Saturday, June 30, 2007

My memory is a garden


M
y memory is a garden
that cannot now grow
flowers
and the weeds
are rank
where once you walked

i love the weeds
for they too
are never looked at
twice

my heart’s ease
begs
by the sidewalk
of your attention

wild flowers
still grow
where once we walked
and i pick them
one by one
in case you pass by again
and think
those stupid flowers!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

When you're on top


W
hen you’re on top
    you’re on top
you can lift the mountain
    on to your shoulder
when you’re on the bottom
    you’re on the bottom
you gotta tackle the legs    
        ‘o the mountain
    boulder by boulder

mm

Friday, June 22, 2007

Tich Backhouse does Summer Solstice


W
hen askt t’ rite a solstiss pome
    I think o’ things i’d like t’ say
An’ then said thingz they goez away –
    O, blow ‘m!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part XII


h
ey ninny ninny     artificial tongue
    hey nonny nonny    umbrageous folly
    hey ho    grind y'r calliope navel
        belly-got lingo n fulcrum
        you'll come to answer for boys n girls
    then make hey n alley hoopla
        you'll swing n hang together    ah

say nay    say nay
    universal rule z ululated out f court
    adjudged contemptible hoax by lore
    bought n sold as baggage at birth
        ain the ticket
    cry alley weal rule y
        alley weal rule y    yeah

tad    lotos-legged
    mistakin kaleidoscope toy
        f'r originall view of stars
    announces
            grab yr wrecker bars
            prise yr freedom
            bend yr prison bars
            hammer yr landlords
                tatterdemalions
                ragamuffins
            smash yr cages
                smithereenz ultimatum pattern

    best bet from gifthorsez mouth
    peopleholez aperture

take yr simple looksees n quaint saws
        hand-me-maidenly-down savvy views
    like whales wheezing bottom
        gotta break f'r air
        spout n aspirate

    mouth draws breath
    eyes swivel looksee
    apprehensive or proprietorial
    you can like it and you can lump it

shouldn't wonder if phases f moon
    states f mind to suit
        from rags f thought to velvet britches
        from silk purse to wild-oat-sowerz ear
    round n round n round again

say nay    say nay
    cry alley weal rule y
        alley weal rule y     yeah

    howl z bestial tongue
        n sting f bee z eloquent colloquy
    wail z primitive lingua franca
        venomous bite z comprehensive lexicon

alley caterwaul sez
    kiss off almighty liason
        too-too wholesome seminal integrity
            qualifications admit
        like roosterz definitive performance at dawn
            on tipheap
        while adjunct hen demonstrates lay f land

    kiss off citadel and temple
        stronghold or glamorous     makes no mind
        potentate on balcony acknowledging masses
        pulls bitter plum from pie with flourish

    kiss off history as looking up to looking back at lot
        slumdwellerz paradigm
        brick by brick pile nondescript class erect
        cause n effect monumental improvidence
        ripoff hi-rise particular people disown

say nay    say nay
    cry alley weal rule y
        alley weal rule y
        yeah

Monday, June 18, 2007

After seeing the film, "Patton"


a
fter seeing the film "patton"

to patton,
yes    i don't have a patent
on survival    though i do have my ifs and buts
about blood and guts
and i hate your megalomania
so you and i could never belong
in the same neighbourhood
still    are you less sane than me    who see
providence squatting like a watchdog
behind every tree?
who cares whether my surrealistic fantasies
square with yours?
i quiver like a bee
robbing the flower    getting drunk
on droplets of honey
while you swear and stamp and tear up the earth
like a bull let loose    destroying our roots
who's to choose between us?    while obeying our own rules
we both preserve by accidental means
ask any sidewalk lawyer or politician    he'll judge
i don't know how
    meantime
we'll conscientiously refuse to budge from these extremes
justifying our temperamental stance by force of personality
while men and women lean    cling    hold tightly together
longing    loving        hoping to understand
anarchist and nihilist alike insist
they've been appointed bloody saviours of the world
am i a mad inaugurator heralding the new
and you a deluded crusader demolishing the old?


mcmlx

Saturday, June 16, 2007

at dusk when the sun goes down


A
t dusk when the sun goes down
leaving me free from chores
i like to watch those giddy cows
play tossing horns and
goodnaturedly lick their
stretched necks by turns
how i wish i could lie with them
out there in the meadow
all night
when the sun leaves us alone
to play    the cows and i


mcmlx

Monday, June 11, 2007

Tich Backhouse : his two bits on th ereafter


W
hen I were ten i lied t me ma
    committin venereal sin gainst grate poohbah
or so they sed at bible schoo – l tent-tabernacle
    responses i – unrepentick an a mite dillytory
cos me cummupance iz due     bein befuddled an decrepick
    soze why caint skyhi fiddlerz bowin-prowess
dance me down them stairs wid less fuller-some airs?
    for taint az if i thumbed me nose     presumptuous-like
at christendum (which aint a place – susposedly a state o grace)
    incitin wails     torn hair     fits o spleen and lamentation
debauchin those wid ears to prick n eyes t goggle
    az reverend bodeswill in his zeal do swear
(scenes o nekkid bodies writhin everywhere)
    duz frolickin spark o fire dismay sun till it glower?
taint no test     lib i will az i ha bin    wi zest!
iz doom a care?     in a pig's ear!


mmvii
from Tich : his deposition

Thursday, June 7, 2007

God's put a flea in my ear


G
od's put a flea in my ear
    can't be left to go to hell
off my own bat --
    tisn't pukka and by the book

    nix on maudlin irony gone awry
shall abate god's powers with a merry lackaday
    the initiative ain't our to pursue
whichever    whatever i doodle-do or want
    choice foretold    beneficial or ill
salvation won't comply with biblical cant

mmvii

Monday, June 4, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part XI


p
ertinent: manifest sun
    sports yr necktied-party albatross
        called seasons
    browbeatin yr commoners and garden-fete variety
        upper-crusteans
    evisceratin yr stranded eremite
        an' frecklin yr freak albinos
    not to mention yr captive brown tropicals
        an' polar chillyuns
    ain that yr cockier n bullier circumstance
    ain that yr mythical marquee hero lit large

pertinent: vogue moon
    tackin through clouds f premises
        encroachin on tommerrymore
    take carneyvalley oath
        she z promissory notes
        she z enigmas n variations

    moon z yr snakeyes n black deuces
    moon z yr nomadic wild card turns up trumps
    moon z yr non sequitur steamed-up kettle
        squanders desprational particles
            in marry! hail-fellow-well-met
                tossed n caught kisses

dynasty sun z potable wine till sour grapes tipple-topple
moon z altar ego till eyebawlinful heads nod in succession

lookit sun
    yr goldenager touts seniority plus
    yr flagrant imaginable felo de se holycost

lookit moon
    femme fatale
        reflects upon yr boot'illfull headstones

Saturday, June 2, 2007

how many strings must be plucked to play a tune?


S
on favours father
      father favours son
trouble is
      neither is either
relationship slips knot of order
      what we court in our verities
neglects what every parent
      ought to recognize
a propos or not of darwin
      we descend in species of one
and so does every other creature
      under the sun

how random can you get
      trailing comparison's leash
without losing sense of scale --
      on a voyage to reach the moon
how many sails do we set?

mmvii