I am not a bad man

I am not a bad man

Not in my heart

Sometimes I even hear the bluebirds sing

Wake up to the day with a smile

Look out for my neighbour

Rather than hurrying off the other way

I would never want to hurt you

Pull a fast one

Or tell a tale or two

Even as the clock ticks down

The cock crows loudest

Just before the dawn

When the rain sounds like a marching band

On the wooden deck

It would be easy to forget

How to behave with good grace

Screaming like a banshee at the injustice

Of a world without love

When in my heart I know

That just isn’t true

It is easier to silence

The sound of laughter

Than you might think

Drown its genesis with a drink

Stuff the genie in the bottle

Rattle the Bluebird’s cage

With a shaky impression of Bukowski

Taking leave of Ginsberg

Whilst wondering what all the fuss is about

Barracking the television

For parroting the latest zeitgeist

Too easily appalled by unrealistic reality programming

To let them all eat cake

Trying to believe that one day

I will wake up to something better

Than leftover dreamers

Flophouse steamers

Waiting to decide if they are corporeal

Enough to outlast the disorientation

Caused by a failure to guard

Against self-indulgence,

Why bother when it is just too easy to sink

Another glass of Laphroaig

And forget the real world

For the time it might take

To drown out the sound of Bluebirds

Waiting in the wings to fly over

The chalk-white cliffs of Dover

Without making a song and dance about it all