Starbuck martyrs

to go not latte

Starbuck martyrs

take the Moby Dick

out of Pergolesi &

what the hell you got

***

spoiler Hamlet's dead

by the end while Romeo

goes & tops himself

Juliet is left

facing the house bereft of

life without her best

boy there is no choice

stage directions call for that

final mad dispatch

***

so episode one

stars attract a teenage moth

who begins to act

up though he is cute

talent stands him out he flies

through the local boards

past the hopeful hordes

clamouring on TV shows

to the silver screen

fame was made for him

Oscar just another role

he so young & all

activist as well

awesome of conviction he

pledges interest

airing precious time

mans selected barricades

such a throbbing heart

then about ten years

into living at the top

he is asked to play

Romeo on stage

all the buffs go wild to see

Homey in the flesh

filling theatres

selling out the floating world

with his struts & frets

but one fateful night

kneeling there in leotards

downs the poison draft

Juliet awakes

underneath the hero’s fat

bitter almond lips

does her best to act

natural till the curtain falls

when all hell breaks loose

***

people on the in

side begin to doubt at once

not the way to go

not the boy they know

but the word is just embrace

incredulity

pundits writhe a field

day is had by online shrinks

YouTube comments crash

speculation soars

conspiracy theorists

see careers mapped

while the grieving few

relatives & friends stay numb

for at least a week

***

next to do the deed

staging public suicide

comes a bodyguard

few would know her name

family & childhood friends

comrades on the job

not the Property

though countless times she’s given

presidential nods

for a moment’s fame

who could slit their throat like that

broadcast live on prime

hostage take on self

slaughter black & white in full

colour sickening

gets ten zillion views

closeups every angle caught

nothing left to thought

just her reason why

do that awful thing on live

oughta be a crime

***

Sherlock Holmes forget

amateur professional

rivalry just ask

was she gay as if

lovers’ tiffs could stoop to such

summits of the heart

what we need's an app

something that'll number crunch

random into hunch

two times best of five

seven then thirteen all die

counting in-betweens

Fibonacci

spotified from seventeen

to infinity

***

next to air their death

comes an athlete on the up

black & male perhaps

bi the virus goes

Sportsman of the Year a show

watched on sofa beds

cyanide no yawns

this time shockingly employed

zooming in on yeuch

let’s appoint a sleuth

someone who can represent

never mind the truth

call them Agent X

given office rides a horse

has a sidekick worse

based in London but

talks American a girl

in a suitcase case

***

X is pinning dots

on a map the size of France

pan to sidekick’s face

by-the-bye a hunk

name of Kuryakin why

Uncle Robert knows

finds a clue in Dan

Brown’s umpteenth upcoming book

see page seventeen

here the tropes go hay

wire-on-sea each episode

mired in foreign code

bring the writers in

knock their heads together stir

matters up you pervs

number four’s for keeps

else this series be your last

pull the plug you dig

cut to throat there’s X

making an arrest but no

dies the freakin death

cast is now a jest

suicide is back on prime

who will wear the vest

wot not caffeine