GRAB BAG OF BARDOS

bare foot on the grass

& thinking of bakersfield

feeling

feeling

the weather

salem moon out

in the chambray sky

& a comfort tvs

grab bag of bardos

in 

the 

afternoon chair

FLOAT DOWNRIVER REMEMBERING

i down my meat tools
& dont try so much

when the weather is happening

great bruised shoulders
of rain rolling in
painting scifi skyscapes

&
thickening up the air

i zone out / feel small
& float downriver
remembering
the chupa chups & jolt cola
from 7 eleven at midnight
& 

dodging the fare

on the misery line home

THREE HAIKU POPTARTS

1/3  NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCHING


hes front yard gassing

his brand new white slacks too big

humid english sun




2/3  CALLING THE DOCTOR


fourteenth in phone queue

get cut off at number one

god awful muzak




3/3  A CAN I CANT


cant write / then can write

fickle sick head like weather

did you kick my chi ?

THREE HAIKU & A BIRD 1

STORM


a wet cat shelters

the storm lasts one thunder long

righteous 

   binmen 

   strike

TRICKY 

COMMODORE

brand new is retro

this spring air -
                 it smells of years

hit shift & run/stop






DECONSTRUCTED

announce the weather

describe cat folly 

         &

         now

       resolution

photo Fence Finch With Twig from the Dagenham Archive

DISHCLOTH RHYME

& all the damaged people
& all the ravaged people

  their 
praying knuckles
build a payday steeple

  they 
hold together
with duct tape
with gypsy heather

  their 
blind scars hear 
incoming weather

   hung  out  to  dry
dishcloth dirty & unkillable

      under 
       the 
   budget airline
      scrimshaw sky

from pinterest.com

ALIVE ALIVE

rec ground
in
big weather

we held our coats open
& caught the wind
& sailed with it

& all the trees 
were shaking elemental

& i felt 
alive alive

13 ? 14 ?

spectrums
&
unattainable
sportswear 

c&a ski coats

&

the 
bloody custody
lie of school

from shelflife.co.za

HEAD WEATHER VISA

the only time 
to
act 
as 
a tourist acts
is
when
the
inside rain clouds gather
and 
infiltrate your given light
with their rented gloom

notice it
lift your camera
but
know
this
is
not
where you live

know the dark weather
for its transience
and
if
your
zen
allows
it
then thank it
with gratitude
that
you
live
privileged to see
both
sides
of
this
strange coin
even
as
the lightning strikes
your hired hatchback

and there is an edge
to this coin
and if you straddle there

for work
for safety 
or in a hatless crisis

make
sure
you
call
it
Journey
or 
Motel

as it no place
to make camp
for
long

from scottedleman.com

MORNING RITUAL

i wake 
already wound tight 
by the nights lack 
of 
rain fresh intervention

impacted
uncool
by the dirt
of
dreams

and theres news there
our inhuman human weather
on my glass palm

world 
i say
stop being a dick

but too 
the suns out
the suns out
a proxy enema
for
my
mind

grape vine cherokee dream catcher from pinterest

TALKING TO ARTHUR NEXT DOOR

we start with a greeting
hes doing whatever he does
on his drive full of cars

football shirt on
or not shirt at all

today its no shirt at all

i am taking out rubbish
i probably dump it
in the wrong bin

and we ask each other 
if we are ok
and i will tentatively 
approach the fence
keeping my options open

he will tell me something
about
the
weather / family / hospital visits

i will say something similar
which he will not notice

next he might tell me
something i told him 
three months ago

but today its something almost new
its about the guy opposite today
who rides up and down the street
in electric mobility scooters
with his brothers
of an evening 
now its lighter later

theyre men he says
theyre liable

i am laughing and tell him hes jealous

he will only notice 
that i disagreed
and his head will not compute
and
he 
will
escalate vaguely

the way stuff is today
i dont like it he says
dimly self aware 
he has nothing 
specific to say

this is going nowhere
so i ask him about 
all the cars on the drive

my son-in-laws he says
they got parking charges now
in his street

i ask wheres that then ?

oh where he lives
he says in surprise

i think blimeyjesus 

the way stuff is today . . .
he is saying 

i diffuse him
before he brings up
the team of blockpavers
from months ago
who he assumes 
are bulgarian
and that carjacked van
they had nothing to do with

i diffuse him
with a broad sweeping statement
of the nature of progress
its inherent temporariness 
our fickle interpretation 

and as i am loosing him
and as he doesnt listen to me anyway
i say
the more things change 
the more they stay the same

a saying i mull over often

and he likes that
it has a ring to it
it sounds clever

and we sign off
with a joke
about supper
the kettle
afternoon naps

we both go in
and i dont have
to look at
his great hairy corfu brown belly
and his struggling childs eyes
anymore
or
those
small
growths
in his armpit
that look like
the legs of a tiny octopus
climbing
out
of
his
flesh

from siteadvisor.com

ALL OVER AGAIN

the dawn cracks the nights dark glass
and
we
have
to
do
it
all over again

cover ourselves in cotton
animal hide on our feet
press space 
tap enter 
interact with plastic 
summon data trapped in light
discuss in depth the weather

we daydream if we can
in the blue light under sodium tubes
of quiet cobweb woods
of the oscillating sea
of colour brochure beaches
of supper 
silence
and the short death of bed 

and in the evening in a break from tv 
we choke a little too polite to complain
counting our weird and diminishing blessings
under
a
beautiful
pollution
sunset

from flickr by vw4ross

DC VILLAINS ET AL ( 3 POLITICOPOPS )

1. LETTER ACROSS THE POND

dear United Mistakes of America

building walls 
wont stop planes 
or weather
only human progress

kindest regards

the United Supermarket Of Little Britain

PS
try NOT bombing
just for a change ?

PPS
kettle call the pot black much ?
i know . . .

PPPS
on that note
the kettles on if youre around ?

2. DOMESTIC ABUSE


fullfat putin
says 

if you stay home 
its ok to put the boot in

be dead by 41 anyway
on bathtub potato gin

fullfat putin

cant dilute him

and on the dashboard of a moscow cab 
nods 

a

bobblehead stalin

3. SPEECHDOM


youre free to speak

said idi amin 
on freedom of speech

but
i
cant
guarantee 
your 
freedom
afterward

and on cannibalism 

the perfect crime !
all the evidence is eaten

i see we taught him well

from azquotes.com

FUCKUP POV

 we had scattered under nights black velvet 
 in a fading flash of denim and hi-tops 

  like 

  we 

  shared 

  a 

  hive 

  mind 

 we were hiding from police men 

 and the joyless fiend 

 who called them 

  in 

  the 

  green belt hill fields 

 out

  on 

 the

 empty edge of town 

 i stretched flat in the dark 

  in 

  tall 

  wet 

  grass 

 contraband stuffed in my sock 

 i was on a wild ragged drunk 

  i was in a teflon bubble 

 EVERYTHING 

  worth 

  a 

  mean superior adrenaline cackle 

  from 

  my 

 defence machine 

  fuckup POV  

 and 

  trapped in a hollow 

  under the swing of lights 

  flat 

  out 

  on the hills green open palm 

  i 

  remembered 

  seeing 

  the rabbits that live here 

  when 

 i 

 was 

  a 

  child 

 running the weekend away 

  with rope 

  and a stick 

 the rabbits sat here 

  arranged on the slope 

  at dawn and at dusk 

 . . . this thought grabbed me by the armour . . . 

 and i became sorry 

  i was not an animal 

 not a sun bear 

  not a treecat 

  not a hillside rabbit 

 arranged on the slope 

  at dawn and at dusk 

 no home but a hole and the weather 

  no law but instinct and hunger  

 arranged on the slope 

  at dawn and at dusk 

 and when the police mens searching torches swung away 

  and when the car doors slammed shut in the quiet 

  and when the car droned downhill off and away 

 i 

  stood 

  up 

  half reborn and weirdly calmed 

  and 

  walked 

  home 

  damp 

  alone 

  and 

  twice as high 

  without 

  any manic cackles to stifle 

  in 

  an 

  unexpected lucid peace 

  a sudden state of grace 

 i 

  would 

  soon 

  forget 

by gelitin, 2005, in artesina, italian alps