*
in this age of ADHD
we demand that seeds fast forward
and that trees grow instantly.
in our twenty first century society
so short of patience
that the question of whether
the egg or the chicken came first
is no longer of relevance
& in our state of urgency for the secret spice recipe
they hatch straight into deep fryers.

**
art stands no chance at all.

as Scorsese rightfully sai...

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born to Cybele on a golden cloud
he appeared in a flash of lightning
carrying Prometheus on his back. 
his footsteps left luminous tracks
a blazing trail of prints 
& ground breaking indents
cementing his path through the sands of time.

when the bearded man spoke or wrote 
his words formed waves
blown by the west wind
& the sleeping dead woke
drinking his poems as an antidote
from a ...

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I
Bethlehem

star rising to biblical acclaim
fit to shine on wisest of kings
and the king of kings.

Polaris

brightest beacon in the black
  of northern night
compass before maps were drawn
Columbus saw the importance.

Crux

Constellation in a jewel box
and shape of Christ's last remembrance
two by two
hoorah hoorah
the four criss-cross. 

Helios
As a lark the lonely sun d...

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lying face down

while sailing on green clouds

of absinthe

paddling my spoon

on blurry murky pools

tides bite back

frosty ice cool.

juggling streets

while skipping stones

bounce with heat in my chest,

beep beep 

my vest drips

puddles of sweat.

cat eyes

paint the sky

on this ceiling

inside,

angry smoke

burns my black lung chimney

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  i
From the streets of Dublin
the hordes re-Joyce
as Odysseus waxes lyrical
with colloquial finesse
    his golden tongue spitting fire
steamrolling the jargon wagon 
on stairway rails from tube to paper.

Live stream of consciousness
flows from depths below
bellowing out of shadows
an intoxicating wave
breaking the surf on black peaks
of spiked stone keys typed in gonzo.

  ii
A...

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fallen crumbs line up along the path
stretching through the valley
and sinking into dark.
followed my nose before
stumbling into a numb humdrum
and dropped out of the park.

empty bottles down the lane
forming bowling pins
the night never ends.

filled ashtrays coat the floor
freezing ticking needles
the night never ends.

cut me with the sword of your words
then walk away while ...

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INTRO

Rags to empty floating Tesco bags

with a vernissage for hobos at large

    in this modern gallery

by Balkan Banksy. 

  Slovakia to SoHo

      criminal with a canister

the cloaked van Gogh

    Picasso-meets-gangster. 

1st SCENE

under-bridge walls covered in paintings

stenciled & sprayed

turning the homeless pass into paradise lost.

fine ar...

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tyrannical bulimic panic button pushed

foot soldiers fall face first

into trench shaped pits.

torches and gaslights light up the line

shivering the bent, hunched spine

of a serene scoliosis queen.

the skyline sinks beneath cracked lips

cap in hand, hat over face

shading a nameless space cadet in the rat race.

      chit chat

        tit for tat

     ...

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silicon valley sinks deeper

into a bunker of self-appointed authority

untouchable

invincible

short circuiting the microphone

and unplugging the speakers

to play the pied pipers song.

oppression

repression

suppression

turn the other cheek

to the peering eyes of digital police

and dig the grave

for freedom of speech.

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  /\

my triumph rises out of the ocean

on the tip of my melting iceberg

peaking through Prussian blue crashing waves

  and alabaster spume.

buoyed along the coast of the arctic

all joy drifts out to sea, freezing.

\    / 

  \/

my trauma drags me below

drowning under the ash-grey sky

thunderstorms wake me at night

lightning flashes replaying t...

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f        a          m        n        s
    r          g        e          t
invite staring eyes to unwind
wat? lies behind scattered snippets
dis / jointed static shΔpes
of a misaligned         
                      tetris prize. 

              brainwaves quake
          sh↖fting tectonic plates
      the left hemisphere s↖des
  over centre p⚫int
filling the sphere half-full-half-em...

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This burnout comedown downhill fall
of language's bell curve
into bottomless monochromatic sunsets
    of hollow dialogue
descends deeper into broken telephone
mistranslated tarnished transcriptions
plummeting peoplekind towards the
cave-based basic base-place
of grunts, groans and monotone single syllable slurs.

Blackboard scratching white bread phrases
and pleasantries so devoid of e...

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Rome fell in a day

Gauls on druid brewed steroid juice

struck with superhuman strength

  resisting haircuts

and emperor oppression

they pushed the Colosseum pillars apart

crushing the Romans forces

while lions escaped their cages

and chased Delilah to France.

under an umbrella of superstition

and niggling barbarian intervention

darkness covered the rubble

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I stand at the bus stop
in the pouring rain
with no direction home
lost and all alone
as my life hangs out of balance
at a sullen sunken milestone
river stone low.
in the midst of a century defining
globe gripping pandemic;
I've caught the contagious
wave of anger and fear
spreading through the uncertain
lands of our decaying earth.

With no sight of parks
fields, trees or subtle sh...

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Library Brooks

Soaking in stoic meditation during bathtime
has been lost in the sandstorm of our time.
  That cyclone of progress
swept sensational fiction onto the pages of history
leaving an aftermath of stock market anchormen
preaching sensationalism
round the clock
            in their broken woke wake.

This dark age of anxiety
fills pharmacies pushing daisy shaped pills
while p...

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that poetry

    evoking acerbic memories
of sweating in a desk at school
reading ye olde english poems
in a classroom under roman rule

allusions across the palette
and writing essays on single stanzas

deep
deeper
snooze fest

nodding off to Elizabethan sonnets
& kipping through Victorian elegies
with Eminem blaring through earphones
rapping hip modern lingo.

Leonardo played ...

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Stop
freeze
smile for the camera,
no need to feel bothered or smothered
by the eyes of the street.
Thumbs-up
say cheese,
big brother closed-circuit television
voyeur injection needle
plugged into a forearm vein of peeping junkie
uncle Tom -
with his line to the pig pen on speed dial,
cables running straight to the animal farm barn
where the sweaty blue men
wait for a thumbs-down marc...

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for Lee Miller 

// LIBERATED FROM CAMPS //

born on foreign shore
falling beyond the crest of the equatorial horizon
to family washed up in a shipwrecked fleet
while fleeing the camps and tattoo stamps of war.

displaced and placed on a privileged pedestal
i pick and pluck the petals inside my mind
while the compass needle spins in distress
searching for direction and equilibrium.

...

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Old Kent Road paved our golden daze

We drove along deserted
pothole ridden streets
listening to Japanese jazz
mixed with lo-fi techno beats
on a mission to find a dingy bar
serving cheap whisky
with a dance floor for our fidgety feet
  or a crowded beer house
decorated with TV screens to steady our eyes
& glue our backsides into seats.

Backstreet meetings with sleepless
slinger del...

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