Tethers

You can’t handle it
Mutual
Tears
In eyes that could be yours
But yours
Are short-sighted
And the rest
Unequal
And opposite
Affect
Cause
Effect

Skip lanes of ridden highways
To drop a measly
In a cup
Pretend there’s
Risk to your
Personal safety
Except

I could right now
Draw that face
Draw up something
Personal
Contract
In debt
Accept
Move on
Eject

Tears in eyes
Mutual
Exclusive
I’ve got a bus
I’m catching
I can reflect
‘Cos
There is no end of
There is no applause
One minute
Out of respect
There will be no singing
As tethers
Also
Have a beginning

Lost

It’s a grey and blue freeze in here
Here it’s deja-vu number two
It’s seven pm
She’s lost her voice again
She’ll go for deja number three
But
There’s a point in here
In this freeze of grey and blue
That lost voices
Are
No longer worth listening to

Sundays

Local
Lunchtime
Early kick off
I gaze the rainy window
Across the lane
Where the Sunday brunchers
Form snake like queues
Around the block
Play a ladder climbing game
Like
Communist-era Poland queues
At the hip replacement joint
Bijou
Like
Aperol spritzers with babies
Bottomless
For hours
Tasteless
For quails eggs
On avocado
On walnut slices
An Instagram opportunity
Time waste it’s
Ridiculous
Christ it’s
Whilst I’m
With the knockers
In the local
Who describe it thus
That’s
What the middle classes do
When left
To their own devices

Barrel o’ the Same

When t’ beer’s
Bin poisoned
By medal-chested
Knights of the profane,
The consequence
Of inaction,
Is more barrel
O’ the same.

Soft Shoe Shuffle

The soft shoe shuffle
Of ghosts.
The grunt nosed trouble
For the most,
Who’re relying,
On drying
Conditions.
Dreaming of toast.
The parliamentary kerfuffle
Is nowt,
To those
Who are learn-ed,
Knowest most.

Football Shaped

When all we cared
Was kerby kick-abouts
When the world was football-shaped
When the Alsatian’s tooth
Was the proof
We knew
That
As today
The Earth was ruled
By those who’d
Have it flat

Straight

It’s not
My fault
You’re a fucking nightmare
With your click
Tap heels
And straight hair
Cultural reappropriation
Has been
Going on
For years