the work of winter comes

unable to execute
a victim of to do lists
on a run
i stop to pee
and see a baby deer
a radical idea
why count debt
and gdp
why not just
make the world
a nice place to be?
maybe happy people
will be more productive
and maybe tidying up
will be stimulating
all by itself
in sickness and in health
turn it up this is techno

this is the trilogy of four to the floor
the future before us
has been foretold
hand pumps gave us feudalism
we got capital from coal
techno determines
the rate of profit will fall

thank you for joining me for another month of the love epochal. and what a month it was. my dad turned 80 and went on holiday. i bought a wardrobe. we all enjoyed some poetry. join me back here again next month for… more of the same. except completely different. but basically the same.

more unicorns

scotland is an idea
so are equality, pride,
race and health
which ideas are important to you?
love, fairness, justice…
or sticking it to your neighbour?
and now the poem’s
getting me down
dragging up more
sore memories
within me soar
i email my old therapist
hoping for absolution

i think if humanity is going to succeed and live for another thousand years, we need to abolish the nation state. we must remember that a country is just an idea that we have stuck to a temporary land mass. and our land mass may well collide with north america in 250 million years. at which point it is likely nobody will remember anything about scotland. or north america.

echolalia part vi

toot and come on
for tutankhamen at the overflow
car parking
guy with 20 mini
sausage rolls
and a clockwise
tube of pringles
(review for risk and quality)
wearing the same trainers as me
says he works in sails
and other marine
accessories and spares
on the tube
(train tube)
(tube of pringles
on the clockwise
tube train)

this sounds like nonsense poetry but it all actually happened to me. speaking of which, my proudest achievement was the time i won british bulldogs at the youth club. i would have been 9 or 10. i managed to run twice past all the other boys. i didn’t even take the breather between runs that i was allowed per the usual rules. although i did jump on the chairs at the side of the hall the second time.

i didn’t rest and tried a third pass, but was finally captured by my peers.

vaccine state of mind

on the radio they say
it’s demonstrable,
linking autism
and paracetamol
this is what victory feels like
empty
the struggle is eternal
watch american adverts,
feel lobotomised
side effects include diarrhoea
dandruff and instant death

note that i’m not saying for a second that the very stable genius is a child abuser. he seems to have known lots of them though. and he has been known to enjoy being surrounded by young girls – at his child beauty pageants for example, disturbing as a concept without the need to dwell on any details.

sarkozy x pryce x huhne

sarkozy will sleep in jail
with his head held high-
proud of his shamelessness
comforted by his lies
it’s peculiar how many
politicians have convictions
that relate directly
to their economic interests
some presumably entered politics
to pursue pure crookery
others i suppose become
corrupted by opportunity
and the third category are dragged
into crooked torrents
by the scum that forms around them
i wonder where chris huhne
falls on this scale

i found it quite silly that sarkozy said he would have his head held high in jail. i instantly thought, he is quite a short man isn’t he? the french elect short presidents. not since jacques chirac have they had a leader of physical length. and then, thinking of corruption, trump was too obvious a comparison so i turned to the chris huhne / vicky pryce caper earlier this century, for the sole reason that it was amusing.

jog on by the desire path

jog on by the desire path
avoid the horse’s rear
badly i write
the fronted adverbial
pick acorns like a reindeer,
chuck a right
ariana throws her dummy at me
and theo puts her in the bin
two hours drive
to a twenty minute sauna
jog for a period
in a lancaster lane

flick it spin it pull it bop it
turn it off, put it in my pocket
this is techno, we can’t stop it

michael gove has a lot to answer for, but this particular bit was aimed at his reform of education in england. why are they telling children about fronted adverbials? caringly, nobody did about this.

the rising of the cult of the solutionisers

veering into the giddy stratosphere
my plus one request gets a kb
leaving me in mild peril
overran sesh so i only ran four kloms
then was late and to the wrong fireside yawn
a tedious rant that also overran
now i’m late for dinner and sober
so i take the motor for a spin
down dark windy lanes to the train car swap
solutionize became my siren
elevate and inspire to escape my horizon
if it isn’t part of the solution
it tends to be precipitate
selena lookin woman in dumbstruck awe
and though it was nice to participate
when the cult disbands to autumn sun
i prefer to solve,
in search of my elixir.

there were some lovely days in september last year. i spent a lovely week on a dadaist retreat in the home counties. oh, and i was training for a 10k. the solution / precipitate bit is a reference to a toothpastefordinner comic from probably about 2008.

segreillious

charlie kirk caught one
in the neck
i may not support the second
amendment
but that was brave
to make a stand
for his beliefs
despicable, racist,
misogynistic
as they were
he will be pleased to find
the afterlife is segregated
and he will be
with his friends

i don’t want this to be read as gloating or anything. this poem is essentially a diary, and it is a year since kirk’s murder now. i don’t even think this poem is ironic. it was a reaction to his death, which itself was ironic. i simply state that his beliefs were despicable. i didn’t celebrate his death.

forget about yesterday and chorus

today…
was better than yesterday
though work is stretching me
into a vacuous husk
sealed up with snot
trapped in my head
with brain fog,
climbing to-do mountain
but it could be worse
imagine what yesterday
was like

this is the trilogy of four to the floor
the future before us
has been foretold
hand pumps gave us feudalism
we got capital from coal
techno determines
the rate of profit will fall

ah this reminds me – my august last year was even harder. last year i had a new job, and i was on my first ever family holiday with my girlfriend’s family. i was still picking up the basics of how to perform my role, while my project was continuing at pace without competent leadership. fortunately things are less stressful this year.

thinking about my history as a ferocious blusher on the weird work week road trip

storm away with amy
on the weird work week
road trip
yet wherever i go
i’m always me
and find myself adverse to
reverse columbo,
so i hold my tongue
pathologically, i realise,
in the hotel power shower
my beetroot trauma
my painful blushing
the loss of limb control
the shame and the denial
too scared to ask
for the haircut i wanted
until i was about middle aged
nobody ever explains
the numbers
it’s not taught in school
i still hate barbershops
turn it up or turn it off
this is techno, watch it launch

continuing to describe my busy august. week one – move home. week two – move all my stuff. week 3 – trail run half marathon, seven hour drive each way – week 4 various odd jobs at the old place, dump runs, hand over the keys, week 5 – seriously wtf how long is this month?? go on holiday with my girlfriend’s family, and our other flatmate moves out so we have some living space in our home again.