Thursday 18 April 2013

Shady Lady



The 1980s weren't just politically vile they were aesthetically rubbish












Aesthetic horrors from her bands
The worst one was Duran Duran
Dictators paid in Krugerrands 
When Simply Red came on I ran 
Jolly games of bridge and tennis
A home in Dulwich: better buy it
G and Ts and golf for Dennis
A gated world of peace and quiet
She didn’t like her men too lippy –
Part of the creed of Thatcherism
And she invented Mr Whippy
A hint of sadomasochism?
The world after they bombed the Grand
Violent, tasteless, trite and bland

Friday 12 April 2013

Alpha


His suits are sharp, he works at night
A hint of stubble, shadowed eyes
His website is in black and white
To cross him would be most unwise
He hunts wild animal for sport
Antlered creatures in a wood
His car is the high-octane sort
He’d suck the tailpipe if he could
The papers love his bad-boy looks
The craggy fissures of his face
He is the alpha of the cooks
See his keen blade unzip a plaice
His bounty from the blood and dark
A home in leafy Holland Park

Thursday 11 April 2013

Ms Whiplash


Maggie Thatcher closed the mines
And beat up men on picket lines
Dumped the poll tax on the poor
Sent the bailiffs to the door
Maggie champion of greed
Leader of our bulldog breed

Maggie was a master thief
Stole the fillings from your teeth
Gave the rich a holiday
Left us with austerity
Maggie crying in her car
Cold eyes of Caligula

Maggie friend of guts and gore
Took us to a vicious war
The Belgrano sailed away
But she sank it anyway
Maggie heroine of hate
Blood on her bone china plate

Mandela was a ‘terrorist’
Never on her Christmas list
Fought the ‘enemy within’
Gave intolerance a spin
No one looks at me that way
She's our fuckin queen OK

Don’t apply if you are black
Shoot a gypsy in the back
Wear a crisply-knotted tie
As you screw society
Steal the assets of the state
Leave compassion at the gate

Friday 5 April 2013

Justin Bieber's monkey


If I was truly talented, I would write an ode to Justin Bieber's monkey - use it as a metaphor for a trapped, performing animal snatched too young from its mother - a creature abandoned in some German airport – taken into custody by a uniformed official like a jibbering refugee. Poor Bieber. Poor monkey. Apparently, he only has four friends (Bieber, not the monkey) - real friends, not his millions of followers on Twitter. Bieber late for his own concert - late for his own bedtime. Snatching a kebab when he should be in bed. Sometimes Bieber looks like a monkey. The city does not seem to be his natural milieu. See the fear shine in his eyes. He slouches like a missing link, his trousers half-down. The fire of his celebrity is burning him. Where does monkey end and Bieber begin? Free Bieber! Release him into the wild!

Sun on daffodils


Once we were content to sit in the dark
We would pray for its return (or at least try)
Ages passed. Who was the first bright spark
To snare the sun. To pull it down from the sky?
When we had tamed it, placed it in a wire
We were Prometheus and Hyperion
Our night times were pin-pricked by fires
Our cities blazed like millions of suns
If we were not afraid, if we were autonomous
When it came back, we would not feel gratitude
But we do. A memory of darkness lives in us
Light compels us; it masters our moods
And so – we drive up into the hills
Sun on snow. Shadow. Sun on daffodils

Easter Sunday 31 March 2013. Went to the Malvern Hills to remember my parents.  There were 29 of us, I think - brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, second cousins, girl friends, boy friends .... We assembled in the cafe, The Kettle Sings, where they ‘used to do their courting’, as the saying goes. The sun was shining. The poem grew from the image in the last line.