DANDY

Tags

Humanity, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire, slavery, Tom Cotton, wordplay

DANDY

cottonmouth
tom cotton
calls
slavery a
“necessary
evil”

what wool is he
trying to pull

what scars
willing to shroud

yep
it’s all so
dandy
cotton candy

and Dixie
just a nice
little
profitable sing-along song

to harp on
for all eternity

NOWHERE

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

NOWHERE

poem
came out of
nowhere

phoned from
a number
couldn’t phone
back in return

poem
was passing
overhead at
light speed

digitally
scrambled

in you
through you

nowhere
is a place
we should
at least talk about

when the
words dawn
like metaphor
in a dream

POEMS ON THE COLSTON STATUE

Tags

British, Capitalism, death, Humanity, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, power, satire, slavery

POEMS ON THE COLSTON STATUE

TOPPLED

Saddam, Stalin,
Colston

not much dignity
in the toppling of a statue
dignity the veneer
that varnishes so much blood

and plop! there he goes
to lie for not quite all eternity
at the bottom of Bristol harbour

the waters covering the horror
masquerading as trade and industry

not for him
the stark choice of suicide
springing overboard to
drown in the depths of
the Atlantic Ocean
in preference
to fate
worse
than death

deprive them
of that bit
of fair price

chained and
broken

humanity at
its most serviceable,
most valuable

EXCHANGE RATE

the statue
is sad

the statue
is broken

it no longer
stands erect
on its plinth

but lies
at the bottom
of Bristol harbour

ignored by
the sharks
(there are
always sharks)

they know
the exchange rate
of human meat

CARPET

whatever
else history is
(as thing that
is written
per Prof Haydn
White)

it is a pushing
of stuff
under
the carpet
classic repression

and with eighteen
thousand
men, women,
children

fed to
the sharks
you might imagine
how big
that carpet
must be

FINAL THOUGHT
ON THE COLSTON STATUE

am surprised
that the statue
sank

in my book
it should have floated

the physics of
its anti-humanity

keeping it from
disappearing
like a truly truculent
piece of unflushable shit

IT’S A RIOT

Tags

Censorship, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, power, Repression, riot, satire, wordplay

IT’S A RIOT

but nobody
is laughing

even
though
ratings are
through the
roof

but don’t be
looking for
a seat ringside

where you
can film it all
in wide-
angle lens

these cyborgs
don’t like
to be seen
on film
have an
instinctive aversion
to getting
captured on
camera

something about
allergy and
the nature of truth

a joke, really,
though try to
suppress even
the slightest snigger,
giggle or smirk

because laughter
has become a
capital offense

laughter will get you
hanging from a tree

vigilante judicial police
justice
a beauty for
the world
to see.

FLASH NEWS

Tags

Censorship, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, riots humanity, satire, Truth

FLASH NEWS

they flash
their press cards
like it is
supposed to
mean something

press means we
have a right
to arrest, a
right to oppress

it’s there
in
black and
white

tabloid headlined
in the all- new
unwritten

final
constitution

FOR ALL WOULD BE POLITICALLY CORRECT LOVERS OF PEOPLE OTHER (SUCH AS, OF COLOUR)

Tags

poem, poetry, satire

FOR ALL WOULD BE
POLITICALLY CORRECT LOVERS
OF PEOPLE OTHER (SUCH AS,
OF COLOUR)

I wonder
if when you
make love
to a person
other
(say,
of colour)

whether
political correctness
does not
jam your
difference settings
make you unnecessarily stiff

copulating like an android
with fully
robotic movements

and as
for
the
poetry, the
mouth-musical
soundtrack
there your
carefully programmed care
would make
a Dalek sound
like
Baudelaire

yet
your tin
heart
so in
the right
place
(perfectly
straight-laced)

SUGAR

Tags

Caribbean, love, poem, poetry, spiritual

SUGAR

I am a
soft centre

I am
a sticky bun

philosophically
I’ve been a
sweet tooth
as long
as I can
remember

so much
Caribbean
reggae rum
sugar

in my love, simply
there to
abide
in
grace
in love.

SHARE

Tags

earth, Ending, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, racism, xenophobia

SHARE

the way they say
“go home”

it’s like
“leave our
blue skies
green
garden

matter-of-fact
leave the planet

go to
the cold deep space
where there
is no humanity

or a
little less
than here”

we
hear you

who wish
to exhaust this
dead planet
for your
dead selves

be utterly selfish about
who breathes its air
its toxic
lung-burning
acidic air

soon the
sea
turned the colour

of deset camouflage
the land
seeped in
spewed oil a
gangrenous gray

will match your words
experts in
language will
laud this
iconic achievement

which, in absolute
selfishness, you
who must
take
every credit

steadfastly arrogate,
even ironically,
refuse to share

IN THE HISTORY OF CHESS

Tags

Chess, History, Metaphor, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, Race

IN THE HISTORY OF CHESS

In the history of Chess
everybody remembers
that Earth-shattering day

black
won his (or her) first game

the oceans rising, the skies
boiling, the volcanoes
volcanoing
everything

blowing its top at
the “mat” of
the white king

which was strange
all this happening
at the end
of the very
first game

maybe
white history
is a lie.

NOT A RACIST BONE

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, racism

NOT A RACIST BONE

we all got
racist bones
in our bodies

should try our best
to ensure they
do not speak

just do the
dinosaur stuff
they do
unobjectionably,
quietly
in the background

do not
jump up in
my face
tell me
“it
don’t
exist”