My favourite new poet emailed back
but only with a link to his new book.
A man looked in awe at his dog
sniffing the arse of another’s.
The pub doors were bolted closed
and the joker just started to bore.
Boys became shadows of their baggies
fidgeting through to another Friday.
Little heart shaped icons on screens
have never constituted keeping in touch.
Being alone with your own thoughts
can outdo the streams of distant men.
Buskers are only interesting in the way
they dream with other people’s songs.
The cycle of commerce is well oiled
by parents coating babies in brands.
A night bus passenger stirs imagination
with crates of shrink-wrapped eggs.
People forget they have legs
and decline friends two stations away.
Hype turns worthless TV sets
into unaffordable bar stools.
Fantasies of the experimental
bookend missionary days.
People’s futures hanging by a thread
get determined over smoke breaks.
Astounding is the human’s skill
of twisting ethics to justify means.