Curio

those were the dog days

of starving klepto mongrels

home before the bell

who knows what lessons

were successfully evaded

in those truant hours

back in my laboratory

I had been dissecting

the entire enchilada

and I found it suspect

from its shabby suburbs

to its furtive interior

our buxom benefactor

was obtusely square

and everything she did

seemed strangely angular

but her association

with me was perhaps

most oblique of all

I was a mere curio

the prodigious man-child

a worldly innocent

in a cabinet of horrors

and I wondered

how many junk shops

she had trawled through

just to find me

Pistolero

it was an ordinary pistol

highly sexualised

it only cost him twenty

they had asked for twenty five

he stuffed it in his pocket

with pharmaceutical intent

now he had the power

readily to hand

he showed the fucker to me

its number had been filed

it had a dodgy provenance

but that was no surprise

I told him he should ditch it

but he ignored my advice

it only cost a score

but it made him feel alive

Flashback

flashback

big piranha

got the fear

body quake

and adrenal

expulsion

it’s that

weary

old

fight

or flight

paradigm

I’ll shake it

though

I go

by the

numbers

it’s just

a question

of time

Snow

the snow lies deep

and cold

painting the world

a ghostly hue

no more

will you grow old

your moment here

is through

and mother nature’s come

to throw a blanket

over you

Candles

I’ve seen people dying

incrementally

believe me

folk are soluble

and they can fade away

sometimes people die

very suddenly

believe me

folk are fragile

and can break so easily

and people simply vanish

unexpectedly

believe me

folk can disappear

without a bye or leave

Societal Disease

I started on the razzle

out of my fucking head

stumbling blindly onward

where angels feared to tread

but I didn’t fade away

I hung on by a thread

while the ladies of the parish

furnished me with bread

I had bills I couldn’t pay

and a monkey to appease

but that kind of generosity

meant I didn’t freeze

the truth is I was crawling

on my bloody knees

I was just another victim

of societal disease

Solitary Confinement

unscheduled hallucinations
and psychotic interludes
plagued my formative
and shaped my destination
my beat bastard subscription
lapsed before endorsement
but I wish I could lie down
take a fucking telling
I’m so tired right now
I could drag the world with me
through dark corridors
to the great panopticon
where elastic promises
and suicidal compacts
are made by strange bedfellows
there are no
casual acquaintances
in solitary confinement

Blood Rite

I’m all jelly bone

and knee tremble

my brothel creepers

and crepe soul

slick with anticipation

tomorrow

is another

creosote sundae

but tonight

is a total eclipse

of reason

I bide my time

spilling my oats

on barren ground

to be washed away

in the menstrual cycle

my instruments

calculate trouble

word gets around

there are no secrets

in monkey town

Sundowners

don’t kid yourself
you know these people
just cause they button up
the same way you do
they got secrets to cash
and monkeys to feed
by day they hone
their grievances
forge alliances
and swear their oaths
as playground innocents
but at night
they are a different
species of stupid
when their kamikaze hearts
spur them to perform
localised atrocities
of obscene and banal
dimensions

Liars

you taught my tongue some tricks
I can weave real eloquently now
with a winning smile
and a twinkle in my eye
I've even fooled myself at times
we all want to believe in something
we all want to trust in someone
but I don't even trust myself
I'm dirty as the thirty pieces of silver
that secured my ounce of solid soul
and as deep as the phony veneer
that fails to conceal my corruption
so, ask me no questions
and ditch the disguise
save us both the effort
of more graceless contortions
as we make our goodbyes
.

My Friend

they persecuted him

because they could

because it’s easy

to close your mind

to the different

and he was different

he was a peacock

amidst vultures

he was a libertine

in the company of slaves

he was a shooting star

who burned too brightly

and he was my friend

when there was no other

.

flightless

I met a man

who was fighting 

his shadow

he was dull inside

and dead as a dodo

he spoke in tongues
strangely familiar
first languid
and then rabid
in a paralytic dialect
of mumbles and grunts
cunt was a drooler
a mewling loser
dredging an ocean
of heartfelt regrets
and bitter recriminations
he'd traded his allocated
ounce of solid soul
for the draught of oblivion
and I’ve seen his face before
in some distant mirror
but I don't know him
he's nothing to me
so show that bum the door

before he spills another drink

and then cries out for more