FIVE MINUTE GOWPEN

 

& everywhere
nascent possessions
posit that themselves
are the bonnaroo

& here they barrel in
hot for unboxing

& their fifteen min gowpen
of a gushing febrile fan

that fades
like a snake glides
into a dark pool

BOOZE SONATA VOL1 WORMHOLE

those tiles
over the pub urinal
i saw them crack
under the pressure

of my supporting hand

i remember 

crumbling dust 

ceramic fragments
dusting my white knuckles


~

i remember zipping up

i remember stepping back

& 
the tiles werent tiles

they were lino

but stamped like tiles

no cracks there
no knuckle dust

& no urinal either

was a broom cupboard


~

i remember coming out the cupboard 

to barstaffs sarcastic applause
& 

i remember my composure 

was rock solid

like a drunk-numb dover cliff

& i lit a cigarette
& i went to the pool table
& to all my drinks there

but there was no pool table

was a crammed refurb gastro slot

~

i remember a waiter

he told to take my smoke outside

& i did

blue cue chalk 

on my

pissy smoking fingers

easter island composure

weathering the london dark

photo Night Dark courtesy of the Dagenham Archives

INK ON HIS FINGERS BETWEEN JELLY & PILLS

the
dying
old
mans
penmanship
was
obscene perfection

&
his intention
horrorshow confession

his heart 
gave out
on page 
800

~

the 
dying 
old 
man 
wrote 
a list of

WHO 

he would
take down 
with him

if he only could

his reasons clearly there 
in the
comprehensive
footnotes


~

the
dying
old
man
died

& the care home staff
search for their names

looking to score
in
their
longest
running
pool
to
date

from kanascity.legalexaminer.com

SCHOOL NIGHT CHILDHOOD DIAGRAM

the smell of chlorine 

your locker key 
on a safety pin

and another torn 
verruca sock 

~

swimming pool hair
still wet 
in car park dark

clutch a small treat
from
the
new
vending
machine

that backlit shining sugar cave

~

gold cortina 1.6 gl

vinyl roof

drives
us
home

inside winters
longest nights 

~

butter melting
into crumpet holes

and peter davidsons wearing cricket whites

on tv 
in dr who

inexplicably 
unarmed
again

banehuntress.co.uk

WRITING POST

relegated crowded corners
empty of troubadours and friends

suck it
use it

yellow page overspill
damp with repurposed
crooners and enforcers

a tigress
on a tv morning sofa
calls time out
on the endless night

suck it
use it

receive a writing post
in the crapshoot fallout
of academy failure

standard issue black dog
humps at your leg

suck it
fake it

a coronation crown
of derelict farm mist
laid without ceremony
on your soft tissue fog bank

abandoned mental ward gloom
loams and foams
where heartwood should be

suck it
wear it

rattle your rockets
in your mfi silo
and 
launch a nasa challenge 
into the giddy
mouth-breather wind

and if you find it all 
a stagnant informant pool
with nets and mops and drags 
stacked in veteran formation

suck it
use it

and pin old dirt
like beacons like badges
on
the
new sores
rich vein
within

pic from geography.org.uk

JUNIOR SCHOOL PM

at the end of the day
we put our chairs 
upside down on the tables
for the cleaners easy access

it made the room
instantly alien 
like it was
full of steel porcupines

and there was a brief buzz
of clique free
childish camaraderie
that
it
was
over
at last
again

goodnight to teacher
we said
goodnight to cleaner

and then a slow walk home
down the soft back alleys
where someone had laid
carpet cut-offs
over
the
dirtway
slipthrus

lurid indoor patterns now trodden in
and
disappearing

or maybe to the pool

loose my self in motion
and chlorine

big blue locker key
pinned to my trunks
with
their
three
sewn on stripes
of competence 

i seem to remember it all
so clearly
everything except
the kind of bag i had

( what kind of bag did i have ? )

i was by myself
i wasnt good in company
it seemed to subtract me
somehow

so i walked home alone
or to the pool
looking at the roofs
and the tv spikes there

wondering
all
the
wonders
i wondered

from dailymail.co.uk

UNDER WATER TRILOGY

1. FISHY HAIKU

fish deep in the sea

(have)

angry-blank alien faces

(and)

manage
without
phones

(or jeggings)


2. THE GRADUATE

  i 
saw the Graduate

added it to fav film list

cos
of
the
ending / dodging eyes on a doom-truth bus
and
cos
of
'plastics Benjamin'
and
cos
he
bangs his head on a wall
and
holds a boob like a fool
and
cos
of
how
he stares at his fish / epic ennui
but
mostly
cos
of
the Sounds Of Silence
making
blackness a beautiful tune
and
too
how he sinks into the pool / into Silence and Isolation 

shut-down
in
divers
blinkers


3. SWIM

at school in PE
they
booked
the
local pool
and
i
swam awesomely 
effortlessly
like a fish-boy

as id always known how

then
kids talked to me
kids respected me

that
one
time

it
didnt
last
cos 
when
my eyes weakened from reading and genes
and 
for 
1000 other unsayable reasons -  

  adolescent maelstrom
  of
  sportswear cliques
  fights in farahs
  electro 45s
  and 
  the
  unfathomable undrunk discos in village halls   

  i
stopped swimming

and
there
ended a thing
i
was
good
at

from www.telegraph.co.uk

GONE FACES

all
you
gone and gurning faces
grinning
in
the
pool hall hash haze
and
crying odd tears
on
the rough beach
 
whose sun do you smile under now ?

all
you
troubled wannabes 
riding
the
real coattails 
brand new and retro
round
the 
evening mall

whose books do you borrow now ?

all
you
life beams in tight jeans
all
you
cap prats in hot hatches
the
weedy needy
the
steroid angry
who
starred in my gone reels
bit-parts
written out
under
bad
reviews

whose moon do you panic under now ? 

grinning and gurning
in
the
afterglow 

from rayleighsnooker.co.uk

EMPTY WEEKDAY AFTERNOON PUBS 199?

i'd
been hanging out with Dave
since he got 
a
license
and
an old green Cavalier 

it was knee deep 
in brown paper
take-away bags 
and
the
driving seat was broken and jammed in recline

i think he thought the mess made him cool
and
we
all
grew
our
hair

he
moved
to
Brighton for college

i
went
to visit


to do something
drunk
and easy
in
sea
air

i slept in the old uni halls
on
his
rough and dirty carpet 
with
jeans
folded up for a pillow 

light and noise coming in under the door

cold - itchy

turning cleaners away
in
the
disgusting early AM


people were reinventing themselves

making
up
new drug pasts

EVERYONE had spent the summer 
dealing speed and E's
to
bands
with impossible names

everyone
got uptight about j etiquette
and
hot-knife technique

arguing
with
the straight jocks and science bods
in shared kitchens
about noise
and
stolen food
and
fundamental political and lifestyle choices 


but Dave was still Dave
for a while longer

his room was ground floor
small bushes going autumn brown under the window
and
by
11 AM we'd had some weed
and
climb over the sill and laugh the five steps
to 
the 
back door of the union bar
and
we'd pour cider and cheap scotch
into our morning breath
and
rattle the Star Trek pin ball
till 
the cook turned up to fry lunch burgers
and limp onion 
with supermarket ketchup
and
ok
oven 
chips
in a fake basket
lined with fake newspaper


then
we'd dodge the train fare into town
and
shop
for
psychedelic vinyl
and
drink in empty weekday afternoon pubs

and i remember wishing then
that
i
could
spend my life in empty weekday afternoon pubs
drinking
and
looking at all the carved wood and dreaming


feeding 
pound nuggets
into the jukebox for Stones songs
and
racking
up
the
pool

from drinkingbrighton.co.uk