ABOUT A WARNING

it is impossible
to give
this warning in time

despite my efforts
to build
the appropriate machine

from deck chairs
& duct tape
& qualcast parts

but here it is anyway
for what its worth

so listen up kids -

be very careful
where you are born

FRAGPOP No 1.4

i used to have

go-fast stripes

you could only see

if you were playing fast & loose

with the moons vim

& the appropriate cogs

inside of the countdown machine

HAIKU TWO

organs watered

i am careful with the sun

summer river mood


~


the daily machine

is rust & meds & meat &

grit got in the oil

ON THE MATRIX CUSP

strike the machine

a hulk smash

in 

its 

gordian knot

for time / for life / for play

before we find out
what is there

after it all

would that i could 

hold your hands there

& ease your leap

with quiet company

there on the matrix cusp

CRAMP OF YOUR CLAWS

 

you reach an age &

your world tumbles apart around
your gig-deaf ears

todays eulogies
old dust so soon

in the cramp of

your arthritis claws

~

&

all the dentists look like children

&

all the police look like children

&

all the parents look like children

&

all the children lay claim

just by e x i s t i n g

to a world

i

 am

   not

      done

          with 

              no

FORCED ENTRY

 

you are wired into the machine
& its acid dance freak show

forced entry
one exit

easter eggs aplenty
among the bones & blooms

DELIRIUM TAPAS VOL 15

 

&

a 

joyland machine is waiting

in the night squad ward

if you luck out

before you cabbage

i hear it gives 

a sense of freedom

&

an epic kind of calm

~

well -

its ALL just 

one un-plug
away no ?

squirrel away

metaphor ammo

for before that long night is done

photo - Pot The Black from the Dagenham Archive

STOLE OURSELVES

 

the clock thuds

fekking lump hammer on my anvil skull

anvil ?

fekking salmonella eggshell

but its not its fault -

i put the battery in it
like i can measure time

our arrogance !
mine . . .

do the clocks thud like this
across town ?

taking
taking
taking

everybodys lovetime away


~

countdown & reminder

black choppers incoming

failing plumbing

the clock thuds 

thud thud thud

deaths footfalls - ha !

why not ?

or
just

another

reductive
machine

we stole ourselves with

photo Widescreen Rooftop Blues courtesy of the Dagenham Archive

DELIRIUM TAPAS VOL1

 

  penny haven juices   
  a gin mill town ago  

  rainbow oil in the gutter       
  aglow with machine flame flume  


  ~  

  the blunt windows square peg  

  thats the interweb            

  & its full of round holes     

  pun intended                  

LONG PORK BOOTS

theres a thinking machine 

atop my meatstack

i say machine 

could be sickness 

or a deepfake hoax

maybe a burroughs virus

dominating my animal twitch

& theres cotton covered long pork
hanging there underneath my soul

randomly unresponsive
& pendular

making up its own rules
with boots on

ABDICATION GLUE RAIN

CURRICULUM VITAE

im there

in the shadow

abdication
on the to-do list

king
of
my machine




CHILDHOOD GARAGE FORECOURT

struggle pup
lapping at the
rainbow puddles

out there trying
in
the
oil
slick
rain




FORENSIC ANALYSIS

one
day
long ago

i think

an excessive steamy bath

undid
all
my glue

from istockphoto.com

TV OH TV

from mirror.co.uk

WHERE MURDER IS BLAMELESS

the machine churns
it just does

whether i approve or not
mostly fekking not

the machine
its hot and heavy
for bullshit and blood

its churning 
into 
cannibal madness

and
i
can
be
free of it
with the tv

holding onto attenboroughs hand
thru
the
canadian wetlands

where
all
the 
murder is blameless

pic from radiotimes.com

WHEN DID THE FUTURE HAPPEN

THREE POTATOES

once upon a grey parade morning
i
left 
the
house
and
muddled out into the sportswear wake

i bought three loose potatoes
from
a
machine
where a person used to be

it asked too many questions
and
made
me
feel
inferior
to be organic and alive

but
it didnt file its nails
or
take notice
of
the
verbal abuse  

and
i 
'paid' 
the 
machine
with
an uncertain slap of celluloid
that
could
have
been
anyones

wondering when the future happened ?



HARMONY PLUG AND PLAY

i left thinking machine or person ?

i left thinking
we should grow
our own potatoes

but
everyones laying
astroturf now

round
their
harmony 
plug & play 
hot tubs



I AM PERSON TOO

once upon a back indoors and safe
i
saved
my
misanthropy 
for
the sealed sunset
and
i
said
bravely and aloud

i would rather person 
than machine
because i am person too

and
i
could
have
leant them a book about the modern world
refuse a bag
and tell them they are their own god

or
just
leave
a
smile
for
them
in
their watery abattoir eyes
dull with breeding
and sublet hope

or ask them
if they knew
when the future happened ?

from concreteplayground.com

ENTROPY CALLING

these are 
tomorrows golden days

cos
everything 
falls apart

one way or another

despite velcro
cement and rebar
and 
our 
hungry clutching paws

and i cant always be a machine
when time goes bouncing
all
around
these indoor rooms

so today is next weeks
halcyon seaside dream

and
now
whats
this
thing
now 

coming always toward my eyes . . ?

from quora.com

THE WRISTWATCHES

 ' . . . also i realised since i been ill i been getting into watches, nothing expensive, i'm poor as the proverbial.  i not bothered wearing one regularly for many years but i was thinking this renewed interest might be because of being ill, my relationship with time has changed, lots of it but too ill to make use of it.  don't mean to be morbid about it but wearing a watch again seems like  an acknowledgement of this, am i making sense ? . . . and wind up ones, i like the tactile feel, we're loosing the tactile feel in this touch screen age . . .  also i like old dial telephones, you remember old dial telephones . . . ' 

 from the tapes of Farley Monroe Jr 

 in therapy with Dr Luke Rhinehart III 

pic by mango-tango monkey-pyjamas 

           i not worn a watch

            for yeers

              now i got a drawerful

           ebays wunderful

             time caught

              ina machine

           genius&arrogance

             strapped

              onto

          our flesh&bone

             and 

           like a dreemcatcher

          is more about acknowledging

                 the

              

                p o w e r

             of dreems

           than catching them

           

                 a 

           watch is a nod

                  to

                the

         e n d l e s s m a r c h

              that we feel

               islikea

            plastic ruler

                when its

              morelikea

            ball of wool

         and i like the way

              theres a second hand

           jerkingspasticrelentless

            forever onward & scare-reminding

                  strapped onto

                   my

               flesh&bone

pic by mango-tango monkey-pyjamas

OPEN PICTURE BOOKS (INSOMNIA POPS)

the closing time hoovers
eating the days debris 
from shop floor carpet
inside the emptying mall

          up
          e
         s
      i 
  r 

decades on

in
nights
unregulated
arena

~

under dirty cotton clouds
and night flights to venus

the container port
across the marsh

clears its machine throat
like a breadline iron giant 
on sixty a day

and
someone
left
all
the 
picture books open again

in my mind beams

~

and
all 
of
the 
ugly beautiful faces
i will never see again

break thru surface tension

and why do you
why
?

from ebay.co.uk

ALL CLEAR AND POST

behind the glass
a woman in leather
runs from
alien and believable gods

move she says to herself move
she must answer the ringing phone
all our lives depend on it

this side of the glass
my unopened post sits there 
like a wrapped gift
would
sit
there - blunt and solid
with something of the mistake about it

( i had been compulsive and unthinking
  i was like hank 
  behind the glass 
  shot
  and 
  recovering
  buying minerals in bed from ebay
  in the night time tv gloop and glow )

the packages - they are like paper rocks 
strange samples on the kitchen tablecloth

a weird geology they demand attention

there could be ANYTHING inside couldnt there ?
and ignoring my knowledge
i 
savour
this 
manufactured mystery
for  l o n g  moments
sipping coffee number one

and the time ran then
it steamrolled over cold fear and the wired dread 
of these 
          falling / failing
                            faux
                              empire
                                 days
and over noons stagnation 
and all its attendant nothings
and i heard a tactile tick tock
and i felt a small vroooom
like a machine had started up
behind the days flat scenery
and the nameless Effort
    the orphan Art
    i
    had
squeezed out  bled out
forced and coaxed out

    ( the writingslob emitted curdle again )

    well now it Shone Easily - had no Hard Questions

and the day felt like a day then
an easy marker  a nice place
instead of another unsane blur
where only the edges make sense
like
crisp green leaves eaten into skeletons
by the long gone beasts of dawn

and when the cat steps up onto the bed
it is with a perfect sense of things

and shadows pass by the window
like of course they can and should

shadows of harmless other people
doing harmless other people things

and 
i 
feel
like
i
won an award - i can hear doves too
their repeating coo
like an All Clear siren today

the woman behind the glass
picks up the ringing phone

and she knows theres no rainbow 
you can see it in her eyes

and 
her
outstretched hand on the callbox window
is
a flat No  a spread Stop
in 
defiance

at circumstance 
at authoritarian retaliation
at
the
big
black
truck
running
her down . . .

the corner at wells and lake from matrix.wikia.com

REPETITION WILL HAPPEN

out there
its like
the tv 
is jammed between stations

my imagination
sees forms
in the dancing braille
and
i
file my soft reports 
into the ether

wary of repetition
cos it 
might
does
can
will
should
happen

but i dont stop
stop ?
my machine is stuck on go
despite
mechanics
warnings

from wikipedia