Monday, 1 August 2022

no hols barred


an Aegean ringed in flames


no hols barred

 

all you folks who think you know

me & hate my evil ways

do your worst to bring me down

these are the days

 

let’s do battle round the square

open warfare draw no draws

here’s your chance for once & all

these are the days

 

ammunition stocks are high

all my troops are fully trained

plus this piece of paper says

these are the days

 

launch when ready use surprise

any dirty move you like

this time no calling foul I cry

these are the days

 

meanwhile now the summer’s here

have I slogged all bloody year

to avoid Marine Parade

these are the days

 

 

 

empire games


battle zone

shivers bones

like

ancient stones


gods don’t die

hold the sky

bound

homeys fly

 

underground

upside down

keep

marching sound

 

try to creep

in or sleep

out

on the heath


steering off

had enough

speak

tough get stuffed


 

 

extinguish the blue touchpaper & retire

 

an Aegean ringed in flames

schools of whales & porpoises

turning tail translate here goes

calling us names

 

who would set this fuse but men

careless know-alls on the take

never-never merchants poised

stealing at this

 

opportunity to blow

downwrite lines of doggerel

raised in guilty voices when

everything shows

 

just how high the odds are staked

one of them to all of us

every breath they take a bite

snatched from the truth

 

still the seas will rise again

wash away these lies till then

on your bikes & take the heat

with when you’re done

 

 

 

Letsbe Avenue

 

teenage sox appeal

soap for boys & girls

Jimmy Saville types

Maxwell House

 

make yourself at home

innocence reframed

modern cons retrained

fool a queen

 

talking Lady Jane

Grey the fallgirl be

on the bus by first

light no sweat

 

cooking filthy socks

pocket money fixed

fantasies in tact

high men lords

 

princes finance king

pins the bloody lot

where’s the harm it’s just

social-lite

 

 

 

Britannia rules

 

when in Little Venice don’t

play the gondolier barge

poles at twenty paces knives

out on the weir

 

life may be an opera

comic tragic take your pick

long as no one dies before

that lady sings

 

Ruritanians beware

England's music calls for chairs

comfy inquisitions like

Spaniards expect

 

but the overture pipes on

some appear to sit & read

others chewing legs of safe

seats in the red

 

while the musical drags on

with its tortuous refrain

grinding monkeys understand

plain as the rain

 

 

 

hands on gov

 

tolerant

asses would

sit this one

out

live & let

be they'd shout

mooching's not

on

but with gay

room for doubt

pinch yourself

school

have a drink

Dude relax

trouble is

when

number ten

rears its glass

prejudice

rules

 

 

 

hold your fire

 

so the sold-out pantomime is wound

up its stars gone off to other roles

some to act in tragedies or sit

coms on TV

 

wotcha think I'll be a trouser snake

half of Cumberland The Severed Hand

Jimmy Saville in a foreign land

even myself

 

don’t I got it in me Jesus' blood

never failed & all that copy-book

puppetry's me sock in trade you can’t

shuffle your spots

 

got no turn of heel who says I need

help I'm only half the man I should

be my better stuff is yet to come

yep could be right

 

open to new partnerships I am

always was a player on the team

give & take philosophy's me game

stick to the plan

 

 

 

forgiven nearly all

 

at the siege of Downing Street

for the Guttersberg address

rank reporters flashing phones

officers' mess

 

Hovis Bunsen took the stand

sweating like Henry the horse

winning their attention but

quite at a loss

 

struck by the occasion not

moved to swear a churlish curse

through the thunder storm he was

counting his purse

 

when they reads me book he thought

they’ll remember I St George

pulled more dragons by the hair

mastered the forge

 

plus I'll live to fight again

England's first postmodern lord

since the Union's doomed why not

give them my word

 

 

 

cloak of truth

 

are you deaf

can’t it wait

must I speak

out

 

don’t you know

what went down

plain as day

stank

 

who'd believe

half of it

truth be told

no

 

on my life

swear to god

honesty

lies

 

far beyond

proof of fake

broken news

lines

 

 

 

who the Dickens is Kelvin Bilal Fawaz

 

kidnapped just like Mo

Farrah but would smoke

dope & steal from shops

Oliver Twist

 

trafficked from abroad

did unspeakable

things at nine years old

Oliver Twist

 

barely rescued was 

put in care then farmed

out & taught to read

Oliver Twist

 

keeping true to poor

character he boxed

under pseudonyms

Oliver Twist

 

never had a pass

port to call his own

in his way the real

Oliver Twist



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right on yer Nellie!


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