FIRST LUNCH

well
that was
some unfocussed shit

i say to myself
shutting the laptop
& tidying my pens away

maybe itll all read better
after i slept on it

& i sleep on it
10.30 AM friday
after first lunch

RETAINING THE MANTRA JAG

theres words in the shower

a poesy tsunami clarity roll 

moving water a trigger ?
whatever - dont question it

you get out careful-fast

foolish fall on your mind

repeating 

the collapsing madness 

desperate 

to cling to just enough

of the 

raining mantra jag

to

go

on

photo - Glimmer from the Dagenham Archive

UNTIL TOURETTES

theres these 
pomes in me

n
some of them 

r
2 sad 
2 write

2 mean 
n
2 bad

~

theres these 
poems in me

ripped fabric

base code
in
hard light

lowest uncommon denominators

&
i 
shall / must
just
let 
that weird breed
go

shadow butterflies
on
the
black shutter breeze 

until 
my eventual
tourettes

from projectionmapping.org

THE PAST IS ANOTHER COUNTRY

1. LIGHTS

the sun is fuck-tired 
and
brain-drained 
by 
too-long summer days
and 
falls over itself 
in relief 
by 7 pm

leaving
the
streets burning all horror-show
with
paranoid security bulbs 
shining showbiz spotlights
over
block-paved flooded hatchback drives
and
commuter headlamps scan the colourless bricks
swinging
like
prison
searchlights
  the night 
      full 
    with 
      silent 
      alarms

  we
light optimistic bath candles 
to shut our eyes to
  and 
stroke laptops under reading lamps
like pets
  and
cook to the dim radio DAB displays
of quiet jazz
  and
  then
dream before the dead blue flicker
  of
evening tv
selling
  life insurance 
          in case
and 
  beach holidays 
          we deserve

from mindfulbalance.org

2. TOURIST

  in
the awful autumn depression
  of
gut memories and cold-sweat nerves and dead afternoons
  i
  hold
  the 

    Gone Winters

with oven gloves and teflon love
  cos
    who
      can
        really balance
that
old 

    Tourist Pain

with
the

    New Fool

hanging
by 
fingernails
off 
todays scribbled diary ?

from howkapow.com