Food And Violence

'A hand to mouth existence'
is a phrase that denotes a life
where there is never a surplus
and the financial moorings
of the masses are never as secure
as everyone says they wish they were.
But with a lot of grit, self discipline,
and enough luck the poor will survive.

Alas in the alcohol cultures
that many of the poor get trapped in
'hand to mouth' would also mean
the fear of being fed with a fist,
raised in spontaneous anger,
as much as the hope of getting by.

Call The Doctor?

Many people are very tired
of the media speculating about 'Brexit'.
It may well the new zeitgeist,
But it is zeitgeist full of indecision.
There are too many variables in it
for anyone to ever be mature
whilst they are being reassured.

I like single simple similes
which reflexively encapsulate situations,
mine is that the UK vote to 'leave Europe'
is like flipping the switch in the T.A.R.D.I.S.

It works Dr Who arrives rushed
into his T.A.R.D.I.S., slides the lever
to escape/the electorate vote 'leave'.
The ancient machinery of government
has to lurch into action, but it is so old,
so temperamental, eccentric and inefficient
that soon we don't know what it is we are
relying on for finding our momentum.

We don't know where the country will land,
or whether in the multi-dimensional vortex
of negotiating the 'politics of independence'
the country might split in to four different time warps.

Though given the regional disparities of wealth
many are saying that the country has already has split,
well beyond all possibilities of being repaired.....

And did I mention all the aliens?
Those who speak with alien tongues?
Look out Doctor! The people
your are trying to help don't know
that they are not who they say they are.
Their faces change behind your back.
Sometimes they look worthy of trust
and you do have to work with them.
But they really are very different....

It is not paranoia when can't see
how or why they are out to get you.

Last but not least, though she does not seem it,
in being seen in her 'futuristic' kitten heels/leather trousers
our esteemed leader Theresa May is, in her own way,
doing her best to suggest that she is The First Lady Doctor.
She was never just a Tory and some call her The Master.
Her late entrance and opaque campaign to be Tory Leader
worked because it was not just confused and contorted plotting,
She is not being gnomic about Brexit for nothing,
It is the start of the renewal of Dr Who's use of jargon.

Whoever we thought she was,
she was always a shape shifting Time Lord.

Safety On The Road

Mindfulness is....
gently putting the brain in gear
before letting the brake off the mouth
in the midst of highly complex verbal traffic.

Rules Are Never 'Just Rules'....

I well remember sports in school,
though I wish I didn't. I now know
why I lost my sports kit quite so often.
It was deliberate. Natural ingratitude.
An allergic reaction to how sport was played.
Buried within the rules was the principle
that 'competition had to be without mentoring',
a deliberate unfairness which exposed the weakest,
and the most unsupported from home, first.
After that they were made to feel useless
to themselves, the better to support the few
who knew all along that it was not just sport
-it was life, 'life chances' they were playing for.
Who ever it cost to put the few at the top in future,
whilst the many fell away on the journey,
their efforts were thoroughly worth it.

Coming To America, Soon

from Mumbai, From the president who is going 'refresh' politics, more than we think...

My First New Year Card Of 2017

The entire cast of puppets made by Paul Klee for his son Felix

Saving Time Through Failure

Looking back convinces me more than before
that when I was young I was stronger than I realized.
When I was resisting the pricks of false propriety,
the rules with nothing but their own force
behind them 'You can't have what you want...
You must do as I say. Blah', I more then survived.
Though it did not feel much like that at the time.
 
But that does nothing change the record.
I am still no more than an 'also-ran',
who gave their little all to prop up a system
that was designed to mis-remember me.
Later, in their own time, the other boys
in my school would become 'also ran's' too.

But I my achievement was saving time
by getting to that stage sooner than they did.