Harvey Kietel
Put in one hell of a shift
In Ridley Scott's debut
Before the Alien exist
The genius of the piece
Is the juxtaposition
Of Harvey's
Angry
Unrelenting
Unshakable
Narckiness
Against
Karradines
Weary
Resignation
The more it goes
The funnier it gets.

A trio goes to the rain forest
To affirm a message
Humanistic
Bump into
A couple of salty dudes
Somewhat hubristic
They're here to have the local tribe off
Rob em of all their ******* and emeralds
And ****** their flock
But the drugs sent em crazy
It sealed their fate
They both ended up with their brains on a plate
As did all bar the final girl.

It's held together
By good will
Spite
And the glue off a stamp
Like some crazy
Colossal
Ant bivouac
That senses danger
And immediately camps
Circle the wagons
Light the lamps.

And after it happens,I'll fall through the air,
Braced for the impact that will not be there.
Form tightened and strained
Expecting the blow,
But I'll tumble forever
To what happens below.

I strongly remember
My first football experience
My uncle Pop kidnapped me
And tried to make me Evertonian
Took me to Goodison
On Boxing Day
1976
That's my memory
It could have been so
My auld fella Lacking
in making me be true
he quickly countered
With my Anfield debut
Gainst Middlesbrogo
With Souness in tow
But all of those could be
Centered in months
And years
Hence
My memory is not
What I used to believe.

Is this what you want?
Is that what you're after?
Thought you was him
Valiantly being gainst
All disaster
Straighten up now
Or bend
At your leisure
Accounts of the living
Against
The final measure.

The burn in what we call muscle
The pull of everyday bustle
How we get the **** out of here
Circle  back to what we become.

Why should not one not play cards
Upon the the African savannah
And northern Iraq?
Too many Cheetahs.

How many cats
Do you think
You could fight?
If a host came at you
Out of the night

Your not allowed a weapon
It's fist versus claw
So there is no deception
Under  cat law

Don't worry bout animal cruelty
The god's agree
You're above opprobrium
You cannot flee

You've started so you'll Finish
You must go on to the death
No matter the toll
On your corporeal health

You must be stripped to the waist
No belt
No shoes
Interspecies fight club
Except you can spread the news
Of the licks that you took and the numbers you slew
From the  plié of dead moggies
Down that you threw

That's if you survive
The feline Blitzkrieg
For they could easily end you
And they will not grieve .

They always start
With a disembodied radio voice
Over a black screen
That fades up
To a blissful domestic breakfast scene

The voice is halfway through
A mundane story
Then another that hints
At how things
Might get gory

But at the moment
All is serene
This house is where love is
And has always been

It unfolds slow
Stopped clocks
Missing signals
Distant screeching brakes
Then unlikely explosions
As humanity shakes

What is it?
What is it?
What is it?
they cry
Along with the viewers
You and I

We the audience
Know the template
Yet the nervous expectation
Makes us contemplate
If it was me what would I do?
Succumb like a *******
Or survive through
The gloom?

It's been a bit flat and murky of late
Like the country
Fixed under a cloud
That's not metaphorical
Political or arch
It's meteorological
But you know
Nudge nudge
Anyhow

But

The light and the air
This morn
Are truly a joy to behold
Like a childhood summer holiday
When the world was at peace
And all the sweet chestnuts of old

When freedom and sunshine
Stretched on endlessly
The morning telly
Exotic and grand
I think I'll turn it on now
And see if it's still there
Hopefully
ONCE UPON A TIME MAN!

Nom de Guerre
Nom de plume
You and your mystery
Revealed
Not soon
Name the time
Name the place
Draw a line in the sand
Punch yourself in the face
Name your price
Name your shame
Name the things that you did
To cause all that pain
Name your kids
Name your dog
Name yourself
Yet again
As you sit in the fog.

When Butch and Sundance
Watched over a plea
to raise a posse to **** em
Turn into a pitch
On future bicycleism
Old Butch went into a drunken diatribe
Bout how he could have been something
And all that transpired
Sundance the much younger man
Fixed him with an equally sloshed
Rik Mayal eye
Propped himself up on one elbow
Delivered a line that gave truth to the lie
"Well,it's too late now!".

A properly shuffled deck
Has never been dealt the same twice
And will not be either
Till all the humans lose their lives
It wrings the mind
The scale to vast
To infinity's edge
Yer noodle gets cast
But there's levels to all games
So to madness it leads
When you play the one
Where the tree has three seeds.

It's that day today
When evil mystery waits to strike
And nothing happens.

The 25th o may 1977
About as close as it gets to a kid who is seven
It was the first
Not the last
Of the feeling
That you get to call glory
To the ones
Who feel proudly
Not to call them selves Tory
Miner's strike
Tebbits bike
And yet
Where are we now?
You get called what you not
Cos that's what these frauds will allow.

Why would it start
On a Monday?
Seems a bit
On the nose
Wouldnt you say?
Surely it makes more sense midweek
To start
The Satanicness then
On behalf
Of those
Who believe
The goat
And all of his ways
Their aims
Won't be remote
But will be
Deffo believed.

For them not taken sudden
By malfunction
Or malice
There seems to be
Some sort of acceptance
For most
Upon the approaches
As the world
Narrows down
From
What we call solid
To that we don't know
To nothing
Or back to
Some host.

Are you hungry?

When everyone has left
And all light is gone
The cold dark silent sentinels
Stay on
They used to be white
We can see that now
But existence
Has not existed
Long enough
To show how
They will become
Non reflective
Exuding scant heat
Just sitting there
Passive
After
Creations defeat
Long after
The Pulsars
And Black Holes have gone out
They'll decay slowly forever
Or at least thereabouts.

You've left the room
You are arguing with people
Who are simply not there
You cross your arms
Bulge your eyes
Half a laugh
To prove that you don't care
About the points
This ******* getting in
That prove you're a fool
Elbows hot
Squinted eyes
the opposite of cool
Thank Christ this only happens to me in the pub
Pity these poor recorded public speakers
Forever cast in their throb.

They say it's all downhill from here
Is that in mind or in body?
As the track disappears
Into the mist
Like a mountain railway

In a photo of the grand gallery
You really can't tell
If your looking up or down
To or from
The Pharoah's great well

You think you're one thing
Til the Doctor says no
Not anymore *******
Them waters don't flow

Not anymore
It's come off the spool
It ***** unattached
In the gathering gloom

The dimming of vision
The dulling of sound
The fear of collision
So close to the ground

The cattle are lowing
The children asleep
From Chrimbo to Easter
All lives slowly creep

To the place of the skull
In the crowd gathered hence
We came to pass judgment
We can't sit on the fence

So here is a stone
Do with it what you will
As impossible lightning
Crashes down on the hill.

They creek
They have for years
The rust has had its way
The play has increased
Not too much dismay
The sound apparent
The grind that gathers now
Soon the gate will not latch
Enjoy it
It's your last chance
Anyhow.

We went down to London
We went on the train
And stared out in wonder
At cold hearted distain
Adrift in the maelstrom
They all seemed so calm
But to dwell in the big smoke
Just seemed like self harm
So we aimed ourselves north
And we sat in the pool
We let its sweet waters
Rinse fix and cool
Now we'll stay here forever
And you'll have my heart
They'd need a mighty mongol horde
Just to keep us apart.

I have done things
To myself
So slow and incremental
That it could not be noticed

The path was
Uneventful
Not much drama
Or neurosis

The dulling
Of the faculties
The tightening
Of the lung

The salt
That swells
The eyeballs
When the funeral
Song
Gets
Sung.

I feel sorry for the intolerant
For peanuts taste just great
They've got that indefinable
Extra layer of taste
Especially when they alter them
Salt and vinegar
Sweet chilli
Barbecue
Come on get em down your neck
What's the matter with you?

In killarney and Tralee
It was made quite plain to me
That the blood of the land
Flows through every gland

I don't  think you understand
The power that flows through your hands
So put on your gauntlets
And sit on your paws
Before you way laste
To this land.

Take your time
But know
The point of
It's too late
Or not
You know?
The other way round
In desperation
And filth
It shall be found
At any time
And in any place
In the jolly old town.

To all intents and purposes
The king died on his throne
The court gathered in their masses
He was far from alone
Flanked by his truest knights
He tried to stand
And hail the throng
The mob sweetly
Took his breath
To sing
His final song.

The curve of the Earth goes looking for you
It wants to find your trough
Stop eating for a moment
For this data is quite rough
It wants to tell you something
Why to this marble you are glued
Only now the revelation
After eons have accrued

It'll be different for you and me
And all that touch the ground
Why gravity is set that way
Almost but not quite bound

It lets you jump and skip
Without floating through the ether
Or getting crushed to bits
Each human
Whale
And caterpillar

Semi fixed in place
All tiny flavours slowly mix
But if just one evaporates
Premature

The brew is ruined

Can't be fixed

Climbing mountains
Aviation
Space flight
Are resistance to the plan
To keep all ingredients
Aboiling in the pan
The stew is almost ready
It just needs a bit more salt
Unless we truly slip them surly bonds
But that deffo won't be my fault.

You need something to ang
On to in ere
Stop you goin under
Can't buck the system
Mad to try
But you can
Lift the heart
With the occasional
Little victory.

I'm nobody's dog
But there's this family
Who feed me.

You can't outrun
The post office
They've got their tendrils
Everywhere
You see what they done
To them poor
Sub posters
The Stasi
Took more care

The feeling
You don't generally feel
The nature of connection
That gets pushed
To the keel
Them that you couldn't
Talk about
That love is the greatest
With that there's
No doubt.

It starts early
The reverie
Of making it pro
The yawning maw of the Kop enthrals
All that hold true
To the way of the deep red
Hoping against talent
But not time
The impossible dream
Against reason not rhyme
It goes away
When the calendar balances
Still now and then
You drive a sweet one
As the defender advances
Into the bottom left.

We don't only have weapons
We carry the devil with us
HA HA HA HAHAHAHA HA
HA HA HAHA.

The buzz of the bite
The cinch of the choke
The Ah ******* and rolled eyes
After the punchline is spoke
The kindness of strangers
Abused and never retuned
The double ended candle
Through the night which is burned
The rub of the green
Takes you into the red
How the sausage is made
Is how your family gets fed
To refuse the mob
That's how your flag gets unfurled
So shines a good deed in a ******* weary world.

I like them flat peaches
But they take an age to soften up
Then you turn round
For a second
And they've  turned
Into a rotten pulp.

Have you looked at yourself
In the mirror lately?
John Berger said you should do it daily
To get a fix on what your becoming
Incremental slide or climb
Isolate from the thrumming
The buzz
The fuzz
The pulsating drone
The distraction
Reminds me of that Orbital tune
With vocals by Oppenheimer himself
Muses on present chronography
And what it means for thee and me
Advises time lapse
Put the clock upon the shelf.

Poly tunnel kingdoms
In uneasy truce
Glower across the divide
First hovering kestrel
Then circling crow
Waiting for something
To die

The earthworms are frightened
The hares on the run
Avoiding beak and claw
Hemmed in by the tarmac
And rumbling doom
Breaking all natural law

The badgers are lucky
At night they are free
To cross with out
Auto harassing
And think themselves god's
Immune to all death
Till the farmer
Gives them a gassing.

Slice your potatoes
So thick
They can take on
The oil
Salt
And fat
The nature of which
They need to be serious
So no one calls them a ****
Boil for a bit
And then on to the roasteries
Everyone likes the edges
Of their
Spuds
crispery

Shot through the hip
On Flanders field
Left to infect and die
As the quagmire
Slowly
Revealed
How quick it is
To mulch the young
To the Earth
Up pop the poppies
To show that
What was
Worth

You always have more time
Than you think you do
Till you don't

You always eat more pies
When your wife's away
And critique the mirror for your thoughts
Don't ever lose the urge
To let things slip away
It's one of the things that makes up for your faults
You know it does you no good
To keep **** locked away
See it oozing
Through the cracks in the vault

And the wind needs something
To pull upon if it's Going to make
Something rip
So before you have
A big swig o that milk
It's wise to have
A precautionary sniff

Now you don't look
Anything but doomed to me
With so little time left
Here on this earth
Still you have seen
All  your eyes
care to see
Your ways and words
Have shown
The world your worth

And the only time
That I saw Jimmy cry
Was
The night Barney Conroy died.

Where does it go to
The oil you secrete
Off of the juice
That you stew in
When you're feeling the heat?
From without
Or within
Sometimes it sticks to your skin
If you are lucky
It just evaporates
Better out than in.

The ****** of the old
The brake of the new
The opposite
Of which
You want to do
As long as it's funny
Then that's what
We have gone through
As long as the
Essence
Is pure and true.

Like Shaw and Dreyfus
Like Kubrick and duval
Like Klinski and Herzhog
Just like Derek and Clive
A bit like Eric and Ernie
Not at all like Cannon and ball
Antagonism is a tactic
Not loved by one and all

When the wind gets all Omen like
When Gregory Peck
Takes Lee  Remick
For his wife
Then the jackels
Offer an way out
David Warner
Takes the lead
Until
He gets his head cut off
And the press proclaim that
That was
The video nasty
Funny
Till we
Go all normioplasty.

Sure as death
Each shallow breath
Gets steadily
Less steady
As I see you
Drift into
The sweet eternal
Eddy.

The overlords are here
From beyond reality
Not to teach or to heal
Or hold dominion over thee
Not to persecute and pillage
Not to alter or rearrange
Not to allay our fears
Because we find them strange
Not to accelerate or motivate
Urge us on to our potential
Not to shows their technology
Beyond us monumental
Not mediate or pacify
Or empty man's bloodbath
Not to anoint or purify
But because they like a laugh.

Under a diseased elm
Found a shady place to lay
Not much of a breeze
Watched the doggies
Tumble and play
A platoon of crows
Tighten a circle round me slow
The edges of my vision dim
It might be time to go