Smoke and toxic mists,
akin to when the bass descends
too slow for easy listening,
treacle aroma from burnt rubber bands,
green onions supply a smell of jasmine.
The toe pain subsided three hours after
a lengthy tender cushioning in coaltar,
then we caught the end of comic Rochester
find Orson air brushed pretty boy,
hamming tall dark handsome blind oaf
Patches of coherence cloaked in faded motley,
drawled Kansas City Enrico,
shoeless clad in shreds and patches gleaned from hand me downs,
eiderdowns, the recently drowned, and ignoring
frowns declaimed:
‘Cherokee apache crow nez perce… bury my head in them wounded hearts, them sounds of burning tinsel sizzling,
iterneee chattels, long forgotten heirlooms louch on sickly sofas
neckless headless fu manchu’ed…
How the day grew from seed of doubt to a fruitless evening of remembrance,
it will not grow old like the rest of us
Watched the Stasi throw
a number of people
in the sea green trabant van
while we discussed the events of 89
them call our outfit ‘Tinkletoes’ and share
unbounded optimism
for no apparent reason
with suspect passing strangers
Phone kaputt, foot stingling, grey skies. mid November, poppies out
toast and marmite, neuronal go slow, where’s the nurse. changed pants
pulled down the wall, no hard feelings, let bygones be bygones. forgave
and forgot; appeal to greed; feed false appetites; chew over the fat over
the weather to come when the water cascades down the Appenines
hit twelve after struggling hard rawfooted through Bad Toe Gulch,
ruffled jackdaw shares with me acute consternation at the heavy frost
settling on the chocolate slates on the empty house in Lima
brackish water slakes mad thirst, one twenty in the shed, chronic
overcrowding I say when pressed and later consult a random saviour
with magenta eyes
The task before you
is to take the mood of last years
winning of the esteemed competition and tell it from a
fresh perverted angle, let’s say wobbly omniscient for starters…
Three insistent knocks distracted him, the dog went off soon after.
He got up and saw the small white van: the opioids had made it.
Earlier on while watching Idol on Parade, musing on Bowie’s heroes,
and working out when exactly the truck full of dead Chinese bought it,
he had taken an opioid to kill the pain in his oracular toe.
The original is a story of divorce and reconciliation
which when the drugs took hold ended in an aircrash caused by
a wayward roguish drone, collapses in hysterics;
Fate, predestination, and indolence hide in waiting
all contained in a white lozenge that disintegrates in water.
He drew the grid for a Celtic knot haphazardly.
There were no children involved in this thought experiment.
They had perished the night they lost it
racing to not miss the last boat leaving.
What did it matter now?
There is water under the bridge.
Beware! Loose Chippings and
Smash.
That was the best thing she said
IMAGINE a handful of bitesize hunkettes
grinding and eschewing odds and winnow gunk
as wheat gets beat from from dusty chaff;
a’harvesting for instant potassium milords;
ill and non directed groups share
no such similarities;
no such what as absolutes in such
matters
of incidental fiction;
manipulation of a squashy universe of racketeers, bogus schemes and brutal intrigues:
That’s Life—thats Happitalismus; so sundry fictive people say
just look the other way if you know what’s good for you;
plenty more lying around to fill your brambled mind with;
such as…such as…such as…
This
* it is worth noting that the child whose father refused to purchase a bow wow succumbed to her injuries
as a wallflower met a sticky end stood up too close to the warm glow of endless possibility
grip it firmly shake it hard squeeze each last drop out grasshopper
rigid condensed uptight desperate dabblings in matters
outwith all known comprehension clearly aren’t your forte
We threw it all away some say (mirthless prissy lips make snide asides…Buddies burst in occasionally)
Sometimes they come from outer space
grumbling like oriental chainsaws smelling of mellow fellow peril:
silver trembles on emerald leaf splits the sky wide open rents flaked out in gauze tropospheres sedation sifting though space junk
plunder in the sparse first light rooftop silhouette
opposite a chocolate rhombus
—a pollarded alp sprouts crumbly chimney stumps
a decapitated toblerone
topped off by a
crown green nurdle crest
Rest up on a rigid khaki stook
bladderwrack moonbeams toy
wrack stacks wobble stop
precariously perched betop
Its burden cast away
crumbledown mountain
Perambleside peaks
***
Under which the above
little fat boy wants outies
Cader Idris sizzles
protesting the right foot forward
scree flurries lapping
to reek havoc & rage & rumpus
prospect of an avalanche blomange
confined to poxy screenplay drosswork
deemed unfit for family fun
cross legged zapping seagulls with a crossbow
winging be hard blackbirds
Drives off broke folks hopping mad
grinding anthracite briquettes
coal shed solitary refinement converting then to coke hatching
audacious escape plans prompts a sudden urge to defecate
running out of temperance due silence compromised by windsock
Paradiddle drip on porchway overflowing gutters flow
an ardent dew fell overnight: Harley Hill rests in peace
The square left fallow to Emerge
*
Cedric found the Marquess of Coole spreadeagled on the Ottoman with the ‘Half Life
Of Snails’ in her bloodless grip & posted the footage on Snuffchat so Henry knew
Edward G was still at large capable of unspeakable atrocity. After all the drawing room
was full up with blistered aubergines, midget broccoli festooned the architraves, and
a hairless Headcase whimpered soulfully wrapped only in a samphire ballgown.
At heart Henry had twigged the man was just a pushy upstart from Central casting;
the one they always let through, the dead loss leader, the hollow idol to kill off with
strychnine on a wet afternoon but the uranium ran out at the wrong time
Think of the afterthrill of eating chocolate in the dark and feeling a little moist afterwards.
It was all pff course and a huge charade. The long positions would still hold firm on cupidity and smarm, he thought of Peregrine out at sea huntin marlin for that snitch Veronica. Nailed up and bleeding effluent from every orifice he was lost, hooked, lined and blinkered by her gums. Henry understood too well how lesser narwhals would fold under such pressure and morph into slum beauticians sweeping up in delapidated nail bars. But this was not Cedric’s script. He always sought delineation. For him things were simply matters to order and control. With that in mind Henry set off for the bakery.
Cool shrooms and anchovy bisque, homespun alphabetti spaghetti:sounds illegible; fungal magic soused in honey.Cheryl really had pushed the boat out this time. Always too keen to please. After all
she was born nutritionist: worst acne I ever saw. She wore a homespun hood with slits to breathe and see. Takes all sorts suppose. They call her Elephant Woman. But never to her face you understand.
Well I mean how can you? Inappropriate
Some farewell letter you’d agree. Henry was agog. Edward G had legged it for good. All hell breaks loose in the utility room. The kittens go bananas at the sight of giant mouse. Henry takes a powder. A smell of camphor burning. Whose stockinged feet are poking out this time? Colonel fucking Sanders?
Smell him all over.
check to see what that note
is in that cyan bottle
really do I need that wash
that banking thing perplexes me
that extinction rebellion take lambeth bridge
police stage that media retreat
world in that commmotion
workers of the world that relax
the milkman that made it through
