A BLACKBERRY 850 IN A TOUCHSCREEN 4G WORLD

with an old mobile

that needs constant recharging

you carry the charger everywhere

stick it in the socket at Pret

or the office desktop

but

what if your charger

is your bedroom ?

and when it starts up again

its sluggish and unresponsive

and the one pale battery bar

feels like a lie

well

what if that phone

is like you at breakfast ?

once it starts up

you know you wont have power for long

so you quickly send a text or two

anxiously watching

to check they actually send

but

what if that's

how you talk ?

it wont cope with streaming media

no oomph left for modern apps

but you can play Snake still

for a little while anyway

but

what if you hate Snake

and Snake is your holiday ?

and the ringer and the alerts

are feeble bleeps

and you wouldn't make 3 minutes

with an actual call

well

what if that call

is your family Xmas ?

you wind the brightness down

you turn off push notification

you take the back off

you pull the battery out

you warm it up on a rad

you leave it in vinegar

and all sorts of other

half-arsed hopeful tricks

well

what if that's your

endocrine system ?

your limbic system ?

your guts ?

and you don't want a new phone

cos its not that old

so you take it to the phone shop

and they say look

put roaming back on

put push alerts back on

put updates back on

they say look

with all that off

it might save you battery time

but you've de-conditioned it

when you should have maintained

and

also

DON'T do ANYTHING with it

you read online

well

what if that's your Dr ?

maybe in the past

you topped up the charge too often

maybe its had a rough run

bouncing about with no case

maybe in pockets with keys and change

and there's all the times

it was left in the sun

at festivals and barbecues

beer splashes wiped away

with a t shirt sleeve

but

what if there's no clear reason

that you can find ?

and you remember all the times

it ran red hot after 5 min calls

and you remember the first day

you took it off charge in the morning

and it was almost dead still

and all your texts were gone

and all your contacts had disappeared

and you knew then

you couldn't depend on it anymore

well

what if that's

your memory ?

your mental agility ?

your lexicon ?

and every time you use it

you got a nasty feeling

you're only making it worse

cos you don't really know

do you ?

well

what if that's you

your body

and

your

life ?

from wallpaperup.com

TRILOGY POPTARDS

1.

say well done
and
pat me on the head like a puppy
thirsty for the loving cup

cos
when our meat fails
our chance is gone

if
it
was
there
at
all


2.

happiness
is
a good feed / sunshine

sadness
has
depth / longevity / romance

and where they meet
is
the
peace 
inside

elusive and rewarding - even before phones


3.

dont call me old
dont say next stop 50
dont say middle aged
     or 
     make me tick the 35 - 45 box

dont say
        ooooh he dont like hearing that
     or
        ooooh touched a nerve did we

just say
        that
            i am alive
        and
            thats good
        and    
            well done
            
            You Are Doing OK 
            
            today

from vesselsministry.com

BACK THEN

she smiles
so
very 
unsure
walking out the crescent
to fetch kids from school

 (that dull soup
  that baptism by liar)

  and
  i
  am
out the front 
filling my bins
with dry pens and a boozy past
  and
i nod back
i know her from school

 (that conformity creche
  that lord of the fila flies)

  tho 
we never talked
back then

back then when
i was a freak geek 
my own strange bean
and so very unsure   
  
  back
  then
  
  before phones

from www.denvercentre.org