CAFESONG

 

i halved my dosage

in blind optimism

hoping for the reward 

of time served

instead i was sentenced 

to weird translucence 

no verses between me 

& the thin chorus 

of an xray sun

MID-CENTURY TEAK TODAY

 

time has its feet up 

on the mid-century teak

all waiting chores

& delayed communiques 

treatment resistant dandruff

knows how i feel today

SEE ME OR CAN DO BETTER

in
the
time
it
takes me
to do my teeth

i

have

travelled 

around

half

our world & history

& 

i scribble 

SEE ME or CAN DO BETTER 

in red

under

all our 

pointless & destructive repetitions

HALFSIES DAY

now i havent
done the mathing
at all properly
but
around
about
now
i have spent a much time alive
in this century & millennia
as in the last

& i dont know what to do about it
so i am calling it Halfsies Day
& putting it here

PIECES

& we hold 

the piece of them 

we are left with

like a rushed bout of swapsies
in the hall before the lesson bell

& i hear their healthy guffaw

That  Made  Time  Do  One

when i see stuff & things

they would have loved
to be alive 

to laugh at

NASCENT POLYURETHANE ZEN

granny would say

you got your health
& at youre working

in a positive way

with a dreamy smile

like it was well enough
& i would think

low bar gran low bar

but now i got neither
& tho time works hard

to make those days
shine all sepia golden & carefree

i still remember 

their cold dark edge
of black mirth 

in the night woods

& theres real gold nuggets
in the old river of new today
if you pan slo-mo

with the gentle myopia

of nascent polyurethane zen

BEREAVED IN RAGS

 

he saw theyre serving 

lobster bisque & onion soup
up on the ISS tonight

& it reminds him

he says
of Gil Scott-Herons poem
Whitey On The Moon

& he tries to remember

he says

that maybe not everything in the sky

means death all the time

as he waits

out the night

bereaved in rags

NEWS WILL EAT

you better

spend some time

looking
somewhere else

you fragile sun of a gun

or that news
will eat

your soft heart 

alive

WILDLY & SUDDENLY EXTRA AWARE

this morning

time wasnt 

feeling so sure of itself

& it softly glitched across suburbia

discombobulation for its breakfast 

~

it delivered one of those moments

when 

you

are 

wildly & suddenly Extra Aware 

of the roofless sky to forever

Right There outside your door

above the higgledy driveway 

& the ripe tulips 

& the crawling ivy 

& the dog walkers

& the lunatic opposite

going thru his own bins again

ABOUT THE BATHROOM BASIN

the stubble in the bathroom basin

clumps up into stubborn flotillas 

the strength in its numbers
is how to resist the kettling flow

well i got time . . . 

 

the rush of cold water

will shift them eventually

like cold water 

shifts everything eventually

if its blasted on

a shaved naked skull

GARDENERS VAN

 

time has become . . . tactile

like a sensory toy

in a drs wating room

patinaed with irremovable gunk

~

& next door - the gardener

his van is evident

in the patent street

GOLD & SILVER & RED & BLUE

the presents i got
from them
as a child

were wrapped
in the shiniest
of gift paper

gold & silver & red & blue

it was sad that had to stop

~

time takes things
that you dont know
& they dont know

till all of you are old

& running your movie back

dressed the colour of sand

DRAMA IN THE RAGING MUNDANE

 

now the marsh fog of indecision
wastes
my
time
again

with 

its 

this or pointless that

morning wardrobe chaos

& i dress in soft whatever

itching

in a sartorial fug

knowing

i will be back

MORNING REPORT 104

& its morning

& already

Time is OFF

the ticking frontier 

the kinetic edge

the tippity-tip 

of the quantum spear 

us in its grey turbulence

play at catch-up

with the millwheel push

faking relevance 

with the construct

of reservations

in the sacred mulch

of our appointment books

TWELVE O CLOCK HIGH

time wraps around noon

like a racecar drifting

& i lean into it
into the tip of time

stereo up

windows down

twelve o clock high

~

& the sunlight

round beechcombe

flashes on the wrecks

in the park

that dared once reach 

for a kingdom

& that podium champagne

GARDEN HOGAKU

time is measured in pets
&
tower fans
&
discount thermals
&
lengthening children

& in the stolen propagule
thats a fir tree now

& theres a strange cat up there
in a nest of dead needles

waiting on birds
& dreaming

TIME HAS A GUN

time barrels in the door

shouldering it open

38 special out

owning the space

naked & huge & steaming

~

& 

memory lane

holds onto you 

like it needs you

but you know 

it has a steak knife

up its elasticated cuff

 

IN ITS BUDDHIST GAZE

& this little house
sat on its estuary clay

it almost has a face
if i would turn
swift enough to see

see its calm look

of time & bricks

see the stoicism

in its buddhist gaze

see all its needs

that can wait

its says

dont worry 

MAKING SPACE MAKING EYES

stupid time
stretching us out like it does

time knows it was 1989 once

but it stretched it out
& stretched it all thin

& made space

made eyes

made swiss cheese of it

so the horror
can get in

& 

the people 

can fall out

SOUVENIR RAM & NASCENT LDR

it takes so long

so far round the sun

to realise the old life is gone

~

& you tell its stories
in the lang syne forest
where memories camp

with souvenir RAM
in the sage shadow
of the khaki mist

~

& acceptance - 

well it feels traitorous  

like trading 

a last day with an old dog

in the park with his ball

for a nascent LDR

with the outer rim