Proverbs

Wisdom

The darkness inside a pocket that I never see

is useful, it holds a key like the power-cut last night

that woke me.

2009

Unguarded

I went to see a woman,

I’d called her on a phone;

I went to see a woman

in a tower high above;

I went to see a woman

for I was alone;

I went to see a woman,

a simulacrum of love.

I sat beside this woman,

she hadn’t been trafficked;

I sat beside this woman,

she hadn’t done drugs;

I sat beside this woman,

she owned her own attic;

I sat beside this woman

without syphilis or bugs.

But as I walk away from her, I’m lonely and forsaken

and as I walk away from her, I know I’ve cheated Love

and in the night I waken and think on what I’ve taken

and oh, my skin does glisten. My enemies stand above.

Sandhurst

Five long weeks take you to the brink

Five long weeks in which you think

On bullets and brass and not being last

To complete another meaningless task.

Sneer and snarl at rifle drill,

Show parades, runs up Sirmoor Hill;

Did column of route and stiff upper lip

Ever stop a Hook, a Hind or Hip?

Well maybe,

If the wiles of wicked fate

Should wash me in a war of wretched hate,

I’ll know how to march when I want to crawl

And I’ll know how to laugh through the worst of it all.

1992

Drinking Beer

Drinking beer can be cheerful,

slurping away and sinking a skin-full,

parading the past with a therapeutic laugh

at what has been most painful.

But people can become concerned

when what’s been said is out of turn:

they lose self-worth, take days off work,

sit alone, embittered, interned.

Drinking beer can be cheerful,

slurping away and boffing a brimful;

but quaff and laugh with a warm heart:

if you sup on the past be careful.

2000

Corporal Watkins

What amazes me is how some people stay as mates.

Why does your quiet, decent sort of character

go out drinkin with a gobby twat?

Like these two characters who came out of the King’s ‘ead,

as we were stoppin and searchin cars in William street,

monitorin the main route into Market square,

where, we’d been briefed, the IRA wanted to bring in a bomb.

Now as customers of the King’s ‘ead these two weren’t Catholics

and as they swaggered out this woman, Wendy, walks past.

She was a Catholic – we knew her name;

she’d trundle into town each day in her shitty old truck

which we kept stoppin so’s to be sure

there was bugger all going to go “bang” in the back.

“You fuckin brit bastards!” she’d wail out her winder –

which made it all more certain we’d stop her again.

Now my guess is Mr Gobby was a some-time UDR soldier

cos he knows her name too an he’s windin her up:

“Wendy, you fat, fenian fucker!”.

His mate’s intervenin, all peace and understandin,

but she smacks him down with one slap –

Mr Peace and Understandin that is! Gobby’s gone,

off down William Street whilst Wendy’s

punchin his poor mate’s well-meaning head

into the pavement. Well now it’s past a joke:

we pull her off, call the cops who cuff her,

shut her up and take her down the station

with our account of the evenin’s entertainment.

The next night’s patrol is not so famous or funny.

Some poor Para’s had his left leg blown off in Belfast.

You’ve got people hootin horns and hangin out of winders jeerin us.

When we stop Wendy she’s laughin too but different –

she’s actually thankin us cold-arse squaddies

for stoppin her gettin too out of order the other night!

And for givin the cops a fair account, which I reckon we did.

But back at camp our platoon commander

is stressin that we’d stepped out of order,

imaginin stories plastered across the press

of Essex soldiers layin into a local lass.

So, I reassured him. He was all right –

spaced out to fuck but that’s officers for you.

It were his first tour and I told him

what I’d say to whoever’s here tonight.  If anyone

asks you to explain Northern Ireland

– how it is, was, can be or whatever –

that story tells you nearly all you need to know.

2008

Billy The Car

I had a friend called Billy who thought he was a car,

He would growl like an engine, screech like a tyre; (more…)