his honey do

got his list

his honey do

got to keep her sweet

he says

like she is his keeper

boss of his particular street

it’s ok I go

if you don’t want to go riding

y’know?

no it’s not that

she pulls faces

makes shit hard

so I do her list

earn the points

so I get to do

what I wanna do after that

like this

is how life is

in normal town

where normal people live

& do honey do sheets

sometime later

we’ll talk

about controlling behaviours

but he won’t get

I’m offering him understanding

& he’ll say

yeah I hate men like that

don’t you?

sorry

department store

the old-fashioned kind

caught by the tv display

one of those

over paid over painted idiots

spaffing how only women

hold tenderness kindness

all the great emotional values

how women

make the world

a better place to be

I said out loud

oh that poor love

the lady selling there asked

is everything ok?

well I go

I feel sorry for them

they’ve never experienced

tenderness kindness

from a man

or how men too

make the world

a better place to be

yin & yang y’know?

I just work here she says

ain’t got time for any of that

sorry I offer back

for them

& for you too

Athens

unrest in the streets

as ever eh?

people walking

carrying big sticks

holding protest signs

the police racked up

stacked up

standing in lines

& there

in the middle of the street

a sleeping stray dog

your friend

& mine

the protesters

make space

the police

adjust their stance

anybody caring here

surely

is not out for trouble

as everybody

but everybody

walks around this supine pooch

the tear gas can come later

as people matter less

than a stray dog sleeping

taking its time

dreaming of better days

switch got thrown

old photographs

these good looking girls

wearing fashion rags

of the time & age

they were sexy beasts in

great hair shoes lipstick faces

showing out

hoping for good men

& somewhere

a switch got thrown

turning them off

the path they were on

turn them into these dowdy

tutting faded hags

obsessed by soap operas

happening behind doors

down their roads

I asked one once

what had happened?

she called me

a cheeky swine

like she still had

all that going on

the bus

had not left the station

points unkown

old church France

halfway down a hill

we pulled in to the parking

walked on in

from somewhere

music soft & low

recording

of early vocal trance

say 17^th century

we sat for a while

not in prayer

just silent contemplation

no priest no congregation

just yer man on a cross

over the altar

& us

after ten maybe 15

we got up to go

silent communication

we’d had our fill

put some coins

chinking into the offertory

for the candle

we’d set to burn

for those gone before

them no longer with

& for

our own

lost souls

ain’t never been there

big fat album

the old-fashioned kind

you get from the processing

of photos from their holiday

trails beaches

people they met places seen

oh you must go

only cost us xxxxx

we put it on the card

pay it back over a while

once in a lifetime trip

there were glossy pics

of buffets dinners drinks on terraces

living kings & queens

rooms all white cotton light

sky blue bright suns

happy smiling faces

oh you must go said over & over

& how to say?

I’m not built for that

rather be living low

taking it easy within my means

than living high

on tomorrow’s beans

my loss I know

ain’t never been there

won’t be going soon

but when my ship comes in

I’ll be sure to make that scene

these little hands of mine

she’s squealing now

you’re groping me!

she calls it mauling

where once

I could make her squeal

in oh so many different ways

& I pull away

apologise

for not making her

be like feel like

those other days

different space & times

she knows

I love to feel her

those different rhythms

warm sweet curves

& I’m wondering now

how long we can keep going

make this thing work

if what I/we do

is no longer fun

to her

waitin’

meet me at XX she said

which was a place

I did not know

& I was there minutes early

little posy of roses

next to me on a stool

had one while I was waitin’

the barkeep nodded at them roses

smiled & said

I did not know you cared

so we had another one

there was no paper

nothing on the walls to read

watching the roses wiltin’

seemed the only thing to do

& after an hour had gone

said the clock on the wall

me & my new best friend

had another while waitin’

he put them roses in water

while the booze began buzzin’

helped stopped the hurtin’

barkeep stopped on by

full shot glass on the house

looks like this ain’t your day

have this one for free

help you on your way

I took that shot took it in

what else was I gonna do?

helen

Helen thought

she had it high over us peons

having been

to one of those great universities

where according to her

she’d got the bestest education

ever

she had all the right connections

& opinions

which you couldn’t possibly argue with

not being bright enough

& all

but we knew who she was

one time is all we needed

she left her tote bag unattended

pulled out her green gin bottle

tasted & Gordon’s it was

halfway down the bottle

I put a tiny crimp in the label

so’s to mark the level

let her flash that around

another month or more

then when

she got it out to show

what a rebel

revolutionary spirit she was

we noticed the level had not moved

us peasants may have our strange ways

but we know how things really are

summer daze

drinking wine late afternoon

with a hippie chick I met on my walk

sat on the dry grass

sipping out of china cups

gingham dress (her that is)

cheap wine

thin cracked porcelain

talking of nothin’ much

I did not want her

she did not want me

sitting apart in case of touch

& then her friend came along

another cracked cup

pulled out of a never end bag

forming a triangle

& this one wanted

neither of us either

when the wine ran out

they looked to me

for the scratch

I got to my feet

said be back in five

went off to the grog shop

got waylaid

on the way there

by a goth girl who did want me

found the wine

went back to my place

reflecting on chance meetings

how life is such