July 6, 2024Missive

Just as I think

lossnaturecitymemorytimelove

Just as I think

I understand the meaning of reality

Something happens to make me wonder.

Leather jackets were always a thing,

Marlon Brando,

Before he was Superman’s dad

And somebody else’s Godfather,

Wore one,

With a wicked sailor’s cap.

Perhaps

There is something dangerous

In the way he looked

Which appealed to the wild ones

But then I read about

A chapter of the Hell’s Angels

Being arrested in California

Charged with a whole host

Of gang-related criminality

And

Yes

Some of them will have worn

Denim jackets

With the sleeves cut off

But most would have owned leathers.

And I am glad I don’t.

It is as much as I can do to imagine a baby farm

With wild crying

As the moon goes full

Perhaps the howl I hear

Is not America

But an essential part

Of the developmental process,

Synchronicity.

Do they actually grow babies from the egg

Planting the fertilised embryos

In a grow bag?

Which came first

The need to farm out

The process of conception

Or the shell corporation

To launder the profits?

Is the whole washing the money thing

A symbol

Much like Pontious Pilate.

Not that I understand the ins and outs

Of criminal behaviour,

They all get caught

In the end

Don’t they?

Unless you are well-healed

Steal from the poor

And keep one step removed

From the sharp end.

Hell’s Angels are not my role models

Easy Rider was not a documentary

Everybody died in the last reel

Even the report in the Guardian

(I never read the New York Times

Or the London Times for that matter)

Suggests the righteousness

Of the arrests.

Guilt by association.

I’m glad I don’t belong to any.

I belong to the British Psychological Society.

Even though Maggie Thatcher

Eschewed the very existence of society

I can see value

In forming connections

With people of a similar disposition.

Perhaps I am doing

The Hell’s Angels a disservice

They are not all Satan’s entourage

Perhaps some, new age bikers, love their mothers,

Make all their own clothes

From leftover design classics

Whilst taking their share

Of the child-rearing responsibilities,

Strap newborns onto the pillion

Or wear a papoose across the chest

With diddy little customised

Bobble top crash helmets

Sanitised paniers

For the nappies (diapers, cripers)

I am not at all sure

How it came to this but

Sometimes words have a life of their own

And in reality,

There is always more to a person

Than a movie stereotype.