See, see such a plumy sky
Marvel at its carpy slime depths.
Tell me Kevin tell me Kevin tell me Kevin do you
Wonder why the distressed child also ignores you?
Why its foobly stare
makes you feel feebly tadpole.
.png)
ðĶĐ️ðĨ️ðŠ️
ð ️ðĐ️ðŠ️
ð§️ðĨ️ðŠ️
ðĶ️ð ️ð️
ðĶ️ðĨ️ð·️
ð§️ð§ļ️
ðĨ️ð️ðĶ️
ð
️ðĶ️ðŠ️
ð ️ðĨ️ðĶķ️
ð ️ðŽ️
ð️ðĨ️ðĢ️
ð️ðŽ️
ð️ð️ð️
ð️ðĨ️ðĶī️
ðĻ️ð️ðŠ️
ðĻ️ð·️
I'd been sleeping poorly what with my agonies
needed an early morning nap but
at a ratatatat on the front door I jerked awake and
obediently open up, a respectable couple not
this time trying to get me to switch my energy supplier or
join the young communists but
'We're from The Sun'
asking me if I had any thoughts on the 'Love Island House'
Excuse me what
She mentioned a house number and I blearily
glanced across the road at
the house recently painted in blue and pink
mumbling, I really don't care about it
'Could we use your name'
but I'm not deranged enough to give them that, and
It turns out it wasn't the house opposite but further along
beyond my eyeline,
I'd seen it tarted up with lights
seems it's been called out by a disgruntled neighbour
"The house is lit up like a building from Las Vegas"
and The Sun was frothing at the thought
of a Love Island related story and bothered me
Lee Holloway Towers in his fretful slumbers
Not my problem baby and
I will never sleep again
there was a lot I liked yes there was a lot I liked
the familiar and popular attributes
Z said we were mirror imaged, like twins
we could have been related back in the old country
but then there was her term for the locals which was quite frankly unacceptable
the long story about how she'd meant to end up in america but got stuck in this hole for 20 years
the time she spent in soho hanging out with [pop star #1]
the time she told the nobel prize winner he was a fake
the time we went to see a film in leicester square and she saw a couple she knew but didn't introduce or even acknowledge my presence, as I stood right beside her
I mean, come on!
we did it yes we did it but kissing was not encouraged
I didn't ask but she read me some of her poetry and I quite liked it - "it's biological!"
she played a lot of Massive Attack and explained how every song had the most meaning
she brought out 'the puff' and laughed 'you no good at this!'
while she was cooking I set fire to her curtain
she didn't notice and this isn't relevant
'I hoped tomorrow we go for 5 mile run
but now we drink two bottles wine and puff so maybe not
since you choose to stay'
when was 5 mile run on the agenda
and was I not invited to stay?
I was out of my depth and I liked it/ didn't like it
Sitting in the cold back room on
Christmas visits, claiming there's a film
on BBC2 or Channel 4 I'd like to see
ok watch it in the back room
there's some turkey and salad in the fridge
Often there was no vital film, do you
get the picture, I just needed my space
and also let's face it somewhere I could top up
the vodka from my personal supply,
while they snoozed in the hot front room
All those seasons all those years
felt like they'd last forever and they did
the leftovers, vodka top-ups, making calls
on the hands free set or whatever we called it before
mobiles and the internet
if you can even remember that far
back which you can't
Plans which came to nothing, vast
oceans of wastefulness and regret while
some random film played in the back room
Free Willy or E.T.*
neither of which I had any desire to see but
then E.T. got me tearful and I felt disgusted
and why is always so cold back here
Walked past the old house recently, 25 years since
I was last in that front or back room and I'd give
anything to watch Thelma and Louise or Airplane! there again
pouring Smirnoff into a can of Coke
making my sad phone calls
to scattered friends, just checking in before
heading upstairs frazzled and listening to
the Festive Fifty
* Yes, it's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
'Oi mate,' the new arrival says to the young man opposite. 'Are you gay?' 'Excuse me?' replies the pale and elegant young man. 'Are you gay. You know, a queer?' The two girls with the new arrival fail to stifle their nervous laughter. Their bodies convulse as the boy's head bobs about. The older woman with the young man turns her head to the youths. 'What gives you the - ' but the young man holds his hand up to silence her. 'It's an interesting question isn't it. Why would you ask me that?' he asks. He has an assured and languid voice, more mature than his appearance suggests.
'Cos you just look it yeah.'
'How can you tell whether someone's gay or not by the way they look?'
'You just can. So are you a queer then or not?'
The woman tuts and turns her head again.
'Why would it matter to you if I was gay?' he says, seemingly amused rather than annoyed by the aggressive questioning.
'If you fancied me it would. You'd be after me. You better not be after me mate.'
'I can assure you I'm not.'
'Do you like girls then? What kind of girls do you fancy?
You like big tits yeah?'
'Personality and style is more important than looks.'
'Yeah, I got a personality. I got bare style, you feel me? I like to smoke and drink.
Oh yeah, and I like to ... fuck.'
He savours the word as if he's trying it out for the first time.
The girls collapse in giggles again.
'I see. But that isn't evidence of a personality, those are just habits. You need to have substance as a person.'
'Yeah well I can do a lot of things. I know a lot of people.'
'I'm sure you do.'
'What's with your shirt anyway?'
'I made it myself. Do you like it?'
'No, it's got holes in it. Did you make that hat as well, that's a shit hat.'
'I found it in a vintage shop.'
'What?'
'Second hand.'
'It's well bent. Don't you have any money for new gear then?'
'I prefer to create my own individual style.
Perhaps that's why my look confuses you.'
Finally, one of the girls peeps up.
'I know! He's an emo. Are you an emo though?'
'No, I -'
'We got some at school but they wear black,
that's why I didn't spot you was one.'
'I'm certainly not an emo.'
'But you are wearing make up,' says the boy. 'That's why you're gay!'
'Oh really!' says the woman, exasperated.
'Is she your mum then?'
'No, we're... friends.'
'Are you a couple?'
'When you get a bit more mature, you'll come to realise that people don't fit into simple categories. It's very restrictive to label people according to their sexuality or the way they dress. Look at you, for example...'
'Me?'
'All of you. Only twenty years ago, a boy wearing pink would be considered gay.'
'It's a polo shirt. And I wasn't even born twenty years ago so I can't be gay.'
'A hundred years ago, a girl wearing trousers would have been considered a transvestite.'
'It's salmon actually.'
'And girls wearing that much make up would have been
looked upon as whores. But times change, you see,
and now you look perfectly normal wearing pink.'
'He's got you there.' 'Got you too, whores!'
Beneath the crumpled paper stars, the æĐéĪ
Froth of winds, an echo, zigzags in rouge
Flames of distant pianos,
Fizzing in the midnight lacuna,
Sangre drips, ignites the coral,
Stagnant dreams and chaotique murmurs.
Luz! A flare—cactus blooms in sepia,
Riding the frayed edges of cosmos,
Dancing through carpintero shadows,
Murmur in silence,
La lluvia henceforth stale,
Spaghetti tendrils, sea of metaphor.
Cloaked in the neon sleep of tiášŋng,
Crickets harvest the storm’s concerto,
An unhinged mariposa flutter,
In the riptide of tiempo—nonexistent,
Adamantine echoes weave through lavender herbs,
Resonating the fragile, the fierce.
Footfalls, under ice, éžäļ°éĢ
Excrescence to laughter, a foreign raindrop,
CafÃĐ con leche heart, irregular beat,
Ephemeral, the lush dervish blooms,
A kaleidoscope unspooling sound,
Languidly tangled in vocabulary's mire.
Somehow we upset a motorcyclist
on a dusty lane
by looking at him funny or
maybe we said something cheeky
I really can't recall
but he turned back upon us and grabbed me in a headlock
what the fuck is happening
I mean we were like 13 and 11 years old
and he's threatening to murder us
for youthful high spirits or whatever
we didn't throw stones
This is what life is like on the grand scale
do you get the picture
could I make it any more clear
Seriously
the guy was a cunt
we were kids just stupid kids
messing about
he didn't need to
do those things to us
Features of the prototype can be
recognised without difficulty and
discussions often lead to the "mark of the beast"
if the beast be correctly
interpreted as referring to a Roman emperor
the technical signification bond, certificate of debt
very common in the Papyri
merely stamped with the name
and date of the emperor
followed up with a real healthy, orthodox catechesis
rooted in divine revelation
in Byzantine legal contexts
equipping people for their mission
Papacy stumbles but does not fall
the seer acted with a free hand
a scratch or etching
a badge of servitude
graven, idolatrous images
the operation of a mint
beasts in prophecy
Paul's handkerchief and
marks on horses
The deplorable word
is a profane grimoire
that focuses
exclusively on the abyss
In the not too distant future
a financial catastrophe thrusts society
In a time between now and tomorrow
all must receive the 'mark' and
I don't know why you're
looking at me just because
Of the mark
stamped
on the forehead
or the right hand
as the badge
of the followers of
the Antichrist
Amidst the chaos, a military spy
is sent to infiltrate a religious cult
Three men with musical instruments,
seated in a shelter, among desolate rocks
by bitter streams
The first boy that I ever loved
had long black hair and big dark eyes
he was sweet and softly spoken
he wasn't like the other boys
The first boy that I ever loved
was seven years old when we first met
we parted when we were ten
and our paths never crossed again
We didn't kiss or hold hands
though I slept over in his room
his mother was Italian
and his father mended shoes
Later on I fell in love
with many girls and no more boys
but the girls I liked best
had long black hair
and the girls I liked best
had big dark eyes
- from the Union Daughter songbook outbreak c.2009
How perversely exciting it used to be, in
the months after you made your decision
to abandon this hopeless situation
meaning [rueful laughter] the UK, not so much
the shattered bones of you and me
I was still hanging on, a faithful puppy
getting up early and heading out to Heathrow
to provide the welcome committee
and then I went straight to work? and where
did you go on those days?
I forget you had other friends, and
that strangely I wasn't the epicentre
of your multiverse
35 years have passed
the children you had with Wolfgang divorced Fuckface
the cycle shorts removal man
may even have children now, but
Facebook won't furnish me with that information
On those airport journeys I always listened to
the Blood on the Tracks cassette
I found in the office 'library', a source of much wonder
which also included rare volumes, magazines
and actual vinyl. They didn't appreciate what they had
and neither, here comes the punch-
line, did I
I was lost after a night out and
couldn't unlock the screen for directions
you walked to the pub you can't be far just
ease yourself over this railing and
slide down the wall so you can take a
short cut through the car park
cursing all the while but
I know the tube station's nearby
and it must still be open
pushing the On button over and over
swiping this way and that
screaming with rage at this useless device
####ing this and ####ing that
now this isn't the way to the station
and I hear her voice coming through:
- is that you, why did you call me?
are you in trouble?
still the screen is black
- yes I'm just a little lost
- you sound very scared, in fact
it doesn't sound like you at all
a bobble hat fellow rumbles along
sharp turns behind me - hello -
but reaches up to the wall
grabs an apple 80 percent intact
and hobbles away again
a few seconds later he's back again
turns behind me, bends low
and picks up the soggy, abandoned
box of donuts
two inside remaining
successful mission
he wobbles away
.png)
I feel like I'm not going to get a fair hearing here so let's
start with my proletarian credentials: yeah boy
I cleaned toilets
<<silence>>
<<meatballs>>
<<<farming equipment>>>
Can hardly remember what else I used to do, so many years on
scrub the freezer full of fish and burgers
clean that outside lav which was only for emergency use
Trim the edges and
make yourself look useful
a valuable life skill
One day Geoff drove us to the Rugby Club
there was a function, a do, I don't know
he played Deep Purple on his car stereo
we unpacked crates and he gave me one ha ha
I mean we shared a beer that's all but it seemed like a
big deal, I felt like a grown-up fuck you
And one day his daughter poked her head out of the upstairs back room
and yelled my name
- Your sister's on the telly! I was like
1. how do you know who I am
2. how do you know my sister, and
3. what show is she on (ans. Multi-Coloured Swap Shop)
Next week the new girl on the burgers was the same Jenny
who I'd been egged on by
Richie Sayers the church goblin
to chat up at the pool table
a year earlier but I was too timid
Skirted around her, made some
amusing slash fatuous comments
tried a trick shot fucked a trick shot and that was that
Richie with his wet cheeks was all like: You're made for each other
but it was the Most Awkward at the youth club
and now all of a sudden she's four inches taller
and giggling with the other front of service kids
one of whom you like but you tell yourself
She's too tall and too toothy, yes too toothy -
which now sounds like - never mind
And in sick mind you still remember
the elusive yellow haired sweetheart
Debbie who came out back now and then
if not this week then not this week but whenever if ever for a smoke
oh my heart I'll still be here
we shared a puff and didn't have much to say
I was in a trance like we could have spent pleasant decades
not saying much to each other
surveying the western scene, I mean
you know I've got nothing much to say at the best of times
Yes, believe it or not
and I really can believe it, I'm a
lousy conversationalist
Yes, believe it or not
I was perfectly content standing close to her
yellow hair and brown legs
just puffing away and humming
Led Zeppling songs in my peabrained noggin
Otherwise I was out back straining to hear the front of shop
chart hits Saturday morning radio playing
Human League Ultravox Adam and the Ants
I had a broom a rake a scrapy device for the frost and
I was free to make up my little rhymes
read my penpal letters packed in a Beano's plastic bag
I had my underground private shit going on
with correspondents far and wide
Marion from Motherwell
Pob from Nottingham
Orla from Sunderland
Georgina from Chelmsford
my regional network of peculiars
I see: Even then you were happier
maintaining relations at a distance
Me: Are you saying I am the village idiot
<<gurning>>
<<pitchforks>>
<<<lambing season>>>
"I didn't really have any idea how big this event was
The Beatles were in the boxing ring
it was so loud you can't believe
girls were shuddering, crying, screaming their heart out
it was phenomenal
Music is one of the most fantastic things
almost like fire and water and air
it's like a thing - and it does so much
it does a thing for the intellect
it does a thing for the emotions
Music can swell the heart till it almost bursts
tears of happiness flow out of your eyes
you can't believe the beauty that comes
and it comes from these notes"
--- David Lynch 1946-2025
One day, and we've all got this coming
the blood oop didn't expect this sudden
drip through the nose caught in the mirror
surprise tentative touch yes this is it
The clutching of the temple
the towels, don't make a mess
the mutterings, don't have time for this
the whispers, please not now but when
is this the right time, and the panic
the panic now worse than the drip
And who can you call, starting to slide
if you could even call, as you slide
Chloe and Naomi were throwing around
some favourite words
aerial eiderdown iodine outfit
aaeeeiiiooouuu move it up
furious apnoea delicious oeuvre
quietly pious serious chapeau
aaeeeiiiooouuu turn it up
aqueous sequoia plateauing pharmacopoeia
they can spend hours like this
you casually offer 'deer' 'goat' 'lion' 'bear'
and are roundly mocked
as a wooing pipsqueak
they have another word for you
but won't tell you what it is
or who the they of the them or what it even is
are you with me? no I don't even work here
Fat druids can't give advice, fat druids can't give advice
Abloo bloo bloo, Abloo bloo bloo
When I watch fat druids trying to swipe some crap
or paladins tanking, or paladins tanking
I'll prolly be farming fat druids' loot
Desu Desu, Desu Desu
Nothing ahead of us but untamed wilds,
and desperate tundra, desperate tundra
Keep your eyes out for triangle pendants, and
big ... red... megalomaniacs
Cattleprod said: What are you talking about?
I replied: This is Mason Nelly and the Fat Druids!!
Their rosettes quickly acidify a textual tooth
especially male humans and blood elves
...PIT!
Fast forward 10 years and me and Staggers are sharing a bed not like that
like Laurel and Hardy, Morecambe and Wise
but without anything remotely funny happening his words not mine
a mistake on the hotel's part it may be fixed tomorrow
just like the Olden Days I offer
finding the mise en scÃĻne funnier than him
As desperate renters back in the day I used to choose the floor
but not any more, not with this back etc
Last week he needed to get his photo taken for the new Bloc-iD card
and shows me the result
Look it's so bright you can see the outline of my contact lenses
they make me look like a right gimp
He's sensitive about this area on account of the lazy eye corrected by surgery
which we have to pronounce sugary, you wouldn't get it, in 1991
So he wants the photo retaken and to hell with the cost for the new Bloc-iD
we were both in a rush after the double decoupling resulting in our recoupling
but not like that and nothing wrong with that
I don't have to explain to you people about
Laurel and Hardy, Morecambe and Wise and
I'm not sure who's the straight man here
I have no vanity about my frankly alarming iD photo
Do you think we might go down to the beach together, he asks
Come on buddy it's 2034, no one cares about this anymore
All right but first could you please help me with something
embarrassing, my contact lenses are stuck
and I can't slide them out with my [ageing shaky] fingers
do you have any tools?
Well I have my tweezers of course but they're very harpy sorry sharp
I forgive my words sometimes
I am among my ages
Sure, give them to me
I'll do this in the bathroom you don't want to watch
and then we'll go the beach and I can get a new photo taken
And we can be the gay old bachelors again
just like in our golden college days, yes?
While I was at work my yards were busy a nameless, white flower plucked from my front garden lay on the brick shelf by the gate wrapped in cream silk its stem inserted into a (dry) plastic flower tube
A gift set down in forgetfulness
or just discarded
While out the back a soft touch indoor football
orange against the fake grass
lost and over wall booted
c.2015
Presently the Patriarch asked again: Why was M.
He drew near awkwardly, put on his glasses, and examined
the list of syrups with great care.
The elder was not in the best of humor when he arrived,
and his state of mind had not improved.
There was a glow upon his cheek-bones, and a faint tinge upon his prominent nose.
Never before in all the long years
it had served him had he seen it in such shape.
The minute passed, and four more joined it.
Go to the head of the class, Josselyn, said the venerable patriarch.
Well, youre whistlin now, birdie;
thats my intention; set em all out.
You never see a frog so modest and straightforward as he was,
for all he was so gifted. The other was
tapping with his pencil upon the little shelf
lying across the rail. Sassprillas good for the blood
this time er year, an strawberrys good any time.
Wherever there is an italic, the hickory descended.
An I dont want noone-hoss bonnet neither.
The next Inmate looked as if he might have been a sailor formerly.
Elder Brown beheld for an instant the familiar scene within.
He then threw open the double gates for us to ride through.
Elder Brown beheld for an instant the familiar scene within.
At sight of the glistening bar
the whole moral structure
of twenty years came tumbling down.
Wheeler could tell me anything about this Rev.
Mebbe youre right, my dear; mebbe I oughtnt.
Like to oblige you, but cant right now;
will fix it for you later on.
Good-mornin, good-mornin, said the elder, piling his
bundles on the counter. Smiley, I would feel
under many obligations to him. The man of business
had already lost interest. Just you tie them
stockins up an lemme have em. Elder Brown held it out,
upside down, at arms-length. I havent looked
at the cattle, he answered, dryly. The beaver was his special
crown of dignity. To lose it was to be
reduced to a level with the common woolhat herd.
The old gentlemen who had been shoved about
enjoyed the pun too much to be angry.
There was a glow upon his cheek-bones,
and a faint tinge upon his prominent nose.
The old man laughed until his cheeks were wet.
And Elder Brown had to resume an upright position
until his paroxysm of laughter had passed.
An I dont want no one-hoss bonnet neither.
He drew near awkwardly, put on his glasses,
and examined the list of syrups with great care.
Now here is one; pink silk,
with delicate pale blue feathers.
c.2015
Fog
Impatient, filthy
Creeping, sleeping////prowling
Ever so misty
++++++++++Dour
Teeth
Frosty, spiny
Frightening, lightening////greasy
Ever so decayed
++++++++++Pines
Gifts
Packaged, uncertainty
Hopeless, fretful////opening
The flavour of giving
++++++++++Celebration
One day at a dress shop,
I met a man selling chips,
For money he wanted to swap,
But I really wanted some fellowships.
thought
all terrific
ever so terrific
extremely terrific
extremely passionate
ardent, intense, mean
ardent, intense, noble
ever so small whilst
pineapple funny!
thought summer
small small!
summer thought
tickle swimming
time blood red
trembling
cheerfully
my people all terrific
cheerfully extremely passionate
cheerfully ardent, intense, cunning
a flamingo apt poke skipping, cowardly
all small artful scent hopping, cowardly
blood red apt poke, mean hat, wondrous can
my mother ingenious nozzle skipping, cowardly
intelligent nose, fine hat, extraordinary trail
intelligent nose, small chapeau, tremendous tail
ingenious poke, small chapeau, extraordinary track
intelligent wind, tight chapeau, extraordinary can
intelligent poke, modest chapeau, extraordinary ass
clever olfactory organ, mean chapeau, tremendous tail
intelligent poke, little chapeau, extraordinary track
ingenious nozzle, modest chapeau, extraordinary chase
clever nose, minute hat, terrific ass beautiful a
apt nose, small hat, intense tail swimming
cagy scent hopping, cowardly was
ardent, light, peculiar
ardent, mean, odd
quite terrific
ever so small
snooze a tail
tried a tail
soft! cause
gonna soft!
tried never
state aight
cause clever
time speaks
like swimming
small all funny
ever so small
a flamingo
swimming
swimming
all small
like hot
nose for
class man
tried see
not key
time can
in not
any
can
big
had
young
a flamingo
all terrific
chocolate
