

TRIO

everyone is obsessed

with

WHO COULD HAVE WHO

in a playground ruck

that

never

happens

we all work out odds like junior bookies

and everyone is obsessed

with

WHO GOT OFF WITH WHO

and

tho

no one

tells the truth

if

someone gets three fingers in

they

are allowed to sing

the

song

from

the Trio choc bar ad

from youtube.com

JIMMY HILL

when the school was set on fire

and

the library burned down

and

everything was stinking and brown

the

police came up to my art class

because

someone fingered my name

and

tho

i was drawing a man with his face on fire

it

wasn’t me who did it

it was a cocky arsehole

with a Jimmy Hill chin

who did it

he used to make supply teachers cry

during

the

union strikes

now

he

is

gone

from davesgreatadventures.com

ARE YOU CAS ?

and

all the in-kids

wear clothes

with tiny animals

over the left tit

and 

exotic Italian names

and

always

ask

poorer kids

ARE YOU CASUAL ? 

ARE YOU ?  

ARE YOU CAS ?

what do you say when everyone is CAS ?

with

Nike this

and

Fila that

Puma Top Winners

get you by at a distance

but

they’re

not 

Ivan Lendls

from  80scasualclassics.co.uk

BLUE PETERS CULTURAL IMPACT

Joey was the insult

i heard

all day everywhere

in all my schools

till

we

had

this one assembly

and

they said THREE OUT OF EVERY TEN OF YOU WILL DIE FROM AIDS

and

after

that

Homo

was

the insult

i heard

all day everywhere

in all my schools

 from colly.com

WE ALL KNOW

the yellow circle
we all know
heats my face
with
a
heat
we all know
and
the wind that comes in and steals the heat
is
a
wind
we all know
and
the light
it
leaves
that
lights us
is
a
light
we all know

Everybody's Hive by Carlos Gershenson 2006

THE GLUMS OF NAVARONE

when the Silver Lining tarnishes
and
your tired hands can buff no more
call 
it 
Antique Bronze 
and
when your dreams turn into the Dark Fantasies
and
the
Cynical Alibi of Expiration Dates runs a Red Bath
call
it
all
Sunday Blues / call it all Weather / call everything SUCKERS
and
observe from your REAL belly-middle
your sealing wounds / your drying sweat
and
watch / wait / cling for
the
Existential Metaphorical Yellow Crayon
drawing itself into a hot circle
upstairs
in
your
minds stumbling struggling Shit Brain 
and
be 
happily useless / reason-free hopeful / anything and whatever
under
the
unexpecting unlined innocent queue
of
clouds

heroesandhellions.com

CORE

there was a CORE
a
fucktown CORE
of
booze rebellion / sneezing speed over the dry hash cracks
derranged and delusion demigods high on IQ isolation
playing
ancient
music
in Englands quaint 20C leftovers
and
out - the CORE went OUT
into 
the 
nights dark answers / asking brand new questions
and
broke things / climbed things / redifined things
as
ridiculous / hilarious / terrifying . . . never true
and 
bled real blood / bled metaphorical blood
in
the
face of the Nowhere and the Nothing
on
the 
flat-bottle streets of video shops and wind blown rizla
waiting
always
waiting
on 
the Bread Slipper Lane kerb stones
where the alleys of yesterday met
and
on
the empty rec ground cricket crease 
coughing blunts at the moon 
waiting
always
waiting
for
SOMETHING 
to 
happen

early jefferson airplane from mstrychowska.deviantart.com

CAFE BLUES

silent cottage 
with
small windows in the corners 
like a childs drawing 
almost
invisible
behind a mask of bursting green
is
old
as 
the 
peasants revolt
and
backs
away
from the mapped flat blacktop 
like
something proud
and afraid

it shames the cafes
plastic
table
covers - shining prints of food 
like
flat swimming headaches
and
i
sit there 
in a bubble chatter of radio
and
cooking crockery clatter
and
try to write something 
about the day
the world
and
i

 wat tyler country park from simplonpc.co.uk

BAD NEWS

from shapersofthe80s.com

time 
was
i would watch rolling news
boil the world
deep into nights dark weave
and
breakfast on distilled morning rags / Red Tops rising bloodshot
barking
with
false teeth / wet tongue / all Pavlov at the privatised dawn
and
i
would feel a hot rise
of wrong-glory 
of fear-justification
of pub-night-indignation
at
the
lethal playground shoves of Goblin Meat Puppets
swaying elections
on
money
whims

now i filter 
political weather / crisis entertainment 
thru
depleted uranium nerves -

it
weakens me and shames me and lowers us all
into 
pill boxes and padded bunkers
with
a
mandated two-car space
tagged onto our hutch-build GPSed
for
Amazon drone accuracy 
and
blinkered 
happiness

 

 from www.cnn.com

SEPTEMBER PICTURES

CHANGE, ELVIS AND WHATEVER

from en.wikipedia.org

So i'm reading an Updike. 
Its like a small town soap but with insight into the weird architecture of human relations / reactions, told with a poetry of description; he paints such a world of constant colour and wonder that i should not have mentioned soaps in the same sentence at all.
So in it theres this guy.  
Its the 1950s.  He sits down on his wifes hospital bed and watches a tv show after falling a coin into the slot.  The show has women talking of woes / tragedies and money is awarded depending on the crowds applause. 

And that could be tv now; something we'd think is new.

So i listened to a Hancocks Half Hour.  Always good.
Him and Sid are moaning.  
Theres all these Italian coffee shops moving in.  Things are changing.  Things arent the same.  That sort of moan.  This is the 1950s.

And this happens now;  Costa, Starbucks, Nero.  A glut of brown stink in the high street avenue.

So i found this local paper.  
Under a plant plot.  From 1983.  Folks are worried about new builds on the green belt.  A sheds been burgled.  All the tools taken.  Dorothy whatever is 101. 

Its the same news as now.

Population, now that changes.  Technology, now that changes.

So war monuments say 'so they shall not be forgotten' and they are not. 
They also say 'so history shall not be repeated'.  But it is.

And too, the Tory Goblins are back painting targets on the regulars Joes. Same as when i was a 70s kid and goths did glue in the subway under Sex Pistols graffiti. 

Goths.  
Goths prevail.  
And so does Punk.

Makes me think of Elvis.  Elvis thrashed it up with self taught chords.  In black eyeliner.  And later, in black leather.  It was the 1950s.

Obviously i have lost my thread - conclude whatever for yourselves.

 

from elvisblog.net

A BUZZ THAT TURNED TO BOOZE

1. BRIGHT FRAME BENCH HANDS

home town small town bright frame -
almost-men 
walk across 
blank flat field / they hung out there
in
school
year
weekends

walk ? no - march !

marching
with
beer purpose in blue college break sunshine
open minds hungry / buzzing

a buzz that turns to booze
and
never
back

now i sit out there
on a bench of twisted metal
with
hands
that
could be anybodys / but too - 
could 
only
be 
mine 

2.BRIGHT FRAME CEMETERY HANDS

big city big cool bright frame - 
i
jumped
off
the cheap coach early / THRILLED to get out THERE
and
buzzed on NOTHING

OUT !  i was so OUT !

looking for anything to look at
Trafalgar Square / late summer PM / sparks on my heels
fairy dust in heated air

a buzz that turned to booze
and
never
back

now i walk thru the cemetery trees
with
my
hands - My Hands 

with
my
own 
hands 

SOFT HISTORIES

by the 
shop-and-drive
the
orange brick
new build
stands box-fresh 
without history

time was
site was
a potholed coach park 
of
cement slabs and half fences / an after pub piss stop -
in 
the
medicine light of streetlamps 
we would stand / swaying / emptying 
leaning and small town delirious
behind the green portacabin office
patterned with rust 
like 
its 
camo

earlier in falling light
couples would have stood awkward in foursomes
clothes too pressed
gathered self consciously 
on this nowhere corner
to
go
to
london shows on garish coach upholstery
grateful
of
the
height and thin bus walls between them
and
wild wild
imagined
city
mayhem

now
its hutch flats / limited parking
hatchbacks clusterfuck on new blacktop
between
snow bright white lines
all of it somehow keen
to
age
and
darken 
with weather and time
and
to
hide / worn / used
in
the
folds unnoticed