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manifesto

dripping lead pipes          lead to razor                       blade epiphanies            

and the time     machine is broken           and this fucking headache           behind my eyes will not

shift

and i have control of                      the stock market              but not my hair colour

and my lava lamp             tells no one who i am                     and my poetry bo...

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mechanics

We are only alive for a cosmic second

 and each gluon and quark and photon

 and electron individually is like a nebulae

 if you look at it hard enough and each

 millimetre of our bodies contains

1000000000000000000

atoms and quantum theory tells us that

 the universe is made up of the reaction

 that takes place when a blanket of things

 that are everywhere and nowhere at...

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this is the end

everything here is slate grey and forgotten

its raining ash

 

there is a statue of a man with long hair and lightning

it’s raining ash

 

i kick through people’s lives like autumn leaves

it’s raining ash

 

in secret windows candles burn black crow cries

it’s raining ash

 

there is fire in the sky and ice in your lies

it’s raining ash

 

the screaming stop...

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tiffany

the longest journey

                                i ever took

 

a cinema in barnsley

you 15

me 16

 

an hour of tentative finger steps

 

each knuckle flexed a thousand miles

each pad exhausted

your soft breath

urging me onwards

 

like a faithful trainer

in hyde park

at 5am

 

until i had swum the channel

ran the mile

(as will smith saved ...

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junk 2

Attention Beneficiary, 

my p*ssy is wet

 I am the only daughter of Hon Dr. Kipkalya Kones 

are u available?

 I am the only daughter of Hon Dr. Kipkalya Kones 

i'm looking for a quickie tonight...

   I'm not sure
i'm 29/f with a very tight pu$$y and a$$

   I'm not sure

Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars

Let me check

 

Wait, it's safe!

Almig...

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volume

Heard you at the door

Waiting for a war

Why lie

Let you take the tour

Laying on the floor

Why try

Heard it all before

Wounds still rubbing raw

Why cry

Curse the fatal floor

Call the fucking law

Too shy

Burn that fucking whore

It’s her fault were poor

Why fly

Kicked along the floor

Now she screams no more

Why die.

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one sugar

Your colostrum tears melted through the yews

(on the sirens breath evening breeze)

 

I picked my way through the orchard (sliding on the rotting downfall)

You were kneeling where the cats were buried, by the verdi-gris whisper of a pond

 

It shocked me to see my mother clawing at the mound, tears softening the dirt where

(Ralph – 14 y/o – natural causes) lay crumbled and forgo...

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shit robin

The shit robin sees the worst of you

The seasonal drowning of long suppressed sorrows

The pound shop perfumes and wrapping paper plasters

The curled plastic needles of the good old Christmas tree

Unboxed and toxic, stood in the corner, emaciated

 

The shit robin sees the worst of you

The festive fights and discount blusher plastered on cheeks

(so as the bairns don’t get sca...

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festive cheer

the anxious poet opens his rejections

Unfortunately, we will not be able to publish your work. You are an awful person and frankly, your poetry is shit. Thank you for your submission.

 

These were close but, in the end you are an arsehole so I decided not to take any this time.  Good luck with placing your work you sad little fuck.

 

At this time, we will not be able to publish your work. I encourage you to submit for a fu...

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mrs dalloways 15 minute haikus

“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun / Nor the furious winter’s rages.”

 

Clarissa:

 

How strange it all seems

While my storm rages onward

So another quells

 

Peter:

 

Oh to swim again

Alone among the Soft Rush

Longing to surface

 

Septimus:

 

A life now taken

Sweet relief floods the senses

The sheep and the shears

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a life sentence

one day i am sure

that i will read a line

in a book or from a

poem that will explain

beyond doubt what we

are and why we exist.

 

i think realistically

we are all just waiting to

find that line and when we

find it we will finally

close our eyes and sleep

sweet dreams for ever.

 

and even though

 no one has ever written

 that line the thought

 that...

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The Flower Ladies of Tallinn

The sun rises over Raekoja Plats

Flooding the ancient square with pastel beams

As from all corners come a-shuffling

The flower ladies of Tallinn

 

Tourists glide past with steaming elk pies

And carved wooden trinkets

As the ladies who welcomed Hitler

(for he was a step up from Stalin)

Set up their creaking tables

 

The ladies lay out flowers and ornate berries

P...

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trunk

This morning went i woke

There was an elephant at the breakfast table

 

He wore guilt red lipstick smeared across his lips

His mascara ran charcoal tears down his coriaceous cheeks

His jaw painted with blue and yellow rage

He stank of semen and severance

Of one against none and all against everyone

 

He dressed like a little fucking girl

A disgrace to his family

 

...

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the single best

day of my life was when

i read a book about quantum

theory and it said that everything

that can happen will happen and that

there are infinite universes with infinite me’s

and infinite you’s and infinite colours and infinite

feelings and to me that was the greatest thing that ever

happened because if there is just one single universe in which

we are happy...

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take to the track

t-shirt

trainers

treadmill

train

to

triumph

train

to

take

to

the

top

train

tough

talk

tough

training

tires

trainers

trainers

threadbare

try

trendy

trainers

trendy

trainers

tremendous

the

track

tests

training

torque

tested

traction

tested

thrust

tested

trying

to

take

the

three

...

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julia

all the baking hot pennies you pressed to your legs

 

the raw puckered flesh

(and royal reflection)

 

a punishment for things you never did

 

can be counted and changed

 

spent on a rocket ship

to fly around the sun

 

because on Tuesday night

you hit him back

 

now the storm has passed

and the world looks like your daughters green eyes

 

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inter vivos

Carrions of clan and kin spin above

Slit wrists slick with gore not yet clotted

Throat torn open exposing crimson jewellery

A gathering the likes of which she never witnessed

Hallways full of dust and death swept clean by fair weather

Steaming piles of local news and pills not taken smother the carpets

Suicide luncheon served in her abandoned house while uncles light cigarettes

...

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causa mortis

I found by my bed

A dried out husk

Brittle and boneless

 

So I gave it my eyes

Slid out the milky corneas

So that it might see

 

Cut out my tongue

Thick and coiling like a serpent

To give it my words

 

I sliced through my ears

Like sweet Vincent

So that it might hear

My daughter’s true love

 

Shaved my head army clean

So one day it may feel

...

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60/16

Hello.

It is me.

I am writing to tell you

What not to do.

What not to think.

What to discard as anger.

What opportunities to take.

Which to avoid.

How to treat your wife.

And daughter.

How to mellow.

Relax.

Keep healthy.

Clean.

Well fed.

But not too well fed.

Not to drink.

Smoke.

Take drugs.

To appreciate what you have.

Let that be your d...

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cat

You had turned up with a fresh bruise

A navy blue palimpsest on a glass jaw

Seaside tears trailed down from eyes

Half closed through fear and swelling

 

You had brought the Webley .22 rifle

Given to you by your maths teacher

And a pack of bullets stolen from him

Alongside a hip flask of Bristol Cream

 

As usual we barely spoke of dullness

Of substances and fracture...

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gecko

I had never been to a birthday party before

and really i had never seen how other people lived

so when we pulled up to this enormous house

and dara ran outside i just laughed and then

his mum took my coat and his dad gave me pop

then we played games and sang songs and later

on he showed me his present and it was a gecko

which is a type of lizard but i didn’t think anyone

wo...

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drain

My breath paints opaque on the drab, teary window

As I watch the umber monster lunk and lumber down the lane

 

All flash bang glamour and neon safety signs

Leaving behind macerated kerbs of sod and shimmering puddles

 

Scuttling behind are three ludicrous, papaya tinged workers

Swearing and sighing and singing rude songs

 

One guides a hose from the beast to the gaping, ...

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untitled

                    I shout

                           I scream

                 But still

                        The bombs

                 Fall

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Fight or Flight (my second ever rhyming poem)

I’m hyper-aroused in Aldi

There’s a mammoth down the meat aisle

 

I’m frozen, fawning, fleeing through fear

As a sabre-tooth tiger lopes past the beer

 

I’m sweating and smothered by a lack of my box

A spear flies past me and lands in the socks

 

My adrenal medulla is full of dismay

As a brontosaurus destroys the Christmas display

 

There’s a cascade of catechol...

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serenity

Halfway                up a pale cliff face in Dover

Caught                  on a skeletal wisp of scurvy grass a

Silver                plate necklace spelling out M U M glows

Luminous            in the leering moonlight a

Shadow             remains of this beautiful life

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amy

The world

 

Smells

Beautiful

 

Just after

A storm

 

And

 

The best

Thing you

Ever did

Was

HitHimBack

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after the storm

The radiator clicks its cast iron ribs

Quiet ruin strangles the evening

Plastic chandelier filaments flicker

The omelette sits untouched

 

Smoke alarm screams blue murder

We are dying on stage in a packed house

Champagne stains the anniversary flutes

The side salad wilts

 

Smokeless smiles haunt our faces

Small talk can’t escape our lips

Gossamer threads hold us...

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the storm

I stand at the window

 

Hoping the next bolt

Will be the one

 

That strikes our house

Shorts our circuits

Burns us to the ground

 

While you sit in your chair

 

Knitting a mauve scarf

 

Coming apart at the seams

 

The storm lifts

The cloud lingers

 

I ask you what’s for dinner

Its omelette.

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Beaujolais

I am late as usual

I exit the green room as the music fades

I walk on stage to pin drop silence

Tough crowd

I take a sip of wine and raise my arms

‘So you came to see a show?’

Silence

‘Well, here is your show’

I cross the stage to the turntable I had set up earlier

I lift the arm and drop the stylus onto the record

The static hisses and cracks and then Big O picks up

...

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soup

At

Best

Came

Death

 

Eternity

From

Gods

Hands

 

I

Just

Know

Life

 

Most

Now

Operate

Poorly

 

Quiet

Ruin

Strangles

Triumph

 

Ultimately

Vapid

Women

Kiss

Your

Zen

 

Zombies

Yearning

Cross

Ways

 

Vultures

Umbrella

The

Sky

 

Rile

Quickly,

Press

Onwards

 

Nothing

...

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heavy shelling

the pathway to the red front door of number twenty two

     was bordered by two immaculate waist high hedges

 

parallel laurels clipped and choked by a mothers pride

     a post downfall nirvana for slugs and snails of all kinds

 

fat umber leopards mingled with aspersa and  pomatia

     leaving the route to the house a pyrrhic battleground

 

the cost of a war between gi...

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a fine vintage

On my second week of university

Just eight days into sweet freedom

I developed what can only be described

As a raging case of haemorrhoids.

 

For shame, For shame

A heady mix of donner meat, Lager

And copious other poor lifestyle choices

Had led my rectum

To stand down

And my innards had

To misquote Jim Morrison

Broke on through to the other side.

 

I left...

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The Beverley Westwood UFO Adventure Club

The Beverley Westwood UFO Adventure Club

Met Friday night by the cattle grid

Wrapped in thermals and charity shop raincoats

Hip flasks full of whatever we could steal from our parents

We’d shiver and tremble as our breath exploded before us

Cold nights full of hope and high tales

Lying on our backs (avoiding the freshly lain pats)

Staring up at the milky Jackson Pollock stars

...

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shadow (a tanka horror story)

 

There are tiny burnt hands

Bursting through my inner walls

Bringing mercury

Where once my blood flowed through me

Gasping for air I thrash awake

 

Unsettled I rise

Finding not my wife’s safe frame

A space next to me

Where once my world did slumber

Now emptied with cold menace

 

Noises struck me cold

Laughter and crying as one

The piercing ash scream

...

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stain

The stain in my brain

Hitches along my brainstem

Sits in the back seat

Sweating and swearing

His tin foil hat shining

Like a beacon in the dark

 

The stain in my brain

Uses my neo-cortex

As a thermal blanket

To shy away from the mercury

Sliding through my gyri

 

The stain in my brain

Busks in my medial temporal lobe

But can’t remember

Any good tunes

...

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bile

the shining white box i draw around my synapses is crumbling

away with the drip

      drip

                drip-feed of senseless misery and i long

for the surface of the moon and the ebb and flow of cosmic flotsam

but instead we are stuck still like a cliff of burning light ero-

ded by piss and sweat

and praise the lord and allahu akbar

and mantras and chants

and the se...

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bite

The perfect steak is medium rare

 

Barbaric and sexual, moist and forgiving

Its caramelised skin and soft pink interior

 

Its salty crunch and earthy, primal bite

The flesh melting in the mouth

 

The juices gliding down the throat softly

Washed down with a good red wine

And a sauce made from blood and butter

 

When I come to trial

And they put me in the chair

...

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tasty

once upon the sea of blissful awareness

i lie in a field and speak to god/godot about the

click clack asphyxiation cut throat cash flow

scarlet shame when each day dark side death

shadows and suicide note sunbeams wish wash

over my face paint hope and hatred i fly i lie i

cry hoarse please get me off this shit shot fucked

up ball of spinning hatred and insanity fuelled by

turpentine dreams and fat cat green chasing ...

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deadheads

mitochondrial blues

there are times when i can taste my heartbeat

i can feel my blood slipping through my ecstatic veins as it

rushes from my brain to my bones to the

beautiful stars

and it is cold out tonight but i feel like the eyes

of god are

burning burning

a hole into my thoughts and desires and

he sees what it is that my soul thirsts for

and it is to walk backwards into the sweet

...

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beat it

i got those human blues

well i woke up this morning

and i turned on the news

its november the fourteenth

i got those human blues

 

think i’ll write me a poem

thats what i’m expected to do

sympathise with the families

tell them i feel it too

 

i got the human blues yeah

lord knows i got those

human blues

 

my daddy blames the niggers

my mummy blames the jews

i think i’ll bla...

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marrow

 

1.

tight lipped

 rose red

 clip wings

 force fed

caged bird

dull blade

piss stain

lets pray

 

2.

my swiss army wife

my servant my life

my oyster my pearl

my hostage my world

 

3.

(such tumescent beauty

such persistent frailty)

a white whisper of a woman

 

4.

-cut and burn leave and learn-

just get this fucking thing out of...

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shot

i remember fondly

the piquant taste of scotch

the spirit of my yesteryear

now haunting my dreams

 

rich to the tongue

poor to the throat

saviour of our marriage

destroyer of our love

 

the bottles beating heart

like a metronomic diary

of my downfall

 

but see how i rise

from ashes and anonymity

to stake my claim

as husband, father

a smokeless p...

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just a wee dram

maps

1.

its nine thirty and i am at school and

we are outside on a warm day and

its the first time i appreciate the

shorts they make us wear because

 my legs are warm and my arms are

warm and guy taylor and me are

walking past the playground area

towards the beautiful woods that

we are warned about at the start

 of each term but we can’t resist

 because the trees look l...

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blackbird

i remember the first time i saw your heart break

how you held the tiny bird in your demure hands

all feather and splinters and shattered dreams

and the look in your eyes that asked me why we

had spent all night prizing recalcitrant snails out

of their sealed isolation and poking the terrified

remains into its eager beak while it was wrapped

in a towel of purest white and how i...

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singing in the dead of night

whisper

“All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.” - Jack Kerouac

 

so many people living

their lives under such

burning white stars

with such wonder and

passion for unity and

need and will to give

and kiss and love for

all these people who

said yes to life and yes

to each other who did

nothing in fear and did

nothing with regret or

hate but instead...

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were all doomed i tell you

Les Bulot

in my dream i am back at les bulot

cautiously probing the fish soup

afraid of trawling its depths and

finding myself hopelessly out of

my comfort zone wishing i had

opted for the sirloin steak

which you were now pushing

around your plate with the silver

cutlery making blood and cream and

the  lissom pomme-frite mingle

sensually on the bone chine plate

and now you a...

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in my dream

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

tracking through the frozen

      murmurous pine

iced needles cracking beneath my feet

my mind fits and shifts its fix

 

towards the burning carcass ahead

the glittering monument to christ the redeemer

flames licking and sucking at its skeletal frame

 

the heightened lust of ownership

     coursing through my withered veins

we drag the screaming fanatics behind

...

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i got the sad sad blues

when life gets you down

your wife makes you frown

and the rain just keeps on getting wetter

 

just remember were a notion

spat out by an explosion

and soon you will feel so much better

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cineri gloria sera est

The day that you left me

Things began to turn

 

The wallpaper bled butterflies

The taps all spat out treacle

Water turned to blood

 

The fridge door hung limp

Jagged fangs bursting from inside

Thirsty for my sweat

 

The cooker turned atomic

All flayed souls and napalm shadows

 

Hate filled nocturnes and placental arias

 

Spiders crawled from under th...

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just a little something

boo

Go back to sleep honey

No need for those tears

Daddy will make certain

To cast away your fears

You see

There’s no such thing as monsters

No ghosts to terrorise

So lie back down and try to sleep

Just close those pretty eyes

You see

If we can chop up mummy

And hide her in the shed

I’m sure that we can deal

With the thing under the bed

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halloween poem

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