Looking out of the window, he saw the crowds far in the distance like ants waiting for a strong foot to ground them down. ‘Minister the people await you,’ calls an anxious official who at least still had faith in the people. He believed until shot in the forgotten purges.
When you are young, they say schooldays
are best, leastways
that’s what old men
say to chasten.
For open fields call me when young,
schooldays unsung
for play and skies
and butterflies.
Old age now calls for me to say,
write the essay,
work out the sums
but play with chums
The house on the hill wer a queer place. That’s what the folks all say after church. Too many bad things ‘ad happened since they came. Old Luke ‘ad even lost his best cows. Why no one attended church even when the minister ‘ad called. The strangers had to go.
Wedding night jitters
Only really matters
Royal minders say if
Sovereign’s aperitif
Ensures no hanky-panky
Or shrinking dinky
For they must a heir
Frankly, and a spare.
This dame was sitting on the grass cus of her being too poor to sit up. She was eating some slop rather than proper food, when this great big black spider sidled up and started laying it on her. She just gave him a look that made him looked stomped.
The corpse of his wife had flaps of decaying flesh and the hair he remembered so well. Worms sat in her eye sockets and wriggled where once blue had blazed. The stench was of rotten earth but still his arms went out to her, She had come back as promised.
As they lay living skeletons betrayed by humanity and the laws of God, they struggled to accept a fate of being a ledger entry: teeth, clothes, gold all serving the needs of a State that didn’t need them.
'Lovely words, darling but too wordy for a script. Think visuals, darling.
Standing in the corridor, she glared at the waiter,
.........‘Surly this is a mistake,’
.........‘No madam they are guests of the Count.’
.........From the cabin, the man wearing down-at-heel clothes and smoking a pipe called out, ‘you’ll alright love.’ His wife smiled at his manners as she sipped her beer.
The door finally opened, the gold black one closed for a thousand years, The tallest, and broadest of the men picked his bow up and strutted out, yelling to the horde to wait. He hungered for the outside to be his, But doors let in. They waited hungry as well.
What did you do at the end of the world,
did you sing at last, or
declare love to your boss.
Was it a welcome break
or a sad farewell.
In a house scared of modern times,
I played tag, I ran with
the killers before they killed.
Death had already called
A radio reborn told us lies
of hero’s struggle so we
lingered in life ready for
the death dealt us.
The beat, the beat rose. beating, beating louder and louder until the earth shook, then the pipes began the soft song of the silence between, together louder, louder making love to the beat, the beat. Voices join in and sing the world as the Sun rises to kiss the day.
Friday night was Viva night.
Off with the work sacks,
off with the nice girl shoes,
on with the tart with a heart
clothes swamped with flesh.
Tonight hot sex in the taxi
before the window puking game;
afternoon slow awakening
All so long ago Friday
night was Viva night.
The sleet falling made her mind up. She reached over for the phone, knocking over the pile of magazines and disturbing the two sleeping dogs. Pressing the speed dial, she got through to the travel agent. 'I want the cruise ala Mediterranean.’ She really wanted love but settled for chocolate.
Fame is here, you paint the
good, the bad, and the ugly
if money moves your fingers.
You expose the soul of choice
by colour, line and shade
And by the thousands we
come to admire or buy.
So why the sombre
brown portrait
with eyes tearful,
face downcast yet
sensual lips
with appetite.
Was it empty days,
your father’s life calling.
Or was this the last
gasp of honest art,
the last real soul
before the feast
drove out taste.
When the dying time came, they knew what to do, As was the custom, they went to the House of Delight. The room you entered depended on the foretold death. They had come for a child’s delight so the playground with soaring swings, and puffing sand trains opens for him.
Sarah huddled on the bench looking at the other couples in the park enjoying the spring sunshine refreshing the ground. She just felt alone but turning away the empty tears was Granma’s parting words. ’Everyone has to have a rainy day. least how will they know when the sun shines?’
Off to the land of dragons and foreign tongues
by the magic of copper trupence.
No more for a summer the run for snuff
but a stream, a forest and a night with stars.
You see a boy faint in the distance, I see a hero
waiting to find that sliver moment when dappled
sun kissed him like a mother, when roaring stream
bounced him high like a father, when he knew joy.
A land where the moon dances and the
Prince waits for true love carried by a unicorn,
where giants roar and the book of your dreams
make being alone a distant song for another day
‘Allen Wrench went into action; he knew he had to save Diamond Sal from the evil clutches of the evil people. He strode manfully down the corridor and at the door kicked it in to find his swooned damsel…’Michael groaned quietly, perhaps this writers circle wasn’t for him.
Being poor comes in many shapes
you balance life lived on tightropes
old decaying grandeur but fresh eggs,
and wild hunts for moorland rabbits with
open fields for play and magic twigs
swopped for slipper baths and piss
yet on the streets the east and more
calls with exotic faces that others hiss
until the compact luxuries of prefab
squeeze us in the bargains of a life
until to breathe you escape by minicab
when does a house become a home
how long the streets did I roam.
‘Music is the Devils work. The foretelling of fornication.’ ranted the Minister. A prim-lipped man suddenly stood up to sing in a faltering voice, ‘All you need is love, love, love is all you need.’
..........One by one, the congregation stood turning grey into rainbow. The Barnsley Blessing had visited.
The quiet back row child is dull or stupid,
just like the rest of them, the bloody paddies,
they only drink, and need a good scrubbing.
He had rags on and smelt of shit Tuesday.
I get the creeps the way he looks at you,
big empty eyes. The gossip says uncles
have had a hand spreading legs, if you get
my drift. I know the mom, so can believe.
I knew the words your head made up, they leaked
inside my brain slowing it up, a cancer
waiting. to burst when ever happiness crept in
I once had pills to scrub it dead but woke
early knowing even Jesus says no
so loved the child I was,to grow the man.
The flesh felt best cool with a hint of moisture as you stroked it by the light of golden gas. Making her neck stretch as veins throb for your tongue and teeth.
..........‘Excuse me, can we have the coffee we ordered now.’
..........Dam the urges were getting stronger
..........‘Sorry madam.
‘I tell you what to do’, he struggled to say nearly falling off the barstool. They had been regaled with horror stories of what happens on the lecture circuit. Pulling up straight, he fixed on his words.
..........‘Always check your mike is off before saying you screw the boss’s wife.’
He fell in love with her faded, rusty look. He had enough of the gleaming waxwork blondes or the brittle brunettes who stuck around as long as his cash did. With her he wanted to make it so she was safe and never had to cry for what he did.
I was a changeling child
abandoned but with golden
hopes that real mum
and real dad once
secret deeds were done
would rush crying to hold and hug,
making me
a real family
Sitting, staring at a dirty bed
listening to the drunkard
brawls below, pictures
formed of futures,
of hospital mistakes
so my home wormed
away by a sickly child
meant for this life.
If I was really good or really ill
Doctors and teachers would
know who I was.
I would
have the birth
meant
for me.
‘Isn’t it fantastic to see so many old faces.’ she said with glass eyes and smile that made you know she married the Dentist. Pulling Harry in behind her, she charged towards the old gang waving at her with fixed smiles. Behind her, the gun was ready for payback time.
