once i was not sure

 once i was not sure

each line not sung

but read as a curtain

each platitude the wrong key

to worlds without a locks

interpersonal angles

looks in or out of phase

with confusion

say it again 

we begged each other

for the key

go for the angular

 go for the angular

wait around the corner

from me 

waiting around the corner

from you

plan the moment

with me

just a minute man

just a minute man

the dead 

don’t remember

the dead

remember that

when you die 

remember 

they will remember you

for a short while

it’s a bloody killer

init 

whoever they say you are 

all’s quiet in the western aisle

all’s quiet in the western aisle  

the 11th minute 

of the 11th hour

of the 11th month

shopping -

three for the price of two

- poppies

a no-brainer

the great price war

to end all price wars

whistle - a bit over the top

the tannoy announces 

bing bong at end of two minutes

- so long

all’s quiet in the western aisle 

the arrival of the AI man an update of ‘the iron man’

 the arrival of the AI man 

an update of my poem ‘the iron man’

the arrival of the AI man 

                          

they’ve brought in an AI man

that’s what dad heard the old men say

when he was a child

taking coffee to his grandpa 

in the call centre

it took a room-full to answer in unison

             

but now the rat AI has sneaked in

and bitten them off one by one

their freewill annealed in tears

at the damned data-side

of another working homicide 

buried in the blinking sarcophagus

of a data centre’s stations of the cross

injustice crucified as false history

a false reflection of their duplicity 

and yet 

pride at what muscles and mind can sustain

through human resolve may remain 

the restitution that they hoped to see 

when a memorial to AI is written handsomely 

to be read in all of perpetuity 

… searching the web …

quicksand frozen by sunshine

 quicksand frozen by sunshine

love  

       like the heart  

        can be sliced 

by the microtome of life 

frozen in sections

multiple recipients 

effectively nascent 

time will tell for

the giver and the taker alike 

neither has choice in the matter

giving hate it can be perceived as love

and be reflected back with a smile

cheeky chops

it’s nothing ~ forget it

it’s nothing ~ forget it

sometimes we glimpse it

nothingness

and the glaze fractures

the tracks of neutrinos’ opinion us

nothing escapes the orbit of our minds

infinity creeps up behind us

we turn and turn

what colour the spin of nothing

falling is meaningless

myth explodes belonging

we say our goodbyes

ready or not