the Tatlock manifesto

car boot find

 

genuine organic nonsense up for grabs

unintelligible art non fungible

tokenised & wrapped in promissories still

wet from the horse trough

 

just a sec Lord Whatsyerface me bunioned feet

scarcely brushed the ground you say this job lot’s worth

twice its weight in cosmic waste no shit it’s more

valuable unboxed

 

tip the lot across the yard we’ll get some mad

keen apprentices on sorting isotopes

from the spent Picassos Warhol prints & owl

Salvador Dalis

 

crypto clues aside how much d’you reckon John

give or take a half-life pack the grafting in

buy ourselves a floating home or camper van

move to the Far East

 

oi you’ve stabbed me right between the shoulder blades

what the Dickens for you dirty rat I’ll tell

Mother think you’re clever well I never dis-

honour among thieves

 

 

strip chess

 

red night

takes

white porn

 

rook pops

up

that’s check

 

your top

please

my turn

 

mate in

eight

moves what

 

no thong

sex

or quits

 

 

the Tatlock manifesto

 

tapioca pud

jam like Kelly’s Eye

not a hand grenade

dropped in yr gruel

 

bloody good you can’t

beat a bit of white

poison just desserts

pardon my frog

 

semolina you’re

waltzing up our street

coronation style

rhubarb & egg

 

custard talking stewed

prunes the stones foretold

who’d be rich from those

coveting loaves

 

beggars never said

they were professised

now I’ll fetch me owl

lollypop stick

 

 

keep this to yourself

 

there's no

telling you

can’t say

 

stick two

blighters down

one hole

 

ten days

pass the time

intact

 

oh folks

do exchange

stuff but

 

neither

pole would make

contact

 

 

husbandry for all

 

some Egyptians worshipped sacred bulls

mummified their cats had bird & dog

headed gods the thieving beetles what’s

that all about

ancient Greeks gave women snakes for hair

Disney raised a mouse to sorcerer’s

app & Goofy what became of him

janitor bore

houyhnhnms & yahoos I dig

held many a convo with my Ben

Jobs he ran away neglected no

not out of food

chickens are another matter love

counts for nowt without their daily grain

eggs will not emerge a fair exchange

always been veg

though I ate my share of Sunday lambs

as a child the gramps a slaughterman

what I’m tryna say is animals

ain’t got no beef

 

 

cheese island

 

cite specific laws

striking robot attitudes

ditch the dreamboat clause

every think is wrong

lyrics root replacement moods

do another song

fix that broken muse

switch to B sharp major chords

see what nothing proves

play the pink notes force

folks to listen there’s the gong

submarine’s on course

land crabs sing along

seascape paintings spot the nudes

losers don’t belong

 

 

skin on drums

 

poets in their sheds

two sheds down the banks

holidaying all

summer the swine

 

wallowing in pure

inspiration full

board & extras kit

washed for a song

 

time of reckoning

pays your money takes

what you fancy eh

grabbed by the tail

 

chances are you’d flog

Auntie Jean as white

traffic just the one

thing to get on

 

play the cherub you

smile & quote a line

Whitman wrote some time

during the war

 

 

sick note

 

caught me out

kafam gone

uptake slow

 

here’s a card

sent in by

God Themselves

 

says I’m owed

fifty leaves

man of means

 

see Me now

bring your watch

chain is all

 

signed in real

bloody ink

msg ends

 

 

Wagner on ice

 

do the Russians dunk

men in yolk before

they’re deployed

or preferring hard

boiled devour them like

salted nuts

downing vodka shots

either way what counts

not the rate

but the cost per day

bed & breakfast lunch

evening meal

ammo clothing boots

casket flag & ten

gun salute

 

 

Peer Gynt & I

 

Armageddon’s neither close at hand

nor afoot it’s as they say the game

never up until Brunhilda’s voice

shatters the ice

while the transit of the Valkeries

cross the Baltic zooming Hitler’s gang

down to the hall of the Mountain King

start of Act Three’s

nowhere near the ending anyroad

fantasies are just like proper life

persons who only exist in time

archetypes free

spirits live forever or at least

resurrection automatically

brings them back as soon as they have gone

off for a Burt

on the other hand who knows with death

fairly common best watch out be true

to oneself neglect heroic try

staying alive

 

 

Orpheus in Squidland

 

how can China change

sides like Eric Blair

claimed to use his real

moniker eh

 

or will Orwell do

trust an Eton man

walking holidays

dressed as a tramp

 

was Tiresias

half as mad to learn

how the others felt

but the Chinese

 

they’re inscrutable

Marco Polo came

home & flogged some tales

porcelain too

 

doesn’t mean a thing

Georgie boy was fly

hedged his bets no way

China is fey

wilderness song

 

given you my word

choice is take or leave it yours

silence the absurd

 

I’ll accept a sneeze

cough or whispers overheard

shooting like the breeze

 

but you have a spare

organ play a tune for me

flash your derrière

 

well the answer’s mean

come again there’s nothing there

calling that obscene

 

echoes cut the air

through the empty atmosphere

predators draw near

not seen on radio