The Modernist Imperative

The Chinese women behind the car park adjacent to the office complex
snorkelling in the shallow pool
massaging the ducks or maybe geese it was hard to tell
it's a specialised job and not one for me

My task unasked for was to inscribe verse on the walls
under silent, candlelit conditions
again behind the car park adjacent to the office complex
but in the chalky caves equipped with the finger sticks

The words were once in a sleeptime never to return
not for human consumption and consisting of the true conditions:
celebrity gossip, Black Friday deals and a list of our favorite stars
e.g. Arcturus, Alpha Ceti, Aldebaran - I could go on

Top 20 Albums of 2024

It's true these days I listen to a lot of the sad female artists
and ambient, plus the occasional, old-school rock album.
Anyway here is my top 20 of the year...

1 Helen Crites - Normal Western Technician

2 Upfly - IMPORTANT!

3 Agnes Palmer - Large Suite

4 Texas Association - Navarro Live

5 AD380 - AD380

6 Annie Hendrinks - Grab it now

7 Sam's Club - Your Fave

8 Cristalware - Delete Forever

9 Stress Free Koala - All Night Sleep

10 Felicity Ollivier - Emotional Speaking

11 X-tract Global - The Power of Nomisma

12 Ninnetta Linegar - Greetings from Blossom Heights

13 Pome - Want Many

14 Elle Consultants - dream-charters

15 Kilden - Notifications

16 Southside Lofts - Plain Passion

17 ARISE - 以下の内容でお問い合わせを受付いたしました

18 Patricia Bray - Pull. Deny. Take

19 Endurance - Forward Suspect

20 Nancy Cooper - Someone the Same

Would you like cheese with that?

All this week I have felt 'out of sorts' let me list the symptomps which I spelled wrong: sore throat, persistent tickly cough (esp. at night) Blocked nose but not like a cold, and - oh by the way it's not Covid, I've tested twice - Chronic tiredness + inability to sleep Sporadic misery

Possibly unrelated problems which

I thought I'd mention anyway include

Unbelievably itchy feet

Bad lower back, but I've had these a while now

Also I went blind one night but

I got better (extreme crustiness of eyes)

Finally today, the old tooth infection shows up

Classic side effect

There was going to be a point to this

when I started but I've

lost the thread

- from Voyageur, July 2022

Dumped (by app)

We had played each other on the song guessing app for six years, ever since we were matched up when I visited Iceland in 2016; we both liked Classic Rock and stuck to 70s playlists

For a few weeks this year (2022) I was

"out of sorts" and didn't log in; when

I next opened the app

I saw Haraldur had terminated our six-year

rivalry

I mean, I led him by 520 to 186 games,

he was a bit slow,

but I valued our unspoken international alliance

It stung for a while but my

main concern was that my wife,

whenever I played the game,

always asked me how 'your friend Olaf' was doing

And now I just can't admit that he's

no longer my friend

I am 55 years old

- from Voyageur, July 2022

She said

I'll say this about you, she says about me, in 20 years of marriage I've never heard you use the C-word

This much is true. It's also 'something'. But in the

interest of full disclosure I admit

to having used it in a variety of situations

Examples including: Loss of wifi

Presence of moths

Wearing socks when stepping in wetness

Weather being too hot/ bright/ dark/ cold

Spillages (various)

Misc football results

Public transport upsets (countless)

Work meetings (internal voice only)

Upon hearing the ice cream van

She smiles indulgently. It seems

I am the perfect husband, an award-

winning human being, and not an

absolute c***

- from Voyageur, July 2022

*** I can't do it

^ liar

Yankee Doodle Cunt (alt: The Infectious & Sometimes Annoying Appeal of Ice Cream Truck Music)

Every afternoon around knocking- off time aka have a little sleep time let's be specific 5.30pm as I lay me down for a minor kip, this fucking ice cream van starts up its

Musical signature doodle doodle dood

dood doot doodle doodle doo doot

It comes from NSEW (from my bed

I can track its progress around the roads using 3D

visualisation) and the chance of any brief,

gentle descent into slumber is dealt

a fatal blow

Any tune would destroy me

in this state but this, do you

know the words to this, I mean

look them up, and so it comes to pass

at 6pm every day I Murder the Ice Cream Man

- from Voyageur, July 2022

Reasons why

I haven't written anything today:

The fridge needed defrosting

Bottle of wine 'not going to drink itself'

Need to charge phone (minor)

TiVo 75% full, must spend time

watching/deleting programmes

Note to self: define TiVo for future generations

Plus, you'll obviously remember all

the amazing slash mundane ideas you had today and

write them up later on some loosely

defined (series of) date(s)

And, it's Friday

You'll be on official holiday soon

Also, it won't be any good anyway

You're too old for all of this

For starting all of this business again

- from Voyageur, July 2022

Vince (an English fellow)

A recent challenger on the song guessing app Was Vince (an English fellow); we played a few times

Were evenly matched, all very good, and then

I saw he’d messaged me

He’d posted a pic of some leggings and asked

‘You like Ron Hill tracksters?’

I didn’t really understand, maybe I wasn’t

The intended recipient of this enquiry

But then he wrote twice more asking if I liked to wear

Ron Hill tracksters, with different pictures

Which prompted me to

a: search ‘Ron Hill tracksters’ which seem very affordable and

attractive athletic wear should I ever decide to get cracking

with the parkrun I’ve been talking about for years now, and

b: delete Vince from my contacts

- from Voyageur, July 2022

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) a fish species synonymous with the River Thames and wider Thames catchment

You've seen the eel twice now I saw it once on Our weekend walk and I have to say, it was genuinely thrilling

Mysterious and often overlooked Perhaps lost in the Ornamental canal Some distance from the river now

Sharing water with ducks, swans, a small Fish family, the lonely heron And those crab carcasses which are A mystery unto themselves

- from Voyageur, July 2022

James Last

In 1976 my parents came home from one of
their grownup parties, mildly tipsy and
in possession of a James Last LP
which as a vinyl deficient household
was certainly something rather than nothing but
even then I was never going to listen to it

Years passed
    decades passed
        centuries in their way
and now here I am
        way older than they were then

Watching James Last at the Royal Albert Hall on Sky Arts
        with the sound down
        the snobbery runs deep and long
man do they look like they're having fun...

And the audience - such pure joy
    this is the best night of their lives!

Wonder if I took the wrong step years ago
    and there are 190 albums to check out
        but I'll never be part of this communal joy

The man's been dead for nearly 10 years
    and like Rave or countless other areas
        you missed the boat

James T. Farrell

You don't hear much about James T. Farrell anymore

The novelist and short-story writer known for his
realistic portraits of the lower-middle-class
Irish in Chicago, and best remembered
for his Studs Lonigan trilogy

A consummate realist in viewpoint and method-
who now will ever read the Danny O'Neill Pentalogy
or the Bernard Carr trilogy

He wrote about people who were
victims of injurious social circumstances
and of their own spiritual and intellectual shortcomings

He depicted human frustration, ignorance, cruelty
violence, and moral degeneration
with a sober, relentless veracity

And he determined that he would write
"regardless of the consequences."

"I have a lot of work to do," he said.
"I write 20 hours at a stretch;
I hate sleep and I fight it."

His sentences follow one another
like bricks in a well made row.

His prose is simple and direct,
powerful and blunt.

His courageous stance against Stalinism
took a toll on his literary reputation,
and later, as the naturalism he employed in
his best fiction slipped out of vogue,
his work fell into neglect and his star dimmed.

Grundrisse

"Free time – which is both idle time
and time for higher activity –
has naturally transformed its possessor
into a different subject,
and he then enters into the direct production
process as this different subject."

"See also

the analysis and the resonant call

by Prof. Eva Swidler: To restore

a social world and to retain the commons,

the Working Class

has to rebuild
a shared culture of leisure."

03.15

'Go ahead
and kill me'
he sang in a strangely cheerful voice
from somewhere out by
the bins

'Just kill me now
I don't fucking care
any more'
in a strangely wavering voice

                                                As I lay up here
                                                scratching like a deviant
                                                humming a thousand songs
                                                and waiting for the
                                                sleep that never comes

You Love This Sort of Thing

1. Apple
2. Guitar
3. Mountain
4. Elephant
5. Rocket
6. Sparkle
7. Ladder
8. Sunflower
9. Breeze
10. Iceberg
11. Library
12. Lantern
13. Ocean
14. Mirror
15. Helicopter
16. Chocolate
17. Volcano
18. Freedom
19. Candle
20. Harmony
21. Garden
22. Galaxy
23. Rainbow
24. Trolley
25. Dolphin
26. Tree
27. Pebble
28. Robot
29. Camera
30. Stardust
31. Ship
32. Wizard
33. Planet
34. Notebook
35. Keyhole
36. Thunder
37. Painting
38. Jungle
39. Meadow
40. Snowflake
41. Puzzle
42. Castle
43. Key
44. Marshmallow
45. Snowman
46. Tornado
47. Bicycle
48. Cloud
49. Clock
50. Sketch
51. Tumble
52. Sunset
53. Ghost
54. Journey
55. Flute
56. Oceanic
57. Magic
58. Owl
59. Cloudy
60. Compass
61. Silhouette
62. Trolley
63. Giraffe
64. Mermaid
65. Treasure
66. Notebook
67. Balloon
68. Parrot
69. Adventure
70. Daydream
71. Chocolate
72. Phantom
73. Castle
74. Whirlpool
75. Tinsel
76. Ticket
77. Carnival
78. Dragonfly
79. Honey
80. Wishbone
81. Thunderstorm
82. Marsh
83. Bookmark
84. Whistle
85. Steamboat
86. Grasshopper
87. Feather
88. Glisten
89. Phantom
90. Spider
91. Cloudscape
92. Lantern
93. Firefly
94. Bubble
95. Eclipse
96. Meadow
97. Mirage
98. Tornado
99. Journey
100. Tortoise

This is What You Want

The river doesn't wait for an invitation,
it simply arrives, the skyline blurred behind it—
a slow erasure,
layered like wet tissue
pressed against glass.

The streets are not streets anymore,
but a thousand fractured mirrors,
each reflection muddied,
not quite the same as the last.

I think I saw the moon earlier,
but it was caught in the undertow,
drowned beneath the weight of its own reflection.

Do we remember the names of things?
Concrete? Asphalt?
Now just fragments,
disconnected,
shifting with the current.

Voices from nowhere—
whispers that were once loud,
they sound like static
on an old radio,
searching for a frequency
that stopped existing.

A boat floats by,
empty except for a child's shoe
that doesn’t belong.

I ask,
but no one answers.

There’s no one left
to ask.

Fuelled by lack of miegoti

One day there's a message on the fridge saying I KNOW WHAT YOU DID
meanwhile my shin has fallen off AM I THE ZOMBIE
it's all good until your tentacles wither and
your prehensile tail becomes sentient

Yeah sure there are things I don't understand
my million year old brain isn't built for revelations
concerning parallel universes, reincarnation
and the simulation hypothesis
- I don't even understand Severance ha ha! -

My lack of faith is disturbing, even unto me -
'Faith was a lovely lady actually, we worked on the
Recommendations programme...' - he's drifting
now, pull him back - but shinless or not
he's the best, simply the best zombloy (sic) we've got

Knick Nonk I'm Having a Stronk

Water you doing today?
Sue-prize! Happy birthday!
ICE CREAM SO YOU CAN HEAR ME!
Hey, I didn’t know you could yodel!
A-door-a-bell don't work, that's why I knocked!
Don’t cry, it’s just a joke!
Bear with me, it's so cold out here I can hardly talk!
Venice your dad coming home?
Watson on TV in there?
Shirley you must know who I am by now!
Actually, it's kangaroo!
Arthur any cookies left?
Car go, “Toot toot, vroom, vroom!”
Anita use the bathroom, please open the door!
Wendy bell gonna start working again?
Nana your business!
Toucan play at this game!
What are you, an owl?
Beets me!
More like doggone where, and we'd better find him!
Donut ask, it's a secret!
Yeah, you do sound cuckoo!
Abby birthday to you!
Ben knocking for 10 minutes!
Colleen up your room, it's a mess!
Scold outside, let me in!
Bean a while since I've seen you!
Witches the best way out of this neighborhood?
No thanks, but I’d love some peanuts.
Lettuce in, it’s cold out here!
Geese what I got in the mail today?
Pecan somebody your own size!
Turnip the volume, this is my favorite song!
Just lion here on your doorstep, waiting for you to let me in!
Figs the doorbell, I’ve been knocking forever!
Honeydew you wanna dance?
Yukon say that again!
Adore is between us, so open up!
A herd you were home, so I came over!
Dishes the police, open up!
Cereal pleasure to be invited over!
Stopwatch your doing and open the door!
But I didn’t sneeze!
Howl you know unless you open the door?
Butter let me in or I’ll freeze!
Peas to meet you!
Avenue knocked on this door before?
Curry me home will you!
Needle little help opening the door!
Onion mark, get set, go!
Weekend do anything we want!
Moose you be so nosy?
Honey bee a dear and get the door for me?
No need to make lunch we already 8!
Chicken my pocket but I can't find my keys!
Goat to the door and find out!
Alpaca the trunk, you pack the suitcase.
Adam my way, I’m coming in!
Pudding your shoes on before you come out is a good idea.
Olive you sooooo much!
Annie body home?
Isabel not working?
Lena little closer and I’ll tell you!
Bacon a cake for your birthday!
Yoo-hoo! Anybody home?
Noah place I can spend the night?
Howl you know unless you open the door?
Iguana hold your hand!
Dozen anyone want to let me in?
Weirdo you think you’re going?
Icy you in there!
Canoe come out now?
Candice joke get any worse?
You’re welcome.
Bless you!

The sisters, in unison

no we could not hang with you
beyond the city borders also known
in private as the english class system
even though we were ourselves
the children of refugees a fact
which we are more than happy to overlook
for the purposes of our family story

but you came from a lost and haunted tribe
you emerged let's face it from the hagside
where the finfunk gurgle in puddles of ancient murk
we'll own up to an atavistic fear of orphans
and although you had cheekbones to die for
plus a surprisingly large tallywacker
we always knew there was an expiry date
which your healthy bank balance could not outweigh
also your lack of social currency 

we said from the very beginning
this is an interlude, enjoy it while it lasts
and oh how it lasted
before we returned to our fragrant idyll
and reacquainted ourselves with the delights of
rural traditions such as cider and foxhunting
i hope life in the quagmire is treating you well
and you have traced your tadpole ancestry
back to the primeval ooze, joke joke

please stop following us on social media
yours/not yours the bellagio sisters

Boxercise

Summer - it is coming in

Time to get toned and lean

coats and scarves, get 'em off

show the world what you got

At Wednesday lunchtime boxercise

Get a partner, get involved

Oh I don't know, am I too old?

Kev's the trainer, don't be scared

"he's just a puppy dog really"

At Wednesday lunchtime boxercise

Sign up now, you won't regret it

you'll burn fat, and you'll get fit

It's vigorous and lots of fun

it's suitable for everyone

Wednesday lunchtime boxercise

Get on down to boxercise

- from the Union Daughter songbook outbreak c.2011

Charge code

I put my life in an Excel spreadsheet.

With pictures and bells, ribbons and alarms.

It was the last morning

of an otherwise unblemished record.

Hunting was outlawed/ hunting was encouraged.

Everybody was on board, and they were all well nourished.

I put my death in an Excel spreadsheet.

It was the last mistake I would ever make.

A new beginning... fresh milk.

Starting all over again,

preparing to become extinct.

Input, output, contretemps.

INPUT

OUTPUT CONTRETEMPS

I don't like you when you're hokey,

I hate you when you're cokey.

Yeah yeah yeah goodnight.

- from the Union Daughter songbook outbreak c.2011

The Condemnedable Man

My last wish, my only wish
my dying wish - not much to ask after
a lifetime of service and sacrifice
yet to what end(s) remains to be seen -
is to kiss and be kissed
by the myriad specimens the
'endless luscious imaginary manifestations of womanhood'
your words not mine, i don't make the rules
and by which i most innocently mean
only to kiss and be kissed, almost
most decently to kiss and be kissed
all sloppy and hair-hand runningly and
breathless chaotically, the wild
embrace of sweet loving kindness

Bespoke Cakes

Everything that happened is in the past
as in, see, from what was earlier - thus, the power of reasoning
so how does it work have we been here before
don't you dare interduce a posteriori
no memories of the yet to be come why is there not
a word for that which we can not iniagine word not right imagie no
try agub bopg ug godf- reset
yum yum yum now
i suxpect a fig of our faculty has been removed
did you sir surgeon viporly swift remove a vital gland
whipped oot through the earhole perchance
for my faculties have taken a plunge
once used to be a steady q-hundred, now reduced
to a fumbly 50, like a halve throat
goated gland removal sitch, which
is short for situation which wasn't worth explaining
ONE STEP FORWARD TWO STEPS BACK
the radiant arc of the moral universe is long long
but they say it do bend bend
please let it better butter bend bend

Egalitarian drift, in four parts

In the dark theatre she stared
deep into my void and mumbled something
about vacuum energy
particle pairs blinking into existence
and quickly annihilating each other back into
the nothingness from whence they came
   much like she did

- The point is to make something, she said,
  not to care if it's any good

- It doesn't matter if your playing
  is poor or incomplete. Failing doesn't mean you'll die

- Bruce Almighty used his divine power
  to manifest some coffee
  & you're much better than that goofy asshole

James Brown Pt. 2

Talking of which jesus christ
it just came back to me, the office Christmas
party 2000, and I wasn't young even then
it was fancy dress I arrived in a 1966 replica kit
I'm Jimmy Greaves ha ha, the Bootleg Beatles played
there was a sumptuous buffet and I bonded with
the austere yet appealing American girl
over the Minutemen and Black Flag but we lost touch

And then the next thing you know
I was wearing a motorcycle helmet
dancing to Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine
with don't be coy the Black girls who I always liked
and the feeling let's be honest was reciprocated
we were cool and they thought I was such great fun
in my football shorts and helmet
as we did the boogaloo or like whatever it was

James Brown (via HaHaHaYoureDead)

"I don't even know what to write here
an absolute genius on the level of Miles Davis
at least or something like this, for the first
twenty years of his career he didn't shoot a single shot in the
milk, he could do absolutely anything, and dance -
although I understand this like a pig in oranges
and sing gold standards from the American songbook
but everyone knows about funk and
mind-blowing live shows..."

He was a mess of contradictions & fuck ups
but he is a musical legend and that no one can deny him.

Sample it, loop it, fuck it, eat it!

HAWT TUB!!

Regarding the elephant in the middle of the room
what this man composed after the age of 75
is at least as good as he fucking did before

HE DIED AT 73!!!

Bach Beethoven Brahms Brown
he was to music what Van Gogh was to art

Makes me think about Jim Carrey and other trash American comedy films I don't know why

The Inmortal King of Soul

POS rapist and convicted batterer of women. rot in hell.

Swaging even before the word was invented

One of the sickest artists of all time. He actually earns the title of "artist."

JAMES BROWNIE I GOD YOU SO FEEL GOOD AAAAAAAAAAAA BRRRRRR LEMAAAS SO A FEEL MOER A TIME CRASY

Creepy, not creepy

27:52
27:13
28:20
26:15
25:54
25:44
26:41
27:00

25:22
25:34
24:46
26:02
30:33
29:15
25:36
26:31

23:55
24:03
26:44
26:53
24:38
55:10
28:55
24:11

22:54
34:19
26:33
25:46
28:18
25:40
24:04
22:58

I Beg Your Fucking Pardon

The morning that Donald Trump -
now, here I considered employing a list
of the many satirical nicknames
attributed to the new president-elect
some of them no doubt rib-tickling, certainly
insulting, even at a stretch devastating but
what a waste of time
we're beyond that
we're staring down the barrel
of a fucking dark age
unless you think otherwise, I mean, personally
my stocks & shares account has surged since
the result was announced -
was elected the 47th President

We meandered around
the National Gallery of a foreign land
- where I enjoyed a surprisingly
satisfying 80c coffee from a vending machine -
and after which we wandered into the Botanic Garden
and took pictures of the roses:

Summer Song, the Mary Rose, and Pilgrim,
Grand Chateau, Orient, the Fairy,
Sissi, Carina, and Mister Lincoln, what a
delightful morning that was, drifting
about the town with you,
smelling the roses so far
away from the news

One day I would like to see

The whimsical sculptures of Ken Nyberg
found throughout Vining and Otter Tail County
for example The Big Foot

Ken's busy hands have created pieces such as
a dancing knife and spoon with arms and legs
a huge doorknob floating in mid-air
giant pliers crushing a cockroach
a jumbo potted cactus, and a huge watermelon

His sculptures are made from scrap metal
old lawn mower blades
and other recycled materials

I would really like to see
the special sculpture honoring
his daughter Karen, a NASA astronaut

Also, the giant clothes pin
the alien with a rose
the cowboy welcoming you into town
and the spilled coffee cup

Ken Nyberg insists that there isn't any
special meaning behind most pieces.
He just creates them

The end of days, 1999

Your friend C returned from Thailand
as Somerset's biggest Deadhead
a rucksack full of Polaroids and mud
- she can stay in the box room for a while ok?
:: thanks so much guys
   do you want to see my tattoos?

and to show her gratitude she whipped up
a burnt lentil curry :: sorry guys
while yelling at ma and pa on the phone

and invited us to a pop star's party
in a Camden townhouse
:: well she's like the sister of the guy from -----
   I've never heard of them, but she
   knows T who we were at school with,
   remember her, V?

& where we did poppers :: it's a
   really base drug, haha, just a little buzz
we skated along
the corridor in our socks, mock dancing
to Suede or Blur, as you looked on
bemused, and soon you, V, would

head east for your own adventures
followed, inevitably
and some
years
later
by me, G

This one's called Pinworms

Pinworms
obstructing the lumen of appendix
Pinworms
eliciting hypersensitivity reaction
Pinworms
causing clinical picture of acute appendicitis
Pinworms
escaping into the peritoneal cavity
Pinworms
inhabiting the caecum
Pinworms
causing tachycardia, low-grade fever...
Pinworms
leukocytosis, and bandemia
Pinworms
buried in the gut

Pinworms
very rare and affects mostly children
Pinworms
gravid female worms migrate to the anus
Pinworms
a type of helminth
Pinworms
spread through the fecal-oral route
Pinworms
common in places where children are in close contact
Pinworms
Enterobius vermicularis
Pinworms
thin and white
Pinworms
buried in the gut

It is joke

At breakfast on our second morning
I noticed she'd taken the same items as before
from the vast and sumptuous buffet and
perhaps foolishly asked if
she didn't want to try different things

'they've got smoked salmon, and eight types of bread,
honey from their own bees
and there's an egg station!'

she said: 'once I've made my choice I stick with it
it just keeps things simpler'

jokingly: 'I guess the same goes for your men too'

stupid, stupid boy

ladies and gentlemen, that
was my ex-wife

For Jackson Lamb

I Norge, min venn, er fjell så høye,
Med snøkledde topper som stråler i lyse,
Elver som danser, og innsjøer så blå,
Der hunder som deg kan leke og gå.

Du vil snuse i skogen, så dyp og grønn,
Med lukten av trær og jorden i bunn,
Fuglene kvitre, og vinden vil le,
I Norges natur er det frihet å se.

Kaldere vær, men vi kler oss godt,
Med varme jakker, så vi ikke blir blott,
Vi går på turer i sol, regn og snø,
Norge er stedet hvor eventyr vil flø.

Så kom, kjære hund, la oss utforske,
I Norges rike, hvor vi kan ikke forlate,
For hver sti vi går, er en reise så stor,
Der kjærlighet og vennskap alltid består.

Why have you been so gloomy lately?

Start on a positive: several hours of
sunshine around Halloween

Carry on with: general dampness
anticyclonic gloom
an expanding area of moisture
and rain-bearing fronts
sunshine so weak that an unnamed village
is reduced to permanent darkness
a fire cloud of drear hath
settled in and news reports are all
dressed up like the Cure

The jet stream, once so straight and smooth
has been drop kicked with a dirty hoove
and its flow b u c k l e s
    that ribbon of air
    high in the atmosphere
an abrupt jump
a pressure trap

A once in a two hundred and fifty-year event is underway
and it really doesn't care what your name is

Christian driving school

They sent me to Christian driving school
there was a Bible verse equivalent
for every section of the Highway Code
plus a viva voce with the Holy Inquisitor
commonly known as the Emergency Stop

Some *let the record show not me*
claimed this was an intolerable
imposition yet it was tolerated
if you wanted to acquire the new
Evangelical Driving Licence and
qualify for the Fast Lane to the Big Show

It's coming, don't ask where don't ask when
but you'll know when you see it
    for there will be signs,
    yes there will be Signs

To provide examples of the questions
would be a betrayal of confidence, and copyright
at this stage of the mid-tribulation
while the Saints are donning their finery
*we are assured it's a lengthy process*
and the Beginning of Sorrows is barely beginning

Meanwhile there are still
places to go, things to do
of an all-too earthly nature
and we few are privileged to ride
along the King's highway

The day we went to Plovdiv

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Plovdiv
They do like to say it's the oldest living city in all of Europe
Calmer than Sofia but so full of charm, you'll be sure to fall in love
With the wineries, churches, crafts, and the art of Tsanko Lavrenov 

The Seven Hills, the cobbled streets, the Roman Amphitheatre
The Thracians, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and Bulgarians
They've all been here along the years adding to the vibrant history
Did you know it's twinned with Rome, St Petersburg, and Istanbul in Turkey 

Do you recall the thrill of it all as we strode along the Main Street
At more than a mile it might be the longest one you've ever walked down
Then in Central Park we stopped by the lake to eat some nuts and chocolate
Chatting away before we raced to meet our tour guide outside McDonalds

Weren't they a treat, the brightly painted 19th-century mansions
The architecture was a delight, it's a budget-friendly destination
Dramatic scenery, an ancient mosque as well as a ruined fortress
The cute cafés and quaint boutiques, you could stay at the Boris Palace

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Plovdiv
A beautiful day, we shared a bus with some Germans who wouldn't stop talking
On the way back I nibbled some sweets fell asleep reading Sally Rooney
Humming a few of my favourite songs as the wheels went around