BICYCLE CARCASS

the street sweeper
is old as fortitude & roses
& dismounts her machine steed
& smokes & swears & stresses
over
another
mountain bike carcass
abandoned
in the precinct fountains
scuzzy puddle bed

~

i viddy her slog

from a bench outside Boots

wings in the tree

rats down the cracks

Costa cubby belching

steam punk sounds

DAMBUSTERS NATION MULTIPOPS 3

   our myth is vague
      a driveway uncemented

   bulldog tshirts
        &
   patio chairs 
     on the costa fc

~

       empire said 
we shall boldly go

     where no native
is welcome back from

~

under the war office rug

         are
   
   churchills later ideas
   the savilles 
     &
   bodkin adams

~


  morris dancers

well
  i could never stop laughing

  into
  my
  gin & crisps

pic from biography.com

FIVE OR TEN POPS

1.

this guy sat outside costa

smokes a roll up
fat as his thumb

stirs his coffee
for a full five minutes

stares hard into space

ignores totally
the woman sat with him

and i dont like to judge

but i bet
hes due in court



2a.

i wonder about dying 

and i wonder about not

and i wonder 
bout all the things
i will never know

i hope i wont die behind on my box sets
or
croak
halfway thru
a
balls-out novel
of
addiction and murder



2b.

and in 100yrs
will computers
be thinking liquid 

and hide from us
in the sea ?



3a.

i wake
and smell the day

it smells like shit
that chemical shit

farmers . . .

i start again

i see a robin
in the rosemary patch

i see a dragon fly
on the rose bush pole

and you see the problem is
i dont know what to do
with 
that



3b.

so i write it down

file it
for 
posterity
whatever that is

and i thank lordfuck in heaven
for
gardens

by sitting 
my fleshbag of gas in one
and
staring out my head



4.

and outside
deaths opinion

i wonder dont all weep
in the weakness
of every dawn



5a.

i can write poems

mechanically
apparently

and time was
they were an
olympic event

but please dont ask me 
to understand the gas bills

seemingly
random

list
of

give
and
take



5b.

utility bills
are like 
predictive text

i explain to the cat before breakfast



5c.

imagine if what we paid for a shirt
was
based
on
someones assumption
of
how
many
shirts
we would buy that year ?

i ask the cat after breakfast



5d.

my shirt might even be free !

and
well 

the cat
is snoring now

in wise response

from shutterstock.com

PAIR OF POPS

      GARDEN POP

   i am drawn to the trees
 to the  quiet riot  out there

  barks rough edges  leaves smooth sweep
 theres a calmness to the tied earth

   an empty that needs no filling

    and my manmade fabrics
   feel loud
          and a mistake 
     in this beige ribbon 
        this fenced eden

from unsplash.com

      PLANNING AHEAD

 old couple  in a chilly costa
    huddle shoulder to shoulder

  theyre doing a crossword together
    their coffee steams
   their mugs touch

     will  that be us ?
 that will  be us

     if we have money then
  and  britain is not  ashes

from whitbread.co.uk

TESCO CAFE POP