FRAG 37

never has the past looked so rosy

thinks everyone

every time

the fan 

needs another 

deep clean

~

like the radar station

disguised as a water tower

from the last global war

looks

quaint & retro

these days

to me

HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO

i have
to stop writing
to scratch the cat

he demands it

&

has taught me how

cats look like
they know poetry

but
have
been there / done that

understood it / mastered it

& moved on beyond it

hundreds or thousands

of years ago

WINTER & THE CUP OF YEARS

running late
winter calls collect
&
the cold sun
so low
bites weakly

heavy with
plagiarised
melancholy

& 

memories steeped
in
the
cup
of
years

HOSTILE MESH

its a loose weave safety net
the
sick & sad
get
tangled up in

calculated disrepair
adds

barbs
to
the hostile mesh

blow up 

what you like

is what i hear

as

long

as

'help'

DRIBBLES

thru

how to enjoy the orchards now

with all the soil has seen ?

PLACE IS HEAVY NONSENSE

trembling at death
frying pan to fire ?

agog at the universe
the size of the thing ! 

& afraid of tomorrow
that regular unknown

~

this place is heavy nonsense

run by lightweights & lunatics

their teeth marks clear

on the seaside piers 

& the dogs of circumstance

congregate to salivate 

in 

the 

truncated precinct

nangs & candy plastic

on 

the 

betting slip ground 

NEWS LIVER

the bad bad news

gets IN me

like i have an organ for it

like evolution grew receptors

for the 24/7 death deluge

& it taxes 

my practiced liver 

to overflow

& i am holed

skin tags atremble

& a bad light beams
out my colander trunk

like 

some 

dark screaming beacon of the wrong

MOON WALLPAPER 3

we are  

cutlery monkeys

&

electric chimps

with

history chips

&

flipside chipsticks

on 

kevlar shoulders

&

worn canvas epaulettes

cheered & damned 

by

soft slugabeds

supine 

in clouds of vanilla mist

&

armchair generals

wild

in a chilli flake rain

all

empathy ducts clogged

&

sympathy holes healed

on

their food padded tv ribs 

 

YOU HAVE UNTIL THE BELL RINGS

if we discovered

sound & solid proof 

of eternal & rigid 

predestination

it would not

& could not

change anything at all

could it ?

~

please discuss
you have until the bell rings
& six foot of chalk for your slate

BASKET ON THE STAIRS

 

progress travels a hard road
of hairpin turns & dead ends
in the
bad swamp

toll road
of unfriendly hands & siren song

its the basket on the stairs
baggage & reason 

in there with the ready washing

its destination 

as universally accepted

as its eventual arrival 

is assumed

too few hands tho

commit 

to handle grasp

MOON WALLPAPER 2

cacophonous dusty vignettes
caught as testimony
stack themselves
in server farms
eating rivers
towns need

digital witness is a thirsty business

on the other side
of the newspaper world

MOON WALLPAPER 1

when the dogs of war want walking
it is 

always 

only 

old men

far away who say aok

& loosed they go
playing drone fetch now
in the concrete parks
low-rise arenas

its hard to see
such carnivores
waste all
that young
fruit & veg

HORRIBLE KNOT

 

we have made 

a horrible knot 

of it all

its

many loose ends
obscured

in
the 

unravelling tapestry of the land

MYTHICAL CHESTNUT

living in the moment

that mythical chestnut

is for kids & animals

got no money

got no politics

  

wonderfully ignorant 

of their skin in the game

ANOTHER POETS POEM

 

the atrocious swan of love*
said the poem

published in landscape

in a book like a calendar

& i stop there
picturing it

a calm river

& brick arch bridge

the image halts 

my hospital rush

* from May, in Shia LaBeouf, by A K Blakemore

LIKE A PHOTO NEGATIVE

the sunlight 

is invasive

is heavy 

as chefs knives

cutting thru
lime neon leaves

it makes me feel 

like a photo negative

like a hiroshima shadow

i hate how 

it gets inside 

of me

&

how sad it is

to be irritated

by a star

COSY WARM IN DEFIANCE DESPITE IT

using your legally entitled
'help & assistance'
of the benefits system uk

is like a cold hug
from a creepy uncle
that chills
your wet bones numb

but who might you hope

hand you a folded ten
greasy strings attached
out from his cardigans
ratty detritus pockets

so you might you hope

attempt an almost life
tethered & dependent
to his fickle windsock
with grey workshed twine

cosy warm in defiance despite it

CLOCK IS A MONOGRAM

a mad sprint of abandon
down the bullet train aisle

chasing the quicksilver
in the hard colour fade

& still

its always the morning
of a funeral afternoon

in the go-fast
       sandglass
       update
       of the info-glut jamboree

DULL ELECTRIC IN THE MORNING STREAK

theres doubt
dull electric
in the morning streak
of pencil lead cloud

i draw storms with it

in the comfy chair afternoon

thunderheads out the dog whistles

blown in dark opportunity

on the corruption stage

theres relief
approaching peace
in the pastel smear
of industry dusk

a bittersweet goodbye

projected on the painted sky

or pollution blood

& redacted black

phoning the headlines in

REVERSED UP COMPASSION DRIVE

the permutation 

of the word narrative
he said
has an agenda 

that chaos wont stand

dont they know reasons are not answers ?

just enjoy the air 

i told him
its fresh like a clean blade

& clipped just so

i think youve reversed 

up compassion drive

he said to me shaking his head
when you missed 

the deathville turnoff

i

hope

at

least

you grabbed something good to read

at the junction multimart station ?

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

we apologise 

for the interruptions in service

our team 

is doing everything they can

~

the regular enemies
have launched bad chaff
into my sensor array

& the star shaped ideas 

dance a fingertip away
under the iron crust

glitching & ghosting & ungrabbable

in the soft portals

ticker tape tangle

universal readout machine

~

we apologise 

for the interruptions in service

our team is busy clearing 

the mad beasts out the belfry

please familiarise yourself

with the appropriate muster station

& take something to read

 

etsy.com/uk

pillpackpops&poemsbyforddagenham