1

Linger along the corridors of centuries

Who are the modulators, sinew of the holding ballast?

Who comes to mind, inherits you a welcome favoured fellow

Mulcibers of the calibre of Beckham, Lady Gaga?

Kryptonites like David Cameron and Ghoully Gove?

Some stage-door kickshaws, Olly Murs, or Morissey?

The markers of olden history of who and where we are

Old hoary Augustine, or else boat Celt Columba,

Maybe you don’t like only men; for you there’s Mary Seacoal,

Upon religion’s mention, enter Savonarola.

More rigidly empirical; pair Samuel Johnson, Goethe,

The pyrotechnic Pantheon of undiminished souls

2

Here’s unfair competition, you spread margarine on oysters,

We have our own sheet anchors in a funny sort of way

Dara O’Briein, Rob Bryden, Susan Calman; merry treasures

Who show the very body of the time his form and pressure

They mete out as you like it, lavishly, measure for measure

Our bearings-takers of the day, the entertainer pleasers

Few know of, fewer own to, ghosts of high-regard prevailing

Manoeuvring in place the steps of grace by which we walk;

Unaccountably alive invaders steal on stupored hearts

3

Fastnesses marshal capital for wappenshaws on markets

Sir CEO casts challenges and Vice-President picks-up,

Their armourers fair liveried at-the-ready, stand by honing

This clash of crowns a game of thrones a picture show

Meanderings of listless backstab grand betrayals

It is a main event; contaminate with idle wiles

The shore of the time subsides, atrophic smallness gains

Purchase; its grains abrade wear down, slowly sincere,

And this ‘sincere’ confers, reveals, the sordid tragedy

4

Scorning - to nothingness - our own, and only ours, purgative shrine

Recourse of humankind, a great estate not built with hands,

In three days raised; Whose psalm can never be destroyed

Planned memory-denial turns ‘ignore’ ‘forgetfulness’

By an elephantine constructive-dismissal

Sophistical omission cuts our nose to spite our face

We tearful crocodiles; to think to gloze is having fun

To be the jamboree embers set free from gorgeous bonfires

As jumping round the flames become our penitential pyre

5

Nor no nobility now today, no sacrificial stand

Tolerance wraps intolerance, as insolence grows bland

Humble? whatever menu are you reading from, garçon?

Patience? there’s no tomorrow... and, then, a bird in hand...

Love? there’s a smarmy clammy thing that clings-on like blu-tac

Ice-cream and chocolates, soap and flattery to music

Dear is the deed discreet, unheeded, unbegrudged

Clear is the meed conceded cheerful, carelessly

Where is the fear of God’s delight-wound hunted seriously?