The Game

As I swam, I felt the
Current and
Tide push me back as I swept myself
Through black water and oiled rats
Burrowing deep and resurfacing again.
As I reached the edge of the ship,
Whose bow had rusted,
Whose boards were marrow-less bone,
I climbed up and into it and dropped the
Girl
on the
Deck.

Once her wounds had healed, we started fighting again.

Victorious, I threw her into the sea.

And then I jumped back in again after her.
It was
Dark,
But the moon had illuminated the sparkling green lichen
Atop the waves.
I held her close to me,
As she spluttered and coughed and I thought to myself

'Oh god, please don't die.'

I placed her prostrate atop the deck again.
Once she had regained her strength, we fought once more.
But I had to prove to myself that I was good.

I stabbed her below the sternum.
I still remember that small gasp of air she made.

Victorious, I threw her into the sea.

As I looked out towards land,
I saw that the ship was no longer moving.
We would never make it to shore,
Never ever.
It would be an eternal night.
Upon the deck.
And there upon it,
Moss had started growing.

I looked to the sea and knew that I needed her.
I dived in again and saved her, brought her back and lay her on the moss.
I resumed my fighting position down the deck
And I heard her coughing and spluttering.
I didn't know if she was going to get up.
But I prayed that she would.

For Mother #2

Oh Mother,
You're a bag of tricks going for fifty-sixth time lucky,
She says we're going east again cos we got no more west left at all.
Let's get suited and booted then,
How many guns can you fit in that handbag?
We're gonna rob that place on the corner,
Between Junction 13 and Q's tattoos,
Big scores these days,
Mother,
And for that,
I'm a trade my heart.

For Joni

My dad always used to say,
'If you can't beat em, join em.'

Ain't that right, Joni Mitchell?

Cos they've paved over most of the trees now,
They’ve put up another parking lot,
But it didn't bother me,
No sir, not a bit.

Cos I'ma forage in bins,
I'ma graze out of supermarket aisles,
I'ma take a car by the horns, tame that and ride it about.
Sod the open fields for sustenance,
I got mushrooms growing in my bathroom.
Just like the indigenous peoples of wherever,
I listen out for the faint sound
Of the SatNav to navigate this difficult
Smooth terrain.
Took us 200,000 years to re-assemble carbon atoms
Into a microwave oven.
Took me thirty seconds henceforth to get my popcorn dammit.

Made

I got uncles who never came into my room at night,
With six gold teeth for a smile,
I got a limited edition electric filofax
And a wine-optic on the fridge,
I got a gun for shooting cans,
I got a packet of tobacco making a racket in my pocket
Wondering whether it'll last me these three days,
I got sums and percentages
I got a phone that does all that, too
I got a pint of beer and rough guts,
Man, I got a boneless belt,
(If you don't know what that is, lookit up),
I got a wearable dog house
And an anti-bandit bag that shoots taxes
I got the mattress that relaxes
I got a constant reminder of who attacks us
I got Job
I got Principle
I got National Insurance Number
I got it made, man.

Man,
I got fourteen different ice cream choices
I got a peace pipe
And a terracotta roof,
I got no recollection of the names of the girls that I met at bars,
I got forty five classic cars,
I took their jobs, man,
I got a nuclear sandwich toaster
I got a solid-gold pair of laces
I got a garden golf-set
And more epithets,
A miserable coward in the boot of my car,
A teevee headed manservant
A contracted slave in nylon
Who's been getting to know my bedroom ceiling.
A gun that's for the birds outside,
And more,
An electricity and steam powered monkey torturer,
I got Needs
I got Urges
I got Prison Tattoos on my face,
Man,
I got it made.

Desire for Mia

I desired air and I breathed.

But then,
I desired water and only when I could, I drank.
I desired food and only when I could, I ate.

Desire is all I hate.

But then I desired you and I did,
I scattered my head about the place,
Reeling synonyms and particles of guesswork,
Desiring manufacture of consent.

And when I desired you, you saw that I did,
And when you came, it was like a call
From a far off mountain, we both together,
And looked good in the abyss.

Desire has gone amiss.

What happened to my sweet compulsion?
What is this end-result?
Why the finish-line?

And slowly slowly, breath intertwined,
I saw again
The learning curve,
My thoughts relieved.

That I had once desired air
I did,
And I breathed.

SaveAs

Sitting in the train that whizzes past redbrick estates and,
What peculiar creatures dwell here?
In rows
And boxes
Made of artificial stone?

But you are not outside.
You are inside, too.
Inside the train.

What peculiar creatures
Sit inside long speeding mechanical snakes?

Nue Blog address!

If anyone's ended up here, it's probably from here all the same.

But still

Go here all the same.