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Ritual
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
...Saturday 30th May 2020 2:34 pm
Away The Lad
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...
Friday 29th May 2020 2:13 pm
Kneel
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...
Thursday 28th May 2020 2:35 pm
Death (XIII)
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
...Wednesday 27th May 2020 11:29 am
Tunguska Dawn
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...
Tuesday 26th May 2020 2:26 pm
Label On The Bottle
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...
Monday 25th May 2020 7:00 pm
Elegy For Days Lost
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...
Sunday 24th May 2020 1:34 pm
Fog
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...
Saturday 23rd May 2020 12:57 pm
Those Low Down Bottle Blues
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...
Friday 22nd May 2020 3:09 pm
This Machine Kills Fascists
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...
Wednesday 20th May 2020 11:33 am
fly
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
...
Tuesday 19th May 2020 4:07 pm
Zoomnation
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...
Monday 18th May 2020 4:18 pm
Ye Tale Of Brave Sir Moppalot
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...
Sunday 17th May 2020 12:26 pm
Cuttings
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
...Saturday 16th May 2020 2:09 pm
For Whom The Hammer Tolls
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...
Thursday 14th May 2020 2:11 pm
Unclean
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...
Wednesday 13th May 2020 12:09 pm
Wastelands
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 ...
Tuesday 12th May 2020 12:57 pm
Casting Runes
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...
Monday 11th May 2020 3:04 pm
A Second Changes Everything
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
...
Sunday 10th May 2020 4:14 pm
Tank Man
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...
Saturday 9th May 2020 3:38 pm
Magyk
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...
Friday 8th May 2020 2:40 pm
A Life
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...
Thursday 7th May 2020 2:33 pm
Some Words
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...
Wednesday 6th May 2020 12:04 pm
Third Beach
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...
Tuesday 5th May 2020 2:25 pm
Black Metal Band Looking For A Name
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...
Sunday 3rd May 2020 12:23 pm
Experts
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...
Saturday 2nd May 2020 2:11 pm
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