Bad

Baby don’t you know at night
I cut out your face
To dress the heads in magazines
you thought you’d replace
And if you held your nose
you could avoid the taste
And close your mouth and lick your lips
and leave no trace

Dirty secrets
feel so bad
Unspoken broken promises
feel so bad
Abusing known stupidity
is even worse
I cite misunderstanding
the girls just cry, just curse
…

Dawning realisation
always comes too late
When they work out the perverted tastes
they’re meant to sate
Rafsanjani’s got just
so much on his plate
Wrecking lives and drinking late
and just so hard to hate

Dirty secrets
feel so bad
Now you’ve made everyone
feel so bad
What does the honest public get out of this
on a good day juicy gossip at worst a kiss
Always always
feeling so bad

Just a little girl

When I was just a little boy
my aunties said of me
“Isn’t he pretty”
The politics were none
it could be said by anyone
Without sounding silly

***

But that was twenty years ago
and since I’ve filled the space below
With spite, lust & envy
And it’s so difficult to try
and when you do passers-by sigh
And mutter ‘crazy’

Get out get out get out
your nest
Where only those birds with breasts
and the chicks ever wear
the dress
Look!
through the camera
There! look!
in deepest Africa
a safari? no! a party? yes!
ABCDE none of the above
F
Birth-hole, second arse
bloody mess
how sure can we be that more is less?

…
Now he’s covering his crotch
he’s painting on his face
Transvestite? travesty? me?
If I was just a little girl
I’d save that space below
For blood, fingers, babies

I deserve children & they deserve me

Shake my hand and
Welcome to my party
My demands are
Far from extraordi-
Nary boys just
Keep down the noise and
Bring your own toys since
You know it just annoys when you
…
Touch my shit

Play your song just
Try to keep it simple
Make the throng at least
Believe you’ve got a single
Ounce of sense it
Doesn’t sound like you’ve got any
Experience you don’t even
Mention the past
…
Tense

Shake your head
This isn’t what you wanted
Taste is dead
Engraved and re-cemented
In my face
Which it leaves with no trace
Along with my race
And your perceived disgrace

2 sets of lyrics

Setting the scene

In his bed white chief lies dreaming
Gonna build himself a wall
…
He could hear in advance their screaming
And got himself thick padded walls
And even then the rats were teeming
& to cover ‘em up gotta chains psycho pains gotta Rolls
Of unsubstantiated fat
“Aren’t they gonna question that?”
“We’ll shut their heads & answer back
With unsubstantiated fact!”

God save the Queen!
They’re gonna make a scene!
Girls lean back think of England
We’ll handle the drama, hire choreographers
We’re just setting the scene

In the sky metal eyes careening
Down below prophets cringe and crawl
…
There’s a man ain’t read our script stage left
Gonna make him fall
In act 1 & acts 2 3 4 5 6 7 well…
We can’t plan them all
At this point the crowd gets restless
But our craftsmen know their tools
We’ll have buffets & rosés no smoking for your comfort
& audience participation – it’ll be a ball!

God save the Queen!
They’re gonna make a scene!
We shall never be slaves
There’s a stage in Darfur where they don’t know what they’re dying for
But we’re setting out scene!

God save the Queen!
They’re gonna make a scene!
Britannia rules the world
The middle of the east’ll be the middle of our feast but not just yet
We’re setting out scene!

Describing a Tiger to your Grandchildren

You might’ve seen the Disney screen
Showing you pictures of a Tigger
You can take that idea & you’re already pretty near
When you consider these were 5 times bigger

2′n’a half metres long – here’s a postcard
Although the book’ll say 3 yards
And they’d have your guts for dinner
But this only ever happened to niggers

And what are those you ask?
People – almost
We fought a war
And we ended up the winners

“Describe the violence”
No
“Describe the tragedy”
What tragedies?
“Describe the corpses”
I have never seen a corpse
“Describe the animals”
Well…

When I was a lad we had all these things
That you just don’t have now
They said we’d remember suffering and war
But I ask them, how?

When all my memory
Is full of things relevant to me?
We didn’t have the internet – we had picture books
Imagine imagery

Covered in stripes & black & white
No, not a zebra
These ones had paws & claws & jaws
& happened to live in Siberia

They had the shape of giant cats
& moved with the speed and look of fire
Your Granny’ll say I exagerate
Your Grandpa’s many things but he ain’t no liar