Sparky

dope him

rope him

tie him down

and smoke him

electrode his brainpan

with 20,000 megajolts

zap some sense into him

teach him to be well again

then take him downstairs

and chemically castrate him

with the great abomination

pump him with the ga ga juice

until he’s lost the will

kosh him ‘til his lights go out

.

Adored

My credentials were impeccable
At least on paper, if not in the flesh
Your papers were forged
But I didn’t mind
You brought me more pleasure
Than a thousand dead poets
“The only good poet is a dead poet.”
Isn’t that what you said?
Imposters pout and posture
Across the page
With borrowed icons
And stolen voices
Genius lays face down in the gutter
Death is the final measure
Of its dedication to the craft
But not for me darlin’
I want to be adored, at least once
However briefly
And in this life, not the next
.

Running Away

Had to bounce
Had no alternative
That place was my grave
The end of the road
You may think me a coward
Be that as it may
But I was running towards
Not running away
.

Owsley’s Bunker

I swapped the charismatic
For the lead - lined Kafkaesque
If I’m turning over a new leaf
I want my papers in order
Before heading south
Latest developments suggest
There may be trouble
At the border
But my disguise is perfect
I wear reason like a crown
And I’m so very high
I may never lay it down
.
This is coyote weather
The season of the cow
The days are drawing in
The nights grow more profound
Anything could happen here
And very often does
So I’m barricaded in
In case push comes to shove
They say a little orange juice
Will help to bring you down
But someone cut my strings
I no longer see the ground
.

Solus

she was in worse shape
than any woman I'd ever seen
she'd had the life ground out of her
until she signified nothing to no-one
one sorry night
just for the hee haw
we jacked her 
into the sing song
and we heard her howl
just like she was dying
we saw that crazy bitch
had ghosts in her bones
and that she was infected
with pain beyond reason

Radiance

the best part of me
is too often obscured
by the daily grind
of an ordinary life
only to be
rediscovered
in the unexpected hour
as a strange and familiar
radiance
beyond the reach
of the human eye
.

A Prayer

Our sponsors
Who are relentless
Anonymous are thy names
But thine kingdom come
Thine will be done
At home
As it is in commerce
Forgive us our debts
As we forgive those
Who foreclose against us
Give us this day our daily fix
Of sex and soap and politics
And lead us not into temptation
For temptations sake
But deliver us from sequels
For thou art the kingpins
With the power of transmission
Now and forever
Amen
.

A Farewell

I felt the weight of it in my chest
The heft of it on my heart
I dared not remember
Nor did I care to forget
The little death
You left in your wake
You were wrenched from my life
In the cruellest of ways
And I yearned for your laughter
As I drowned in your tears
And I mourned for your love
For a thousand years
.

Milk & Honey

3 am again
same old
same old
pavlovian routine
the incessant splatter
of bloody raindrops
on my window panes
the drip, drip, drip
of memories predisposed
to the anachronism
of my wicked, but splendid
fallacies
if they could only feel me now
what would they say?
they think I’m teflon
and that nothing sticks to me
the facade is faultless
but the interior corrupt
I’m faded and jaded
since those days
of infidelity and loss
my nights are fainter
and spent figuring
memorial alphabets
into novel expressions
that pierce my ears
to fill my head
with poisoned splinters
a little milk and honey
is all I’m asking
a little milk and honey
to nourish and sustain me
through the bitter hours
before the coming dawn
.

The Seventh Sacrament

somebody put soul food   in my midday fodder   spiked me with holy water   and pulled my knickers down    those bare arse cheeks    were of little consequence     provided that the heavy hit    distilled from heavy shit    concealed my embarrassment    along with a litany of grievous sins   hitherto unrecorded

the testament euphoric    melted my studied indifference   with billion dollar words     laying on a smooth line in piety    nauseatingly hypocritical    under any circumstances   but doubly so in mine

I never seen it coming   but brother I was stoned    and guilty of those pleasures far too long deferred    on receipt of holy orders    those creature comforts keep    most men in stolid sleep    and sleeping is a sin   akin to blissful ignorance

so don’t never tell no one   what has passed between   cause no-one needs to know   and you know what I mean    the fruit of all my labours     the seeds that I have sown     could go excommunicado    with bitter denunciations   and the casting of first stones

The Blood In My Eyes

I brought the bad news

judiciously carved

into reasonable chunks

that were easy to swallow

but hard to digest

there was the momentum

of some terrible gravity

behind my every word

each was weighed

and then dispensed

on tablets of stone

saying; if you cast the first

then I shall cast the last

it was a diabolical pact

but I just couldn’t see

for the blood in my eyes

had so blinded me

.

Hungry

that’s me there   face to face   with the back of the crowd   fetching awkward angles between my toes    it’s always seemed that symmetry eluded me and I was dissolving fractions in a decimal world   a feline soul in a canine cosmos    I told a big stripey lie that painted me a permanent crimson and soaked my banner with piss ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

that was thirty years or so ago    and there’s been plenty of action under the bridge since then    it sometimes feels really late    but that’ll be the times    I developed humour as a mechanism to lubricate those rapidly diminishing hours   burdens borne with a smile sometimes feel like blessings in disguise……….…………………………………..

those hooks and punch lines are mine to own    but they aren’t all jokes   half of them are true   I hawk them anyway because there is little else to say    people expect lies in these days of photo-shopped selfies and fictitious biographies    so I get away with the odd deprecating truth    as long as I sugar coat them     no one accepts the sour any more     their palettes are acclimatised to saccharine and the soft candy floss of mediocrity……………..…………………………………………..

I stood in a long queue to receive short shrift and a parcel of unwelcome platitudes    I’m not complaining mind you    I got to where I am by the circuitous route    but I got here just the same    I’m quite comfy in my hollow    and if things are now slower than they once were    it’s only because I was speeding in the first place    it was always post-haste and frantic stratagems with me    I was hungry the way only poor boys are hungry    I’m still hungry    but it's an old man's hunger