LIVE IN SPACE

for Ben

for Gareth Thomas

If you were Kerr Avon

And I were Roj Blake

And you kill me at the end of the series

I would understand that you had your reasons

I would die for you

And you would look off into the distance

Avon staring on and on and on

Live in space

Die in space

Just like you always say

It isn’t easy to trace one line

Through the pattern of infinity

ENAMEL SONG

At the end of your life

when you die with a clot

somewhere on a motorway

driving at 90 

with a cig between your lips 

scowling

after the inferno has burned itself out

and your 18 wheel rig buckled and naked

reveals a nest of umbrella skeletons

fresh from the factory

you knew it would be your last delivery

It is someone’s job to make an impression

Once they prize apart your cinder jaws

Do you think if you had known 

That when they say dental record

They Mean Record 

   every second of your life a contour 

You would have bothered doing anything

differently

Harvest Hymnal

The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

He made them, high or lowly,

And ordered their estate.

Accepting donations for the needy

the needy eat spam & tinned potatoes

the needy eat cup-a-soup

the needy eat mushy peas & beans

Beans beans beans beans beans

A field full of stubble

all you can glean is bad advice / in church

the vicar says thanks

and everyone stands together to sing

a hymn titled ‘the deservingly poor’

When a candle catches at a collage

UNBELIEVABLE HARVEST FESTIVAL BLAZE

Every tin of beans

boils inside its shoe box

and explodes

At the fire assembly point

counting up his spluttering sheep

the vicar wonders if  he missed someone

he’s got a nagging feeling

but from ages & ages ago

Out of the smoke – THE HOLY GHOST

With sparks coming out of her eyes

You missed the point you fucking cunts

she hands the vicar an iPad with a pdf

title: REVENGE 

the vicar smiles in recognition

he has always wanted faith

in righteous righteous indignation

HOLY GHOST who is a recovering drug addict

just keeps bursting into flames

staring at her melting carrier bags

vicar looks back to his stupid parishioners