CONGRATULATIONS

some dear friends of ours
have a precious new arrival
a son and heir
a sweet baby boy named ruben
a little brother
a small bundle of joy
what in this life can beat this miracle?
that moment when you finally hold
that tiny long-imagined being in your arms
then the sleepless nights kick in
disrupt your dreams for the future
being at work is so much easier than this!
but of course it is worth it
many times over
so congratulations to you both
love from
family fireseed

SCAVENGER

i cast my seed wide
the wednesday papers and the web pages
happy hunting grounds and pastures new
comfortable suburbia and mean streets
old skips at the sides of roads
meetings and greetings
conversations and eavesdroppings
questions and answers
leaflets and flyers
maps and legends
books and magazines
shops and markets
notice boards
natives and foreigners
leads and tips
good causes and dead losses
short cuts and blind alleys
red herrings and wild goose chases
happy accidents and good reasons
dangerous opportunities
i cast my seed wide

ROGUE'S GALLERY

laughing gravy

laughing

petitioning

BLACKBERRY THIEVES

picture postcard england
rolling worcestshire countryside
the england i always imagined from abroad
when i was living in a concrete jungle
here i stand atop hanbury hill
i squint in the bright autumn sunlight
as a stiff breeze blows up from the bristol channel
a sudden gust sending my hat flying into the brambles
carved into the top of the kiln
a helpful map helps to navigate the sweeping panorama
southern england laid out like a dinner table
away to the left
the broad sweep of the cotswold edge
or is it an escarpment?
saucer-shaped breedon hill is straight ahead
and to its right the invisible meeting point
of rivers avon and severn
winding their way down from the welsh highlands
i will have to take that feature on trust
the undulating malvern hills away to the west
which complete the panorama
full of lunch
we thieves make our way over the style
and into wide fields of fluffy sheep
grazing happily in the sunshine
otherwise alone in our pleasures
we find a fertile spot in the hedge
and begin picking the ripe berries
hannah woo covers the lower reaches
for obvious reasons
meanwhile daddy fireseed stretches into areas
that other pickers simply cannot reach
with his mr tickle arms
and refusal to be daunted by stinging nettles
soon our hands are covered with little prickles
and stains of deep purple juice
incriminating evidence of our actions
making our way slowly along the hedgerows
we fill a used tissue box punnet
and then a plastic bag
a couple of pounds of fresh organic fruit
later when we get home
there will be bramble jelly
and blackberry crumble
and a warm satisfied feeling in our bellies

EVERYTHING IS INTERESTING

...so andy p's white badge says
and it is the most meaningful thing i have seen or heard
since reuniting with this disunited kingdom
or is it a queendom?
interesting how i can cadge
a fully-functioning fifteen-speed bike for free
instead of paying 150 squid for it
interesting how by rejecting the alienating metal box
i gain an immediate camaraderie with two souls i have never met
interesting how the roadsides of south birmingham
are strewn with chestnut-coloured conkers
freshly hatched from their spiky green cases
uncollected by the children of the twenty-first century
who pass them by oblivious to their perfectly formed beauty
children trapped inside their metal boxes
or at home
staring at their bedroom goggle boxes
or tapping furiously at their sorry playstations
interesting how much more you notice
on escaping the mechanical four-wheeled prison
how it is possible to stop and dwell
on an impossibly beautiful inkblot dusk sky
with its exploding orange smudge
how you can guage
the gradient of the hill
the smooth or bumpy surface of the road
unprotected by combustion engine and suspension
which filter out such 'inconveniences'
free to face the reality of the lie of the land
and required to deal with it
to make small adjustments
to control the breathing
to pedal a little harder
i look around in amazement
i find myself among a society of spoilt sloths
who find it a chore to walk ten minutes to catch a bus
who complain at the merest hint of drizzle
who have become so disengaged from what nature there is left
that they are almost totally oblivious to it
unless it is packaged up
in convenient consumable bite-sized chunks
the national parks
the country estates
the botanical gardens
like so many trays of meat
or boxes of frozen battered plaice
tossed into a supermarket trolley
even the parks are empty
broad expanses of lush green grass and whispering trees
and hardly a soul to be seen
no matter the time of day
i could go on
but my thirty minutes will soon be up
oh england
my heart bleeds for your lost soul
if only i could help you to regain it
when in 1993 blur said that modern life is rubbish
they were referring to the usa
but they could have been talking about somewhere closer to home

CARBON

i was on tv this week
my little bro spotted me in my dirty brown jacket
on midlands today of all programmes
unfortunately i wasn't up on stage
belting out corporatocra$y
(check out the first link on the right)
nah
no such luck
i was marching
on a 'cut the carbon' rally
organised by christian aid
representing friends of the turf
getting people to sign postcards to send to their mp
asking the government to set carbon reduction targets
needed for the human race to survive
instead of pandering to big business
which doesn't seem to care
whether or not the whole damn ship sinks
interestingly
a lot of people i spoke to
hadn't the foggiest who their mp was
or said they were 'moving house'
my other job was to video marchers
explaining why they had joined the rally
so that the video link could be uploaded
and sent to their mp
(the one they didn't know the name of)
but most were reluctant
and actually i didn't wanna hassle em too much
cos this march sure attracted a whole lotta hangers-on
handing out their leaflets
asking ya to buy their radical newspapers
and i'm ashamed to say
that the worst gate-crashers were the vegans
with their placards denouncing christian aid
saying stuff like: a meat-eater can't be an environmentalist
a sure way to piss a lot of people off
one thing i've learnt is that evangelising don't work
it just puts people's backs up something rotten
lead by example
but avoid evangelising
anyway
if you're interested in all the climate change malarkey
and wanna read something well-argued with a positive slant
you could do worse than get your hands
on a copy of heat by george monbiot
according to george's detailed calculus
the uk has gotta cut its carbon emissions 87% by 2030
now there lies a challenge...
time to walk home now
i'd get on me bike
but i ain't got one yet...