on guns

they come fully armed
with land, money, privilege
fingers on triggers

~

n.b. An industry always prepared to send warning shots over the heads of the little people who want fewer guns, fewer needless deaths, limits on gun power in the UK.

Remember Dunblane. Never forget, one man on the run with a gun is one too many.

CLP 24/02/2023

on Ukraine

UN takes twelve months
to condemn and demand end
universalapplause

~

n.b. It only took the UN a year to put together such a clear statement. Meanwhile, in the grand scheme of things…people have died, homes destroyed, the business of war enriched.

Honestly, a year. FFS.

CLP 24/02/2024

on truth

now the hole story
liar by his omissions
outline of events

~

n.b. With this UK government, it’s what they don’t say we have to be careful of; the unknown knowns, so to speak.

CLP 31/01/2023

on time

heavily moated
Norman Conquest castle site
monarchic stasis

~

n.b. Some argue that England has never recovered from this military land-grab and its top-down government. There was nothing civilising about the Roman dictatorship, nor the Norman invasion. Our revolution of 1642 – 1660 ultimately failed.

Look at us! We still have unelected Lords involved in setting legislation and a head of state who inherits the job. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you?

CLP 29/08/2022

on time

talk me through again
how you stayed for me, for us
you liar, you spiv

~

n.b. I rarely do politics…

CLP 07/07/2022

on Ukraine

scorched earth policy
blood and bone enrich the soil
is this what it needs?

~

n.b. While the nonsense drags on in London, the senseless slaughter continues in Ukraine. Nobody wins. Day 133.

CLP 06/07/2022

on the map

coasts, rivers, contours
move over millennia
paper-thin borders

~

CLP 15/06/2022

on Ukraine xxvi

there is only so long left
of this public examination
all is organised to this end
our youth bent double
drowning in academic gas
interpreting Dulce et Decorum est
while the RAF shake the building
practising manoeuvres,
virtue signalling overhead

~

CLP 08/06/2022

The Worm and the Louse

Worm said that Louse had behaved in a way that Worm considered to be ‘mad and totally unethical’ and warned that Worm was prepared to give evidence under oath to an inquiry.

“It is sad to see the Louse and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity that this ship of fools deserves.” Worm wrote.

Such a damning intervention by the Worm who was Louse’s key ally and source of ideological inspiration will deeply alarm the Louse and his lice. Worm is due to give his evidence to the Gammons next month.

~

n.b. Adapted from the top story in The Guardian newspaper of Saturday, 24th April, 2021; “Mad and totally unethical” Cummings hits out at Boris Johnson.”

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty Four prompt; word change animals featured in news article, or words to that effect.

It was supposed to be a fun prompt, but there is absolutely nothing amusing about having The Great Clown running anything more complicated than a train set – if that.

~

CLP 24/04/2021

On Numbers (10)

Pull on the Number 10

Who do you pretend to be

Hurst, Pele, Maradona?

~

n.b. I still pretend to be Geoff Hurst as I was six when he scored his World Cup Final hat-trick. Seeing that on telly left quite an impression, but wow! to even think that one might dare to dream to pretend to imagine to be Pele, or Diego Maradona takes a certain precocious level of self-belief.

I saw Maradona once play in an exhibition match at Wembley in 1987. The crowd chanted insults at him following his “A little bit with his head and a little with the hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England. It showed something of his character just to turn up. I don’t remember much about seeing him play that day though.

His importance to his home country cannot be over-stated. Sadly, he and the success of the Argentine team was the military junta’s bread and circuses of those days. That nation’s recent history is still being unpicked. The death of this little guy from Buenos Aires will lead to more unpicking. This article from The Guardian outlines some views about Maradona from Argentine people. 

There are probably few athletes who have ever been so important to a nation, or to people worldwide. In his second home, Napoli and in Argentina he is a god.

~

n.n.b. See Charlie Monaghan’s tribute on instagram @charliemon10 Diego Maradona meant a lot to the Scots too.

~

CLP 26/11/2020