GOOGLING PADLOCKS

on hand-me-down phones
&
library wifi

the sick google 

padlocks & foodbanks

in
the ruins
of
britains stable doors

DREAM FUDGE POP CRIMINAL DUO

 

she & he should be only friends
she said
to properly contain their criminal intent

&
she was catalogue happy
&
he was movie sad
&
their life was a badland teardrop


~


their
epilogue texts
thumbed from
prison yard bleacher
balloon-drop cellphones

regretted nothing & saw everything

both smuggling in drugs now
for 4G data
library privileges
&
a time-out oblivion nod

photo - Freedom Glares from the Dagenham Archive

HIGH STREET POPS 1

198?

id window shop
for
parker pens & pentel pencils

id mumble 
in the chemist
for contraband

&
the library there
well id almost read it

back in the 
i-think-i-dont-care days
of 
chinos
electro
&
the 
i-dont-know
i-dont-know
let-me-be
ghost in the machine 
machine gun dreams



TODDLER GOT CROWS FEET

in velcro trainers 
cos cant do laces
the weathered kids
with adult faces 

tail
the 
hollywood shades & patterned nails
on 
on barbie mums & rejigged maids

to the hairdressers
down on grover way



TOO HUNGRY

cable tied
to the morrisons
car 
park 
handrails

are cellophane wrapped bouquets

there for the glue-sniffing kids 
gone
gone
away

too hungry
for cheap happy
one sad day

from manchestereveningnews.co.uk

LONDONS ESTUARY BIN / ALL HAIL TRAFFIC

 
britain 
ever 
unruined ?

dodging potholes my whole life

long shadows on village green
soon build 
clusterfuck 
miniature flats 
there 

no cupboards
ground level balconies
four inches from bus queue

good access to unkillable bookies
see three from this library bench
one eye shut
half library shut

could be landfill
that village green 
or plague pit

a dick turpin gallows
rotted in rain

( the peasants revolted here
  you should see them now )

or proposed site 
of more sth east
thames crossing 
cement matrix

all hail traffic
driven driverless

jesus

they paved paradise
and put up a robot motorway

ha

they paved industry
and put up another pound shop

ha

hmm

shit

hello lake district
may we live in denial
on your misty shores ?

please

from misstech.com

NAVEL THEN NORTH TO DEATH

and
if i look into my navel
north of my slab flat feet
into 
the 
rosy dream place
of never

i see 
mythical india

gram parsons 
playing 
unplugged cosmic country
on a
white grand piano

gielgud and t e lawrence
sharing 
a wild 
arab charger

trying to get to
the world on time

and an impossible aching dawn

~

but
if i look straight ahead
thru the calendar wall
into realities hard overdrive

i see grandparents
younger than me
weeping air 
onto the guardians
6 across 

(five letters it says
 and they got a d from armageddon
 so it starts with a d
 'walking _____ ' it says
 'permanent state youre in')
  
between drone bombed 
council flat walls
orange desert dust
between their
newspapers
dry as bone pages

that could crumble 
at a stifled cough
or a childs 
distant bleak
sink estate cry

their hands
like sepia maps
hold chipped china cups
of warm 
bath tub gin

brewed by 
street angels
who gave up 
all gentle hope
in the devils
en suite
fleet street
madagascar
novotel

from accorhotels.com

PRISON QUALITY

reading back my poems
they
look
to
me
like
childrens wooden letter blocks 
an
inmate might have piled up 
in
hope
of
a
pat on the back
rehabilitation
or
a
job in the library 

 from www.woodentoyshop.co.uk