The Elbow

all the children of the house are asleep
dishes dripped and dried
i cant because you asked me now
Speak.

Brilliant, stop, I hate, "oh no -
and even if I say that you wrote it down"


She gives me The Finger.
That is our relationship.

I said write not wrote and you have to write it down -
That, I said That.

Sucks thumb, twirls sleeping sheet: "Oi"...

"you're really irritating - people see this... a- hawwwwww..

You can get rid of it"

you should do this when i actually don't know - you should write it down so people know
what a stupid relationship" (I am)

So clever Liam - such a clever boy aren't you eh? hmmmmmm"

She pinches my ears:
"No.... (and I don't think you should write down what you did to that pig")

Cackling cracklin.

Distaster

down the street they walked or up, in earshot
of rats on the roof. A dead one landed close by.

Rapscallion said the two year old in her coat
and crossed the road while her father was distracted

13, 11, 4

"They disembarked in '45..."

Single party state, hezbollah on the Union Jack,
malnutrition, war on want, forgotten sons,
greaseproof paper.

Harmonism, Drug Shop Cowboy, Storefront Inventory
The Queen of Shots still washing pots and murder
to the mighty.

Meritocracies of Allahs', Socrates and
Martin Scorceses' latest blockbuster faltering
at cinemas.

Line them up one two three and shoot them down: The Bank Eye.
Comedy nights peter out in this windmill.
The grist list missed.

The Queen looks on, standing miraculously on boats
none can say she has not tried valiantly
None can say that.

No-one laughed, no-one smiled. there were too many faces
In the line, quiet desperation and bravely
waving goodbye.

A policy then, upon this, I do commission:
There will be a raft for us to float women
and children on.

Hope shall be secured by borrowing  at the base rate
The madness of printing our money, devolved
to these floaters.

We will learn to collaborate wisely with Gods
whom shall now and always be plural again,
Nike, Adidas....

T, T, I and P - there's someone watching over me.
Bumper stickers have been issued, but mainly
for long sight ease...

To the withered, we say: "Stick a needle in your eyee"
and die a natural death of wastage, debt, foreign
 aid and a bet...

Remembering surfaces, possible resistance,
All those times I patched you up and we played cards:
"Who's talking now?"

Thank God we are someone else as well as just this thing
The electrics, humming aloud: Cultural
Heritage guys...

Partnerships take on new meanings among denizens
Of the consumer drone, high dependency
Retail park lives.

We should all get some exercise, maybe join a gymn..
undertake to eat nuts and seeds and other
husk borne fruit foods.

Since lines in sand have been drawn and governing bibles,
which never ask forgiveness have been written,
stories have stopped

And conversation has all but turned to artlessness
as a way of ensuring that we never
hear the dead speak.