for PATTAYA TRADER 214 (B)

SHE'S-A-MISTY-MYSTICAL-AVALON-CREATURE-
NOT-REVEALED
Through the mists of time
I spy the silvery-waters of Avalon.
The lake-lady's white arm
risen like the neck of a swan.
In her fist King Arthur's sword.
Water-nymph or mermaid found my lord?

GIRL-HORSE-SEEKS-
MAGIC-MALE-HORSE?
Mare, as if shorn
of magic-horn,
seeks stallion
as her unicorn.

Fairytale romance.
Go hoof it, prance
across dewy-fields
in sure rosy-dawn.

VERY-UNSETTLING-COMPANY-WAS-
THE-BRITONS'-DEVIL-HILL
A Roman fort stood upon Huntcliff,
its watchtowers far above the sea.
A devil that gave its name to Hob Hill
was not good or welcomed company.
But time and tide sweep men away,
even the children who in their shadows play.

VICTORIAN-WEEK-HAD-THE-VERY-DARWIN-TOUCH !
There in the Valley Garden
by the Monkey Puzzle tree,
outside the tea-shop
people drank cups of tea.

Upon the leafless lawn
(apart from leaves of grass !)
we, girl, took a table,
Yorkshire lad and his lass.

Was it a chimps tea-party
like they have at the zoo?
The sun tipping his tophat
up there in the clear blue.

FED-RADICALISM-WITH-FLIPPANT-
CONTEMPT-FROM-THE-SO-RICH
How fitting that Fetter Lane
could be taken as Manacle
in the minds of those lived there
and became radical.

The poet Blake was familiar
with the Lane and Tyburn's gallows-tree.
Newgate Prison, the Thames River
stinking and snaking out to sea.
The far too rich, the far too poor,
the hungry knocking at hunger's door.

THE-SO-DAMN-HIGH-AND-MIGHTY-DESPOTS
It has been said that power corrupts,
and total power corrupts totally.
To put total power in the hands of one,
he'll think himself a divinity.
We've had the divine rights of kings,
and something like it with dictators.
There are also the tiny tyrants.
Bullies who seek higher status.

for PATTAYA TRADER 214 (A)

CURSE-A-CLOSER-BY-ME-WOMAN-
YOU-ALWAYS-DO
Caught in your web,
go unbind her.
it's just a girl who's
an innocent bystander.
Your cruel jealousy
makes you a spider
or a wicked sort
of spellbinder.

for PATTAYA TRADER 213 (C)

WING-HIGH-WORDS-MINE-
YES-DO-NOW
Like the honking goose
and the hissing swan
carrying thei messages
over the hills of Albion,
or the carrier hawk or dove
taking news to a king
or even a fair queen,
may my words wing,
may my words fly
higher than the hills are high.

IT'S-THE-HIGHLY-SECRET-GLENSIDE-COTTAGE-
GARDEN-NO-MORE
Windsor Road to the fore,
Glenside Terrace to the right.
Albion Terrace to the left
and the sea not far from sight.
Here is the very cottage
where I had been reared.
To those who visited,
a secret garden there appeared.
And a secret garden there is,
behind the highest wall
"Surrounding flowers and trees,
fairies small and giants tall,
the town-centre just over the way,"
you will hear the visitors say !

TIME-AND-TIDE-SURE-WASHED-
A-DAMNED-NEW-TEMPTRESS-ASHORE
Oh, like the damn witch
with Welsh seamaid name,
cruel Morgan the Fairy,
you are here to game
with halo and crown.
You wish to see fine men drown.

MISSING-THE-LINK-BETWEEN-
HUMAN-BEINGS-AND-THICK-
LATENT-APES?
'The Rights of Man'
wrote Thomas Paine,
and for man's rights
I have no disdain.
He has a right
to world humanity,
but the right also
to set apemen free?

WOMAN-WITH-THE-SEAMAN'S-
MERMAID-TATOO
Pressganged into service
were the men unwilling
to join a naval-ship
and take the Royal's shilling.
Pressgang me into service, girl?
I'll willingly sail you round the world !

THE-LONGEST-GIRL'S-SMILE-
HAS-GOT-TO-BE-A-FADING-PHOTOGRAPH
She met him by the photo-booth
where he was awaiting a train.
She gave her photo to the youth
who would not journey that way again
for a long time; a long, long while.
Find he'd aged more than her lasting smile.

for PATTAYA TRADER 213 (B)

A-DARK-SWANNING-ON-HIGNESS-
CROWNED-HER-I
Swan Lake is more poetic
than Duck Pond I'd agree,
and though a black swan
some might deem ugly,
the dark Siamese-girl
was a majestic beauty.

CORRECTION:

The end line of FRUSTRATED-GIRL should read 'could not' and not 'couldn't'. I know this sounds, perhaps, silly, but it jars less, having used the word 'couldn't' only a couple of lines away. It flows better, lengthens the line, and balances the alliteration of P, B, and D. I'm sure I've made such slight errors elsewhere, but I do have the corrected verses other than on this blog. Cheers, mateys. Captain Mark.

for PATTAYA TRADER 213 (A)

NOW-HANG-THE-PORTRAYAL-HIGH-
IN-THE-LOW-DOWN-ANIMAL-HOUSES?
The world is much smaller now,
though a jungle none-the-less.
Where we try to sanitise
it is a human zoo at best.
The odour inside the cages
we call the smell of success.

Wild is the competition,
there is nobody can tame it.
Though there are the despots
whose desire is to go chain it.
Find true-merit and moderation.
What a picture ! I'd sure frame it.

"FIND-THE-FRUSTRATED-GIRL-CHLOE-
HAS-COME-ROUND-AGAIN-GUYS"
Chloe was a chameleon.
Went from black to red to fair
her several different wigs
and colour of her very own hair.
She would venture into town,
enter pubs on the High Street
where word had got around
the girl was anybody's treat.
It earned her many names
but she took them in her stride.
There are many bad names
even real chameleons couldn't hide.
The changeling had a huge hunger
that just couldn't be satisfied.

SERIOUSLY-LIKE-A-COMICAL-
SEVENTIES-TV-SERIES
Like Citizen Wolfie Smith
are you, I go say.
Though you think you look
more like your hero Che.

All animals are equal
and equal with humans too?
All humans are equal
and equal to animals in the zoo?

All children are equal
and equal to the fully grown?
All adults are equal
and their children don't own?

Sometimes I am with you.
I see the naive child
in many of the people,
and also the wild.

But as to ownership,
what you fight for I see
is the State controller
who'd own both you and me !

for PATTAYA TRADER 212 (F)

THE-EARTH-REALLY-
ENLIGHTENED
Thought is faster
or as fast
as the light
that is cast.

Thoughts encircle
the world but
there are those
don't think enough !

NOW-AN-INTERGALACTIC-GOD-
A-FISHY-DAGAN-TRIBAL'S-TALES-SURE-
DO-INFORM-US-FOLK-FIND
Ah the Temple of Dagan
was wrecked by mighty Samson.
Held to be evil the fish-man he.
But there is one pagan race
says he came from outerspace,
taught their old tribe civilities.
Arrived in a huge eggshell -
he who'd amongst them dwell -
bigger than any shell in the sea.
They had thought him a very god
who amongs them taught and trod
their earth. He who was starry?

THE-HORNED-AND-HAIRY-HUNTER-
HERNE-HE
A shaggy phantom,
a staggy phantom,
on horseback after dark.
A shaggy phantom,
a staggy phantom,
galloping through the Park.

A shaggy phantom,
a staggy phantom
with his set of horns great.
A shaggy phantom
who earlier got hanged
now rides through Windsor, late.

DON'T-CRUMPLE-YOUR-KILT-
NAE-MAN !
A street-philosopher type.
An R.C. Nesbitt at best.
"Haggis," cry out the neighbours,
"give your bagpiping a rest.
Bad-mouthing us English
and looking like a yob,
get back over the border,
or get yourself a job.
Always drinking the scotch
and for ever out of work,
do a cross-swords dance.
You sure are just a shirk.
Yes a cross-swords dance
because we're cross with you.
The road out of Scotland
leads you back there too !"

NOT-A-WESTERN-COUNTRY-INVADER-WAS-I-
DARK-VENUS-BUT-YOUR-SPELLBOUND-
ALIEN-LOVER-YES
I was a stranger on the shore,
a stranger in a strange land.
Like an Eastern witch or fairy
you waved your magic-wand.
I was your Dr. Strangelove
but with an ungloved hand.
I was your man from the West,
the first, sure not the last.
I drink, Dem, to your future,
your alien now in the past.

BORN-WITH-A-SILVERLESS-SPOON-
IN-HER-MOUTH-WAS-THE-ENVIOUS-
GIRL-I-GUESS !
You may spy her in Cheapside.
Wallets and purses best hide.
She has a thing about wealth.
She'd make a richman a poor-bride.
Better that he keep wide.
She'd be bad for his health.
You might find her at the dockside,
hailing sailors, winky-eyed,
or in the dock of a courtroom.
A modern day Moll Flanders she.
No kind of a girl for good company.
A lover of the silvery-spoon !

for PATTAYA TRADER 212 (E)

WITH-WHITE-STORKS-AND-LATER-
WITH-DAMN-BLACK-BATS
The Black Death friars
of a far-off dark ages
within cruel city walls
where now many the bridges
over the flowing Thames
that London divides...
Did Black Death eyes
see white on the otherside?
Did Black Death eyes
see light beyond the dark?
Half-a-peopled city dead.
Went with bat who came with stork.

LIKES-BEN-BIG-TIME-SHE
She likes Big Ben.
P.O. Tower is bigger.
But Ben strikes her
a proud father figure
who chimes and charms.
And also struck is she
by the time that he has
for his London City !

for PATTAYA TRADER 212 (D)

IT'S-A-CUNNING-GIRL-CAT-BURGLARIZES-
HARD-TOM'S-LOFTY-HEART-FIND
He is hearing alarm-bells ring.
His heart the girl's burglarizing.
She has it almost in the bag.
Shall make off with her hard-swag.

(correction to below)

for PATTAYA TRADER 212 (C)

A-CUNNING-GIRL'S-CATBURGLARIZING-
HARD-TOM'S-HEART
You're hearing alarm-bells ring.
Your  heart the girl is burgaling.
She has it almost in the bag.
Shall make off with her hard-swag.

DESIROUS-OF-A-LOVE-GOD'S-BOW-AND-MIGHTY-
DART-ARE-THE-LONESOME-GIRLS
Eros, Cupid, Kama,
gods of love all three.
Greek, Roman, Indian.
Bow carriers they be.

A lonely-woman, find,
welcomes the dart
that kills the common,
fills with love her heart.

BOOZE-BLINDNESS-OR-SIGHTLESS-HATE-
CAN-BOTH-KILL
At the end of Whitechapel Road
The Blind Beggar stands.
The pub where Ronnie Kray
shot dead a rival in gangland.
The Albion Brewery had stood
next door to The Beggar.
Blind-drunkenness and blind-hate.
Sure evil alone or together?

YES-THE-DROOPY-DICKIE-WAS-HE
In the Heineken factory,
Dick saw into the alcoholic-soup.
A vat of Dutch-lager.
The sight alone gave brewer's droop !

The sight alone gave brewer's droop
while on a factory tour.
In the red-light district,
didn't even bother to score.
When you've got the drinky-droop
it is pointless, for sure !

WHEN-CLUMSY-ANARCHISM-SUPPORTED-
STRICT-CONTROL-OH-YES !
East End London, 1886,
a very hotbed of Jewish anarchists.
They supported, too, the bolsheviks.
These Jews being mainly atheists
they ate, for effect, ham sandwhiches.
Took the ham in their left-fists.
Hamfisted they were ! Get my gist?!

SWALLOWING-HIGH-TEASON-
WITHOUT-THE-SEASONING
Beefeaters are the fellows
who guard The London Tower
which itself is a meat-eater;
the lives it has devoured !
Like some giant, perhaps?
Like some really-grim ogre
that's swallowed several-types
who'd the throne throwover?

for PATTAYA TRADER 212 (B)

IT-WILL-COME-TO-ALL-AROUND-
DARKLY-COLD-DEATH
The memorial to the dead
above Waterloo Station.
The World-War-I-ers
who fought for their nation.
Death, oh dark death
their cold destination.
From Waterloo to where?
Death is up here; will come there.

YES-HALF-FISH-OF-EASTER-FOLKLORE-WAS-
WHITBY'S-VERY-OWN-CELTIC-CHRISTIAN-
HILDA-SURE
Hilda of the Celtic-Church,
and abbess at Whitby she,
could turn grass-snakes into clay,
and herself into part-fish of the sea.
But couldn't turn away mighty-Rome.
It rolled over her like a huge-stone.

DON'T-FLY-OFF-THE-HANDLE-
AS-TO-THIS-HILL
Boys and girls fly kites still,
from what folk call Parliament Hill
because the cronies of Guy Fawkes
(he who hailed from City-of-York)
were said to gather there to watch
the soon to fail Gundpowder Plot?!
Kite Hill or Parliament pick.
No fireworks please, over it !

"GO-WING-IT-OR-SWING-IT-ROGUES !"
Cockspur Street
just off Pall Mall.
Every pickpocket
and his Moll
joined the cockfights,
joined the crowd,
robbed the gentlemen,
how they crowed !
"Jailbirds, jailbirds,
crow cocky do,"
sang the hanging judge
"'cause I'll get you !"

DAMN-LASTING-TOOTH-AND-NAIL'S-
TRUTH-I-DO
There's Marxist splinter-groups.
Find Christian splinter-groups too.
Stalin had Trotsky assassinated.
China-and-Russia would feud.
Catholics warring with protestants.
Islam bares its tiger-tooth.
All sure out for hell and fury.
All claim to fight for Truth.

for PATTAYA 212 (A)

NO-GREAT-WORD-BATTLE-ON-NELSON'S-WATCH-
DUTCH-SOUNDING-GIRL !
Taking the avenue, Northumberland,
turn right for the Strand
or left for Charing Cross.
Straight ahead Trafalgar Square.
Look at Nelson way up there.
Now isn't he, girl, the boss?!
You want to go Holland Park
before it gets to be dark?
Sure romantic there you hear.
You're almost speaking Dutch,
going cross-eyed, drank too much
when with your meal you'd beer.
Tuneless and louder than the lark
I think it best your ass you park,
the evening is drawing near.

IT'S-DRAGONS-GOLDY-RED-AND-BENIGN-
AND-GREEN-AND-MALIGN-EAST-AND-WEST
The dragon symbol
at Templar Bar
is not a dragon
of the East afar.

No it's not a dragon
of the far East.
Mainly benign
is that beast.

Guardian of treasure
like the griffin.
Red-and-gold scaled,
head, tail, wings.

The West's dragon
is green scaled,
head and wings
and its tail.

for PATTAYA TRADER 211 (E)

UPTIGHT-ABOUT-ACTIVE-ACTRESSES-
AROUND-THE-VERY-CORNER-WAS-THE-PURITAN-NO?
"Greetings. I'm going
round The Globe."
"Round the world?!"
"No. The Theatre
round the road."

"Theatres ! I hate them.
They're crude chapels of Satan !"
"Oh you're such a puritan.
hang-loose with an action-woman !"

for PATTAYA TRADER 211 (D)

YES-CROSS-OVER-A-UNIVERSE-
SURE-CAN-SHE
It was at Charing Cross
she took-a-look
where she was sure
to find a book
that would take her
to the otherside -
if  only in thought -
not that she'd die.
Ah books aplenty
upon the shelves
of the many shops,
worlds unto themselves.
But the Otherworldly
was her escape
from this world
of the man-ape.
Yes the Otherworldly,
no shape or form.
Just mental flight
from the global norm.

CORRECTION on CORRECTION !:

in TYBURN'S DAMN DEAD TREE the line should read: "in times that were very hard". Not DICKENS.

CORRECTION:

In DICKENS the line should read: "in times that were very hard" and in FROM-BIG-CITY 'Seargeant Pepper' should be 'Sergeant Pepper's'.

for PATTAYA TRADER 211 (C)

IT'S-TYBURN'S-DAMN-DEAD-TREE
The hangman, Jack Ketch,
before him they fetched
the villains, their guards.
And hang them he would
as hang them he should,
in times that were hard.
When the times softened
Tyburn's triple tree condemned
the folk. Gone the gallows, see?
But it has grown through history.

THE-TOPHATTED-CHARLES-DICKENS'-TALES-
SURE-GOT-LARGE-CROWDS
Oh what the damn dickens!?
Charlie's amongst the chickens,
and acts the cock-adoodle-doo.
"Pestered by the chicks, the hens,
get back, dandy, to your ink-pen.
Your tales are tophat, write more of them !"

SWALLOWED-BY-A-SNAKING-LAKE-
WAS-A-WOMAN-YES
We hear of sea-monsters
and of a monstrous sea.
Find The Serpentine was made
for a yatching royalty.
It was in The Serpentine
drowned the wife of Shelley.
Ah yes the poet Shelley,
the name sounds of the sea.
We hear of sea-monsters;
Serpentine swallowed wife of he.

FROM-BIG-CITY-TO-A-TINY-TOWN-IS-GOING-
A-FOREIGN-FEELING-GIRL
In London, it's Liverpool Street Station
for the girl's up North destination.
At the platform her train's just stood.
Sergeant Pepper music plays in her head.
She hears his Lonely Heart's Club Band.
Another town seems like another land.
Love has gone away, city romance ends.
She heads for home and helpful friends.
Alone in the crowds, even with London lights,
it is back to a small town's starry nights.

for PATAYA TRADER 211 (B)

TEN-UP-AT-DOWNING
Takes one-upmanship
to try and beat
all the down-putters
in Downing Street.

They are well-versed
in pulling the wool
over the eyes
of the many people.

Yes when it comes
to the politician
shepherding blind-sheep,
ten out of ten !

for PATTAYA TRADER 211 (A)

REAL-BAD-OX-BLOOD-
CAN-COLOUR-XMAS !
Amongst the herd
up on their feet,
I make my way
along Oxford Street.

The window-shoppers
the Xmas goods greet,
and the bargain buyers
carry off grand treats.

I can see many
dead on their feet.
Sure fill with ill-will
beasts of the street.

Amongst the herd
there is bad meat.
I make my way
along Oxford Street.

MATERIAL-IMAGE-MAKERS
A photograph steals the very soul,
say the Australian Aboriginees.
And so it does the materialists
whose bodies make for vanities !

A-SURE-DELICIOUS-DESSERT
You're creme-de-la-creme,
and you are French wine.
You're a Miss Jean Brodie
damn fine in her prime.

Blow out the candle,
we'll dance in the dark,
just you and your Mark
my sexy Muriel Spark !

A-DAMN-LEGEND-WAS-LAWRENCE-NO?
Lawrence of Arabia
was truly not the saviour
he thought he could be.
Find he was a versifier
and, good-heavens, a tryer.
A bold man was he.
No camel but a motorbike
would end his brave-life.
Lawrence the legendary.

for PATTAYA TRADER 210 (E)

DOWN-FROM-THE-PUBLIC-HOUSE'S-ROOF-
CAME-A-BLACKBIRD-NO?
I took the underground
to Finsbury Park.
It was there I met
a girl who was dark

in a noonday pub,
and not by design,
on a stool at the bar,
drinking white wine.

A sunny-smile broke-out.
She then gave her name,
and it passed my mind
she was on the game.

Ah seemed to sing
the every word
of this young and sweet
seated blackbird.

And then came in
some John or Joe
whom the blackbird
appeared to know.

She now turned into
a hissing black cat
who'd swallowed the bird
where she had sat.

Was the guy her pimp?
Find I do not know.
Her husband, perhaps,
but time it was to go

way back to Victoria
with its own location
of city sparrows-and-starlings
sat above the population.

ROCKED-BY-DAILY-ROMANCE-A-DUO
He is her Rock Hudson.
She is his Doris Day.
And he is a Hudson
who is not gay.

It was telephone talk
led to pillow talk.
Moonlight inbetween,
on the boardwalk.

It was telephone talk
and morning mail,
evening stars,
shadows of ships asail.

Yes he is her Rock
and she his bright Day.
In the nighttime
together they lay.
Roll her over Rock,
see her light the way !

for PATTAYA TRADER 210 (D)

THE-PATHETIC-PRISONER-COUPLE
He didn't wish to marry.
She wished for 'security'.
Now the two live together
in less than perfect harmony.
Marriage has become, find,
a prison for the pair.
Each sure the other's jailer,
one day they'll break out of there !

for PATTAYA TRADER 210 (C)

NOW-FOR-A-FOREIGN-AFFAIR
Just like Shirley Valentine
you are after a good time.
Your husband's sure a swine.
A Greek waiter'd do you fine.
Pack your bags for an affair.
Black stockings, sexy underwear.
You'll go flying over there,
middle-aged and in despair.

CLASSY-HOT-ACT-SURE-ATTRACTED-
THE-BAKER'S-ATTENTION-NO?
The girl was from Wood Green
way back in the 1970's scene.
She'd refused to go to school,
became and idler and a fool,
and then she foresaw her fate:
a squatter within Notting Hill Gate.
She decided to bag a local baker.
Pretending to be 'The Pill' taker,
the girl a bun the baker got
to place in her oven. Acted hot !
So into some money she wed.
Lazed every day in their bed.
Gave birth to a half-baked-son.
Idle-boned-and-brained like mum !

BACKWARD-AND-UPWARD-IT-IS-
BEN'S-CLOCK-FACE-SHALL-WATCH-
MEN-FORWARD-FLOW
Rolling along the Thames
like the Three Men In A Boat,
here I cruise aboard a ferry,
to the left, behind me, I note
Big Ben is sounding out
and 3 O'clock is struck.
Each man has his hour.
All roll till their time is up.

GETTING-THE-MESSAGE-STRAIGHT?
It was while in Pattaya
I was treated like a celeb
when I walked into a bar
which suddenly became a web.
A bar of Thai ladyboys,
I'd walked in the wrong den.
A damn sure sticky situation,
It was The Kiss Of The Spiderwoman
that came to mind, so caught
among the third-sex these.
But my way out I fought.
Surrendered to a female Siamese !

CORRECTION:

A line in HAMMERSMITH should read: "and the pink panthers, too," (not 'also the pink panthers') while the last word of the verse should be 'alcoholics' !

for PATTAYA TRADER 210 (B)

IMPERFECTION-SHAPES-OUR-WORLD
The guy was too good to be true.
The girl found this suspect.
Perfection is not of this world.
Too suspicious she would select
another, a guy more of this world,
less than perfect being the girl.

for PATTAYA TRADER 210 (A)

MORE-CUSTOMERS-IN-STORE
Your relationship you say
you just had to stop.
The guy was like a bull
in your China Shop.
That he'd no though, girl,
for your delicacy,
and fragile anyway
your meets with he.
Ah, part-Chinese lady-Thai,
there's more men come to buy !

IT-IS-A-REAL-YOUNG-BEAUTIFUL-
BRAINY-BLONDE-YOU'LL-FIND
Blonde and blue-eyed
(though you say blondes are dumb)
there is wisdom in her gaze,
intelligence on her tongue,
and beauty in that face.
Yes wise for one so young.

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (F)

HAMMERED-BY-THE-SORE-COPPERS-
IN-THE-HAMMERSMITH-PARK-AREA?!
Getting hammered in Hammersmith?
The cops are onto drinkers who
use a park as though a public-house,
and onto the pink panthers too,
seeking same-sex there in Hammersmith
as if the park were a human-zoo.
How to keep them out the place?
Perhaps a male-brothel'd do the trick?
But like the druggies dealing there,
already 'upped' are the alcholics !

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (E)

PANDORA'S-SEALED-BOX-WAS-OPENED-UP
Pandora was a schoolkid.
When lifted her box's lid
they found the many pills
that caused all her damn ills.
The pedlar outside the gate
of her school, sealed her fate.
Alice had her under-world,
under ground lies the schoolgirl.

SPIKED-WAS-A-NOW-DEAD-SINGER
Spike fronted The Hedgehogs
with a microphone in hand.
He was the gaunt singer
for the rock 'n' roll band.
Find that they were prickly
about his abuse, one and all.
The needle pricks along his arms
led to his downfall
(They came across dead Spike
curled-up into a ball).

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (D)

HERS-THE-MEATY-MANNERISMS
I offered my bus-seat
to a girl in the aisle.
She called me a sexist pig !
Had I put sty before style?
I thought it good manners,
I thought it polite.
She had a porky belly,
looked pregnant to my sight.
I'm fed-up with good manners,
she was fed-up on food,
and ill-mannered too.
Piggish, sure damn rude !

NO-DON'T-YOU-DEMONISE-
DAMN-DEMOCRACY !
The strikes and protests
sure seem to come to all.
Even the marchers knockers
appear to heed the call.
Often it's the 'plebs',
sometimes the well-offs too.
Damn those involved.
Praise they've the freedom to do !

TWO-SIDES-TO-ONE-COIN?
What means Socialism?
It is equal society.
What National Socialism?
The native-Nazi.
Both oppose the Capitalist.
The first of mixed-races.
The second of non-foreign faces.
The pair collectivist.

UPWARDS-WITH-THE-PINNED-
DOWN-PREY
There is a hawk hovers
in the sky, like a cross,
to which a mouse will be pinned
and its tiny life lost.
It will rise up to heaven.
Carried in the hawk's talons.

MONSTERS-OLD-AND-NEW-TOO
The dragon bones they dug-up
were really from a tyrannosaurus rex.
Yet monsters sure are monsters
to we men, none-the-less.
And man-monsters come to us
in all sizes and forms.
Some of them damn deadlier
when they look to us the norm.

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (C)

HAUNTED-BY-THE-TRUTH-NOW?
Folk called him Gentleman Jim.
From the Tyburn Tree he'd swing.
Yes they spoke good of the highwayman
who from the Tyburn Tree would hang.
Of the man they spoke good
as they did the goblins of the wood
that foul tricks they'd not come play,
try to keep Jim and them at bay.
Now Jim was dead, his ghost would ride.
"His ghost is good," they lied and lied.
He paid no heed to what they'd say,
still his ghost would haunt the highway.

SMITH-NOT-A-JONESY
She is so very miserable.
So very miserable is she.
More miserable than Les Miserables
performed by a theatrical-company.
More miserable, find, than a song
miserably sung by Morrissey.
What's got into her bones is
she's not up there with the Joneses !

A-BOOKBEDDER
I am an Aquarian.
The girl was a Libran and librarian.
Off balance, though, Icarus I
(my sign being of the air),
I misjudged she the Scales, and her smile.
But did not plummit into despair.
Sure'll be reading at bedtime a good-while.

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (B)

KNOWALLS-CAN-KNOW-LESS-
THAN-TRUE-THINKERS
There's the psychic?
There's the psycho.
There's the manic.
There's the shamanic?
The real and mythical hero.
There's Freud, Jung.
Much we don't know.

ARTISTIC-EGOS-TOO-GREAT-TO-
RETURN-TO-SO-CALLED-EQUALITY?
The bolshy bully boys
and girls of the ballet,
their egos so big
as to go and rally
against one of their own,
and so very vindictively,
where once equality
had the throne overthrown?

for PATTAYA TRADER 209 (A)

ALWAYS-ON-CALL-NOW-THE-GIRL-
WHO-SURE-SWIMS-ALONG-WITH-SHARKS
And so she swims
with the many sharks;
the pimps, the pushers.
Had a poster of Howard Marks.

"They were nice to me
at first," she says,
"but now I'm the one
who pays and pays.

Behind the smiles
lie the sharp teeth
that sink well in,
drag you beneath.

There's no getting out
when you're down deep.
I am up all night.
Find I just can't sleep."

LET-US-FALCON-LADY-
SKYFLY-DO
Peregrine girl,
lady falcon,
claw my back
with your talons.
With your talons
my back claw.
Let's both, lady,
upwards soar.

A-MERRY-MERMAID-AND-ME-NO
I hear there is poetry along the shore
yet I found dog turds, condoms and more.
I'd have got legless at The Ship Inn
with a mermaid and bottle of gin.
But no mermaid was beached there.
Poetry just wasn't in the cool-sea-air !

A-BENT-POLICEMAN'S-PIGGING-OUT-PARTY
Here in the Pig-'n'-Whistle
they hold the bent bobbies barbacue.
No one likes a bent copper,
but here there are twenty-two.
Two and twenty, ah two and twenty,
the boys and girls all in blue.
The landlord's a bent ex-copper also.
It is purloined-pork that's on the menu !

THE-DICTATOR'S-DEATHLY-CONTRACT
Forced marriage to a dictator-State
is like forced marriage to a woman or man.
Slave to one who commands the estate.
No divorce, or severage by a rescuing-hand.

THE AVATAR-VERSE
One may rise
to be a star,
but what is that
to an avatar?

To be a star
one may climb,
but it is within
an avatar shines.

for PATTAYA TRADER 208 (G)

SLEEPS-DEEPLY-MANDELLA-
IN-A-SHARED-RAINBOW-NATION?
Mandela is dead.
Let the skies weep
and a rainbow rise.
Colour too his deepest-sleep.

IT'S-THE-DEATHYRAP-
VENUS-PLANT-LADY
Venus Flytrap is the goddess's name,
catching flies the very pretty girl's game.
Say "Men are pollen-seeking honeybees
around a flower," if you so please,
I shall call them flies, flies, flies.
He who gets to know her inside, dies.

A-DOMINEERING-DAME'S-
VERANDA-SERVICE-VIEW-VERSE
She was a masterly mistress,
you'd not find her in a dress.
She cut very-short her hair.
With the maid had an affair.
Her husband wore her underwear.
The butler's ass he would caress.
They had a foursome on the veranda !

for PATTAYA TRADER 208 (F)

RECORD CONTRACT
In the backs of vans,
on aeroplanes, in coaches.
Autographs for gathered fans,
empty beer-bottles, roaches.
Very strange foreign lands,
holtel rooms, sandwhiches.
These guys make up the band.
Theirs, drugs and groupies
and contractual demands.

for PATTAYA TRADER 208 (E)

POLITICAL-PASTA?
Niccolo Machiavelli,
as Italian as is spaghetti,
he wrote The Prince treatise,
giving rulers unethical advice.
Damn took it seems the many !

for PATTAYA TRADER 208 (D)

NO-BIRDS-OF-THE-SAME-FEATHER-
WERE-THEY
The girl was ever-so magical,
with the sharp-eye of a merlin-hawk.
Her friend was plump as a pelican,
beaky and sure could talk.
It was the silent magic
and the observing eye
for which this verse-man fell,
though no bird of the sky.

THE-NARCOTIC-NIGHT-OWL-
HE-OH-YES
Wide-eyed and with a scowl,
he's up and out and on the prowl.
But to a pusher he's the prey.
A nighttime lady looks his way.
She sees that he's a snowy-owl.

UNREAL-REELS
Hollywood rewrites history
and a Mr Walt Disney
rewrote, with sentimentality,
animal-tales and fairystories.
There is something in new-telling
makes for a cinema-ticket selling.

FIND-WALLED-INSIDE-
WAS-SAD-FELLOW-SADE
Behind the bricks,
behind the steel,
behind the bars
of the Bastille,
the sick cold-mind
of he, De Sade.
And Blake says down
with ALL barricades?

THE-UNDERDOG-LOWER-
WILL-GO-IN-THE-WILD?
There's a dog named Anarchy,
and bit his master's hand he.
Yes he bit his master's hand,
then away the-very-doggy ran.
He is now wild and free.
He is poodle to no man.
Yet find he sinks into savagery.

DICK-TINKERS-WITH-WORDS-
TO-HIS-NEW-TUNE
The tide is in and Tinker Dick
sits with his guitar and pic.
He starts to strum, starts to sing,
"Mermaids rise from your ocean-bed
while the seagulls above my head
round go wheel, round go wing.
May the fine sound of your applause
crash like the sea on the shore."

for PATTAYA TRADER 208 (C)

THE SAD-DUOS-AND-LONELY-SOLOS
And so it is she mingles
in beer bars that are for singles,
hoping to find a date.
Hopes to find a partner
and be part of a pair,
hopes to find the right mate.
For many in the throng
the choice is often wrong.

TRILLING TRILBY
The guy was her Svengali
and she was his Trilby.
He said "A great singer
girl you'll sure be."
Then it was her voice fell flat.
Magic may go at the drop-of-a-hat.

A-COASTLINE'S-CARESSES-
GETS-A-CRIPPLED-GIRL
The girl with the balloon
and the 'Kiss-Me-Quick' hat
on the lower promenade
by the sea is sat.

The seabreeze is caressing
what's seen of gold hair
where she sits down
in her wheelchair.

And the breeze is caressing
the long twisted limb
that holds the balloon
on the end of a string.

THE-NEAR-HIT-WOMAN
I stand at the bar,
nothing to be said,
but many a thought
rattling in my head.
"You remind me of
a hit man," she said,
who bought a drink,
"or a Judge Dredd.
So tall and dark
and mysterious.
Seemingly aloft
to the rest of us."
No assassin
am I, I said.
And nor am I
a Judge Dredd.
You'd sure have hit
the nail on the head
if "lofty thoughts"
you just had said.

CHINA-GIRL'S-BLUE-AGAIN
Chin up, China.
Don't look so sad.
You tell me of men
and women you've had.
And I tell you
that I am straight,
though to your suggestion
I can relate !

Chin up, girl.
You feel alone,
but I'll come for you
when you telephone.
Yes I'll come for you
when you are down,
and when you're up
we'll go China-Town.

Chin up, China.
Though you're half-Thai
it is China-Town
that gets you high.
Poppa was a cop.
Poppa was Chinese.
A bullet brought poppa
down to his knees.

Chin up, girl.
It was long ago.
He died soon after,
yes I know.
Leave alone the drugs
and the drink too.
Just pick up the phone,
I'll come for you.