POEMS
Get Out The Car
Goodbye to history, where we diverged
tanking through the culvert, coasting
round some civil engineer’s graceful bend.
The traffic jam wasn’t in the advert.
Don’t start the car, stop the car.
Tentative end in the forest, in the streets,
glandular flowers arrowhead the ground
sunshine on veins and fold marks.
The grains of tribal strength non-proliferate
chemicals and scientific food degenerate
our life-force. Hopes and ambitions skulk
in the desert bowl of a shopping trolley.
Consumers of distance and movement
watch watchers, second snatchers,
home is where we’re not, home is where we’re not,
the time for tokenism’s over
get out the car, get out the car
get out the car, let your children live
get out the car, commuting time is over
get out the car, explore vocations local
get out the car, the time for tokenism’s over
Eat nothing mass-produced
your side of beef’s long over-done
you’ve been putting off and putting off
shake your spear at self-appointed emperors
grains of tribal strength circle in the wind
a painful legacy as wasteful ancestors
reach out your hand
tune in to the idea of community
shake off your compromised immunity
the elite’s multi-layered eugenics
gargantuan dam-builders, meal for one
invisible, we exist only in their cost column
get out the car, get out the car
get out the car, let your children live
get out the car, commuting time is over
get out the car, explore vocations local
get out the car, the time for tokenism’s over
Pull the tractor out the ditch
let lie the earth layer of broken pristine products
pulsing treasure, walked over texture
vines and field marks were missed
the grains of tribal power are buried with asbestos
the cabbage white butterfly crushed at man’s nexus
The morons won’t be happy
‘til the last tree’s cut down
The morons won’t be happy
‘til the last lawn’s paved over
when all animals are extinct
we will be next, the human animal
Consumers of speed and mileage
where are you really going?
consumers of speed and mileage
in your confined escape vehicles
tinned up numbnuts, line of sheep
The time for tokenism is over
get out the car, get out the car
and let your children live
Love in a Changing Climate
And I was just saying
I carry the sound of your voice in my head
Your text messages read and re-read
When everything has broken down
I’ll be your carbon-neutral clown
Politicians doing it for expenses
All that talk of building fences
Coming to terms with aspirational teeth
Night in, with ultra-violet and bleach
And I was just saying
You haven’t been around
I’ve been listening to Polly Jean
Inventing my own dance routine
Singing along to the backing vocals
Lifting me to somewhere hopeful
When everything is broken down
I’ll be your carbon-neutral clown.
Free trade deals like NAFTA
Will make the perfect baked Alaska
This week I’m choosing to heat
Next week I’m choosing to eat
And I was just saying
The spirit is willing
But the flesh has peaked
Your presence ghostly
(We discuss politics mostly)
When everything is broken down
I’ll be your carbon-neutral clown
I’m a multi-millionaire
But not of money
Liquidity runny, disposition sunny
I’ve downsized from 18 to 8
I can slip through the bars
Of any gate
And I was just saying
My trouser seams may be fraying
From tiredness I could be swaying
The time for talking is over
It’s time for praying
My calm serenity will never lapse
As I gaze past neoliberal collapse
My focus will never waver
I can resist… two for one offers… or supersavers
And I was just saying
I learned how not to look weak
how to turn the other cheek
Someone said I’m too political
And Charlie Chaplin was far too comical
And Jesus Christ was just too Christ-like
So let’s take that fight to them
Let’s press right into them
Just saying, just saying
When everything has broken down
I’ll be your carbon-neutral clown.