GULLIBLE DRUNKS

in 1989
there was this month or two

when each estuary pub

had a chancer joe

selling graffitied chunks
of the berlin wall 

out the boot

of their mk3 escort

or a borrowed volvo 760

& a small self conscious queue 

formed after last orders

in the car parks cold & dark 

espousing disclaimers & paying

in the heavy stink

of the seawall mud

LAMPS TRIMMED & BURNING

some
of
us
always pull lamp duty
on the cold windowsill

clamps left on
the
glued wood topper
of
the venetian blinds

HOSPITAL POP

furious & cold

black swan moments

simple as a singsong hello

simple as a clock on the wall

crash in
upend you

in the early morning wards
wonderful smell of toast

JUNCTION THOUGHTS ON THE A176

traffic signals
appropriate & ruin
beautiful green

they turn it
cold / lurid / dumb

& GO it says
go where ?

~

i enjoy more
the mandated timeout
of fire engine red
&
the tension & prerogative
of ambiguous ambers
soft nod

DOG BARKS IN A SILENT NEIGHBOURHOOD

the hoot of a train horn

funnelled down the grass banks

of litter & scrub & stubs 
&
the movie dialogue 

snappy & truncated 

by channel hoping hope

&
the dog that barks

in a silent neighbourhood

of a teenage sunday

&

the rave whistles 

shrill & bright

on the smoky festival wind

&

the cold hatchback motors 

turning over in coughs

on a frosty workaday dawn

remind me 

of the ambient album
found-sound collages

of the 90s

as opposed to

it working
the other way around

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

SHOWER ROULETTE & MAINTAINING THE MEAT STREAK

clothes wash on in the washer

makes the old pipes conflicted

its shower roulette again -

waters hot then cold

           then gold

           then scald

           old fyodor 

          never had to 

        worry about that


~

my meat streak 

strongly suggests 

hibernation

& exhibits extreme confusion

& manifest limbic protest

at orders to the contrary

  

DREAM FUDGE POP HOSP 2

the civvy-clad corpses 

gone cold-stiff

looked child-thrown

out 

on 

the 

loading bays concrete stage

its cement cracks edged with frost moss 

~

i tried to fold them

&

i tried to hide them

in the new snowfall

& 

shovelled piled ice 

in that hectic dream panic 

that might wake a regular man

~

police passed without a word

we shared a look -

workers all alone 

& we knew it

all of us rabbit hole deep 

inside 

an 

obligated 

national service of the soul

~

authors note -

i dreamed all of this

before the covidien came

portentous perhaps ?

but 

in the dream world 

it was noel fielding 

running the ITU...

photo Lift Off from the Dagenham Archive

BIOLOGY & HEADLINES

   brain from 
  abattoir pig

unsustainably revived

 my veins 
are 
a web of 
toothless 
     cold


~


brontes hair
  found 
  in an
attic locket ring

  happy days  cash in

    my 
   heart 
 is that 
     of an 

elephant sloth

  ( possibly  probably

     i
    cannot rule it out )


~


    & 
legs now 
   are
primitive
holograms
   of 
wobble
   & 
interference

warning  warning  warning

    here comes 
     a
  Pollen  Bomb

in the low level exhaust pipe sky


~


   i 
stumble afloat

  on habit  on love
  on mission
     &
 stimulants

under evil evil blue

missing man
not seen
for a month

well duh

from theheizenbergeffect.wordpress.com

I HAD INVITED THE BRAIN THIEF IN

the girl
in the novel
is 14
and
to the old mans 
gnarly offer 
of
confiscated
aged-in-the-keg 
double-rectified 
busthead from 
madison county
as
to
maybe help her 
maybe shift her cold
she says

i would not put 
a thief in my mouth
to steal my brains

her boxfresh eyes
seeing the truth of it
and
laying
clear
my 
old 
intentions
better than i ever did
in one hundred thousand poems 
of the liquid ballroom
and its urgent resupply

and i read on
keen
to hear
her wisdom
on what it was i should put in my mouth
to
aid
said brains
lawful return

cos lord knows 
id invited the brain thief inside
as often as dusk came 
and the day turned itself 
to purple shadow
and ego announcement

and
when
it
was
he
did
leave
he
didnt leave easy 
or empty handed

from bleedingcool.com

THE EVE OF CONSTRUCTION AND THE GIN FIELDS

life
was
a
shit
and
a
fuck
and the midnight got inside you
like the cold got inside you
and it spoke to you
and it said no bro no
not this lifetime

~

but there was a freedom there wasnt there ?
in the silence
and in the nothing

and that band sang

oh that magic feeling
nowhere to go

and you clung to that
thru the eves of destruction
out on the cigarette corners
counting up your telephone coins 
stood at the cabstand alone
with something to drink
but nowhere to go

~

and it got deeper inside of you
and it ate its way back out of you

from 
d
o
w
n 
where regret ferments

and the hard ice you were
achieved a difficult spring

~

and you got inside each other
and you built a metaphorical
solid gold home together

and it said go bro go
its time for some summer

and all the irrigated gin fields
were 
sown
with
enough
sunflower

to weather
the sickness dusk

from amazon.co.uk

DONT WE KNOW ?

dont we know 
we're 
all 
cold 
together
on
the
bottle
shop
corner 
burning
for
a
hit of Love or fix of Ideas
under the same round moon 
that 
seems to MEAN something
with
its
gangster stare sneaking and creeping
street low
behind terraces 
or
high and mocking in silver clouds 
looking down at us
adding
up
pitiful
dollar-pounds
in
front
of
sick
blue
tv
chattering repition like dim dawn birds
in
the label language 
of 
cement concrete and city clay ?

moon over denmark from www. kimmatthiesen.dk

COLD WAR KID

text HAT to 70099 
says the ad
donate 3 quid
so
a
cold war kid
can have a hat

the government will match it pound for pound

i like the idea of texting HAT
and
a
cold war kid
getting a hat

the kids in the ad look cold

so i text HAT 

and 
now 
UNICEF
call
me
every morning while im still sick
and
mending
myself
with
coffees

SUPERMARKET

cold aisle/packets of bad horse and bacon

shades on

in shock from hot dust of Outside

plastic basket of meat and cheese to eat

and its 

Bomb Blast Bright

and its

Alien Cold

i MUST get out

big floral woman at till

asks me to pay for her marge

so

she

can

leave

NO i say