Poetry

Monday 30 September 2024

Keelhaul

 Don't you baste me ,

or bawl me out,

berate me,

or call me down,

I'm just trying to be a sailor man

There's no need to Keel haul


Oh don't you castigate me,

chastise me,

or chew me out,

I've been criticised

And I'll chew you up

And spit you out


Oh captain don't you

dress me down,

Or flay me

With a cat o nine tails

Of my nine lives

I've had eight

I'm not ready to go to the

Pearly gates

So there's no need to Keel haul


Don't you hammer me,

or jaw me,

Might as well hang and draw me

Because if all I'm good for

In the ocean's waste

Is just for you to lambast or lambaste

For more pace less haste

But just don't you keelhaul


Oh but you can lecture me,

rag me, or rail at me,

I'll turn student and learn the ropes

I'll learn one end of a yardarm

From a sergeant at arms with hope

But you may rant at me,

rate me, ream out the Ship of State at me

I just ask this if you don't hate me

No need to keelhaul


Oh, go ahead rebuke me Make me sick and whale fluke me

But if they approach will you reproach me

For crying "Whale Ahoy!" firstly?

Will you scold me with a fiery tongue Or brand me to know the score That you tongue-lash me

"It's for your own good, son"

Oh just don't keelhaul

Yes upbraid me, or downgrade me

Send me to the lower quarters
Get me to scrub the decks
Like the dreaming brows
Of your fair faced daughters

Oh bang me to rights
Or bang me up
Lock me in tight
Or in the stocks
Call me brass monkey
Let me carry shot
But just do not
Keel haul

Tuesday 24 September 2024

Ass versus Ham

 I think I'm an assburger

Some people are assburgers and some

people are hamburgers

Some people in Hamburg

Are Asburgs

But very Few people in Asberg

Are Hamburgers


Sunday 22 September 2024

Head or heart, decisions, decisions

 Head or Heart

Right from the start I tried to solve the

Dilemma

A split two ways down the middle

Like a family structure

Without the heart I cannot start, I'd throw it all

To the wind

And dive in

But my head says no not again

To put my life into the hands of someone else

Entirely

Unthinking

Risk it all

But for love,

That's the thing


Then my head, says prepare for anything

Stand on your own two feet and be strong

In the country of your birth

In the town where you were born

And belong?


The sea is romantic to me

But what have I really there?

I can imagine the surfers

And the cool

Brown skin and blonde hair

But would the surf unearth

The worth in gold

IS it all just a shallow reflection

Of what is sold

In glossy magazines

And the shirts and shoes of vans

Can I control culture? , no

But I do not belong to it either

I have no place in England it seems

And Hungary has been the place of my dreams

And it is in my dreams I think and feel

What I can call real

To create a world of the imagination

But not within

This stolid nation

Except without 

I'm plagued by doubt

And totally reliant on the trust of relations

And a relationship to sail my boat

Onto firm foundations

If I follow the call of the sirens

I become trapped upon an island

Or I follow the call of the mermaids

And wander out to sea

My other dream to sail the oceans blue

May only ever come true 

if I follow that path now

Rather than live in a landlocked country

Like Hungary

Prayer for the living

 Death is not the final

Destination to which we steer

It is just another passage

Through which we all must clear

But it is harder for a camel to pass

Through the eye of a needle

Than a rich man to get his fat arse

In to heaven's golden steeple

So people if we are to last

We must build a heaven here

On earth

As each day is a blessing vast

Each a new chance at Eden

While Flowers remember

 I'm gonna look at the people I know

I'm gonna look at the people I've lost

I'm gonna ask

Now where did they go?

While the flowers remember their ghost


I'm gonna wander on down through the rows

I'm gonna shed a tear at the last post

I'm gonna wait in my room for hours

While the flowers remember their ghost


I've not come here to get silly

I've not come to get lost

I've just come on the Billy

And he's just held onto my ghost


Now don't just count me

In hours

When time is the enemy of most

They say kill time before it kills your powers

While the flowers remember their ghost


They say drink wine

They say get a clue

They say what is mine 

is yours and that's true

As long as it pours

From Heaven's retinue

Because it falls in buckets and spades on the coast

While flowers remember their ghost


Saturday 21 September 2024

The Jamie Oliver crew, topshop, or toploader moon

 Well the Jamie Oliver crew 

came to dance in the Art bank one day

Most you could say were smug Londoners

But don't let me influence you, hey

No some they were just the landlords or landladies

Owners of properties local

They all wore their beatnik bombers

Leather jackets

or beige jacket potatoes

Really they felt like they were young

When really they were all just middle-agers

They wore vans trainers and danced

Like they weren't just sad

wannabe teenagers


What really means it to be cool?

What when really you're insecure

So you put up a front

And pretend you're not a cunt

When you know

You're just late blooming

toploader


Friday 20 September 2024

Family fortunes or Gods generation game

 Nice Demeter, Demeter nice

She was the mother of Persephone

persephone phone me, phone me perse,

 She was on the dog and bone

Every night to her underground colleagues

Oh they were the "Resistance" at first

Yes Hades raged against Zeus

But then he put on them a curse

And Hades was stuck under a roof


So Persephone his girlfriend went with him

Or you could say he kidnapped her

Kidnapping is a crime on a global scale

Much like Stealing a giant Panda bear


But they didn't have panda diplomacy

Not much at least in ancient Greece

Except it was left up to Pandora herself

To open her own box with her teeth


Now Prometheus he discovered fire

Or you could say he stole it from Zeus

But stealing from Kings is a crime

And gets you locked up which is proof


So Prometheus he was locked to a boulder

While ravens pecked out his liver as truth

Is extracted from a liar by torture

As nature is red in claw and in tooth


But torture is a crime internationally

Just take Guantanamo bay

If you mess with the empire

Such as stealing fire power

Then you better be sure you will pay


So we've learnt our methods from the Gods

We've tried our hand at their game

And you know they were really a bunch of sods

Who really are all much to blame


An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

That was how it was until Jesus hit the roof

And literally tore the false Gods from the ceiling

And he said instead turn the other cheek

But who is listening to him now eh?

Christ's way seems to be thought of as weak

And I get the feeling that he must be reeling

Because no one is listening to him speak