IN THE LIBRARY

Another setback:
more new medication that makes me feel


like foggy shit.
The doctor's guessing.
He can't pin down the depression.

I'll give it just one more day.
I'll give him till the end of the week
then he'd better come up with something!

I meet in the library old pals


I've hardly spoken to for ages:
rediscovering old subjects & lost links
trailing after books on drugs & adverse reactions...

You can get away from yourself in this business -
­believing in your own talk
believing in cures
believing what you read
believing in doctors
(though you wouldn't want to be one yourself).
We're all someone we don't want to be.

THE DRAGON CAFE

this is where I came -­-
all those years ago
straight out of Addington
prison
looking for bed & board -­-
the smell of chocolate & semen
still on my tongue -­-
into the land of haggis
& jukeboxes & chinese food
(when you could get a dozen
oysters & chips for 9/6)...
this is where I came
for cigarettes & a tune
when nothing else was open -
a kiwi joint
full of pommy seamen drunk
from the Crown on their way
back to Liverpool
holding hands with local moles
& twisters: come into the cafe
themselves from the Sunset Strip
looking for boys, beer -­-
an excuse not to go home
to the old man...

'I'll have the steak, tomatoes
on rice, please'...
'wet or dry?' asks the
pompadoured waitress

THE THEOLOGIAN

the lecture room is full
of elderly folk
listening to a talk
on God.

so many bald patches
in front of me
behind me
talking to me.

the theologian speaks:
he is mapping his life
in accordance with his faith
in a firm clear voice...

my nerves get
the better of me
& I leave before hearing
the punchline.

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