Now is gone a moment, then it’s back.
The nose knows now, your precious eyes play tricks.
Between the past and future, now’s the crack.
Now’s always the time for politics.
A year in Terza Rima
27 Jun 2012 1 Comment
in Pretentious philosophical poems Tags: ontology, philosophy, politics, time
Now is gone a moment, then it’s back.
The nose knows now, your precious eyes play tricks.
Between the past and future, now’s the crack.
Now’s always the time for politics.
29 May 2012 1 Comment
in London poems, Ranty poems Tags: corporatism, Masque of Anarchy, Olympic flame, Olympic torch, Olympics, Poetry, politics, Shelley
As I lay asleep in Herne Hill
the Effra’s voice sang out from underground
and its dark provenance urged me to tell
of demonic processions doing the rounds
of Blighty with a leaking, petrol torch
gleefully passed on from hand to hand.
First came Corporatism, on he lurched
decked in a cape of Coca Cola red,
peddling shitwater to the parched
(spoonfuls of refined sugar help the meds
go down) while clamping locks of steel alloy
to drinking fountains, their inscriptions read
the invitation/command to Enjoy!™.
Next came Growth, he cast out seeds of glass
onto public allotments’ fertile lay,
where years of dedication and hard graft
from plot holders for growing nutrition
had made the clay soils friable. A mass
of shiny Shards and Westfields sprung from them
with promises of jobs and investment
though all the profits flew off to the same
high interest bank accounts in Switzerland.
Next came Privilege, the bumbling blond
squeezed into tops and tails of Bullingdon,
riding a bicycle, emblazoned
with the cool blue logo of Barclays,
which goes to show it’s easy to rebrand
the old financiers of Slavery,
just like the Centre Ground musical chairs
hands power back to the landed gentry.
Last in the relay was Propaganda,
who shirked the fad of the political,
instead he used his verbose whiles to send a
message of Self Empowerment to all
the nobodies that made the population,
for it is the poor themselves that have failed
in trying to escape from their dire station,
to climb the steps of meritocracy,
though some found other forms of elevation
that needs less footwork. Still, the mob can see
the path is clear, though barely climbable.
There’s no demand these days for tragedy.
The torch’s base spat out vast gobs of oil
that blocked up the remaining sewage grates,
though sometimes a glowing ember would spill
into the updraft, to almost escape
into the clutches of the unwashed hordes
though the escort of pale white, grunting apes
put out the flames before they could be caught.
But one slight spark continued past their reach
and gleamed as sharply as a rebel’s sword
and some within the crowd began to preach
that we could wield the flame, by right or force,
that all we had to do was wait and catch
its flicker with a nest of woven grass.
Though others trembled, pointed at the sky
and went right back to sitting on their arse,
willfully immune to liberty,
they fanned out their red tops to shield their eyes
from the unruly fire of Anarchy
that threatened to upend their breadline lives.
18 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Ranty poems Tags: news, politics, Whitney Houston
Stop the conflicts, stall the Leveson probe,
make falling Syrian shells freeze in mid air,
tell all of those shouty Greeks to stop,
tell Iran and Israel “Stop that Cold War!”
pause the famines, freeze the genocides,
halt the Tesco dole worker furore,
still the ice cap thaw and Murdoch’s lies,
so that the news channels can herald that
another poor celebrity has died
and all her famous friends are really sad.
05 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Ranty poems, Uncategorized Tags: kebab, men, politics
For most men politics is a kebab—
it takes a fair few beers to set the mood
after the failed conquest has caught her cab,
though, to be fair, the case could be argued
kebabs at least have substance and flavour,
whereas our crass debaters’ worldly views
are big on sizzle, skimpy on ideas.
They’ll wake the next day with a gammy gob,
bowels rumbling like Ben Hur’s charioteers
before they set off meekly to their jobs.
16 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Creepy fanboy epistles Tags: atheism, Christopher Hitchens, politics, religion
Charming infuriator til the end,
Hater of piffle, godly or otherwise,
Raconteur, rabble rouser, Rushdie’s friend,
I heard the news today of your demise,
Sank into a caffeine addled strop
To think that the fount of dry epiphanies,
Of withering put downs, patented Hitchslaps,
Papal pisstakes and Galloway grotesques
Had run dry. None can recreate your steps.
Every blasphemy was not in jest,
Rightly or wrongly, words still hit targets,
Holy Proofs shot full of holes and left
In tatters after you’d blown them to bits.
To be fair, I never agreed on Iraq,
Could see your point but couldn’t run with it,
However, when your viewpoints stood in stark
Exception to my own, your words still shone.
Now we can read your full body of work,
Savour each syllable, forget you’re gone.
Christopher Hitchens 13/4/1949—15/12/2011
27 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Pregnancy poems Tags: dystopia, politics, Pregnancy, war
This is the world we pass to you dear child—
the markets that are ready to collapse;
no megafauna left to roam the wild;
a government that’s led by chirpy chaps
who’ve planned this shambles since their Eton days,
waiting for a momentary lapse
of class awareness from the under waged
who’ll vote the old boys club back into power
because its what their favourite red top says.
Yes, I know there have been darker hours.
I think of pregnant women, bunkered up
during the blitz, knowing the tin roof bower
will collapse under the V2 payload flash,
as fragile as a hunched up, unborn child
behind a stretched out spread of belly flesh.
Who knows what horrors are yet to unfurl,
or what utopia may yet ensue
its causes purely unintentional
and pissed away before the time you’re due.
22 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in London poems Tags: capitalism, consumerism, East London, lefty rage, politics, Stratford, Westfield
The future of this burly East End town:
a clusterfuck of LCDs and glass
perched on top of businesses torn down
before their natural use by dates had passed.
Some endure in the postcode’s marginalia
among the run down boozers and long grass:
the traveller sites and street names still familiar,
all shadowed by its looming call to prayer,
consumerism’s Sagrada Familia.
Dear reader, I guess it’s hard for you to care
as I tap the screen of the smartphone I wield,
not haggling down the market, I’m right here,
failing to be leftfield in Westfield.
18 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Pregnancy poems Tags: family, holiday, politics, Pregnancy, racism
My dear fellow caucasians of Pontins,
I understand the child perched on my back
Has Asian eyes, a darker type of skin—
but as I launch into my breaststroke
to carry him a full length of the pool,
please don’t stare or let your jaw go slack
as if I’ve grown another set of balls
across the wrinkled length of my forehead.
And though I’m not a follow national
I seem to tap into some primal dread
of tangled bloodlines, mixed up tones of skin.
My fellow honkies, put your fears to bed!
He’s the blood nephew of my next of kin,
no need to bolster up the National Front.
Although our Irish Filipino genes
will have your jobs and homes in seven months.