The Morass

We spanned the years from Eden to the twins

Waxing/waning/ Morality/introducing wheelie bins

Skirts lower/higher/then combats centre stage

We floundered/whores to vicissitude

From hot pants to sparkly necklaces and boob tubes

We held the decades as runaways/ from who borrows/ then who pays

Everyone a hero/14.5 minutes of fame

You have to factor in the ads

The media's to blame

Never have we seen so much spray tan

Or such lobster flesh on any woman or man

Celtic hides uncovered/Come on Trace/ the foreigners will love us!

Back in the grey Metropolis/ poor apology for an Acropolis

Trace and Ange think they've clicked

With 2 wide boys in the mix

They're not bad girls/they love their Dads

They just want their own pads

Not such a big deal to shag the lads

Poem for Jessica

 

Sparkly shoes and easter bonnets

First guitar and Shakespeare's sonnets

Let the parents down lightly

They've had hold of you tightly

Dad will freak

At the adolescent peak

His antenni is well upon you

Blue Sky Opportunities

Wish I could be a mystic

Grateful for gift of rhetoric

Open Season

blame the heathen

Their fault as always

Defeated pay anyway

Louder the voice

Restricts the choice

Younger you nail

No choices avail

Women will rip you asunder

It's them you plunder

Supreme Power

Extremes should fuel impotence

Spit out dummy males no implement

To fashion life

As much as they would like

Without women they are insignificant

Real men love women

They are not just proud owners of semen

Time women punched the air

Love me, not my womb if you dare

You won't go to any heaven anyway anywhere

My higher being is bigger than yours.

We shout loudest so we must be correct

Missives handed down not open to inspect

Don't delve too far

To find leaks that truth will mar

Humans are just secondary to

Mass hysteria's weaponry

Cowardly humans needing echelons higher

Unable to live with normal earthly power

Control is all, thought not allowed

What kind of tainted being

Needs shelter in a crowd

Once dust has settled

All enemies throttled

Flesh is extinct

"brave" warriors with testosterone stink

Without the womb

You are but in a tomb

Elaine Savage:

Boxing Clever

Guy I know drags a bone by string

Said it used to be his scrag end

Until protein pirates ate his bling

They are way becoming a trend

People chewing on leather laces

No sustenance in such footage

A casey football from over the terraces

Too dubbined such our luck is

An Ice cream van got waylaid

the driver all alone

The intrepid band who preyed

Had no respect for his cone

We are living in desperation

Where the teeth barons abound

They will offer you a fortune

Each silver filling a pound

We pray to the national lottery

And the mystic down the town

Have you ever seen such a coterie

where frauds and liars abound

No assured three score and ten

Zimmers left for scrap

No tai chi, aerobics or any zen

Can spring this trap

The only comfort, and solace

A modicum, a kernel

Is that at least the gentry still pot a brace

So hope springs eternal.

                                                     The machine

Where do I end and it begins

limbs reaching out to metal

Neuroscience has names for this

we just know it as

an affinity

the extrapolition from limb to steel

that surefire feeling of belonging to the machine

if it fails us we blame it

but we were always the controller

and it just the machine

  Terror

keep running

it won't catch you

you feel it's breath on your neck

your legs buckle

keep going

don't let it win

gliding and gliding

the valium with its sword of protection kicks in

safe for another battle

                                                Interviewing Religions

My best friend took me to her church

I liked the pictures and the smell

Was not too sure about the references to hell

Another mate took me to witness

more hellfire and damnation stuff

and they had pictures

Some others told me that bacon was out

Another lot said I should never, never shout

even if I was in agony,  as it would cause the child awful doubt

In weariness, I wandered alone

None of these deities could be got on the phone

It came to me as a revelation

The only  belief that I needed was

women's emancipation

Without the women, these men were fucked, Hallelujah blokes, time is up

Nothing to do with me

Some squaddie preggers

aint it a laugh

stupid cow

should have watched who she pashed

These birds are always looking for love

lusts the order of the day

how stupid are they

to imagine it any other way

Down the years is the son of the father

A handsome clever lad

More going for him

than his errant ungrateful Dad

  

Forever Altered

Daydreaming in the jungle

Hope bullies at bay

Try to be watchful

Keep them away

Arms pinned

running pel mel

helter skeltered to who knows what

brick, blood, bits of teeth and chin amok

Nobody saw

Nobody spoke

Lifetime treatment, one kid, front teeth

Nobody cared anyway.

                                        Fog on Moss Side

the fog air

sucks your breath

even under the balaclava

apparitions

more interesting than people

a massive world unknown

familiar changed

so ghostlike

will it stay

please infect tomorrow

with the same

 

  Mom's Lament

 

I was wrong, don't tell me

Default setting for mother, is wrong, I know the drill

Feed them,

Don't,

cuddle them,

Don't

That Dr Spock must be turning in his grave

Due to all of the mothers he misinformed and swayed

To his ideas about regimes

and when to feed the child

how many kids grew up

wishing they had not been born

                                    Playtime in Moss Side

We ran at each other with chickens feet

pulling their tendons

oblivious to their fate

Occasional rats, some dead, a brick would surely tell

dressing like princesses, crepe paper et al

Marking the pavements with roller bearing skates

Marking territory with kids from other estates

Hanging round Alex Park

Whit Week's around the corner

New clothes for all

Whit Sunday at the matriarch's

kids looking fine

Uncles giving coins

Kids happy

Family memories sublime

Summers gift

I wish you summertime forever

feet splayed at peace

warmth coating you

sparkle upon sparkle

Ease and exhalation

No nightmares, grief or terror

wrapped up in concoctions so sweet

Enveloped head to toe in peace

Shining all the days of fun

and sun