Ritual

It is a grey morning

I am awake early

The backdoor is open

And cool air enters the kitchen

My father is on his knees

Scrubbing a wire brush

On the fire grate

Newspapers on the floor

He takes a rag

And pours black lead

Onto the stiffened fibres

Then he smears it

Onto the scrubbed surfaces

He balls up the newspaper

And throws it on the hearth

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Away The Lad

When you haven’t got a friend

Or a carer you can reach

Then plan a family trip

To the better equipped North East

County Durham’s nice this time of year

Or so I hear them say

And simply by happenstance

It’s only my wife’s birthday

You see me and the Missus

developed a little cough

so we panicked and headed North

and all the newspaper can Fu...

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Kneel

I saw a young man kneel today

He hung his head as if to pray

But he would take a life away

To honour and protect they say

Another black man has to die

Before the country questions why

They let enforcers kill and lie

and let another mother cry

Fear and hate mix with malice

A city faces the abyss

A cocktail of vinegar and piss

On the streets o...

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Death (XIII)

My entrance on a pale horse

Raising the black standard with white rose

Is anathema to most

These bones are survivors

Of the battle between

The worlds of living and dead

This black armour

From the land of eternal sleep

Is unsurmountable

Before me

The clergy, kings and peasants

Fall beneath my hooves

When she flips me over

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Tunguska Dawn

The day the false storm came

My brother Chekaren and I

Were asleep beside a campfire

The smell of burning wood drifted

Across our sleeping forms

When suddenly a thunderclap

Awoke us from deep sleep

And we saw the second sun

Blazing white heat tore our shirts

And made our skin hot to the touch

And all around we heard the sound

Of the secon...

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Label On The Bottle

The label on the bottle told me it was strong

But I drank it all night anyway

And didn’t think that I’d done wrong

It made me very happy in a lightheaded sort of way

It was deep amber in colour

And I would regret it all next day

It burned the back of my throat as a sipped the evil brew

It smelt of cinnamon and spice

And bit by bit my co...

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Elegy For Days Lost

Another day has come and passed

Left pain and sadness in its wake

The seconds, minutes, hours amassed

The sun will give the moon will take

The distant friends the loved ones lost

Amid the times of dread disease

Each family will count the cost

And curse the name of days like these

And yet the sky was clearest blue

I wrote a poem, sang a so...

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Fog

I have never felt so alone

As the time spent in November fogs

When I was not yet in my teens

Wrapped in heavy clothes

With hat down low

And scarf around my face

Cut off from the world

By this dense yellowing cloud

Unable to see more than a few feet

In front of you

And the hollow muffled sound

Of someone heading towards you

All other backgro...

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Those Low Down Bottle Blues

The day the clock struck thirteen

We took it as a sign

That the world might be in peril

So we all broke out the wine

But it probably was nothing

Just a poor miscounted chime

An end to our sobriety

And not the end of time

The night the stars rearranged themselves

In a moonlit sky

We all dived for the whisky bottle

And some of...

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This Machine Kills Fascists

He was the dust bowl troubadour

A Socialist down to the core

Resist the rich protect the poor

This machine Kills Fascists

Dylan, Ochs and Johnny Cash

Seeger, Strummer, Billy Bragg

All of them would raise his flag

This Machine Kills Fascists

He plied his trade on Texas streets

Busking to earn some money to eat

Harmonica blu...

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fly

a haphazard weaving

of unclear intention

the drone of annoyance

the beating of

full spectrum wings

the tap

                tap

                                tap

                                                tap

of attempt after attempt

to get through the glass

of the window

and reach the free domain

of the out there

the buzz

       ...

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Zoomnation

He stayed in beautiful isolation

For so long

He became a memory

A shadow on the wall

A stain on the carpet

When they sipped red wine

They remembered him

In the taste upon their lips

In the pause

Between the small talk

The chair remained empty

The corner a little darker

The mirror over the bar

Cast no reflection

Of him

A...

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Ye Tale Of Brave Sir Moppalot

I wasn’t quite there yet

So this story is told second hand

Of the bravest and noblest knight

To ever gallop over this land

He was sitting quietly at home

When a neighbour just down the street

Knocked on the castle door

To advise him to get on his feet

A princess in need of his help

Had called out his name in the night

Be...

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Cuttings

They took a sprig from Hatfeild Hall

And planted it in Wakefield Gaol

A Mulberry bush grew on the spot

Its humble origins forgot

And there prisoners exercised at night

Beneath the pale Yorkshire moonlight

Round and round the tree they went

Those sinners who could not repent

Before that Mulberry tree had died

They took some cuttings to the outside

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For Whom The Hammer Tolls

Dreaming of a hammer

A slow arc of deadly intent

A shaper of metal

The clang of contact

On a wrought iron anvil

That resonates threat

The white-hot sparks

From the red-hot ingot

As it succumbs

Weighing its power

In the palm of your hand

With a smack of skin

Its dull grey mass

Balanced perfectly

On a sha...

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Unclean

So only the dirty, the unclean, ungodly

Will be refused favour come judgement day

They will sit in their hovels of dust a distress

And live out their lives in their dishevelled way

They will scrape in the filth for a reason to live

They will hurt, they will need, they will cry, they will pay

For their corrupt and defiled code of getting on by

Where they sin and...

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Wastelands

Canal side moorings and old mills

Stretch their northern roots into the collapsed rubble

Of Industrialised wreckage

Overgrown with harsh grass and weeds

An old man sits at the side of the grey water

And dips a hopeful line into its murky depths

There are parts of old bikes and shopping trolleys

Poking from the surface like Leviathan bones

Paths ...

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Casting Runes

What price the steaming goat entrails

Coiling on a dusty Roman street?

The clouded mysticism of a crystal ball

Peered into for some future comfort?

The divination of ancient Gods

To tell us where our slouching bodies go?

The smoke and mirrors of

fortune teller, crystal-gazer, spaewife, seer,

soothsayer, sibyl, clairvoyant, prophet,

oracle, augu...

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A Second Changes Everything

A bullet leaves the barrel of a gun

A man thinks ‘what have I done?’

The sky is cornflower blue, without a cloud

The President waves at people in the crowd

A woman turns slightly to look at him

The sun glints off the Lincoln’s trim

A watcher points a cine-camera at the parade

A secret service agent dreams of getting laid

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Tank Man

Here is a tank

Rumbling across a vast expanse

A square

Here is a man

White shirt

Black trousers

A shopping bag in each hand

He steps before the tank

Raises his hand

Palm out

Stop!

And the tank stops

Manoeuvres

The man alters his position

Manoeuvres

The man climbs onto the tank

Talks to those in the tank

He...

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Magyk

I had a book all full of spells

Where childhood magic

Weaved its way

Between the yellowed pages

Where dragon’s breath

Set woodland glades alight

And lost children danced

With the frightened and the fey

The teeth of angry wolves

Chewed at the edges

Whilst chattering little demons

Clawed along your spine

Strange apples fell from wizene...

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A Life

From the day you are born

On the first day you cry

To the safe place you sleep

In the cot where you lie

On that first day at school

Where you struggle and try

From the first girl you kiss

To the way you feel shy

From your very first job

To the company tie

On the day that we met

To that very first sigh

On that day that you left

To the first ques...

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Some Words

I had been her son all my life

                But not all of hers

When she started calling me

                By her brother’s name

                Not my dad’s

                Her bother’s

Dead for these past 10 years

A stroke will do that to you

                Make you forget what you were saying

                Struggling to find the rig...

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Third Beach

This is the sunny place my spirits rest

Sat on a wooden bench watching the sea

The shimmer from the bright pacific west

The only place on earth I long to be.

The walkers and the cyclists passing by

Upon the wide and welcoming sea wall

The seagulls and crows desperately try

To out call the other in pine trees tall.

I watch the tankers in the distance drif...

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Black Metal Band Looking For A Name

Cannibal Sewer Rats

The Sweat Of Judas

Black Candle Prayer

Vikings Of Stavanger

We need a name boys

We need a name

Black Metal Band

Looking for fame

Sons Of The Necropolis

Sonic Angel Spit

Kitten Paws (No! Kevin No!)

Demon Suicide

We need a name boys

We need a name

Black Metal Band

Looking for f...

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Experts

Just inject it

Or swallow it if you like

I think that will be OK

Maybe shine a light

Or if you can

Get the light inside you

That will work, right?

Or pray

Praying’s good

Pray big

That should work

I’m an expert

I’m a big expert

There’s no bigger expert

Than me

He said it
I don’t believe it

He actually said it

What’s all this a...

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To the bog again,

with the ghosts of forefathers looking on,

surveying the task before them.

Along the turf face, the marks of the sleán,

slim, practised cuts,

a tribute to skills passed down the generations

who have worked this land

beyond memory.

Still-damp turves to turn,

dry stacks to gather in.

Fuel to stave off the cruel winter about to come.

Fuel to feed the...

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Snakes don't kiss.

I know this because I used to be one,

in a former life,

long time ago,

biblically speaking.

Snakes don’t kiss cos their hiss gets in the way,

and that long long tongue you see with the V?

Gets all tangled when two snakes frenchie.

No, snakes don't kiss.

But never take a bet on it,

especially with a snake.

'Cause apart from not kissing, ...

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A pizza base to die for,

I eat the edges first,

With toppings I can savour

Until my tummy bursts.

Its taste cannot be faulted,

With mushrooms, not a few;

There’s capers, small and salted,

And ham and olives too.

It’s heaped with mozzarella,

And a spiced tomato paste;

A taste of vita bella,

So let nothing go to waste.

I’m going there for dinner,

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We went to the seaside to sit in the sun

Sending home postcards suitably dutiful

And on them we wrote with a sense of good fun

Weather is here, we wish you were beautiful

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Alas poor Bill stopped writing long ago,

By now his ancient bones have turned to dust.

He’s famous for his plays as we all know;

Back then they did but purchase him a crust.

We still enjoy performances today;

The tragedies and comedies so famed,

Of kings and princes, and the Scottish play

That superstitious actors rarely named.

The words of this Elizabethan bard

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Fifty seven accusations.

Fifty seven lies. 

Fifty seven secret pleasures.

Fifty seven stolen lives.

Fifty seven invitations.

Fifty seven spiders waiting.

Fifty seven true intentions.

Fifty seven parlours entered.

Fifty seven aggravations.

Fifty seven silent gains.

Fifty seven violations.

Fifty seven acts of shame.

Fifty seven allegations.

...

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The elections are here, for whom should I vote?

They’re drilled by their parties, repeating by rote;

Most don’t even live here, they’d have to commute,

To visit the voters in their snazzy suits.

We tell them what’s wrong, and they listen and smile,

And say they will fix it, but might take a while.

No matter which party you speak to today,

They promise and trot out the sam...

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Mo Salah this season

Beyond hope or reason

Is scoring for fun

And still isn’t done

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Yesterday was summer but it’s now gone back to spring,

With just a hint of winter as it has a final fling;

The weather’s topsy-turvy, no one knows what’s coming next,

All the TV weathermen are baffled and perplexed.

They show us all their graphics, with those charming little signs,

And wave their arms and smile at us while trotting out their lines.

They talk about the weathe...

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Some days it seems like the bus is out of control,

and you’re not sure if you’re actually on the bus,

or if you have just been left standing at the stop

as the bus sails past.

Then you start to think it even might be the wrong bus,

but it’s about to pull away from the stop,

so you leap on anyway.

You ask people where this bus is going to,

and nobody seems to know;

or at ...

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There is a moment when you know,

Transcending hope and pure desire;

You feel the kindling of the fire,

So certain now how it will go.

No more ambiguous disguise,

But confidence and surety;

You see what her response will be,

It’s clearly shining from her eyes.

That instant fixed in memory,

The exultation thus enshrined,

Forever burned into your mind,

That ...

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He’s slipped from the ‘A’ list right down to the ‘D’,

His career has slid into decline.

He once almost daily was seen on TV,

Now only in re-runs on-line.

His name is no longer the top of the bill,

More often it’s not there at all.

They say they will call him, but they never will,

Such is the extent of his fall.

His fortune has slowly been frittered away,

Like h...

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Now winter’s loosed its icy grip,

It’s time to think of how you dress;

I’m not suggesting you should strip,

Just give some thought to wearing … less.

Discard concealing fleecy coats,

And lose the scarves and woollen mitts.

Bring out the shorts, a dress that floats,

Surprise us with your tailored … fits.

Embrace the sight of cloudless skies

In clothes to set our...

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Footsteps echoing

on wet pavement.

Dull yellow light

filtering through misty rain,

casting shadows

on decayinging bricks

of the sleeping street.

A sudden movement

races the pulse.

Pausing to look,

relieved at her own reflection

in the curtained window

but the pavement still echoes….

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Leaving.

Ripping me apart.

A sense of disbelief,

beyond the ragged edge of reason

into oblivion,

where I must consign you

as if you never were.

For how could I bear

knowing you were there

and now are not.

You are a non-person,

a ghost,

a shade of a dream

to be quickly forgotten

if I am to survive.

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He was so lascivious

But she was oblivious

He tried to be devious

She thought him just piteous

He said she was beauteous

But she became dubious

Said he was hideous

That he made her bilious

She heard he had previous

His nature perfidious

So she became furious

Blew her top like Vesuvius

Then he was discourteous

Became acrimonious

But she was i...

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You know someone who knows a man

He thinks could help you out;

He’ll come around, he’s got a van,

If you give him a shout.

They say he’s in the building trade,

And very versatile;

Your plumbing fixed or paving laid,

All with a cheeky smile.

He’s got a mate who’ll lend a hand

With all the heavy stuff;

You’ll get good prices on demand,

And they’ll be near e...

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He looks around the office with his nose up in the air,

A condescending smile upon his face,

Convinced in his opinion that he is the smartest there,

And that all the rest are just a waste of space.

His desk is very tidy with his pens all neatly spaced,

With papers geometrically aligned;

When talking on the phone he’s always formal and straight-laced,

So his dignity is nev...

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There’s a man down our street, I think he’s called Clive,

With a forty year old motor car;

He takes it each Sunday to go for a drive,

But he never risks going too far.

He sits up with pride in his cabriolet,

With the roof down to relish the breeze,

Till he reaches the park a mere half mile away,

Where he parks well away from the trees.

This trivial journey that he...

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Dashing through the rain

Splashing in a puddle

Laughing like a drain

Squeezing in a cuddle

Dripping from the trees

Washing out the winter

Swaying in the breeze

Rushing like a sprinter

Singing on the wing

Warming but it’s wetter

Breaking into spring

Nothing could be better

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(to the tune of 'The Holly and the Ivy')

There's cameras in the holly

way above the line of sight,

and a neon sign on the roundabout

"One punch can kill tonight".

Well thank you for the warning

and increased security,

I'll be double-sure not to shoplift

now you're looking out for me.

It's nice to be surrounded

by markers of your greed,

and a lack of ...

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You can’t beat a good conversation

Over a friendly beer,

In comfortable surroundings.

Every Friday night we get together,

Me and the lads.

So the Brexit question comes up;

Who was right,

Who was wrong?

What should we do?

But it gets too hard,

So we move on.

Then someone mentions the Health Service;

Why is it struggling ?

Is it underfunded?

Or mis...

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The flowers in her garden are wilted and wan

And their petals are starting to spill

Her face that once shone is now wrinkled and drawn

But the light in her eyes lingers still

The bouquet she sees in the vault of her mind

Is the one that she had when they wed

But still it is deep in her mem’ry enshrined

Along with the words that he said

He’d told her that she had p...

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My hair is clean and brushed and smart.

Hers is drenched and dirty.

I am wearing cosy clothes.

She is bare and purple.

I'm inhaling bluebell air.

She is breathing fire.

I am watching pixellated subjects of denial.

I am strong and tall, unbowed.

She is weak and wailing.

I am fifty years of age.

She is but a baby.

I have biscuits on my lips.

She has frot...

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