FRAG 11

 

next doors
washing hangs out limp

in the
greyscale murk & sleet

underwear opened & naked

stays out there all night
& its wrong
& the moon
it wont look

TOM WAITS FRAG 1

she told him
when he had
egg on his face

&

his piano

is made of

cigarettes

she let him
take his
shoes off

&

gods away he said 

on business

business !

FRAG 5

 

i am king of my own
sock basket

but slave
to the kipple wave

garden sprouts in patches
in the masonry tumble

taking my cues these days

from the humblebrag trees

REMAINED STARTLINGLY QUAINT

in the
high street
opticians
i am processed

in a sterile cubicle
&
the woman behind the desk there
40 going on 60
whispers with an old school respect & tact

are you on benefits ?

& i am not amused
so much as interested
like being in a museum
or visiting a village
thats remained
startlingly quaint

AN HEROICALLY RESTRAINED POLITICAL OPINION

i hope
any tories
who manage to make it

underneath
the cool umbrella
of some kind of afterlife

dont get to run anything
worth a chuff
in there

no

FRAG 39

yesterday
is
a
heavy drag cigarette cherry
glowing an awful red

in
your
pump-thump pump-thump
thump-thump heart-fist

clenched like something shrunk

ON A MUSTY GREY ENGLISH NOWHERE DAY, A SCHOOL MEMORY POEM

french class
single tables
no windows
language like a wall

on chair backs
ski jackets
wet with rain
& the heatings on

sat behind brett
who leans back
all the way back
so heads upside down

& he dribbled from his mouth
so it would go up his nose

then he sang
from the top ten
i remember it was
c'est la vie

ACTOR POP NUMBER 4

archie leach
had a big head
& had long arms
so
dunhill & quentino
cut his suits
accordingly

& here comes

cary grant

FRAG 17

 

the
river
looks
like flaking chrome

from behind the cranes animal shapes

marsh & port
between us

spring willows on my mind

EASIEST POEMS I EVER WROTE

& one line didnt make sense
it felt like a hiccup
a printers fudge
but was probably a regional burr

& the poem spoke to me
like not many do
like it was using my words for me
you know ?

easiest poems i ever wrote
were ones by someone else

FREAK SANS BACKUP

he was
unsure
of ALL of it

& his words came out
like a cautious
almost prefab offering

not boilerplate but going that way

& he cut them loose
let them hang
sans backup

~

& due to his overthink
& the way things are
their reception remained unclear

way after the event

& NO ONE
he was sure
worried like he did

 

LICHEN BENCHES

punctured
we leak

onto the lichen benches
of
the
struggling cemetery spring

squirrels there

on headstones

flaunting their 

animal zen

AFTER READING IN THE BATH, POP 1

we draw our bars
write them

try to see out
imagine it

& draw
that too

SEASONS POP-FRAG

waiting for spring

so i can wait

for autumn again

ACTOR POP

 

ben affleck
stands there
like a fridge
stands there
after you
pulled it out
to get behind
& clean

FRAG 35

remember the ashtray spills
all over your hot-rocked lap ?

the grey dust
floating & coating
the coffee cups & bedspread

free promo biros
clotted in a mug

FRAG 33

& anyway when the music comes on
the tub thumpers & a chord change
then i know my heart beats too

& i write a something
an effort anything
a deliberate nothing

for therapy & purpose
& the corduroy blues