The deep, odd, shock of it hit me in the sun
On the shed path, marooned on a concrete crack
Freed up took in the scene, shocked, turned;
Trundled, older, balder, back up the ramp
Freewheeled, calmer, silent, down the ramp
Came to rest beside the stable table,
Tossed my hair (singular) in the blue breeze
And wiped the puss from Barney’s weeping souls.
The moo-cows are gone home to roast
No more mutinous idiots barge in
Decide to play this game of life to win
Find a strange land,
concrete, not a fancy,
Not a nation,
Nor a state or both,
where confusion breeds
dissemblance and misery.
A realm glimpsed,
enjoyed only without torment,
or opposing the beast.
Secure and safe, warm and dry,
without fear or favour.
Impossible! That can never be.
Whorled walnut tree
Makes the sticks
The brickburner supplies the bricks.
Al Boley
fills gas
lamp mantle
a tin, eerie
bacolite mantle,
Woodbine romance
Shall we dance?
Syncopated Agatha;
Anglepoise, equipose,
Lachrymose quaques.
Crackle and ivory,
drum brush, Dapper Dan,
tuxedo, savoy, suave, class, pure class, lush…
rubber corsets on flaccid flappers,
inner tube condoms,
PJ Perelman, art deco, echo chamber
commemorations, abdications, league of nations,
pylon poets, silver screens, Teruel,
Abyssinia, King Zog, King Kong,
concierge, demi-urge, debutantes, ants-in-pants…
Popular Fronts, Fascist Cunts, Micky Mouse,
The uniformed doorman at the Picture House
Primo Carnero, Bonnie, Clyde, Lassie
Armstrong Siddeley, broken chassis
Spikes, louses, blouses, dames in trousers
Pathe Newsreels, nudists, sandalled Buddhists,
Caddying for Tony Locke, spats, Schneider Trophy
No nightingales in Berkeley Square, just martingales,
Big black beauty log, kind capsule,
lazy loving lozenge (cut in two),
small brown curly-headed baby,
fallow swallows and amazons.
once I found my love in a field of sunflowers.
Truly.
Silit Bang,
Easy-Off Bam,
Easy-off bang,
More Bing for you Bukkake.
General Flood:
You view sky releases
frog, pike, monkfish.
Recorded for Posterity
Short-term memory
surplus to need
He piped the music slow, careful.
Buzzing,
buzz, buzz, buzz
Not on my nose!
Don’t land…
Too late.
Freeze, Mr. Piper, or the nose gets it.
Sweatbeads: adrenalin: tremble.
Try a blow? Little up draught.
Macroscopia.
Make small big.
Blow responsibly.
Music is oozing from the nozzle,
mauve music magma.
Blow now!
Blew
Sting, recoil,
drop music funnel
notes splatter cake.
Eyes flood
Half blind.
Grab, miss, panic
cake on floor…
…nose throbs, cross eyes
purple lump.
Buzz gone, job done,
fact of life