UNFILED 2022 FIELD REPORTAGE 2

all the kipple questions

  & needy decisions

that niggle & naggle

  in drop-down check-box rain

& on precinct clipboards

  in day-pay anorak arms

rub like beach sand

  in your summer shoes

maybe i decide them all now ?
  like on a hospital food menu

then ride all the green lights
  easy & low & flying & freed

all the way to xanadu west
  out on el dorado bay

NO ANSWERS BEFORE LUNCH

me & day degrade enough
get into it deep enough

despite 
the 
greylight
drivetime
garden tool whine

for 
a 
lunchtime 
answer
of
heroic carbs

eaten
knee
deep
in
brown envelope rain

from atoz2u.com

EPIC QS

a god thrown hangover
mescaline
3 days without sleep
a carolina reaper 
bad bad daytime freeview tv

or 
  other 
       similar 
              epic impediment

when you can HEAR money
and your HAIR is sore

thats
when
hard questions come in crushing haste

       written
         in

        bold

       italic

   underscore

   strikethru

    CAPITALS

carolina reaper from pepperhead.com

BEDROOM LANDS 5

back
then

we said Boat Drinks
like in that film
like we had control

unthinking 
on dry drained 
hill marsh land

but our plans had their own plans-

shot up the arse
left in a dumpster

like in
that film

~

back
then
the  

s e p a r a t i n g  

moves of universal turns
sat messed up and howling 
in homebrew sediment

and who were we
to do anything
but
wait and roll ?

~

moves
bit
unstoppable
in
unrememberable
goodbye slices

alone but for horses
i saw a bird
fly backward
in high wind

on the allotment path
one dishcloth day

~

bedroom lands become
unhome rental holes

damage deposits

711 stolen bread

weird vibes
in
the
broken lift stairwell

new pub desperation
sang lionel richie
down
the
landline

~

and the hedgehogs
that patrolled
parent-tended
moon-silver lawns

where we barked our drum beats
till the grey paste dawn

are
gone
too

brian may
tv speaks
his
springwatch concern

from express.co.uk

BACK THEN

at

3
4
5
AM

i walk home

headphones in 
something psychedelic 
on
a
magnetic reel

sailing above time

and
i
ask
the
night
cats
impossible questions

under the moons
stained hole

and
aid
stuck hedgehogs
up
the
fortress
wall
of
curbstones

away from dawn traffics
killing
wheels

from adamiphoto.com

TV OH TV

from mirror.co.uk

THE ANSWER IS DISTRACTION

reaching
for the
unknowable

drunk up a tree

saturday midnight
rain that clings

alive wooden throne
escape into elements

word is-
hell of a brew 

idiot-searching for 
answer
purpose
sign
a question ?

instead-
i fell

catch him

a friend yelled twice

hit one hundred wet branches
hit solid forest floor

nothing ugly
just stood up

word is-
winded
understanding 
nodding

word is-
nothing salient
but
my success

pic from theboltonnews.co.uk

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

I SAY/COMA POPS

1.

theres lots 
of people 
out there
indignant and 
newly horrified
cos of 
the politics
these days

they stamp
their feet
they use
new words 
they learned
last week

i say
welcome to
the game

where have
you been ?


2.

lots of 
people saying
imagine some 
poor person
waking from 
a coma
and seeing
all THIS 
on the news

i say
i was
in no coma

dont undermine
my shock



3.

talking 
of shock

well im 
in it

i never
took my
eye off
the ball

and i 
float about
in ptsd
these days 

saying we 
survived worse . . .

and still 
not keen
to breed



4.

and whats
comas got
to do
with it ?

its just 
shorthand 
to imply
your/our 
bameless
surprise

i say
wake up
and smell 
the 
black money
the
arms trade
and 
the
superconducter complicity 
charging on 
your nightstand

from moneyinternational.com

NIGHT POP

the
waking small hours
are
emptied out

colourless

i sneak along my own hallway

the hanging coats
are evacuated shells

and
i
fill
the
night
with
cigarette smoke and cold water

asking
rhetorical 
questions

that 
daylight couldnt write

from quotesgram.com

LONG PRESCRIPTION DAYS

when i run aground
i
play
the
songs
that make me feel / make me almost cry

 ( theyre LIFE photo'd in plastic )

remembering when i struggled
and 
they were beacons / revelations

  and
  Armour

we would play them
on portable tape players
on street corners
like
out-of-time urchins
lost without a revolution
  
 ( waiting
   for
   SOMETHING
   to
   happen )

we would play them
in hatchbacks 
parked up on the forest fire paths
where 
the 
sky would pretend
it 
had
secrets locked down in dense emptiness

we would talk about them
round the pub jukebox -
the 
lost art of mic'ing up a drum kit
that 
special scream of a frisco fender

and CLAIM them as OURS

 ( and if anyone else played them
   or they turn up on radio 2
   then
   its
   not
   right - what do THEY know ? )

and
i
dont
ask
any questions of them any more

they ARE what they are / what they NEED to be
in
the 
long twitch 
of these 
prescription days

~

  and
  then

  i
  play

  them
  again

  sat back
  smoking
  and
  still / always / forever

  enthralled

  their importance IMPOSSIBLE
  to
  overstate

SHOP SWEET CONSUMER

bright pre-drones 
are 
captured unformed
and
struggling
in 
short trousers-

amazing questions stamped out
and
re-programmed into ties and weekend Superdry

issued Red-tops 
when the sun comes up
to
fold under an arm-
membership
of 
20p 
uniform 
opinion 

from govan.town.50megs.com