Category: sketches

this is not the season to talk of sowing seeds – cold earth & the frustrated gravediggers – nothing can grow now

good intentions count for nothing

she wrote all the questions down that gnawed away

“Oh Captain”…she often murmured – the cold fear of mutineers – go look out the window,

move the curtain and have a look

the mountains are getting smaller and that tree is dead the clouds no longer resemble anything you’ve said

night is coming to cloak us and it sets as we walk away

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people are losing track of time

literally it’s falling down the back of the cosmic sofa along with breadcrumbs

hair clips and coins

a burnt out remote control

a family heirloom

a pen lid

all that shit that ends up in the bottom of the vacuum cleaner

the calendar is just a series of numbers and pictures

melding into others like

paint on a palette the

chalk on the floor

lockdown hop scotch boxes & the snake like lines leading to the bottom of ladders

but the pylons will still stand

like the iron man

transmitting pictures of your favourite seven albums no one wants to see

can I get a hallelujah?

can I get a hand clap?

this fat fingered cherub

a ghoulish gargoyle

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basketball shoes

Your sense of smell went west

Stuffed crust pizza stained

your vest

More paracetamol (just in case)

that telephone doesn’t stop ringing

23 and

I counting

all the passenger on the side of a dead three lane motorway

carved through a landscapes of buried children dead trees trodden down amongst swine bone

we sit and wait for the blowback

cut price geometry

in the garden where we’ll plant the flowers

stuck in the mud with the burning man

the old buildings have all decided to collapse today

on a train with a basketball team

all long legs and size 12 feet

To

I write bad poetry to a man in Florida

who nurses the sick and thinks about

recidivists siblings and military memories

we’ve seen ghostly figures of Mike Jagger

scuttle across the page

caressing space age cutlery

made in a factory of assembly lines that never stop moving where the tannoys play white noise

and at the edge of town there is a pile of dead TV’s all empty and hollow

they told me the fillings in my teeth were satellites and I was being tracked by men in bunkers somewhere underground

I’ve always like word silo and have dreams

of fake names in hotel registers

the bruised knee of that honeymoon couple the burnt tourist asleep On the beach

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at a time, we’ll just agree it’s now, when the weather can’t make up its mindand the animals outside just know somethings coming,
a static in the air,


a taste, metallic?

when the grey ground gives way to the brown crunch of dry leaves


I hear they talk about conspiracies

Nazi gold stored inside a Swiss mountain,

moon landings filmed in a downtown warehouse,


aliens living amongst us, and when waking up becomes a reenactment of the previous day and the day before that


I knew we’d never run out of things to talk aboutshe kept a diary of political slogans and propaganda posters


“ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS”


she mumbled in her sleep

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He painted a whole town in black and white

the row of shops

the post office

the launderette

the butcher and his bloodied butchers block

I spend days waiting on that email

I checked my spam daily messages about people in my area looking for sex

money scams

girth enlargement pills

out of the fire

head first

into the frying pan

in days before computers

they spammed walls with petroglyphs

which no one could decipher

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many names

many names like the father

son

Holy Ghost

different faces for different occasions 

– passwords for everything stored in a secret file protected by more passwords, buried in a vault under a mountain in Switzerland

 elaborate and easy to forget – 

the fingerprints were fake – 

my shadow is longer than you’d think – 

I’ve  seen your passport picture – 

all beard and no eyes – 

pictorial bible  for the remedial kids at the back of the class – big letters and colourful pictures 

– we forget who all this is written for

– the unknown readership in the backwoods and boondocks – 

leather shoes, 

new and creaking like trees bending in the wind, 

bury me with the cutlery

and heirlooms

bad oxygen

your neighbours dogs barks a secret language while advertisers tell you their shampoo will give you stronger hair

and you imagine everything you see is an hallucination induced by breathing in bad oxygen

your lack of contact had me worried

I searched obituaries

looked in the lost and found

Rambling

he tried round up the escapees

chased them through fields and cities, across rivers and barren lands

how much space between the seconds?

heavy breathing

fear of capture drives some one

-reluctant nostalgia at a time never forgotten

– no chance to cash in

so you throw the coins away

– trinkets with germs

large letters that will fizzle and fade – like short lived fireworks – radiant for a second

– sorry

I was distracted by something over there

where she passed 

did Noah thank you for rounding up the animals?

ctual events are never 100% accurate distorted

through a prism 

the vomit lake thrown up by 8000 mongrels

she had a friend who wished life was an Iron Maiden cover

machines hammered out plates nail marks secret signs

at the foundry

in the factory

Marx and Engels playing parlour games

the forerunner of leviathan 

thrown down and exploited

too many ways to mention

furious rage was common place & funnelled into violence 

he watched from a distance while it fell into turmoil

the monk, thelonious

the heirloom and souvenirs were stored and bought out on special occasions to keep the memories alive –

(a song once told me that souvenirs only remind you of buying them)

I saw smoke emitting from the old homes beyond the forested hills –

a thousand diaries were aflame –

faceless people tried to rescue secrets from the inferno 

secrets turned to ashes and were blown by the western breeze

she told me not to look

she told me we existed in a series of vignettes 

we were not what we thought we were

or what we wanted to be

dogs are not Gods – unless your dyslexic – and they shiver when they shit

chosen to guard the gates of hell – promoted to guard the library steps

covered in turpentine

hidden under sheets from prying eyes 

the fines will mount up –

the deficit acknowledged

my wife doesnt know if she loves me or is suffering from Stockholm syndrome – we will call a professional and let them decide

Encyclopaedic knowledge of nothing

100% dedication

to the wrong thing

he’s a good looking man but he has legs like twigs

she is an attractive lady with hair like a thorn bush

bleeding fingers run through the foliage

these days, people don’t light cigarettes they turn them on

all things are electric 

I run 50km a week but I always end up back in the same place, shorter of breath, weaker of knee

just think about it all

dedicate an hour a day to it

luddites world view – man should not fly we are not birds we have feet not wings – planes are the work of the devil – heathen transport and old world views – they write this on computers there is confusion over facts

THERE IS NO CONFUSION WITH POETRY

black box recordings

faint noises and whispers in foreign – theories of alien abduction suicide pacts mass hallucinations none of this is real

inmates dream of planes

the pleasure of pushing your finger through a hole in cloth to feel what’s on the other side – blindfolded circus games

Piñata filled with fortune cookie predictions which will never come true – piñata smashed with a cricket stump

you live in a town that has different meanings – the spies are still out there –

furtive glances

the smell of new shoes

as a child you used to lick the side of coins, the copper coil, the tongue running along the edge, the taste…

it tasted like blood, coins carry germs, jangling in pockets near the sac. The smell of a coin, the metal token

paper money is becoming obsolete everything is just zeroes and ones

15 minutes of jazz 

A lifetime of pleasure

people fall from the sky every day but it happens so often we don’t notice. Until someone points it out…

They buried her face down and she dug her way to China where she had a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Communist party. She is remembered on stamps and has national holiday name after her. 

…but not everything works out THAT well.

she gave me stolen scents,

shared with me sordid secrets cut from tabloids – black and white pictures under headlines – a famous death, an incident that we will only truly grasp and understand in 20 years time when we no longer remember or care. 

Things thaw.

Unhappy clowns paint on new faces. J

own cars fall part after driving them for two metres.

Clown cars fall part after driving them for two metres.

No one wants to insure clown cars. It’s a loss leader.

The graffiti is illegible, scribbled lines, spiderweb mess. The lines make it look like the wall has veins. (It doesn’t. I’ve checked for a pulse). 

their generational motto will be WE DIDNT KNOW WHAT WE WERE DOING!

feeble excuses will not be tolerated write that a hundred times

dead cells

Inca kisses then they ripped out his heart and raised it to the sun

the crumble of bivouac leaves ruffled by a sidewinder snake handling priest drinks for the captain please

drown the stowaway

the census is wrong how did these numbers add up? the accountants crunched the numbers all night

to the right

of the decimal point

your view across this landscapes street lights outside empty car parks in the dead of night

the warm hum of printers on standby

dust settled on plastic plants in the grey sterile office hell of league tables

motivational words and health and safety notices

underwritten by names that have no faces that have never been seen to walk these corridors

the whip hands controls the stockroom

the whip hand owns the data

on read only spreadsheets of dead cells

girth pills written on the wall of caves

He painted a whole town in black and white

the row of shops

the post office

the launderette

the butcher and his bloodied butchers block

I spend days waiting on that email

I checked my spam daily messages about people in my area looking for sex

money scams

girth enlargement pills

out of the fire

head first

into the frying pan

in days before computers

they spammed walls with petroglyphs

which no one could decipher

bad gateway

Your’ll be eating mountains soon

like Cinderella in her new sparkling shoes

we moved to close to the moon

we touched the bottom of the ocean

it was once all connected

this land mass

with that

your connection is weak

I can see your face

I can see you lips move

but I can’t hear you

your backgrounds have changed

again

re-boot get off the

bad gateway

think your on mute

think everything

right now

should be paused

put on hold

while we wait for the sun to set

for this passage of time

to blow over

mosquito

grey coat

rotten fruit

and a costly mistake

you in that dress

we’ve all been long X’ed

remember when it all tasted like

bubblegum and nicotine?

Stitched together.

work in progress

city of moving parts

pirouetting cranes

skylines of keys

Elvis died on his throne

click bait fisherman

my stomach is rubbling

an empty echo like dolphin sonar I have lost a package in transit I am working outside my comfort zone this meeting is on going

I can feel my beard grow millimetre by millimetre I’m growing old right now an Easter island head peering into a digital void inert but be still my beating heart

be still my baby bird

laid low by foul disease

a nation of pox

a nation of forgotten passwords

in a Möbius loop

hidden in witnesses protection my name was changed I was lost in New York

mowing my lawn every Sunday

until it it became a religion

I don’t know my neighbours real names but I suspect some are biblical

I was home alone with the ghosts of dead Prime Ministers the king of dust shuffling Tarot

the Tower card turned

the ancients thought the lightening was God’s wrath they looked at angry skies as they watched the stars form around Polaris

and maybe I’ve been wrong all my life about our position I all of this

cranes

city of moving parts

pirouetting cranes

skylines of keys

Elvis died on his throne

click bait fisherman

my stomach is rubbling

an empty echo like dolphin sonar I have lost a package in transit I am working outside my comfort zone this meeting is on going

I can feel my beard grow millimetre by millimetre I’m growing old right now an Easter island head peering into a digital void inert but be still my beating heart

be still my baby bird

laid low by foul disease

a nation of pox

a nation of forgotten passwords

in a Möbius loop

hidden in witnesses protection my name was changed I was lost in New York

mowing my lawn every Sunday

until it it became a religion

I don’t know my neighbours real names but I suspect some are biblical

I was home alone with the ghosts of dead Prime Ministers the king of dust shuffling Tarot

the Tower card turned

the ancients thought the lightening was God’s wrath they looked at angry skies as they watched the stars form around Polaris

and maybe I’ve been wrong all my life about our position in all of this

after two days in the trench I put my head over the parapet and they clean shot the cigarette straight from my lips           

                mud and grime 

                drying to cement 

 in my head  

          I returned home at night my wife said I’d changed 

I was beginning to fade 

to a grey facsimile of the person she fell in love with

— drained and washed of colour 

a slow death in front of spreadsheets 
I still hadn’t written that novel 

or made it to the edge of the continent      

     and in this new landscape

 it was so easy to get lost like the blind tourist who touches his way around the world 

    finds his way back home by following the smell of cinnamon 

    the roar of traffic won’t put him off

    the Doppler wail of the red fire engine moves around him 

easy

like flowing water 
       milky ovaries and we smoked autumn leaves in those days that failed to appear on a calendar and the lunch time barber found a secret door in the back of my head
unlocked and looking in he advised me of what he saw

500 families and forgotten memories and posters of David Bowie 

I paid and left and made an appointment to return in a month 

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amalgamation of comments

hetried round up the escapees

chased them through fields and cities, across rivers and barren lands

how much space between the seconds?

heavy breathing

fear of capture drives some one

-reluctant nostalgia at a time never forgotten

– no chance to cash in

so you throw the coins away

– trinkets with germs

large letters that will fizzle and fade – like short lived fireworks – radiant for a second

– sorry

I was distracted by something over there

where she passed 

did Noah thank you for rounding up the animals?

ctual events are never 100% accurate distorted

through a prism 

the vomit lake thrown up by 8000 mongrels

she had a friend who wished life was an Iron Maiden cover

machines hammered out plates nail marks secret signs

at the foundry

in the factory

Marx and Engels playing parlour games

the forerunner of leviathan 

thrown down and exploited

too many ways to mention

furious rage was common place & funnelled into violence 

he watched from a distance while it fell into turmoil

Marx and Engels French kissing in the stairwell

the monk, thelonious

the heirloom and souvenirs were stored and bought out on special occasions to keep the memories alive –

(a song once told me that souvenirs only remind you of buying them)

I saw smoke emitting from the old homes beyond the forested hills –

a thousand diaries were aflame –

faceless people tried to rescue secrets from the inferno 

secrets turned to ashes and were blown by the western breeze

she told me not to look

she told me we existed in a series of vignettes 

we were not what we thought we were

or what we wanted to be

dogs are not Gods – unless your dyslexic – and they shiver when they shit – shiver so hard it looks like there’s two of them –

chosen to guard the gates of hell – promoted to guard the library steps

covered in turpentine

hidden under sheets from prying eyes 

the fines will mount up –

the deficit acknowledged

my wife doesnt know if she loves me or is suffering from Stockholm syndrome – we will call a professional and let them decide

Encyclopaedic knowledge of nothing

100% dedication

to the wrong thing 

he’s a good looking man but he has legs like twigs

she is an attractive lady with hair like a thorn bush

bleeding fingers run through the foliage 

these days, people don’t light cigarettes they turn them on

all things are electric 

I run 50km a week but I always end up back in the same place, shorter of breath, weaker of knee

just think about it all

dedicate an hour a day to it

uddites world view – man should not fly we are not birds we have feet not wings – planes are the work of the devil – heathen transport and old world views – they write this on computers their is confusion over facts THERE IS NO CONFUSION WITH POETRY

black box recordings

faint noises and whispers in foreign – theories of alien abduction suicide pacts mass hallucinations none of this is real

inmates dream of planes

the pleasure of pushing your finger through a hole in cloth to feel what’s on the other side – blindfolded circus games

Piñata filled with fortune cookie predictions which will never come true – piñata smashed with a cricket stump

you live in a town that has different meanings – the spies are still out there –

furtive glances

the smell of new shoes

as a child you used to lick the side of coins, the copper coil, the tongue running along the edge, the taste…

it tasted like blood, coins carry germs, jangling in pockets near the sac. The smell of a coin, the metal token

paper money is becoming obsolete everything is just zeroes and ones

15 minutes of jazz 

A lifetime of pleasure

people fall from the sky every day but it happens so often we don’t notice. Until someone points it out…

They buried her face down and she dug her way to China where she had a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Communist party. She is remembered on stamps and has national holiday name after her. 

…but not everything works out THAT well.

she gave me stolen scents,

shared with me sordid secrets cut from tabloids – black and white pictures under headlines – a famous death, an incident that we will only truly grasp and understand in 20 years time when we no longer remember or care. 

Things thaw.

Unhappy clowns paint on new faces. Joan’s advisors always offer the same advice GET A NEW FACE. Clown cars fall part after driving them for two metres.

No one wants to insure clown cars. It’s a loss leader.

The graffiti is illegible, scribbled lines, spiderweb mess. The lines make it look like the wall has veins. (It doesn’t. I’ve checked for a pulse). 

their generational motto will be WE DIDNT KNOW WHAT WE WERE DOING! 

feeble excuses will not be tolerated write that a hundred times