napowrimo 2020 #4

THRILLER THE KILLER

If only you would come and rescue me

isolation what make of man are thee

One man at home without his phone might groan

but he or maybe she it won't be me

because I won't rely on this alone

my freedom is to be or not to be

Mistaken it seems that you have taken

this viral virus and become engrossed

mistaken not however forsaken

all roads lead to another to be crossed

Thriller the killer she lives in my ward

I've been awaiting for her to get bail

maybe perhaps someone could bribe the guard

is there not any way out of this jail

Isolation what make of man are thee

if only you would come and rescue me

04042020/SH133

napowrimo 2020 #3

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

She paints the wall like her heart black

no matter what there is no lack

Everybody's looking at me

says she with a look of disdain

if only they would let me be

back home laid up to nurse her pain

Rejoicing this side of heaven

when the wind blows in from the east

eleven one more than even

the best that comes out of the west

Sometimes impossible to face

without having to break her heart

and yet sufficient is God's grace

although she tries to act the part

She paints the wall like her heart black

no matter what there is no lack

Everybody's looking at me

when the wind blows in from the east

if only they would let me be

the best that comes out of the west

03042020/SH132

napowrimo 2020 #2

LOVE MINUS MONEY

For love minus money and its proceeds

the things we do in place of dirty deeds

Only others think that love is an art

breaking the rules but life can't be this cruel

baby right from the off you broke my heart

but in my crown you are the missing jewel

Darling your beauty I want to behold

I wanna hear you moan and make you groan

I have been told that you are crazy bold

I never ever want to be alone

The love of money is evil I swear

if I could never ever see your face

yeah it might be too much for me to bear

time after time and then place after place

The things we do in place of dirty deeds

for love minus money and its proceeds

02042020/SH131

napowrimo 2020 #1

VIRUS INVISIBLE

Happening everywhere under the sun

yellow blue black an' white an' brown stroke red

she may be red but not as dull as dun

an enemy that goes over my head

What will happen if the night sky turns white

and red - unlike the chops upon her cheeks

which way will we delight in her delight

there's nothing I can say although she reeks

This new virus invisible you know

we can't see it or even hear its sound

numbers undertaking all on the go

and lose - how many more will go to ground

Although coronavirus might be rare

it's too early to know how to compare

01042020/SH130

napowrimo 2020 introduction coronavirus 9

INTRODUCTION 2020

Never say never again, because here we are, here I am sitting down in anticipation of completing my twelfth year of napowrimo, the thirty poems in thirty days challenge during the month of April.

This year of course we have the additional worldwide threat of Coronavirus hanging over all of us.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy napowrimo 2020 and to leave you with a little taster of what is to come.

Coronavirus 9

FALSE NEWS
everything's gonna be fine blah blah
misinformation disinformation
confusion illusion
and anything else ending
in iron yon or shone blah blah blah
blues false news penny chews
situation frustration
intimidation constipation
all these may or may not be
symptoms of immunity
blah blah blah di blah blah blah
31032020

Coronavirus 8

novirusinformation dot con

Thunder clapping light embracing the shame

they tell me it's not love it must be lust

oh what a crying shame but who's to blame

if there's no one to care who can you trust
Novirusinformation dot con/straight

they tell us that we can have what we had

the things we hate will multiply like bait

before they get better or drive us mad
Mad as a hatter or mad lazy so

crazy baby lazy to the extreme

isolation living the dream whoa woe

explanation on hold like my big dream
Victory will come when we all get well

okay until then our lives might be hell

29032020/1/SH129

Coronavirus 7

BOWER NOT FLOWER

If only things were made out to be fair

the time it takes make no mistake to name

that come what may Charlie will still be heir

although if this virus puts us to shame

Across the globe who will remain in power

only the ones who face us face to face

therefore if their ideas do not flower

they will lose power and end in disgrace

They ask is day as bright as night is black

or are things not really quite as they seem

the rich will still be rich and have no lack

workers can only dream of self esteem

So troubles come and go in times of woe

if that's the way things are it sure looks so

28032020/SH127

Coronavirus 6

WHAT A CONUNDRUM

Where did you go to my long long lost friend

please don't pretend that you're everyone's friend

Bitter sweet holiday

romance it ain't

there's always a reason

to season with salt

In Norfolk and Windsor

she may be the Queen

been at the helm

before Karloff was born

But now that he's got it

and Charlie boy too

what a conumdrum

the heir to the throne

So don't come to Cornwall

or Scotland or Wales

do as they tell you

don't do as they do

Where did you go to my long long lost friend

please don't pretend that you're everyone's friend

27032020

Coronavirus 5

GOD BLESS THE NHS

Contradiction personified

they talk about the turning tide

food parcels will be left outside

Seventy eight point seven four zero two

inches not only when you're in the queue

at work practice social distance too

God bless the NHS stay home save lives

no work no income how will they survive

Universal Credit – you can't get through

but volunteers got signed by half past two

Seventy eight point seven four zero two

inches not only when you're in the queue

at work practice social distance too

Contradiction personified

they talk about the turning tide

food parcels will be left outside

26032020

Coronavirus 4

COVID – 19

conspiracy theory

they say people say

the powers that be

and their puppet Gendarmes

they've got us

where they want us

locked up

or locked down

in every city

countryside village

or self isolated town

However rules are elective

and only apply

to the unschooled unwashed

but not to the guy

that wants to keep making

more products to sell

hell he'll find ways to

keep his wokforce well

well maybe not well but

you know what I mean

he'll say they're essential

to the NHS scheme

of course what he really means

is his personal wealth

he's entitled to dream

25032020

Coronavirus 3

RARELY REALLY

(SURELY NOT THAT)

So (comma) they say - before they respond

spondulicks lighting up their greedy eyes

yes – so – the buzz response to anything

kerching un-till the Jack and Jill is full

Full of candy and sugar coated dough

doe ray me far so - so what - sew it up

put I before E except after C

see what I'm talking about now – money

Money money money bread and honey

phoney telephoney transportation

transport by buses trains and cars it's not

nothing is - rarely really - what it seems

Seems like so - is the new well – how deep's that

that's way out and groovy - surely not that

24032020

Coronavirus 2

SIDEWAYS AIN'T UP

Uncertain uncertainty

insanity believe me

no one knows 'cos

the answer ain't here

Welcome to the global village

that's too tired to sleep

Leap up and down

(in your dreams)

and celebrate the street

take a walk in the forest

but watch out for those Gestapo trees

Cuckoo as the Stepford Quintet

experimental triangulation

with a pinch of Tippex (Strikethrough) sex

Now nobody can go anywhere

unless they've got some place to go

Ironically chronically

de ja vue we've not been this scared

since nineteen eighteen

Emotionally unstable

the insatiable appetite

of the super bitch

sadists masochists

and the extremely rich

To King Karloff and his phoney cronies

sideways ain't up

23032020

Coronavirus

COLD OR BEEK

cyrus virus

the sparrow's beak

corona pop the saxaul's peek

at lonely girl

bubble and squeak

is isolation cold or beek

up the paddle

without a creak

as silent as a lonely leek

when she went up

atop the peak

the tide was turning in the creek

no one was there

oh what a weak

and helpless thing timid and meek

so far apart

things look so bleak

pray she gets better by next week

cyrus virus

the sparrow's beak

corona pop the saxaul's peek

at lonely girl

bubble and squeak

is isolation cold or beek

22032020

What's up Doc???

THAT MYTHICAL OUNCE

If they did it the way we wanted it

to be done it would be okay but they

have no clue which way is up

They run their company like a dinner lady

running a nineteen sixties school canteen

they're full of hot air not quite up to full steam

Living the dream off the back of the working men

and women that graft for food and drink and a roof

over their head if their lucky plucky perhaps

Waiting for the right time to pounce

on that mythical ounce of gold

that we were told would be definitely could be ours

If we keep our heads down and our noses clean

it's like talking to a brick wall trying to get any sense

out of them the entitled ones that think they rule

Of course they do while we let them drive roughshod

over us as we cower to their demands for lower pay

increased productivity and a longer working day

22022020

Leave or stay...

HOT FOOT

So you wanna get outta here fast faster than a speeding shinkansen quicker than that air-ship that they said would change the world nothing does that that quick but everything that happens happens for a reason everything has a season a time to live a time to cry a time to do a time to dye your hair too many people want what they can't have want what you've got will drag you to the floor and will come kicking chicken licking raving and screaming to your Vardo caravan door who's selling tickets for the final curtain who can you trust when the government refuse to represent those that elected them please don't vote unless you're certain the little dzien dobry girls laughing in the factory canteen at the boys and down the hall the left luggage office whirls crammed to the hilt with broken toys the good old boys of the boys brigade no lack of moral fibre here missing in action presumed dead comrade we don't need this kind of fear if we leave what about the NHS if we stay what about the corporate debt on the right what will happen to this mess on the left looking for a deal I bet jaw jaw brexit what a bore we don't want this war no more who's going to pick the fruit if Italian Sam the man from Castel del Monte and the Romanian women can't come what will happen if all the Poles go back to Warsaw and the anomaly of it all is that the Irish can vote in the UK and the English don't even recognise Eire as a foreign country yet anyhow you can't leave the room and still stay in it you can't say one thing and do chuff all from the darkness the light was lit they tell me pride comes before a fall where there's a will there's a way what does God say about this mess the wind is ill for the people have no say the parting of the waters post traumatic stress see-saw whatsit yeah yeah hot foot we don't want this war no more they don't know not what we hoot jaw jaw brexit what a bore who's selling tickets for the final curtain please don't vote unless you're certain there's never a good time to get your feet wet die with your boots on hit them where it hurts carry on up the khyber sideways if you have to affix bayonets give it to them good style the trouble is that both sides have good points I guess that's why the vote was split too close making a deal is the wrong term to use to deal is to put your cards on the table cards is a gamble and someone will lose confusion illusion and all that jizz that'll soon fizzle out an arrangement would be a better word make for a better world with BM and her Mercedes friends but what about the backstop easy peasy lemon squeezy forget about the Mexican Berlin Hadrian's Wall all we have to do is to let Ulster and her 1.9 million punters which is a million less than the West Midlands or Greater Manchester and only a little bit more than Merseyside or South Yorkshire claim dual citizenship with Eire like that end of the Island wants them to and bingo job done whilst in days gone by er der yes busman at Maine Road the advertising slogan on the old main stand roof used to say around a million renters can't be wrong although four million more voters want to leave than stay but the forty eight per cent still need their say the vociferous mediocrity whatever happened to democracy all of the ball's got to be over all of the line or it's not a goal and we think that's fine according to technology first past the post will win no need to re-count the votes so what's the problem do you think that the fifty two per cent have changed their minds or perhaps that apathy has set in maybe that is the problem and the hope that things might change with another vote would a general election float your boat or another referendum dum dum to dumb things down in this mad circus for that clown but like I said thirty six or more moons ago nothing will change the rich will still be richer than the poor the skyscrapers will still go up like the prices for essential things according to the left wings press but fall almost drastically if you listen to the right so who's wrong anyway only time will tell and there's not much of that left or is there if the truth be known we'll most likely have another three years or more of indecision arguments and political unrest and here's me looking forward to that pre 1973 two pence Mars Bar and petrol at seven pence a litre and the thing that's not been mentioned yet no VAT on the other hand we have to look at the human rights employment laws and the safeguarding of the NHS if we leave without an arrangement they're anybody's guess and you couldn't trust Boris to deliver on climate change with his china plate playing top trumps with Don for fun with a dodgy card and a loaded gun up his manicured sleeve if I were you I would start growing potatoes 'cos by all accounts we'll be on war rations soon so get yourself a fishing rod or better still a canoe or two and catch some cod for fish and chips and make sure your ration book is up to date or you'll be late and stuck at the back of the queue for bread and honey and there won't be any money left at the bank you'll need a wheel barrow full of dosh to get some nosh do you really wanna leave hard cheddar cheese

070919/1000 words

Brexit exit XXI

RUNNING WITH BLINKERS

Trick or treat don't confuse me not my muse

what could be worse than your chapter and verse

nothing adds up King Karloff's not much use

running with blinkers no time to rehearse

Euro no deal there's nothing to compare

they tell you sell you up the river gems

forty eight fifty two don't care how rare

bell bottoms flairs we're stitched up like their hems

Sixty forty mind the gap right to write

seventy thirty would be really fair

Karloff and his belly are not that bright

backstop cricket silly mid-on hot air

To do it right you need to do it well

get it right and there's nothing you can't sell

06092019/SHXXI

How we evolved?

THE GULLIBLE MULTITUDES

maybe or perhaps not but some say

that the aliens emerged from the sea

others of course maintain that evolution

is what it was all about

then many years later as technology became available

telescopes and cameras were deployed on the moon

and aimed at the earth to record all that they saw

but time out there isn't the way we see it down here

therefore what goes up may or may not come down

and the future might not start after the present

much like the past is more than likely

not necessarily before the present day

in fact there are no different days out there

all days and or nights for that matter are exactly the same

and it's cold I mean really cold but nobody grows old

and nobody dies they just float off to another place

to a new existence exponentially through the roof

if they had one if you know what I mean but they don't

and won't get it any more than those that thought

that humanoids evolved from sea creatures

or perhaps aliens that had splash landed in the oceans

of the world and eventually crawled ashore

no one really believes anything any more

they simply accept what they have or have not been told

the great unwashed the gullible multitudes

give me your money I'll come and collect it

if time doesn't exist what are we doing here

waiting for morning and going to work

why do we bother scrimping and saving

for a day that may not even rain

and the Moonsters out there are filming Genghis Khan

and the Great Wall of China

and one day not that there are any days out there of course

some of us are going to go there and crash land on the moon

and bring the recordings back to earth

so everybody will finally know what really happened

and won't have to rely on or believe in

the supposedly recorded history of our planet

but you won't really want to travel there by rocket

if I were you and thankfully I'm not you or anybody else

that I know or perhaps don't but believe me I would wait

until new space technology has been developed

something safer and faster or maybe you should go fishing

with that metal detector you stashed in the attic all those years ago

and bag yourself one of those alien craft that litter the ocean floor

it's only a matter of knowing where to look

or perhaps to hook it if you dig and don't get wet just saying

12082019/DN

Ice Age

IF THE TRUTH BE KNOWN

Something happened before the ice cream man came

to town and all the earth froze over

speculation intimidation and other words

screaming off the pages some hyphenated

punctuated with exclamation marks

long before commas and full stops were invented

many describing worlds of words bigger than marmalade

and with more letters than a pillar box

on the last posting day before Christmas

so when the fishing smacks went down

some say that dinosaurs roamed the earth

and different types of humanoids evolved

but shut the door what really happened

if the truth be known nobody really knows

except for the fact that something went very badly wrong

demonic degenerates dignitaries with holes in heads

shrunken brains an unevolved species of plant eating mammals

living in the canopy of trees others underground some in caves

a warring world of hand walking acrobats

clamouring to eke out a basic existence

screaming without words self strangulation

an unintelligible language of frustration

pretending to be something that was never meant to be

individuals living in a counterfeit universe

the copy-cat intellectuals of the pre-dawn

fighting for the right to be heard to be seen

to be who they were wrongly told that they were meant to be

the parallel universe planting thoughts upside down inside out

outlandish as a troglodyte on heat

who would have thought that eternity

had anything to do with all their mess

but time or the concept of it that we now know and use

the time that we keep and rely upon didn't yet exist

the different ones came and went some stayed

buried forever in the quick setting sand

for us for you and I to discover rediscover dig out of the clay

for us to adjudicate upon contemplate and marvel at today

but even in a perfect world not many barber shop quartets

butchers bakers or cake makers would ever find the truth

03082019/DN

2019/Conclusion

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

CONCLUSION

I wasn't sure how things were going to pan out this year, as we were away in the Philippines for the first couple of weeks, and my intention was to do a few more pieces for the Plymouth collection which I started last year after we came back. However, I did a follow up to a poem I wrote a few years ago called 'Hello Am I even Home' and I ended up doing several more to start yet another collection. I'll add the latest one below but before I go I must say congratulations to everybody who completed this years NaPoWriMo challenge.

HELLO AM I EVEN SOBER

I bought her an Easter egg she loves Easter

and she eats hot cross buns all year round

I only eat them on Good Friday

a few days after Easter she still hadn't eaten her egg

so I asked her when we were going to eat it

she laughed but I wasn't joking

I love chocolate I hid some in the house

but I can't find it now

sometimes I can't remember what I do with things

My friend asked me to wish him luck in the

London Marathon and said he managed three hours

twelve minutes and three seconds last year

this year he's going to try and beat that but he says

he usually gets bored and turns the TV over

Football's like that too the goalkeepers are so good

these days that it's hard to score

I took a penalty at Wembley and booted the ball

over the bar the next time I got the ball I beat five men

and scored I was the hero as we lifted the FA Cup

I dropped the lid and the noise woke me up

I dream about all sorts of things sometimes I dream

that I have been smoking cigarettes but

I gave up fourteen years ago

the other day I dreamt that I was an alcoholic

drinking two bottles of vodka a day

hello am I even sober

But the worst thing I hate is taking all those tablets

every day they tell me its time to take them and

I fall asleep when I wake up they've gone

who are they any way who's helping who

don't take tablets unless you have to

01052019