Always that time of the day
when it's that time of the day

wash your face
brush your teeth
put them toys away

Parents always have the last say
when you're ten.

The way goes on
how long depends

Everything depends on the..
...do I mean the ends?

Here and now
is
like there and then
but when
were we ever like that?

Waiting for sundown
hoping for sunrise
the mirror
watching my eyes
taking it in.

I’d open the door
but I’ve been here before
and so have you

we don’t remember
and
maybe that has a ring to it.

Skin’s peeling
feeling
like I’m melting,

Up North
they’d say
the weather’s belting

I’d give ‘em a smack
but they lack
understanding

I’m standing under the shower
cold for the old and at last
it’s on tap.

Long live the summer
iced tea and a ***
and for some

that’d be the some in Spain
gazpacho.

Things are as you find them and personally I don’t mind them,
who said not grammatically correct?

But
because it’s a great word.

Yes siree
It’s me and not Siri
are you happy now
will you ever be?

She tells me to belt up and button it,
fukin marvellous, a bit
of English
and She thinks that She’s British

but I’m starting to believe
that
She is.

I take a moment for inventory
and
if everything’s still there
I
make a *** of tea.

I’m glad that it’s only me
that drops off
the rest of me stays put
but
I still have to check

one cannot be careful enough

I may huff and puff
but this house
is solid.

Ripping through the ties that blind me
freeing all the light inside me
the morning sun sits down beside me
and all looks beautiful.

Mindful that I'm moving forward
balanced on the wings of progress
nothing seems as untowards
as the evening coming closer.

When it all caved in
and saved him
meaning me,
I could see that
I
led a charmed life.

and when the world ran out of hope
I learned to love myself and cope

I am not here because I prayed
I am here because I stayed
and
I'll see it through until the end.

What on Earth.. She said,

Nearly nine years ago
when we said
I do
who knew
that nine years could go
so fast?

Too fast
sometimes speeding
but always needing her
to steady me.

We go on
and
She goes on
the warpath
occasionally.

When you know that you're right
set the country alight
don't fukin wait
until bonfire night.

we are at the point
where the pointer scrolls off the screen.

Yeah
Yeah
and where ya at?

we all got that story to tell
the heaven that we found
in the hell that we were
but
where ya at now?

suit and tie
thinking that you'll never die
because you're too good looking
well
that's ******' priceless
hold
that thought,

I hold on to the ripcord
and am aware
that the sword of Damocles
will do what it wants to

Geronimo
ha
that's one way to go
not for me though.
I'll go out with a bang

hey
keep your ***** minds in tow
they hang you for that
don't ya know.

The narrative was constructed and in case you don't realise, it is us that's being ****** with,

war again, old men fighting lost causes, reliving past glories and already making up the stories that the public wants to hear,
if I had any back teeth, I'd be fed up to them, so I'll just be sick to my stomach with the lot of them.

What we need is a monstrous platten to flatten the lot of them and blotting paper to blot up the rest of them.

I think she could have told ya
when the night cried on your shoulder
and the weight of the world brought you down to your knees, but she's just a scene in a pipe dream or a ******* that frequents you now and again.

whispers from the wardrobe
strobe lights in your hair
matchstalk men and Lowry
somewhere over there
and
you're still asleep as cowboys weep
at barbed wire fences on the range.

Strange and stranger still are those things you do against your will and you wonder who is pulling the strings.

..and if we could change it all
would we revert back to the time
before the fall
before we had to build a wall
to a time without the mean in
the time that we had been in
without a worry or care?

Would we make the same mistakes?

Clicks the shutter
takes the picture
mutter mutter
must get on.

..and it's take your pick
shovel in the old
pitch in the sick
the needy
greedy
lead me not

*** noodles come to mind
when I'm in a financial bind
but
no ***
no noodles
just an empty vessel
making lots of noise.

You won,
well done,
you son of a gun.

Pirates or primates
a tail or the sail
but it's Moby
who gets my vote
the greatest white whale

At the crossroads
I am calm
no harm shall befall me
and then She calls me
to ask
did you get the sliced salami?

It'll be another night
on top of the duvet
pushing away
the heat.

The rain comes on in
it's Summer
and what else but rain?
later
the Sun will get a look in

I went out and got a book in
one with lots of pages
each page with lots of words on
except that first page which is blank
wonder where those words have gone.

and because it's Wimbledon
I also got a ball
I'm going to bounce it off the wall
and pretend I'm Steve McQueen.

As the night comes
and the light goes
when you feel slow
and
it takes you more time
to know what you know

when you breathe in
and it feels cold
all you ever want to do
is to hold
and to hold on
but the light has gone

and you're all on your own

does it feel like

can it ever
be the place that
you'd want to call a
home from a home

and the night's here
and you can't see  
and you don't feel
but there's no fear

there is nothing at all.

So
if you want to remember things and other things and stuff
get a memory stick and ask your Doctor where you should stick it.

Someone
offered me an olive branch
not a friggin' olive on it.

A chance encounter with a random number generator,
a bit brief thought, Trevor Howard, and felt sure it wasn't
in the script.

Yesterday
the heat was sweltering
but
I was ******' sparkling.

The giant roared
'Fe Fi Fo Fum
I smell the blood
of an Englishman'

I smell petrichor
and go merrily on my way.

my lips are dry and cracked
woke up
my body wracked with pain
and doubt,

it could be worse
I could be wrecked

it was and is a normal start
I hear the beating of my heart
I am alive
even more so
with a cup of Joe.

It's Tuesday
said Joe Friday,

wish I was at
77 Sunset Strip
but no one remembers
that place.

Last night
so hot
slept on top
of the duvet,

She says
ha
you were underneath
snuggled up like a bunny
all night,

funny how I don't remember it
that way,
but of course
She might be right.

I can feel her
in my head
what we talked of
the things She said

I can feel her in my head.

What have we got now?
tablets in the cabinet
that can cure almost everything,
for a price

headaches
backaches
(faceaches and arseaches excluded)

can't get it up?
swallow that capsule down and
you'll be on the moon in no time at all.

remedies for maladies, even more for
global conspiracies, real or imagined
and we imagine that there's lots of those,

Pills from birth until death
pills to help you catch your breath,
pills to thin the blood
pills that make you feel
pills that look so good
pills that numb you
pills that dumb you down
everything's available
in every single town.

terms and conditions apply.

I have a secret that keeps me in tip-top
but I'm not telling it to you because you'll
pass it on and before not too long everyone
and their mother will know and it won't be
a secret no more.

It's still Summer
but
everyone knows that.

Sweating and getting
sweatier,
but I'm not her
She's
only perspiring.

It's like pic'n'mix
but
Bombay style,
I wonder why
it's not called
Mumbai mix.

I'll  have a beer
without the belly, please,
the barman
a half a jar man himself,
poured me a pint.

Re-runs of a rerun
war has been done to death

seen it all on the BBC, ITV and Channel Four

and I believe that it's a manufactured industry
making more and more re-runs of a war.

And wth these
there is no let up
they just get up
and kick off
as and when,

what is really going on?

Faces blur
time is not fair
the clock is not on
our side.

As memory increases
our skill at recalling
is in our ability to negotiate
through the passages where
time never ceases.

I barely remember
but
sometimes I do,
sometimes they manage
to get through and a light
is thrown on those things I
have known

faces still blur
but I know I am there
amongst them.

However unlikely
it seems like She likes me
and
I know that I like her a lot.

Lots is difficult to define
see
if you have lots, then lots doesn't seem like lots
but if you haven't got lots, then lots is lots

and
how much of a lot do I like her?

I wish I hadn't started this.

When the axe chews into me
and I fall into obscurity
a
home for bugs to burrow into,
would you remember me
the once tall, majestic
tree
or will you forget?

Well?
hung
like poetry swinging on
a Samsung.

Pictures not included.

And it's done with for another day
the way it usually is
without a backward glance.

I'll be back
because I usually am
because that's what a working man
does,
he returns to the scene
time after time
and overtime
is never paid.

Yes, I, too, used to have a Friday Face
and it was always in a happy place
on my face as you would expect.

but it fell
as I fell from grace
no longer a Friday Face
just a face
in the crowd
not even allowed to smile.

To grin?
no
already been
seen too much grinning
sinning
winning
*** all,

the fall
the fell
tensing as well,

I'm getting a Pug
a plug ugly Pug
if only to make me look
more attractive.

Wow
what a night,
less sleep than a sleeping policeman
tossing and turning may be good for burning off the fat and the good Lord knows I got some of that but for resting?
last night was testing me.

dripping?
hardly got any kip in and someone's flamin' car alarm went off and on and one night I might get a decent sleep.

and now
because now always comes before then
I will take up my pen and poke my eyes out

haha not really
but surely
I have earned the right to sleep at night,

She sleeps on
unaware that the once youthful John
is getting older.

I'll keep that secret to myself.

It's just me seeing me when I look at we in the mirror, so no we, only me, but there's still two of who me is or who I am and we are joined at the point of reflection.

I chisel away a fractal a day,
thinking it will keep the Doctor away
but those Billy goats in white coats
takes notes and everything I say is
recorded.

Going Mad?

I don't believe I am
or ever having been,
the main reason being
I couldn't afford the fare.

Friday
soon,
She tells me to
go to sleep,
so
no supper then.

What about help the aged?
tell me, Facebook,
where have my memories gone?

oh
they're free and they always will be
but we have left out one, maybe two,
because we are the wizards at Facebook
and that is what we can do.

***** rotten and I've forgotten the rest of that curse
but whatever it is,
Facebook, you are worse.

you give me ten memories from twelve years
and now I'm in tears

jeeez.
I can remember ten on my own

You can get a lot of not got
even when you don't have it.

I've not got a lot of not got
but I'm going to get it.

Flamin' seagull pulled a fast one
stole a chip, and it was my last one.

that's it.

What a bunch of
C's
to think like they do
and to do as they please

Never before
have I wanted so much
to leave by the door

and now it's on
eight more days
and I'll be gone
thank
**** for that.

Everything will be on the agenda
if and when you lend a
hand,

very few can get through
without assistance

what,
do you really think that the camel got through the eye of a needle without a kick up the backside?

ok
we'll let that question slide, as you too will slide without someone beside you to guide you through the labyrinth of your days.

And if you're set in your ways, as some are set in concrete
( well they were back in the gangster days )
that's how you'll meet your maker.

#alone and frightened

never happened?
perhaps it's all a dream.

If you're still fighting the fight
you're still getting
it right.

Never give in.

Written on a cocktail napkin in a West End bar,
'how are things looking so far?'

better by the minute and I called for a second round
and then Mike Tyson knocked me out

and it's not anywhere near Boxing Day.

Poised with pen in hand again
and stabbing at the page,
I think and if I am because
therefore doesn't get a look
in at my door.

Still poised
like a heron on a diet.

Daybreak.
I watch the miraculous, which is
an everyday occurrence
but miraculous it is,

brainstorms
wreak havoc
I seek sanctuary from the winds of change
while the beggar asks, 'any change'

guessing, one man's meat
is another man's poise
and he goes on because of the loop
eyebrows droop
regroup
reform?
hmm maybe,

but the salt on a fried fish
tells me only
that the fish had happier times.

..and our Bonanza
a cannabis-fueled cloud,
let us call it
the new age
miasma

brain dead read into the DNA
and
everyone's out to lunch.

The Greenwich pips slip away
and the day trips off
somewhat daintily
as the night slips in
rudely.

***
or Fuchs that I don't give
because I don't live in
Germany.

I blame it all on Radetsky
but only because Mozart
wouldn't see me
and **** him as well.

I was the best at I could have been
and even better if you'd seen me
now
relegated to history
but
I was the best at I could have been.

Although we look thin
this is not
and never will be
'The Last Exit To Brooklyn'

now
that was a read
put ideas in your eyes and ears,
censored, not censored, but it
could have been.

Seen lots since then
'The Road to Babi Yar
read
Of Mice and Men
and
The Great Gatsby
but it always puzzles me

and I ask why
and what?

arresting
imprisoning
releasing

repeat cycle and rinse
convince yourself
everything will be
as everything should be,
then
lock yourself in
sit on it
and spin.

You reached for the stars
and now
there's a restraining order
against you.

Moral.
Don't touch what you can't absorb