Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?
Welcome to Lager Time.
Three poems this on a London theme - ish. Poems below for those on the Substack. cree.substack for those who aren’t
Don’t forget - 27th March - I’m performing at Poetry & Poppadums Karemel Wood Green, tickets are a tenner - Murray Lachlan Young, Skye Lilly and Paul Lyalls hosting. Wollop.
Hope you all have a great weekend
Paul
A Wednesday
In a world of bias’s,
Provocateurs and Pias peeps
Undeterred self-publicists
And narcissistic rubber cheeks
Billionaires, donators and trusts
A Whole lack of trust,
A lot of Love and lust
Train, tubes and bus
it’s a lonely place,
cold and unsafe,
On a Wednesday
Charlton, Costa Coffee,
moderate to low salary
Salery? self employed mate
There’s no guarantee
Trying to figure out my way
Bruv, I got stripes in all the above
So what’s my beef?
I watch beef on the bus
Wiley does what Wiley does
Switch back to my feed
Unsettled dust in the Middle East
More conflict, what again?
Try breathe
More mess to comprehend
More mud to sift though
In search of gems
It never ends
Quick to get partisan
Too many play Peter pan
Take a childish position
When they push their prams
And toys fall out
1+1=59
If you ain’t on side
They cast you out
Invisibility cloak when I step out
Worried I’ll get stepped on and
Found out and dashed
Away like a keebab tray after a night out
Wow
It’s a lot mate
Especially for a Wednesday
Fag Break
Geezer behind the
seating booth, further
down the platform,
sneaking a fag in
out the view of the
beady eye, gets
asked by staff to
put it out.
He kisses his teeth and
stubs the thing.
Probably half of it
left, don’t know
what that’s worth
but I imagine a
fair bit, given
the price of
cigarettes.
Staff walks off, geezer
moans to the lady
next to him and
anyone else
who steps
near
‘everyone does it’
he says.
Which isn’t entirely, true but
largely true
Certainly a lot of
people do. He
just got unlucky
today. First time
I’d ever seen
anyone get
busted
here
Made me wish that
Same staff member was
there that time, when
I stepped off a train
Onto the very same
Booth and saw some man
squatting down with
his arse out, taking a
shit behind
the very same
seating
booth.
Should’ve
smoked a
fag whilst
he was
there.
Seems to me they
want the benefit of
the risk but none of
the consequences
‘If you can’t do the time’
How’s it go again?
I forgot.
Occupy
One Friday night, a few of the
Boys wanted to check-out
The Occupy camp outside
St Paul’s - en-route
to this Club
I’d never seen a shanty-town
Before but I
imagined this is
What one might look like
Minus the poor
People, most
probably
The boys were sat on the
Cathedral steps, whilst
Down below - in
Front of the camp
A debate was
Being had About
Day to Day
Camp
Stuff.
Dull
Not sure what I
Was expecting
It weren’t
that
Couldn’t-fault the
General effort
Though, they
Believed in
Something
And pitched-up
For weeks
And made
A lot of
noise
When I got there
My mate T was
Laughing, as
moments before I
Arrived - some
Geezer in a hi-viz
Apparently Holding his
hard-hat and clutching
A paper - Possibly a
few pints In - bowled
Passed And shouted
Something
like
‘Get a faaaackin’ job’
I laughed when I
Heard too
But
Hard-hat
had a
Point
And they
had a
Point
Too
Maybe there was
a 1 Percent
But
they
Were a
Four percent
That geezer was
A ninety-five
Percent
And that
Four percent
Weren’t
Listening
To the
Ninety
five
And still
Don’t
They
Could’ve
Debated
That
I would’ve
Listened
As well intentioned as
They may be
If there was a
revolution
I’d hope it
wasn’t Led
by this
Lot
Said the 95 percent
To the 4 percent
Speaking to the
1 percent
I wish I’d
Seen
it
