Shittip

I can barely
read “Keep Britain Untidy”,
official graffiti on the brok brick,
I kick up
delicately textured cracked glass

bottles of sup, crushed cans,
sweet wrappers garishly flowered,

skip by fresh rusty nails mushroomed
ont cellophane spangled earth,

bounce on a carpet of corrugated
cardboard bubbles,

smash filigree of bird skeletons,
plastic they ate still int

white cages of their lungs,
explodes into limpid air

when I wallop it one.
Crap day at work. Supervisor

were sacked when he told
a lad to leave a fairy cake

on gritted floor, and not put it
back on conveyor for packaging.

Stan down the road
were arrested, imprisoned

fined cos silly scrubber tried to tidy up.
Found in possession of a dustpan

and brush, daft cleaner.
I tread some more sticky

white chewing gum off
the street, work it into our

sickly carpet with me ragged boot.
Piss in the corner, by the tele,

admire cats doings

on the armchair. They
don’t bury it, no more,under torn

cushions, stuff all over
like afterbirth when our late lass

leant against wall, where I piss,
chomped through the cord

like it were stringy meat,
then sicked up. I piss on her sick.

She died after of complications.
We ate her, to keep our spirits up,

chewed on her like worms would,
to stop the angels

flutter inside her to lay their eggs.

Our son Dick
Dr. says has diptheria,

good lad. Keeps our end up.
Bobbies al not be after us.

Paul Brookes was poetry performer with “Rats for Love” and his work included in “Rats for Love: The Book”, Bristol Broadsides, 1990. His first chapbook was “The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley”, Dearne Community Arts, 1993. He has read his work on BBC Radio Bristol and had a creative writing workshop for sixth formers broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live. Recently published in “I Am Not A Silent Poet”, “The Beatnik Cowboy”, “Clear Poetry”, “Red Fez”. Much more about Paul Brookes can be found via his web site by clicking here…