PROMISES

1. PROMISE

on my deathbed

i will do a Huxley

  and
  fill
  myself
  with
classic and future shit



2. MAD MAX

thou shalt not breed
no
mini-us
to
fumble and fight thru
the
futures hard core

saying 
daddy only loved the cats
and
lacked
the
emotional stamina 
for offspring

theyd understand 
when
they
leave
their mini-them
to
fumble
and
fight
thru
a weeping wasteland
of
neo Mad Max flames

from moviepilot.com

SANITISED BATHROOM CABINET

nan was gone

bickering with granddad
in
the
sky somewhere

her house was empty
like
a
museum is empty

someone had thrown egg 
on the bay window

i chipped it off with a kitchen knife
and 
when
we
tore up the carpets
the
underlay was fine grey dust
and
the
junkies paradise
in
the bathroom cabinet
had
been sanitised
before
i
got
there 

EFTOWN WELCOMES CAREFUL DRIVERS

at the edge of town

night

pubs shut

theres a sign standing there
like an elephant

or
death

would stand there 

it tells me where i am
like 
i 
am 
the only man in the world

i spend a long time

l 
  a 
    u 
      g 
        h 
          i 
            n 
              g
  

i
was
very

        h
      g
    i
  h

GONE FACES

all
you
gone and gurning faces
grinning
in
the
pool hall hash haze
and
crying odd tears
on
the rough beach
 
whose sun do you smile under now ?

all
you
troubled wannabes 
riding
the
real coattails 
brand new and retro
round
the 
evening mall

whose books do you borrow now ?

all
you
life beams in tight jeans
all
you
cap prats in hot hatches
the
weedy needy
the
steroid angry
who
starred in my gone reels
bit-parts
written out
under
bad
reviews

whose moon do you panic under now ? 

grinning and gurning
in
the
afterglow 

from rayleighsnooker.co.uk

WASHING HAIKU

SHORT ODES TO OUR LITTLE BRUMM

1. KB04

stretched out
in
the
nights
crazy
soup
i dreamt Star Wars 

light and dark / desert and snow

our 950 Corsa
was
a
droid
rolling round forests
over steel gantries

secret essential blueprints
hidden
on
the
stereo dial
next
to
Radio 2


2. PASSENGER SEAT

i 
sketch out Spain / dreams
and
the PM high street -

  shop lights nuking the dusk
  9 to 5ers
  buying
  supper
  car keys in their phone fists

while
i
sit
in
little brumms 
pushed back
passenger seat

waiting for her train
to
roll
in


3. SENTINEL

out the front

2 tires on the kerb

he
waits
all
night
for 6 AM

like a favourite pair of denims
over
the
back
of
a
chair


4. RESALE

his 
paints peeling
no 
resale value
boot 
full with 100 shopping bags

and
one of the family


5. ROUNDABOUT TOWN

and
she will drive 
little brum
over 1000 mini-roudabouts
to
get
home
for
supper
and
the night

POETRY BREAKFAST, POEM A DAY IN APRIL, 23RD, 24TH, 25TH

I SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING

    all
the doorbells go

sundays / weekday mornings
  
  cos
the old folk will be in
watching their tv stories
on 
brown settees

the tories / the ukips
they knock / they ring
they put papers thru

i hear them next door
saying

CAN WE COUNT ON YOUR VOTE IN THE FUTURE ?

i ignore my bell 
feel sick theyre in the yard
their dumb white faces
rank with righteousness 
is
more
than
i
can
stand 

how to fully articulate
the breadth and depth
of my fear and loathing
to
minds
bought
and
closed ?

from bunkaryudo.com

PAINT ME A NICE TOMORROW

A HAIKU

SHE COMES HOME

i
looked the dusk
dead
in
its
flat leaves and golden eye
and
i
announced to its nostalgia tones
that
if
she
didnt
come 
home
id be drinking again

if she didnt come home
id
be
out in the fields with a bottle
announcing
to
the
dusk
and its hints of doom
that
creep
in
round the sides of our eyes
that
she didnt come home
and
that
im drinking again

  but
  she
  does
  come
  home
with that rail station smile
and that rail station skip
that clean musk
and 
those soft paws
and
so
i put the kettle on for brews
and
eat 
my greens
  happy
    relieved 
      and
      alive

JAZZ STATION 2

VISITING NAN IN HOSPITAL

they had her on a mental ward
they said for lack of beds

we clusterfuck
in a sunny courtyard
fag butts
everywhere

her eyes shine 
as if from far away
like 
when
she'd
tell
her
stories
about hanging out with

'homo's in the west end'

during
the
war

from en.wikipedia.org

UN-OSTRICH

POETRY BREAKFAST, APRIL 17TH SUGGESTION, POSITIVE POEM ABOUT SOMEONE YOU RECENTLY CRITICIZED OR INSULTED

STREETS

LOST IN TOWN

  the 
  estate 
closed around us 
like a fist with the night
our wine in carriers
clinking
like
warning bells

  the 
  street empty as curfew

  boarded-up boozer
singing / screaming echoing inside
  
  made up
    our
      minds

cutting short a nervous street piss
we backtracked carefully
texting
GOT LOST / BAILING / APOLOGIES

  eyes
  on
the train line above us
the distant towers of town
  and
  on
  our
  6

from theguardian.com

NO CHAIN JOINT / FRIDAYS PAST

  time
  was

mall friday / clock-out at 4 pm

hamburger in a no-chain joint
by
a
chalk-pit lake
where
swan shaped pedal-boats nod
  and
id  s m o k e  the day off me
in
the
stale
industrial
air

bus to the pub 
by the river 
  next

lose
my
mind
there

to thin lizzy / nirvana / pinball ding & rattle
in the mud stink of the estuary air

HE SHOULD HAVE LOOKED SOMEWHERE ELSE

tired
man 
in the bathroom mirror
looked
for
truth
in the u-bend
and
said this
  
  'cant think of a better metaphor
  more suited to life
  than 
    pissing
  your own 
    shit stains 
  away
  in
  the dull mid-morning'

but
to his credit
the
tired
man
in the bathroom mirror
looked
very
unsure 

ONLINE SHOPPING (EXPLODED HAIKUS)

1. AMAZON


double-click glass world

of 
   cheap plastic rain 
   1p books

   hello
   mr
   postman

2. XMAS


unsure gifts are good ?

   so 
   something else 
   to be sure

   1000
grateful smiles

ALIENS

  monsters 
  are 
  coming

the text said

was a power outage
as far as i could see

street was black velvet shapes

candles dull orange 
in silent windows

  the
  text 
  didnt 
  help

POETRY BREAKFAST APRIL 12 POEM A DAY SUGGESTION - POEM ABOUT FIXING YOUR BED

  time 
  was
i would get up in the morning
by standing straight up with the alarm
and marching down the length of the bed

to the door
and the day

doing
25 pull-ups or so
before
boiling
eggs

  but 
slats at the bottom of the bed
cracked like knuckles
and
i replaced them with thicker pine
from
out 
the 
garage

the pull-up bar
is there still

as a memory 
and a target

  but 
i get up now
over
30 mins 

or longer

of sluggish mental gymnastics
aborted attempts
fresh resolution

telling
myself
my
reward is coffee

and
a
rest

untitled (broken bed) by steve gianakos acrylic on fabric

ORWELL COULDNT MAKE YOU UP

doubleyou-tee-eff unsane world ?

  Orwell couldnt
    make you
      up 

  i
shared time
   with Elvis and Loretta 
and am
  grateful

  but oh-emm-gee world !

sat in pants
with my coffee
horror-numbed at the 
  
    Bomb TVs
      stories 
      of 
      the 
    Big Stupid

effs sake world !

one day
you must be a nightmare
  we
  all
  once
  had

from thedailyriff.com

DREAM RELIEF

  in 
  a 
  dream
i have misplaced my glasses

  Again

  and 
  i 
fight thru the blur
  trying
  to

  s  m  i  l  e

  when 
  i 
  find 
  them
unprotected on the ground 
  the
  relief 
  is

  INTENSE

  but
  that
  i
could
find my 
  
  m
   e
    m
     o
      r
       i
        e
         s 

in the waking lands
  as
  easy

from mad-science.wonderhowto.com

http://mad-science.wonderhowto.com/how-to/inception-real-life-make-these-lucid-dreaming-glasses-and-take-control-your-dreams-0134501/

POEM POME

  like
  a
  warrior
showing he is more than death

  i
dredge my rough gullies

every morning

  for
  a
  poem

from samuraig.weebly.com

EDINBURGH INCH

http://sacfreepress.com/pfa/

http://sacfreepress.com/pfa/

http://sacfreepress.com/pfa/

http://sacfreepress.com/pfa/

SMA BUIKS / WEE POEMS

http://www.poems-for-all.com/

http://www.poems-for-all.com/

 

http://www.poems-for-all.com/

http://www.poems-for-all.com/

MORNING HAIKU

coffee on soon as

skin-pop insulin in cat

do
this
right
way
round

PO QUEUE

post office queue 10 AM
posting a package to the USA
and
my problems turn to confetti
cos
the
guy in front of me
has a scar
on the back of his head
big 
and
round
as a dinner plate

what stories they cut out there  . . .

this guy
well
he is old and young
stressed as cracked leather
a
face like a WWI trench shot
TREMBLING
and
FIDGETING
in
unclean charity shop unchic
URGENTLY
sending a small package somewhere
for
68p

from news.bbc.co.uk

ME AS A CHILD

do you want to try this ?
you might like it ?

  no

do you want to go 
to your classmates party ?

  no

have a friend over ?

  no

what do you want to do
for your birthday ?

  nothing

what do you want to be
when you grow up ?

  stuntman

show nan your new shoes ?

  grrrrrr

  and
  i 
  would 
  hide 
inside 
the laurel tree
in
homemade camo trousers
and
pretend
i
was
a
spy