should be the only one
who knows what he’s doing
13
you’re afraid of the BIG BAD DARK
which loiters in our room
the night it prowls about the yard
the wind howls in distress
a peepingtom moon at the window
waits for the table to undress
it’ll soon be tomorrow
there’s nothing to fear
you whisper ‘never leave me’
then
put your
tongue
in my ear
14
sometimes at dawn you awake
and naked creep across our orangeroom
and drawing aside
our prettyyellowcurtains
gaze at the neatroofed horizon
of our littletown
waiting for the sun
screaming with dull pain
to rise like a spark
from a crematorium chimney
then you pitterpad back to bed
your head aflame with fear
you lie in my arms
and you lie:
‘i’m happy here
so happy here’
15
KNOCK KNOCK
shhhhh…
dont open it
it can only be…
the ENEMY!!
16
It’s got to be done
to be done right away
monika dont argue
do as i say
i’ve put out the milkman
and wound up the maid
its well after midnight
so dont be afraid
yes leave the light on
theres so much to see
now monika fetch the razorblade
and lie next to me
17
you are so very beautiful
i cannot help admiring
your eyes so often sadnessful
and lips so kissinspiring
i think about my being-in-love
and touch the flesh you wear so well
i think about my being-in-love
and wish you were as well
as well
and wish you were as well
18
i often have the feeling
that when tidying the flat
you are not thinking
of shoes, newspapers
and trivia like that
but of a skullwhite building
where all the inmates
talk poetry to scrambled eggs
and whistle at operatingtable legs
a home for Incurable Romantics
a place to end my days
you will surely have me committed
i must rise and mend my ways
19
away from you
i feel a great emptiness
a gnawing loneliness
with you
i get that reassuring feeling
of wanting to escape
20
you dont say anything
but your eyes tell me
that my standing naked
to seduce the moon
and my crying because
she walked right past
is sadly symptomatic
of a fatal attack of
‘push your icy fingers
into my brain
its so hot and lonely here’
21
when the hadtohappen time came
and you quit our hadbeenhappy bed
you pulled the blankets o’er my head
and left me on my sadandlonely own
now i listen darkly to the memory of your smell
and wonder when the sun will melt the storm
our love is like a kitten in a well
the death of something young and softlywarm
the death of something of uncertainform
22
last sundaymorning
when holypictures
fluttered
on dusty church floors
when dockers snored
and mams went heavy
on the gravy browning
you got out of bed
and picking up a hatchet
whose name was
‘iloveyoubutwecantgo
onlikethis’
you murdered me
brutifully
then with my tears
still singing
on your hands
you went to your mothers
for telly and a liedown
23
you are a woman of many faces
and the one that suits you best
i fear
is the one you wear when i’m not here
for when you wear your marriage face
boredom lounges round the place
24
you should never have said that
now
your smiles are whiteelephants
and your face a photograph
to be come across
some slow brown sunday
you should never have said that
your tongue is a mother without pity
now
love is gone
andanonymous
like the death of a bird in a city
25
we endure cold days and nights
out on the moors
though we dont like the
countryside at all
but by spending all our time
out of doors
we dont have to see the
writing on the wall
26
monika your soups getting cold
its cream of chicken too
why are you looking at me like that
why have your lips turned blue?
we simply cant go on like this
fighting tooth and nail
why are you looking at me like that
why has your face grown pale?
youre enough to drive a man insane
go completely off his head
why are you looking at me like that
why has your dress gone red?
the only thing i’m sorry about
is that we came to blows
why are you looking at me like that
have i got crumbs on my nose?
alright, i’m sorry i hit you so hard
but nexttime do as youre told
why are you looking at me like that
monika your soups getting cold
27
your finger
sadly
has a familiar ring
about it
28
where have the sunshine breakfasts gone?
orange juice and bacon
the morning kiss and toothpastesmile
you seem to have forsaken
now its greasy grimaces
eggs fried stormyside up
burnt threats and curdled anger
tears in a dirty cup
29
you have gone
you say forever,
and i hear nothing
but the clatter of old leaves on stone floors
30
the sky has nothing to say
and the scaffoldings are full of dead birds
the moon has passed away
and the wind has tears in its eyes
now even the policemen have gone home
and scattered like memories old and worn
the litter
has
inherited
the dawn
31
sitting alone
with my bottle of sauce
KNOCK KNOCK
‘who’s there?’
noone of course
32
once upon a love
we spent our nights
blowing kisses across
the pillow
now we spend them
throwing plates across the kitchen
33
don’t think i’m moaning
or trying to protest
but do you really need
another new dress?
why not smile
its cheaper and just as pretty
34
… and when Death comes in
with his zip undone
you’ll give in
as you’ve always done…
35
lastnight
was your night out
and just before you went
you put your SCOWLS
in a tumbler
half filled with steradent
(so that they’d keep nice and fresh for me)
36
said i trusted you
spoke too soon
heard of your affair
with the maninthemoon
say its allover
then if you’re right
why does he call
at the house everynight?
37
i have a war on my hands
each night i lie awake
and snipe at terrorists
who run naked
through the steaming jungles
of your dreams
i am on your side
but you dont care
you are asleep and unaware
of my futile heroics
my fear is that one night
i might fall asleep
and you will be captured
my sorrow is that you probably wouldn’t mind
(why else keep a white flag under the pillow?)
38
once i paid the piper
and called the tune
but one afternoon
returning home
earlier than usual
i found you in bed
with the piper
you called the last waltz
and now i dance sadly
out of your life
1–2-3
1–2-3
1–2-3
39
i wanted
my castle in the air
but it vanished
without trace
i wanted
my pie in the sky
but you gave it me
in the face
40
monika who’s been eating my porridge
while i’ve been away
my quaker oats are nearly gone
what have you got to say?
someone’s been at my whisky
taken the jaguar keys
and monika, another thing
whose trousers are these?
i love and trust you darling
can’t really believe you’d flirt
but there’s a strange man under the table
wearing only a shirt
there’s someone in the bathroom
someone behind the door
the house is full of naked men
monika! don’t you love ME anymore?
41
monika the teathings are taking over!
the cups are as big as bubblecars
they throttle round the room
tinopeners skate on the greasy plates
by the light of the silvery moon
the biscuits are having a party
they’re necking in our breadbin
thats jazz you hear from the saltcellars
but they don’t let nonmembers in
the eggspoons had our eggs for breakfast
the saucebottle’s asleep in our bed
i overheard the knives and forks
‘it won’t be long’ they said
‘it won’t be long’ they said.
42
it all started yesterday evening
as i was helping the potatoes
off with their jackets
i heard you making a date
with the kettle
i distinctly
heard you making a date
with the kettle
my kettle
then at midnight
in the halflight
while i was polishing the bluespeckles
in a famous soappowder
i saw you fondling
the fryingpan
i distinctly
saw you fondling the frying
my frying pan
finally at middawn
in the halfnight
while waiting in the coolshadows
beneath the sink
i saw you makinglove
with the gascooker
i distinctly
saw you makinglove
with the gascooker
my gascooker
my mistake was to leapupon you crying
‘MONIKA THINK OF THE SAUCERS!’
for now i’m alone
you having left me for someone
with a bigger kitchen
43
in october
came a-knocking at our door
i set in a store
of biscuits and whisky
you filled the hotwaterbottle with tears
and we went to bed until spring
in april
we arose
warm and smelling of morning
we kissed the sleep from eachothers eyes
and went out into the world
and now summer’s here again
regular as the rentman
but our lives are now more ordered more arranged
the kissing wildly carefree times have changed
we nolonger stroll along the beaches of the bed
or snuggle in the longgrass of the carpets
the room nolonger a world for makebelieving in
but a ceiling and four walls that are for living in
we nolonger eat our dinner holding hands
or neck in the backstalls of the television
the room nolonger a place for hideandseeking in
but a container that we use for eatandsleeping in
our love has become
as comfortable
as the jeans you lounge about in
as my old green coat
as necessary
as the change you get from the milkman
for a five pound note
our love has become
as nice
as a cup of tea in bed
as simple
as something the baby said
monika
the sky is blue
the leaves are green
the birds are singing
the bells are ringing
for me and my gal
the suns as big as an icecream factory
and the corn is as high as an elephant’s
i could go on for hours about the beautiful
weather we’re having but monika
they dont
make summers
like they
used to…
Summer with the Monarch
The Queen came up to Liverpool
To dine at our Town Hall
In the evening wrote to her husband
‘Dear Philip, I’m having a ball
I think I’ll hang around
I mean everything’s happening here
I’m beginning to dig the poetry scene
And the ale, as they say, is the gear.’
So while she was having a castle built
Down in Castle Street
She had a look round Liverpool 8
Found a pad there, small but neat
She moved in a few belongings
Corgis, crown, a throne
And blueblood in the neighbourhood
Really raised the tone
Soon Her Majesty was caught up
In the bohemian social whirl
Our gracious teenybopper
Everybody’s girl
I met her at a party
Somewhere in Norris Green
I was just a layabout
And she was queen of the scene
But love knows no class barriers
As you well rightly know
And as I’d had a few that night
I thought I’d have a go
We had a couple of dances
As a matter of fact we raved
And when I asked ‘Can I take you home?’
She simply smiled and waved
And she told me next morning
‘I’ll never love another
I’ve always fancied weirdos
I appoint you Royal Lover.’
The same day we decided
To set the social pace
And once we’d laced our sneakers
There was noone in the race
We’d go everynight to the alehouse
Throw down a few black ’n’ tans
She’d roll a joint in the Ladies
And we’d crawl back home on our hands
Our world was mad and frenzied
The sun refused to set
Our joy seemed neverending
A life of fun – and yet
Happiness is mis-shaped
As I was soon to learn
For now this little story
Takes on a sadder turn
For the Establishment was angry
And to everyone’s surprise
Her husband and the Prime Minister
Were planning her demise
They kidnapped her one morning
While I was still in bed
Took her to the Tower
And chopped off her head
now sadly i remember
with tears for company
how i spent summer with the monarch
and
the monarch
spent summer
with me.