8 to 5

I am not drunk enough

There is wine but

It is a school night

And a hot bath just took me for all I have

Listening to Joni Mitchell and drifting

I even had the beginnings of a story

About a man newly homeless

Surviving on the free things of life

But that too has drifted away

It is a stranger’s bath

Better than ours

It swallows you and the taps are a classic

Brass with china handles

None of this is important

To anyone but me

I am not drunk at all

It is Monday night and I am ready to sleep

Already at barely 9.30

What in god’s name happened to us all?

I lay blame at the job

The money that buys things and

Loses me time

But I need my red meat

My steak and good bottle of red

Or sweet oak of a dark bourbon

I need the car and the books and music

So

How to reconcile and balance the scales

There is no conceivable way

No poet will survive this

Barbaric age.

Shirt and tie

There is nothing better than a good fight

To keep your heart beating

Blood flowing and eyes alive

A love song blasting out the window

Neighbours calling for the end

A scream in some bastards face

A fight over a single point
One principle

The vein in your neck up

Forehead pounding as you spit and talk and

Stand your ground

Because they

He

She

They cannot and

Will not see the fucking light

No matter how small you are

How small your ideas

They matter

If no one ever sees you

No one ever listened

They matter

There is nothing better than a good hard

In the dirt fight

To remind you to keep on

Going.

Eyes to the sky

  

I thought he was looking right at me

Then thought well

That’s impossible

He’s at least 80 and I’m going 30mph

As I got closer I saw

That he wasn’t looking anywhere

Barely walking his eyes were up and left

Fixed there on nothing

He could’ve been dead were he not standing bolt upright

Old carrier bag scrunched up in hand

It was 8.30am

And all I could think is

How alive are you

Are you locked in?

Eyes to the sky like that

And if you’re disconnected from the rest of

Us

What’s so important to be out

At the crack of dawn?

Because

If it was me

Stuck like that

I’d sleep ‘til midday

I never get to do that anymore…