The Spurs game I watched earlier was very poor.
The Spurs game I watched earlier was very poor.
I have seen hard times
Been acquainted with cheap vino
Drunk straight from the bottle
Carried in a brown paper bag
Stuffed into the pocket of an old
Army greatcoat
Belonging to my Dad
Who wore it in action
Whilst I wandered between one bad
Decision and the next
Squandering my privilege
On pipedreams
Dodging bullets delivered in silver paper
Waited in line for a bed
At St Mungo’s
Used an astringent to stop copious bleeding
After an altercation
With a bouncer
Operating a strict no-entry policy.
Fallen off a wall
Cracked my head like an Eggman
In a nursery rhyme
Slept in the rain
Under cardboard
Walked all night to find the morning
Creep up over the edge of a sink estate
Replicating a scene from Apocalypse Now
As I watched a host of homeless people
Run from a police helicopter
Under the lights
Hailstones falling like napalm.
Felt a hand on my collar
Spent all night on a concrete bed
Drying out before meeting the judge
Ran into a wall
When the high
Reached down to the very bottom,
Fried chicken on a skillet
Under the M4
Eaten caviar and canapes
In the Grosvenor
Whilst being auditioned for a part in humility
Failing to remember the lines
Washing up on a beach
In Dorset.
Lived La Vida Loca,
House sat in Sandbanks
Gilded walls in Canonbury,
A stone's throw from Pentonville,
Came to the attention of the law.
Played fast and loose with the truth
Spent all night
Trying to find a car
That had been towed
Argued with the nightguard
Over the release fee.
Gazed in awe
At the sight of a blood moon
Hanging in a velvet sky
As the smoke from a bonfire
Of old tyres burned my eyes
And made love
In an old Ford Prefect rusting
In a field by the side of the motorway
After a free concert in Hyde Park
When I was a teen
And lied about my age
To buy a bottle of Bell’s
From the off-licence on the corner.
The owner
A kindly-looking man
With a squint
Told me to be careful
And find my way home
Before my luck ran out
My luck ran out.