Monday, 1 March 2021

Bank to Mandalay Omnibus




 states worse than Myanmar


what's the frigging point

eh you’re gonna croak one fine

day the sun will out


skylarks do their last

song for you the war is oh

stick your dexters up


Stalin’s personal

Waterloo is all that’s left

mate so say your peace


shuffle off in style

or get down & pray makes no

difference privileged


infamous a plain

nobody your corpse bereft

lies in state or skip


nothing will exist

just a name on googleplex

thin as woven air


in & out of time

stirring up a hurricane

then a lovely calm


tell you what comes next

since the afterlife has popped

toss a loaded dice


mend your selfish ways

let the people vote for once

and accept their choice


join The President

play some golf he must be great

company these days


*


the discovery of swimming


hold this proof to be impertinent

if Pythagoras invented hand

flippers frankly Benjamin was well

out of his depth


tide had turned with King Canute’s decree

ringing in our ears humankind spilled

overboard a thousand galleons

sunk without trace


swell so fat the cargoes lost their feet

murky whirlpools sharks all kindsa toe

hungry fish & storm about to break

how did it go


touching bottom rock & sand no grass

grew tectonic plates kept continents

on the move survivors had to shoal

tiddlers hold fast


dolphins seals it’s down to us now surf’s

breaking close to shore hey mind that reef

nose their bodies out & count those still

able to breathe


*


no sympathy please


shall we call it quits

now the past & I go back

sixty years & more


face the awful facts

Judgement Day was holding back

to upset my end


notwithstanding nights

woken by embarrassing

memories we share


me myself & I

call us what you will we’ve played

many roles till now


clown & clot you’ve got

darker things put by to rot

down the rabbit hole


in a former life

I was Adolf’s teenage bum

chum & confidante


I unplugged the dyke

flooding Haalem’s market square

on a dare & joke


it was me who spoke

out against democracy

whispered coup d’état


then I murdered truth

raised the shirts of innocent

homosexuals


were my crimes avenged

did they string me up & watch

while I paid the price


no so get them out

let the consequences spice

up these shameful lines


no one will believe

I did all that stuff their sleeves

billowing with laughs


so there’s nowt to lose

nothing on the table but

cards I show my heart


hardly more than speech

acts a madman’s careless talk

victims only ghosts


let me off with stern

warnings plus a three-book deal

empathy at last

Not Sir Bloomin' Likely!


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