Poems

1. Why patriots are a bit
nuts in the head

Patriots are a bit nuts in the head
because they wear
red white and blue tinted spectacles
(red for blood,
white for glory
and blue ... for a boy)
and are in effervescent danger
of losing their lives.
Lives are good for you.
When you are alive
you can eat and drink a lot
and go out with girls
(sometimes
if you are lucky
you can even go to bed with them)
But you can't do this
if you have your belly shot away
and your seeds spread out over some corner
of a foreign field
to facilitate
in later years
the growing of oats
by some peasant yobbo

when you are posthumous
it is cold and dark
and that is why patriots
are a bit nuts in the head

The day before yesterday as i was walking down Dale Street a small man a complete stranger, seeking to prove his existence through an intense traumatic experience leapt off a bus and fired a bullet point-blank into my forehead

(it was terribly embarassing)

i stifled a scream and pulled my hat downover my eyes but could not prevent the blood from ruining my new raelbrook shirt and verticalstriped italian jacket with brass buttons. But the traffic stopped and little boys took their hands out of their pockets and little girls wet themselves and young brides had orgasms and old people were disgusted at the extroverted behaviour of this gentleman swaying and bleeding in good old Dale Street

(it was terribly embarassing)

not waiting to annoy people any further i lurched through the crowd and stumbled into the Kardomah cafe justdown the road. The girl behind the counter was very nice when i ordered coffee and hamroll but explained that i was making a mess of the danish pastries and could i take my dripping carcase elsewhere

(it was terribly embarassing)

i bubbled my apologies and followed a young gentleman about to be sick into the gentlemans where unobtrusively and with as littlefuss as possible i gave up the ghost.