Carnival Rides

Walls of Death ask to
be peered at [leant in
over shoddy welding]

until a howl of breath
then provokes a spin
into a swirl of vertigo

So sleep – sleep alone
[shoot-em-up carnival
clamours don’t count]

In Super 8 minutes of
thrill-rides roll her tale
[fat men turned on by

her lickerish quartets
& spools flicked upon
her jerked-off screen]

Ride & orbit her hoops
painted red & 360-odd
tyre-rattled pine planks

Your fitted door shuts
too tight – no rider will
get out of there [alive]

St Margaret rode on a
Yamaha motorbike – a
2-stroke affair of 49cc

No one dares mention
Acapulco [not drugs or
death of La Quebrada]

You won’t have vitamins
[but you’ll always eat up
fantasy in script & lines]

& motorcycles will idle –
as that next show is set
to rewrite poetic rhyme

Bluebirds Over

Your bed whiffs of miserable sex
[& urine’s drip-drip]/ I’ll shove you
away once your ill Queen is dead/

I am sailing to Sealand where our
border is an irregular confusion –
[there they don’t crave our House

of Windsor – Edward has no work
but earns nicely – lucky him]/ This
country stinks of supremacist talk

from unapologetic men & women/
Superior sneers are easy masks &
filter their words/ Dame V is dead

& white cliffs fall [with our weight
of greed] – bluebirds do not live on
these islands of myths & sung lies

Elder Respect

Cloudy cordial – it was too soot
for my tongue – inbred-sweet &
all sugar-buzz – Grandma’s own
& she is an amazing woman [no
proof given] None ‘fess that she
should add in a splash of bitter-
truths/ I’d tie her up – then off to
a rest home near Kent [she was
born from French blood – Boton –
& would feel at ease in sight of
Calais] Aye – Grandma – fuck off

How I Am Doing

A red heart beats in my tall bin
it trots out subtle thud-a-thuds
[no one will die tonight]/ It is a
struggle to talk about ‘how I’m
doing‘ – I attend a playground-
bait of held-back & brave boys
don’t cry – hold it off – greeted
endings won’t happen – as that
[round battery] raps descants/
I had plucked it from my pup’s
toy & left it to wither [& expire]

News at One

Time will not be adjusted [to suit
your needs] – that’s my assumed
forecast of less-assured futures

Histories – that slip of shadowed
kisses & us [such burden of love
is brief – emptied skies less rare]

My cadaver has a fixed contract
in ink [& yours too] – parchments
are furled close – like a clingfilm

stretch on & as gripped/ Oxygen
will be kept fresh [for three days]
& then my watch will turn to rust

[in your rivulet my timepiece rots
to orange – do not drink it up]/ Sit
at your gloss of pool & prod fast –

to ferrugo my cogs & pendulums
‘neath running spring waters – so
decrease my minuted remnants –

[watch parts] sink in Jarvis Brook
& fritter more – in no time – at that
confluence with R Medway’s rush

off – via printed tidal timetables – &
with a nod to rainclouds – forecast
flood – reports read – News at One