Country Song #29
on a blanket on
the ground light reflected
from green glass
offices in the city I moved to
the road was long led from there where
when I was a child
riding thru monument valley
measurability
is so massively important
that stuffy heat
just before storms lasted
for weeks of bored
school holidays here come
the boys in blue
serge walking the street warm
sun if you realise and correct it they wouldn’t
is this choosing bargains in the summer sales
ride into town
loan stranger follow the steers
penalise you for
that I remember I longed
for something
to happen buckskin six-gun
palomino outlaws holed up in death valley
Anecdotal
A funny thing
happened on the way to the
poem Dress smart casual no trainers in
haunted ambiguous
cities of the 21st century
He talked in feathery
question-marks here’s
one I say I say heard the one about
investigating
the assumptions implicit in
then bosh the Big Sell you’re
suddenly stuffed
to the gills with
words That need written down
Two poets go into
a bar both say to the barman
It fills your
pockets with rain I had a touch
of the language
but it soon cleared Stop me
if you’re
heard this one He’s paying
Darwinism On Burton Road
(Sample: Chapter
4 Origin of Species)
When I saw the
fox dancing
how will the struggle
for existence
in a field of
rabbits that act
in regard to variation
from the windows
of a train
red flash a distance
off
Can the principle
of selection
from the quayside
briefly
discussed in the
last chapter
dolphins leaping
waves at the
edge of sight apply under nature
I think we shall
see that it can
If they ever came
near I’d run
most efficiently not that they
would but let
the endless number
of slight variations dive back
through oceans I couldn’t swim
individual differences round here
pigeon nests occurring
in our
domestic productions squirrels
graywaving up
a neighbour’s tree
what they’ve
seen of the world
may be truly said you could draw
the whole organisation
becomes in
some degree plastic
on the back
of a stamp but the variability
is not directly
produced by man
though I once
saw an owl gliding
the thermals changing
conditions
of life over Burton Road Let it also
be borne in mind something as I
walked home with
my girl wouldn’t
live infinitely complex & close-fitting
the night sure as keys in the door
are the mutual
relations of all
Walking The A52
threatens is that a late crop of wheat
under frost in
the field a crew of crows
the sky is Yves
Klein Blue blackbirds
pick berries in
the rowan tree a man
invisible in mist white roofs shimmer
in low sun chain clinking on thigh
starts its engine last week a man died
heart attack just dropped makes you
on his way to
work in the kingdom of keys
I never thought
I could laugh in here rain
Eddie Stobbart
asleep on the lay-by
a line of light
along the horizon the day
hardly see it
from the road this morning
wagtails through the airlock a new world
James Hargreaves House
(Samples: interviews
with Dennis Potter &
the Sex Pistols)
A bright spark
our James
ghost of bacon
spoon in the cup
mid stir
in
the gloom of his cottage
too clever
by half
the hole in the
mint sucked to a thin
white ring
Staring at the wheel still
spinning on its
side
(We were poor
yes
(too
clever
Chimneys for the chop
mills that mushroomed
down sodden vales
the whitest
frothiest
blossomest
blossom
(by
half
one blast it crumples
at the knees
up the echoey
hill
the cottages clatter
Lives filleted
through twenty centuries of
piece-work
He’s like your Dad innee
this geezer
(clever
clocking on at
gates that never
shut
Tea so strong
it rebricks walls
down paths by
engine house remains
reserved occupation
windows
mee-maw the past like it were summat
Jimmy’s
home
a Post-Office (that’s
gone too
(I realised that somewhere
along the line
a good crop of chimneys
reaped overnight
dropped in sickening
slaps stand
again drop
again stand
again (loop
my pen was actually
going to provide me
with a living
Jimmy Clever Clogs
pulls engines
apart in the back room
eats a full English
Tea
walks to
work
comes home to
redundancy
a cheque
(dud
Jenny
still spinning in the front
they work their
bacon to the bone
She
smiles like Mum
when Dad
two sugars
had his ideas
In A Statement: Triplets
2
Taken off the
streets
laughing teenage
not doing enough
In a statement
puts into place
an
acceptable something
See more on this
absolutely disgusted
ordinary working
class
Verbally physically
surrounded hit
with a
passing the buck
Their secret stash
simply want to
just pass
under the influence
Have to face up
to
the drinking culture
of
availability previous
What else can
they be
until this society
stops
we should all
try
Conviction down
the
piece of our jigsaw
completely heartbroken
Copyright © Steven
Waling, 2008
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