Author: jim clayton
spot me
the guy at the gym
was so enormous
just scratching his nose
was a big performance
his tribal tattoos were equally huge
laid end to end they’d have decorated Bruges
he worked on his triceps, biceps, lats
with his name chalked up on a board of stats
explosive breaths, colossal clunks
weights the size of railway shunts
his baseball cap worn back to front
his spotter stood up by his shoulders
looked like him but a few years older
chatted about rugby, kids, divorces
that time he tried for the special forces
‘Mate – I won’t even BE here at fifty!’
he said with a grunt as he sat up stiffly
‘I’m travelling the world: Thailand, Sydney
I just need someone to go there with me’

where were you
where were you when Kennedy got shot
when they laid the first stones at Angkor Wat
when Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner
when they wheeled the Kitty Hawk outta the hangar
when Jesus Christ got nailed to a cross
when a model agent discovered Kate Moss
when Einstein worked as a patent clerk
when Robert Shaw got eaten by a shark
when Sgt Pepper got designed by Blake
when Lisbon got wiped out by a quake
when Darwin wrote the Origin of the Species
when Marie Curie wrote her radioactive theses
when Neil Armstrong put boots on the moon
when soldiers entered the Paris commune
when Krakatoa blew its top
when Lady Jane Grey knelt down for the chop
when Fleming checked a petri dish
when Charlie Chaplin met Lillian Gish
when Genghis Khan united Mongolia
when Virginia Woolf wrote books in Fitzrovia
when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank
when quantum theory got written by Planck
when plague stalked Europe in the fourteenth century
when Capone did time in Alcatraz penitentiary
hmm?
you just sit there, ordering juices
dreaming up lots of lame excuses
film score tropes
a drone pulls back to city-wide height
from a phallic, floodlit monument at night
while some gravelly gravitas voiceover guy
slowly explains the reasons why
the system stinks but whaddya do
except call on the services of you-know-who
= NOBLE HORNS
the wind blows softly through the pines
as shadows play across the blinds
a barefoot woman walks downstairs
to find out why the cat sounds scared
she nuzzles his head, stretches, yawns
doesn’t see the figure out on the lawn
= ORCHESTRAL DUMP
the jumpy night clerk signs you in
with a nervous tic and a dead-eyed grin
when he turns to fetch the key off the hook
you quickly glance at the visitor’s book
and suddenly there is no doubt
the day she stayed? he’s ripped it out
= GLISSANDO VIOLINS
you’re walking back from a Halloween party
thrown by college friends Claire n’Marty
now it’s spooky, wet and dark
and you really shoulda skirted the children’s park
you pick up your pace, speed dial Claire
‘cos you see a swing swinging but there’s no one there
= CHILDREN SINGING A NURSERY RHYME
greek trauma
Jason and the Argonauts
succumbed to darker thoughts
Theseus found the Minotaur
but also a minor flaw
despite all the selfies & martial displays
he actually preferred getting lost in the maze
Prometheus
was queasiest
thought life with a liver-ripping eagle was easiest
Persephone
helplessly
dodging her dodgy family endlessly
picked at her food, flip flopped restlessly
six months Hades, six months Thessaly
King Midas
wise ass
everyone giving his high fives a hard pass
easy touch, gastric band
swapped his friends for krugerrands
and Icarus?
bored, basically sick of us
his dad plain mad, the rest ridiculous
full of wax and feathery spunk
spread his wings, aired his junk
but it didn’t work out and his dream got sunk
existential nursery rhyme
Susan snoozing in her bed
soon she’ll be up and toasting bread
Nietzsche and a low fat spread
tea and existential dread
it’s a void
it’s a void
all our plans will be destroyed
nothing before, nothing after
infinity with a twist of laughter
Brian crying quietly
smoothies and sobriety
doodles skulls in his diary
Sunday night anxiety
it’s a void
it’s a void
all our plans will be destroyed
nothing before, nothing after
infinity with a twist of laughter
(and so on, ad infinitum)










