THE MENUS ARE IN CODE

i   
dream 
to 
travel in a cowards comfort
and
drink bitter coffees
in
the 
cafes of the world

to
smell the new fumes
of
the similar hatchbacks
in
its revolution squares
where
feral birds fight innocent fries
and
historys shadow is cast improbable
on
old 
stones

smoking
always 
smoking
al fresco like the rain

budapestbylocals.com

USA BRIDGE FOLKS

I LOVE B&W / BEHIND YOU

MO' FTOWN SHAPES

SUNSHINE ENEMA

stretched out across the PM bedspread
the
sunshine scrubs clean my intentions
and
soothes my conditions
like 
a 
warm yellow balm

why dont i claw it south
out
of
Englands rusty gusset
and
into
the
Meds al-fresco longevity kitchens 
or
Africas ancient orange bazaars ?

  but
like Kerouac in Tangiers
  or
Thompson in Vietnam
  i 
  never wrote anything good
  off
  my
  native
  landmass

from pinterest.com

BALL OF CONFUSION

  time 
  was
i was fiery anxious
struck dumb round the neighbourhood
and
living inside fear
eating in secret
and
waiting
waiting
for something to happen

  or
drunk accelerator glory
emptying out in the wasteland
king of night
and
eternally uninvolved
everyone 
missing
from
me

  and
a ball of confusion 
in
any
small seconds inbetween

ball of confusion by leslie revels andrews 

from fineartamerica.com

PERGOLA (EXPLODED) HAIKUS

sat on a bench on
slippery 
winter 
decking
berries are bright red

across 
the 
sea 
bombs 
are falling onto people
here - brittle birdsong

outside my boots rest
on 
a 
cheap green plastic chair
workmens 
toil 
echoes

BUS DRIVER DAVE

  he  
drank every night in the sailors riverside boozer
before everyone fell out
  he 
had a dry week every new year to prove he could
his beard going brown with cokes
  he 
built lighters out of bullets from the munitions dump
underneath his bed
  he 
drove a bus on the catholic school route 
looking up girls skirts 
  and
the last time i saw him
was the first time for ten years
  outside 
  terminal 
  ITU

  he 
didnt recognise me or meet my eyes
  as
  i 
dont look like Catweasle anymore
  and
  i
wasnt shitfaced
waving whisky in the air
  or 
trying to fight him 
on the sawdust floor

  and
his eyes were blinded
with
hospital 
tears

from pinterest.com

NEW YORK 2

NEW YORK

SEA CHANGES

  when 
  i 
notice a Sea Change
outside
my
dust and pulp

  i am pleased

but
then
i
worry too of the Vibrations 
i
never 
felt

  and
  wonder
how alternative
my
reality
is

from lionandthehunter.wordpress.com

WAY BACK WHEN

way back when
the 
nights 
lasted 
till 
dawns sickly grey slices
and
i
would wake out-of-time and juxtaposed 
there
would
be a brown mouse
on
his 
back legs
on 
the bedroom floor

  looking at me

and
our eyes would lock
and
my hangover would pause

  i am NOT alone i would think

then
we
went
about
our
day

from fluetin3months.com

PRIVILEGE OF QUIET

in
a
quiet
corner
of
the
earth 
where everyone has a hatchback
to 
fetch their shopping in ?

stay there
have a think

and
count the blessings
you
called
boredom

from mallyskokdesign.com

THE MORNING PISS WINDOW VIEW

the frosted glass
deconstructs the world
into
a
three
coloured 
banner

broad stripes of powder blue 
fence brown 
and
an electric green 
is
the
frosted lawn

its like a flag
shimmering over the parade ground
of
my
morning
success 

from homedepot.com

A.M. RITUAL

  i 
get up slow
open curtains to winter sun
and
blow my nightmares out my nose
  
  i
sort
out
the
cat 
hes knocked his water over again
  
  i
sit at the dusty desk 
got small coffee
south london blues on the player
rest my fingers on the keys
  
  i
swear at the cheap lighter
busted or empty or something
sun comes in as stripes thru the blinds 
  
  can 
  i 
channel anything at all ?
  and
how it will sound
when
  i
read
it
back this evening 
  when
  i
  am 
  all 
different in the hurrying night ?

  

from casatnations.wordpress.com

FLY, PIPES, XMAS TREE

SHADOWS OF THE WHIGHUT

SKY AND MEMORIES AND LAWN

from aceterrier.com

  

  a
plane out of city airport
racks
up
a
giant drug line
across
the
dusty blue - i can taste the medicine tang
             in
             the
             back of my throat

cotton-fluff like the good stuff
       from 
       southend jackie chan 
       on
       a
       199? 
       saturday night kitchen counter

  beck and mercury rev 
  on the player

  the 
plane shouts out 
science and speed - always a marvel to me
                    looking 
                    up
                    and
                    up 

the lawn creeping over my boots
and
the 
clouds
falling into rainbows

from telegraph.co.uk

PRIMORDIAL CUP-A-SOUP

asleep
we are all mad
making
up
crazy tales
in
the
foggy anxious stew
and
unrefreshed
we
evacuate
and
head on and up and out
till
the pages of the day
are
all
stuck
together
in
a
brick less developed
than
the primordial cup-a-soup
we
probably
came
from

from pandasthumbs.org

SHOTGUN BLAST NEXT TO MY EAR (A P.I. PULP POP)

  it 
came after
gone dames
played the
wrong games
and
the
cold
rain that fell
fell in a black mood
as
if
it
knew it would be ice by morning

  and 
i listened to my jazz
in
mono

from daily scene.com

EXISTENTIAL POPS

1.

infinity
eternity

just theories
science buzzwords

surely ?

otherwise . . . what does my lunch matter ?

  oh
my poor mind - thats
               how we explain 
               an end
               we cannot see ?


2.

  i 
stare at the cafe tray
  i
stare
at
the
cafe
tray

plastic moulded just so
empty mug finished
evacuated banana

  i 
stare at the cafe tray
thru
  a
private
fog

far from bombs

apparently safe


3.

to get up and out
of
our
warm
beds
and
onto
the cold lino of the land
is
to
break a strange spell 
  cast awkwardly
  last 
  night

from photobucket.com

BACK THEN

she smiles
so
very 
unsure
walking out the crescent
to fetch kids from school

 (that dull soup
  that baptism by liar)

  and
  i
  am
out the front 
filling my bins
with dry pens and a boozy past
  and
i nod back
i know her from school

 (that conformity creche
  that lord of the fila flies)

  tho 
we never talked
back then

back then when
i was a freak geek 
my own strange bean
and so very unsure   
  
  back
  then
  
  before phones

from www.denvercentre.org

FLAGS, WALLS AND GODS OWN KITCHEN ROLL

SELF PORTRAIT (LEGS)

POEM SELECTA

most things CAN be
and
somethings SHOULD be
but
not everything HAS to be

  a
poem

  i 
think

looking up at the pale coin of the moon

  my
  pen
still and forgotten

cos
somethings
already
are

from seti.org

PAPER & INK 7

“Whisky is liquid sunshine.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

“I’m on a whisky diet. I’ve lost three days already.”

~ Tommy Cooper

“You can learn a lot about a woman 
by getting smashed with her.”

~ Tom Waits

GONE FRIENDS

  gone friends
live
on
in
the dream time 
as 
long ago faces
haunting
long ago bars

  and
they swim up out of the fog
still
young
  as real as 
anything
on my tv - like a re-run
  ignorant 
of 
the 
long years
  its 
like 
they never been gone

  and all day 
i will wonder where they are
  and all day 
i will picture them knocking on my door
fat
with
a
shared past / forgiveness 
apologies / good news
and
dreams
of
me

from mediamolecule.com

CONSUMING BODIES

cafe again
8 AM again
waiting on a muffin-
egg
and
cheese

big pic on the wall-
blonde kid
smiling MADLY
at 
a
bap
a mum looks on in GLEE

at the next table-
an
almost man
in
wife-hemmed jeans
a 
short arse
with 
weak arms
says
CANT EAT IT, BURNT TOAST
a
thin whine
too loud

i am avoiding reading the newspapers
you
see

from authenticmoms.com

FLASHBACKS IN TESCO

high street rush-bustle 7 PM
i spend £1.80 in a Tesco Extra
i am called LUVVIE

and

jim is in there
jim is in a rush
jim doesnt see me
theres grey in his beard
and weight on his waist

we went to college together 1990
he wore DMs then
hes wearing DMs now
he claimed to have a lucky testicle back then
hes got 2 kids now
maybe 3

i remember one lunchtime
when
we
tried
to
eat
a whole mormon bible

high street rush-bustle 7 PM
fag smoke drifts out an SUV window
by 
the new build on the old dairy land

i go sit in the car
wait for 8 o clock love train
watching
moving
faces
gurn

from theguardian.com