Metropolis and Mental Rejects (2024)

METROPOLIS

Downtown lights are a lurid sight to see

The airwaves crackle all through the arteries

Twisted bowels strain and spiral down and it’s all depravity   

The old maids swim n’ drown in sawdust bars

As daughters saunter lamp lit boulevards

Tights n’ tail in a summer night’s gale making hoary gristle throb

The hob-gobs hoot n’ howl and hunt in packs

As winos nestle ‘neath the railway tracks

Horns a-blow as the fog lamps glow painting trails within the black

The ink clouds gather high of chimney tops

The acid trickles down in drips and drops

Red and raw top of ol’ John Q Law and his band-a-jackboot thugs

The rivers undulate the remnants rise

Discarded memory and cast-off guise

All a-bloat do a dead-man’s float as the maelstroms gluttonise

While ‘hind the curtain, far from the eyes that pry

The deadlocks rattle as the milk runs dry

Newlyweds copulate in their beds as the bastard babies cry

GREMLINS

Gremlins come a-calling late at night

Hopped on lust and drunk with spite

Come on high without a sound

Pungent from the underground

Gremlins peeping underneath the door

Both of rich man and of poor

Rattle locks in deepest night

Ill-disposed to warmth of light

Cunning creatures, all around

In the rafters, dangling upside down

Gremlins blow their trumpets in the air

Oh that old preludial blare

Shrill tinnitus in my ears

Echoes long throughout the years

Gremlins strip the larder to the crumb

Raid the cabinets, skol the rum

Shards of glass ‘neath stocking feet

Fixtures falling to the street

Banging drums and drinking wine

Ruins and refuse strewn behind

Scratching signs into the wall

Fiends of fancy yearn to hear them call

Gremlins hiding somewhere in my room

Tiny harbingers of doom

Mischief makers all around

Drag the feeble underground

Gremlins of an indiscreet design

Lack in rhythm and raw in rhyme

Roguish rascals in the dark

Ride on high and leave their mark

Gremlins leave a trail upon the floor

Leak beneath the bathroom door

Weird concoctions in the tub

Churn the guts and curd the blood

Gremlins leave a pox upon the skin

Infect all that dwell within

Up the gutters and ‘cross the roof

Leave behind the grisly proof

Breaking fast and taking flight

Whooping and howling out through the night

Melting back to murky dark

Poison primed to set the solvent spark

Gremlins hiding somewhere in my room

Tiny harbingers of doom

Mischief makers all around

Drag the feeble underground

Gremlins of an indiscreet design

Lack in rhythm and raw in rhyme

Roguish rascals in the dark

Ride on high and leave their mark

POSTCARDS FROM JAMAICA

Upon the hills where hound dogs roam

And skylark echos plague the undertones

Rubies lie ‘mong rag and bone

In twilight’s shroud marauders steal to home

Abyssal echos from on high

As embers dance behind a demon’s eye

And blind men grope amidst the storm

As maidens glide into a craggy sword

Beyond the wrecks and down the road

Lamplight shines bright in some old abode

In slate and stone ‘neath carbon sky

Where bastards born abroad come forth to die

      

Where liquor flows through languished walls

And hollers echo down through Hades’ halls

And bile rises through the floors

And blood is smeared across the cellar doors

Each tale’s torment lost in spin

Mythos woven down through distant kin

In twilight’s grip where legends grow

Moorlands secrets make keep safely stowed

Where the ghosts of ill-times past

Come drifting through the haunted midnight haze

And the flames are dancing, all entrancing

In some mournful old ballet

And the stones they whisper, quietly glister

In the moonlight and the rain

In these walls of the past where old ghosts last

Bound to hang about and sway

Through seasons’ change the gale winds moan

Pages turn and all new seeds are sown

In shallow graves the dead men groan

As foreign authors ‘rive to write the tome

Where liquor flows through languished walls

And hollers echo down through Hades’ halls

And bile rises through the floors

And blood is smeared across the cellar doors

Each tale’s torment lost in spin

The mythos woven down through distant kin

In twilight’s grip where legends grow

Moorlands secrets may keep safely stowed

Where the ghosts of ill-times past

Come drifting through the haunted midnight haze

And the flames are dancing, all entrancing

In some mournful old ballet

And the stones they whisper, quietly glister

In the moonlight and the rain

In the walls of the past where old ghosts last

Bound to hang about and sway

DANSE MACABRE

Gregor’s bound up in a rug

Besmirched by cyanide and blood

And Willy’s etched upon a plaque

Some errant lead lodged his back

Martha’s burned up in her frock

A pyric flash makes front page shock

And Harry’s gone and bust a gut

Now six feet down and pushing up

And Issy’s hit the highway for new love

With affectations quite the cut above

And Lindy’s packed and from the coup she’s flown

The final destination still unknown

And Sherry’s just about to croak

Something log-jammed sideways in his throat

Ernie’s propped up ‘gainst the bed

Two barrels pitched up in his head

And Norma’s naked ‘neath the sheets

Gone gorged herself on long retreat

Angie’s head is in the trough

The junker’s out back written off

And Judy’s shrivelled in the tub

As Mickey courses through her blood

And Brian’s floating face down in the pond

The frogs calls echo out and over yond

And Jack has slumped down underneath the bar

Gone one too many, finally one too far

And Harold’s swimming out to sea

Thought a saw a glass eye blink at me

Jim n’ James are side by side

And Jimmy’s somewhere ‘neath the drive

And Nancy’s cold upon the tiles

While Beau is off one million miles

Ian’s dangling up on high

And John has bid a late goodbye

And Vic has gone and got the chop

With two lil’ kids left mopping up

And Christa’s off this evening on a ride

With bridle dangling off and to the side

And Dee is weaving hard and winding through

With base precautions nixed among the crew

And Stephen’s got a bleeding heart

That fate signed and sealed from the start

Amy went hard unto dawn

Now crashed out flat and all forlorn

And Nelson’s zonked out on the floor

With gumdrops trailing out the door

Davey’s fading into black

With no intent of coming back

And Lenny’s tumbled from the bed

Some nighttime cretin knocked his head

The King has abdicated from the throne

The dirty deets all far and widely known

And now the Queen has bid the hordes farewell

On exit hear the tolling of the bell

The dynasty droves are coming ‘round

Marching lockstep on the spiral down

The dynasty droves are coming ‘round

Marching lockstep all the long way down

JACK’S FAMILY PORTRAIT

The carpet’s lined and the handle’s broke

The palm lays idle as the fingers bloat

Post the final haught and frenzied tope

Oh the rueful revelry is far too rote

The razor's rusted and the rope is frayed

The moths have chewed the silk away

All flesh and frailty on display

Oh don't stare at me with that spiteful gaze

The vinyl stained all bleach and hope

Trauma cleaners gonna have to cope

Oh it’s a tired and all-too hackneyed trope

Down rock bottom of this ol’ twisted slope

INVITATION TO A PARTY

The sky is cast, the dye is all the same

The blot leaks out above the great decay

The streets are cracked, our calves are swole and lame

The hands are dealt, but no one’s game to play

The night is young but the hour is far too late

To lift and drop a question ‘pon your plate

The golden smog that seeps and permeates

Will curl about and slowly suffocate

(Now the elixir is finally kicking in

I’m floating in that old, dirty mellow sea

Tendrils reaching their way up every fingertip

Through the waves, shapes flicker and become abstractions

Somehow melding into much clearer representations

Descending ever deeper, swallowed into a strange

And seemingly bottomless void)

The threshold’s crossed, a new celestial plain

Where felines talk and towers are ‘gulfed in flame

And the faces float, an imitation game

As hands tick by, but time stands still the same

The air is hot and the bright lights agitate

Our heartbeats throb, as the sirens escalate

Oh the veins are clogged, the blood can’t circulate

Our tongues are tied, the words won’t formulate

(And up above, the violence echoes from the surface

As great, unwieldy vessels crash blind in the darkness

The screams of mariners strain to break above the din

But it’s only the distant reverberations that trickle down

Becoming ever more and more faint as the body erodes

And the pitch becomes ever more and more black)

LAST NIGHT IN NORWICH

Nuclear fallout

inside the shelter

door swung open

Helter Skelter

Still life splattered

upon the floor

flashbulb memories

burned in lore

Spring night lovers

and ill-spun covers

voyeur’s intrigue

the lives of others

Mundane rituals

and nightly vigils

vacant memories

become residual

Undue burdens

and backstreet surgeons

trembling fingers

stead with bourbon 

Wire apparatus

and ultra-violence 

walls torn open

sound of silence

Kingdom of the Swine (2021)

INSTITUTION

Halt the truck at hell's iron house 

Throw the latch herd the fresh meat out 

Crushed up tight in a long line of maniacs,

firebugs, perverts and slack jawed louts 

Lined up two-by-two 'long the wall 

Heads are counted and numbers called 

Rag tags sunken down 'round my shins

'tween two great apes dribbling 'bout ten foot tall 

Warden stalks the halls stoking fear

Drags his rod with that sadist’s sneer

Hauls the deviants from the throngs

down the hole of darkness and silent drear 

Served up rat milk and rancid meat

by a **** with twelve absent teeth 

Watch your back when you’re round o’ bogs,

time is hard and your ass is going cheap 

Marched out back to the beaten flat 

Bolt like pigs from a rifle crack

'Round and 'round a ring 'o dust

'till hamstrings tear and our ankles snap 

'Till the bell tolls the day is late 

meet you out by the boundary gate 

Wipe the blood and shit from my eyes

home to a glass of milk and chocolate cake

 SEDIMENT TEA

Down west-side central on a dog day's noon 

'Round the ramshackle tenements of Tenth Avenue 

Where the languid and the listless dawdle aimlessly in vain 

Anaesthetised long to the summertime pain 

The scents waft sweet down from room twenty-three 

Where the harridan is brewing up a sediment tea 

The crack pot whistles out a beckoning call 

And the pigs spring hot from their noonday sprawl 

And they clamber up the stairs on all threes and all fours 

And they sniff and they scratch at the bottom of the door 

Take a sip from the pot and a crack upon the jaw 

And the next day they'll be back again for more 

Now the pigs lie placid in a midsummer's sleep 

A new band-o-neighbours come a-rolling up the street 

A ragtag caravan of vagabond clowns 

Hammering their concrete stakes in the ground 

Now the panes shine polished to a hideous sheen  

And the air reeks bitter of a noisome bean 

The block abound with foreign bred freaks 

As the pigs go scrambling from under their feet

And they clamber up the stairs on all threes and all fours 

And they scrape and they holler and they wail and they claw 

There's a board with nails and a notice on the door: 

"Lil pigs come crawling round these parts no more!" 

CHARLI IS A BOY 

the moon in up now, babe 

we're on the lookout watch 

along the dead city streets 

curbs of notorious blocks 

where cretins, critters and creeps 

crawl 'neath the cover of night 

sweet-toothed for sensuous thrills 

wet-lipped for carnal delights 

we got that swing in our step 

we got that slink in our stride 

twin daggers sprung from our feet 

that golden mink in our guise

that cherry gloss on our lips 

that roguish glint in our eyes

and six hard inches of steel between our thighs! 

  

the wolves are up now, babe 

they're out and on the stalk 

now come the brights of their lamps

a-rolling out of the fog

they come in every shade

but come in most one size 

fled from their cosseted kids 

and their ol' carpers of wives 

they got that sallowing skin

they got them beads in their eyes

the rash of pocks on their face

they're old but none-the-more wise

 

the varmint scatter the street

as they roll up long-side

gristle a-throb as prey climbs on inside!

the heat is up now, babe 

we're riding on the clock 

our legs upon the dash 

our fingers hitting the spot


the eyes are turning back

and oinkers are a-squeak

their at our mercy now

in bondage with the beast

we choke to hear them gasp 

we bite and hear them cry 

we chomp to pierce their flesh

we suck to bleed them dry

then as their world turns black 

the last elated sigh

seven sweet minutes in hell for which to die!

JAS VIDAL

Jas Vidal, the animal,

so all the boys 'round here call 

She's a fire whirl of fantasy and grief 

Sweeping hot across the state,

wreaking havoc in her wake 

Broken hearts, spirits, fingers, legs and teeth 

Jas Vidal, the cannibal,

at only five foot two inch tall 

Biting hunks out of the heads of little kids 

Canines pierced against the scalp,

molars grind em down to pulp 

Bungs the offal out her back door to the pigs 

Jas Vidal, insatiable,

proclaims the writing on the wall 

Tempting eager hordes of errant, heady youth 

Feeding frenzied up the spot,

'hind the alley 'cross the block 

Draining seed to satisfy her carnal tooth 

Jas Vidal, maniacal,

side-eyed up and down the halls 

Head held high against the bitter rays of scorn 

An angelic bird of prey,

without so much a word to say 

Wherein silence speaks, hearsay is born

MIDDLE CHILDREN

rock humping knuckle draggers 

barefooted tribal (trouble) stragglers 

neanderthalic creeps are we 

flea ridden rabid mongrels 

ill-tempered gutter scoundrels 

sequestered from nobility

ball tripping backstreet prowlers 

piss drunken streetlight howlers

the scent of blood, it gets us high

tit-biting carpet droolers 

cot wetting diaper mewlers 

while mother's milk still leaves us dry

Shame us! Blame us! 

Animals without civility 

Chain us! Tame us! 

Irritants unto society

grease laden fodder shovelers 

discount rate liquor guzzlers

living off the fat of our own skin

bi-weekly fornicators 

tri-daily masturbators 

staving off the urges creeping in

wall gazing daylight burners

nocturnal death-grip yearners

mulling over all that might have been

cold metal coupon slashers 

mid-city sidewalk crashers 

paying penance for our cardinal sin 

Berate us! Debase us! 

bleeding outta past virility 

Restrain us! Contain us! 

discontent in servility

Defame us! Degrade us! 

residue of dark antiquity 

Castrate us! Erase us! 

middle kids of bygone history

A BOUT A BOY

Well I’m a lad of squat stature and delicate frame 

but I posture like a crown prince up front centre stage 

and I can dance just as well as any other boy my age!

And I'm erudite, exquisite and my style’s supreme 

with shoes of fine suede and t-shirts of terylene 

and yet still does Aphrodite consider me naive! 

And here they come gliding like angels on the earth

with slender white midriffs wrapped in red tartan skirts

with golden hair cascading and chests round  and pert

and faces lit up vibrant with the shine of summer mirth

well the sight of youth and beauty makes a manic heart run awry

a sickly stomach quake and a bitter throat turn dry

thought for a moment I caught a pair of bright blue eyes

but with a vicious sideways smirk the just passed straight on by

Argh, call off the dogs, call off the dogs! 

Take your fucking spotlight out of my face! 

your mocking smiles are a vile affront 

the whitest bodies hold the blackest hearts of hate! 

Argh, you all are dogs, you all are dogs! 

With bestial appetites impossible to sate! 

as the virtuous lay trampled having borne unto your brunt 

but I won't be subject to that damnable fate! 

'Cause I'm a lad of sour spirit and intemperate rage 

spraying bile from the confines of my befouled little cage 

and I've absolved myself in full of any semblance of blame! 

and I tell you, I do not forget, and much less do I forgive 

and no more should nymphos tempt me as long as I might live 

‘cause those whores ain't worthy of the pleasures I could give!

KINGDOM OF THE SWINE

I am a bitch to a callous cold-hearted witch 

but her lips are those which I dare dream to kiss 

and the blood in my loins, oh so sore does itch 

for one touch of flesh and the pure taste of bliss 

And I am a wretch in the eyes of the kings 

for I bear the slings and the arrows life flings 

they've harlots in hand, flaunting porcelain skin 

who gag at my bones, oh so feeble and thin 

…and how now should I go in this life so unfair…

…that entices with vices and leaves in despair…

...wherein wild boors run rampant with the young and the fair…

…who then splay themselves wide to be savaged, ripped and teared…

…the injustice is rife and the piper will be paid…

…for my cannons, they lie primed, cocked for imminent crusade…

…’gainst the wicked and wanton, righteous war is waged…

…and let all the world bear witness to a fury now uncaged…

For I am a god amongst the dregs of man 

and their lives are nought but dirt within my hand 

I deal in chaos of a dastardly brand 

and I'll scorch my name in cordite cross this land 

Now see how they quake in these sights, oh divine

FLASH after FLASH, see how they fall in line 

I am a wolf in the land of the swine 

I am supreme, bitch, I am sublime! 

Now reel, all you  reel, at what which has been shed 

the roads lit with bone, the rivers sullied red 

no reprieve granted and no mercy spared 

I am the beast wanton wenches hath bred 

Now curse me to hell, damn me with spiteful breath 

and gag on my musk, oh the sweet scent of death 

I am a sad little man of worth bereft 

my name rings clear in the ears of the deaf

THE MOST INNOCENT TIMES

The warmth of the summer has waned 

and the fountain's last draughts have been drained 

clouds blot the sky where the birds used to soar 

as we find ourselves washed up astray on the shore 

'long a cold and tempestuous sea 

when it seemed just yesterday we roamed free 

whiling our hours 'neath the gold southern sun 

the days dragged by slow and the summer was young 

Now the seasons have changed 

see the withered leaves waver and fall 

cherish these, the most innocent times of them all 

Here's to the hedonist hijinks we'd make 

all our devilish antics and japes 

a pint of blood spilt 'cross the road like fresh tar 

and a spinal cord wrapped 'round the wheel of a car 

And from the sound of them sirens we'd fly 

'mongst the gullies and the grottos we'd lie 

drinking ourselves dumb and splitting our sides 

'till our old men had burnt their rage out on their wives 

And when the bastards come crush us 

grind us down 'till we grovel and crawl 

cherish these, the most innocent times of them all 

Rebel rousers who now walk the line 

and the lucky ones that fate kept behind 

the daisy who splayed his legs out on the track 

and the mute with the trench coat and gun in his sack 

And the seventeen souls that were saved 

from the wasteland of echoes we brave 

dreams dashed asunder and sunk in the brine

as the memories fade with the passage of time 

And the hands keep on turning 

through the barren seas, for purpose, we'll trawl 

cherish these, the most innocent times of them all 

And when the coroner comes a-calling 

'round the scrape what remains off the wall 

cherish these, the most innocent times of them all