Sweet Vine, how sour you are

The stars shine brighter to sky’s delight

And to my surprise, I feel better

I feel unleashed, untethered

And whether or not I fold

To the hold Sweet Vine has

Is beyond my control

I understand the soul needs relief and

I understand it needs some deep unseated

Sense of power and control over the mind

It’s hard to find a natural source

Of ...

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Old Father Time, can I go now?

I don’t know how the day drags its heels

And feels its way down the halls

Of shopping malls blindly

To find all is empty and dry

And doesn’t try to hurry itself when needed.

Old Father Time, won’t you slow down now?

My furrowed brow aches and throbs

Odd jobs linger and hang around

While you run abound without me

I see you pick the p...

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Hi, everyone,

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this on here, but I'd like to share my new substack profile on here. I posted my first article the other day as a response to Louis Theroux's new documentary, and I'll be posting think pieces and poetry on there. I'm also currently working on my first novel.

https://substack.com/@tombanks01

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Eyes open to see but for what?

Four blank walls and weighted lids and

The same old places as when we were kids

Only the weather changes their faces

From grey to green and the footpath traces

The same familiar routes

The mud that covers my boots

Is dry but not scrubbed away

They’ll just get dirty again anyway

It is no sight at all.

Hands reach out to touch but for...

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The merchant rises before the dawn

And sees the darkness fading

For another day of trading

An existence so degrading

In its repetitious gloom

And soon it will be time to start

The grinding shift, its end so far

Away from where the two arms stand

Into the strand and down the hall

Up the escalator to the end of the mall

And the sliding doors, they open wide

The hungr...

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The seams split from the land to the sea

And dreams of still waters die

The lie of open arms disintegrates

In the slither of the lullaby 

Of reasons and rhymes set to rock us to sleep

But sheep are aimless in a boundless heath

And see no route so dreaded fate ensues 

As the ocean follows the moon

And soon we’ll all be keeping score

Strike one and two, strike three and fo...

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Hands move without mind

The time slips by in silence that is mine

I just try to find a sign

That says this way or that.

Motion drifts without body

Unrecognisable though still resembling

The fiery spark that’s dwindled

And waiting to be rekindled now or later.

Heart beats without soul

Too cold to move from scolding mould

That’s festered in the folds of me

...

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It rains on me tonight as it did in the morning

No exit route or home to fall in

Because nothing seems to fit

Nothing seems to satisfy

Or ease the mind ’til five

Misery’s mine until I die

Shut out and dropped from the sky

With no sight, fight or flight

Sipping dregs and having sex

There ain’t no fish in that sea

Of love nor money, the empty barrel

Is scraped once a...

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It’s late, another day is gone

Sun rose in east just to set on

The horizon in the west

Life and death abreast but the rest is best

When lights are off and away

And I sleep until the next day

Only to continue my endless cycle

Relive my self-inflicted trifle

Just feel stifled so detraction

From my pain is my distraction

My existence a fraction of my desire

No sight o...

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It’s still and grey today

The sky in fuzzy light and shadow

That never blackens or blues

Not one way or the other

No company or conversation

Just quiet inside and out

In the comfort of this melancholy

And lack of thought or feeling

Unresponsive with lidded eyes

No ache or fire

Neither delusional optimist

Nor insufferable pessimist

Teetering the fine white line

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Tonight, I saw Celeste. Accompanied by only four musicians, she scuttled on to the stage in something akin to a child’s knee-length princess gown, though stained by smoke and nicotine; symbolic of the loss of innocence and naivety that we all go through as we plunge into the darkness that we call being grown up. There was no pretence, no inhabiting any character. She bore her soul as though naked ...

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October, hell is over

The fog has rolled on down

Now rightfully isolated, thank God

Like everyone else, no sound

Or eyes watching, waiting

Like never ending nighttime

Alone in solitude and so are you

Mist leaves no end in sight

Of the end of the road, no safe abode

Hardly a foot ahead

Is clear to either you or I

Somewhere in the fog, we’re dead.

It comes to...

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Sometimes I venture out on the coldest day

And deliberately underdress

In hopes that the wind will freeze me

Those pinpricks up and down the flesh

The open isolation

The stillness and obstructed view

The fog, the unknown

And revel in the freedom of it all

Sometimes I sit on the edge of the bed

And open the door out to the landing

And look into the darkness

To ...

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I picked my lip until it bled

Got iron in my teeth

And when I wiped the stinging wound

I stained the cotton sheets

I licked the wound repeatedly

Still the blood kept flowing

‘Til I gave up, it trickled down

My chin, the stinging growing

I stayed in bed all morning

I stayed awake all night

I stayed inside the dreary town

That sad pathetic sight

Miserable but...

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From the ventricular beating comes the pulse

Of the stinking iron between my teeth

And punching of my neck

From the rotting of the palate comes the heave

Of the dreaded desert breath

And choking stones

From the tremor of the limbs comes the aching of the flesh

The rash and heavy lids

Of stinging iris

From the throbbing squirm of the cerebrospinal snake

...

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Slumber remains in restlessness, come east or west

Come rising, falling chest, come worst or best

Mindlessness parallels the weight of the world

That never ceases to spin when Armageddon unfurls

A mothers heart shatters by the blowing of candles

She’s 5, he’s 8 by ruinous shambles

Ribcages protrude at the foot of the table

Not a scrap to be offered come frail, c...

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The birds sang so loud that they became the music

The twittering echo of summer laced into the chill of winter

And weaved into the warmth of the sun in a tapestry

Of shadow and light, day and night

And dewdrops cling to the grass from the night before

Like a mother to her baby in a hospital ward

A hand to the chest, a mouth to the breast

From breathing to suckling, one body to...

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I was driven down the highway

In a spanking silver car

24 and looking for an answer

But hadn’t gotten very far

And as I looked across my shoulder

To the school kids running by

Their hopeful eyes seemed dampened

By the clouded grey of mine

The suffocation only stops

Just when the lights go down

But from the land into the sea

In morning light, I drown

My moti...

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I met him by the roadside

Standing tall with shoulders wide

He smoked a fag I couldn’t abide

And asked me if I’d come inside

A dull linguistic polymer

A tiresome interlocutor

Who cares when promiscuity

Rears its head, it grins and tempts me

Unknown and hardly trusting

Inside the room we fornicate in

In and out, in and out

Breathing, fucking, no room for doubt

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Amanda flies the wide skies

From Canada to England and back again

And unborn cries of bloodline ties

Comes calling her back home

Embroidered blankets, silk and knitted

Toys of softest fur

She casts a glance with loving eyes

And takes them with her when she goes

Amanda leaves a hanging pendant

Silver native maple leaf

A gift for friends of decades gone

That Eng...

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