Steve Bray Has Something To Say

Top Man

Steve Bray’s a hero in our midst

He’s calling out alarming

Persistent with his megaphone

A parliamentary Prince Charming

He’s got the gob for speakers corner

Calling out the lying sods

Who pedal rubbish on their bikes

Pretending they’ll spend wads

It’s all about believers 

Those who do and those who don’t

Those who think it’s going to do them good

And those who know it won’t

Trekking

Rolling by with a rumbling thump

Not planning to stay the whole day

Down in the gravel bumpety bump

Like a crowd in a theatre foyer

In a  simple state of being me

Moving slowly aimless ambling

Kidding myself that I was free

To walk on the wild side rambling

Over the high hills traveling far

Best foot forward contemplating 

Setting sight on a whatever star

On the way mostly meditating

Hazy Days

Walking in the land of nights

Spending sleep in costly days

Muffled memories of other times

Something hidden in the blaze

Wondering where the next one was

Halfway through the looking glass

As the fear of hunger cried aloud

A need that will not pass

In a minute and we’ll move along

Before we go just one more drink

Though nothing changed as if it could

For they'd lost the will to think

That’s how it was for those guys 

Who suffered from intense desire 

Diseased with needs within themselves 

They walked their world on lines of fire

I wrote this after hearing that my brother had died alone and undiscovered for days. He was an alcoholic who never got help. Moreover, that although he made it very clear that he didn't want help, I suppose we didn't try hard enough.

The Fooligan

Hoptanglish by David Catchpoole

A piece of baggage full of troubled times

Malicious ruined wilful taker

With eyes brimmed full of greedy plans

A mayhem perpetrator

Grabbing clasping no remorse

Who seeks to stifle friends who meet

Cannot countenance a knowing smile

Will curse the beggar on the street

Intruder stealing broken hearts

Nobody’s bridge where others can

Will laugh away the darkest day

A senseless trickster joker-man 

The Cumberland Snack

Picture Link

I took a trip to Cumbria

Sausage sarnies on my mind

To taste the meaty chunky texture

Around the way they curly wind

Not inundated with a bunch of herbs

More a peppery black and white

A spin particular orbicular

A sausage centric pleasant sight

This double munch a perfect lunch

In crusty rolls or sandwich bread

Five hundred years of feast perfection

One platter matter thoroughbred

A Trifle Light

 “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality”
Lewis Carroll

Sitting thoughtless in a reverie

In a shrouded kind of game

Where everything is all at once

Without a label or a name

Interrupted by a background swell

A call within demands attention

Sending undiscovered answers

To solve a hidden misconception

Then all at once the picture changes

Finer detail now returns

Locks undone and slots connect

For now released from all concerns

Moments On Purpose

Counting keeping

Waking sleeping

Giving into being

Standing here

Staying near

Looking without seeing

Eating drinking

Always thinking

Hoping to speak out

Talking loudly

Standing proudly

Turn a whisper into shout

Wood

‘Knock on Wood’ the saying goes

Feeling fortunate indeed

Let the gold brook streaming here

Keep my good luck guaranteed

In my forest home surrounding me

My heart of refuge understood

The splendour here bestowed on me

This grove abundant ‘Knock on Wood’

‘Knock on Wood’ and feel the beauty

It is the odour of good luck

The very best of value brought to me

‘Knock on Wood’ the loggers truck

Breath in deeply while these moments last

The air exchange has changed for good

The forest now recycled

A fruitless plain pleads ‘Knock on Wood’

Hard to Know

STORY LINK

Taken as read as we misunderstand
Signals we send and receive
Making assumptions based on a look
Once our minds are made up we believe

Demeanour is often a first base to judge
When condemning or giving our trust
Maybe that's why the con gets away with a wrong
And the good get the brunt of unjust

Judging a book by its cover
When things we don't like we condemn
Closing our mind and being unkind
Where the lair of unfair slurs the gem

Frightful Mess

They’re known for going on a bit

When questioned on their mission

Blatantly ignore requests

Merely answer with derision

They claim to be custodians

Yet they skirt and twist and turn

Denying any chancy outcomes

Will result in crash and burn

They say the people are behind them

Looking forward to the day

When hands are washed of many friends

United dreams just fade away

Funny Money

Picture Source

In a world of cashless magic

Transmitting money for your change

You’re never skint boracic lint

Unless those signals rearrange 

When shopping finds you paying cash

With coins and notes you pay a bill

All you give is what you must

No paper trail beyond the till

Governments don’t like hardware

Prefer to track your every penny

Keep weathered eyes on those with loads

Repressing those who don’t have any

Each day is scanned and data dated

Nanoscopicly  contained

In vaults too small to see at all

Nor where it’s gone if they are drained

Societies cannot keep up

With the way that cashless plays

The world will dance to cache implants

Let’s hope that honesty still pays

Then one day when the doings done

Every loose string tight and tied

There’ll be no drifting off the line

You'll  wake up snubbed ‘Access Denied’

I Wouldn’t Bet On It

Picture Link

Inside ‘my me’ is quite content

To make or not make observations

Waiting for that time of daze

A blinding flash of transformations

The questions I most often ask

Just in case I get a clue

Rarely get an explanation

In the wake of much ado

My perception is that I exist

Inside and outside me

Often times I’m not so sure

When I think unconsciously

Wilfully Me

STORY LINK (Brain Pickings)

Surely there is more than this

Where all I know is my opinion

By coincidence in my meagre space

In this dream I am a minion

I sit here consciously aware

With not an earthly reason why

Observing that all living things

Eat eagerly ‘til they die

The dead lay waiting buffet style

They must now provide a share

To avid patrons revelling

Enjoying such abundance there

The Ballad of Big John Bully

STORY LINK

From now on votes count

When a nation in stagnation

Cannot meet its obligation

Plots and schemes abound at large

To rule the mules and stay in charge

Do as you’re told do as I say

The rules we make you must obey

For we divide the cash you make

And we decide who gets the cake

Only us who reign the reins

Understand what power gains

Though we no longer rule the waves

We’ll decide the way that leaving craves

We are the spitting blood machine

A nation winding up its death machine

We need no friends beyond homemade

From here on in we aim to rule on trade

Just a few of us are all we need

To rule the roost on high and supersede

Removing rights ignoring plights

When darkness falls on crystal nights

What you're seeing now you have been warned

Such arrogance on freedom scorned

There’ll be no need of any opposition

If 'Extremely Right' assumes the new condition

Conjuration Hexplanation

STORY LINK

Harry Potter books removed from school library because they contain 'real' curses and spells

A school is on the lookout

For spells that spell out curses

Having chatted with their exorcists

They now suspect satanic verses

They’ve put Harry Potter to the question

With inquisition style

Claiming hexes and enchantments

His invocations will beguile

Strange it is that Halloween

With its trick or treating charms

Where evil eyes attract a prize

And no one’s up in arms

No doubt about it J K Rowling’s tales

A masterpiece of magic fiction

Enthralling readers of all ages

Will cast a spell on interdiction 

Autumn's Door

September speaks a different voice

There is an air of subtle change

Hot freedom that the summer gave

Gives way to Autumn’s rearrange

Leaves wave and chatter grandly

Prepare their journey to return

Laid down to feed a nameless future

In new orders turn by turn

Spray Away

STORY LINK

A scientist’s guide to life: how to smell nice By Helen Pilcher

If you find your armpits flagging

Out of kilter down and out

If the people standing near to you

Begin to twitch and shift about

Cheer up there are solutions

That will set your armpits free

For its all about bacteria

Brand new Aroma Therapy

Good bacteria bad bacteria

Where the good replaces bad

To renew your armpit empire

Prevent your buddies going mad

Transplant is the key they say

To uproot surface nasty swine

Your armpits sing like early spring

Refreshed and feeling fine