RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

Put away the mobile
Power down the laptop
Disconnect the headphones
Switch off the TV

Put aside the Kindle
Disconnect the radio
Interrupt the I-pod
Pause the mp3

Look up at the sky
Find shapes in the clouds
Unravel the mystery

Right here right now
That’s all there is
Right here right now
The magic is

No more barriers and walls
No more obstacles and fences
No more digital dismay
No mechanical malaise

Look up at the stars
And catch the Moon’s gleam
Search for the Milky Way

Right here right now
That’s all there is
Right here right now
The magic is

Breathe a little easier now
Listen to the birds
Taste the briar berry
Tread the solid earth

Right here right now
That’s all there is
Right here right now
The magic is

Right here right now
That's all there ever is

RING OF GYGES

To walk among men as a god
To take, to steal and to rob
To wound, to kill or set free
To act with impunity
To deny all responsibility
To don the cloak of invisibility

THE GRAVEYARD OF CONSUMERISM

It is the moment i have been dreading
In fact I've been putting it off for months
The trip to Lifford Lane
The euphemistically named household recycling centre
For the south-western quadrant of the city
What used to be called a rubbish tip
In less pc days of yore
We are here to unburden ourselves
Of two years worth of Tetrapaks
Those dauntingly unrecyclable drinks containers
Cunningly fashioned from paper, plastic and foil
Now we sit in a slow-moving queue of traffic
Which files funereally into this soulless repository
Of human folly and hubris
The cars inch forward one by one to drop off their despised cargo
The funeral director in his high vis jacket
Ushers us solemny into bay three
This is the sad and lonely end of the road
The final resting place
For the intensely-marketed shiny baubles and glittering trinkets
Of the twenty-first century consumer dream
Where death, as always, is the great leveller
Each item equally unwanted and unloved
As we acclimatise our noses wrinkle
At the rancid stench of corpulent black bin bags
Stuffed full of rotting household waste
Now the eyes scan with morbid facination
The rows of bulky TVs and clumsy computer monitors
Abandoned for newer, younger, slimmer models
Next the ears wince then the guts wrench at the sickening crunch
Of crushed metal, shattered plastic and splintered glass
It's all here
The cartons and the cans
The flat batteries and the fluorescent tubes
The fat fridges and the flabby freezers
Worst of all, the massive skip behind bay three
Where the dead corpses of electric and electronic appliances
Crush the broken bones of their brothers and sisters
A terrifying hi-tech mountain of PCs and laptops
A tangled mess of cables and plugs
Mangled stereos and hi-fi systems
Bruised video recorders and DVD players
Dented coffee perculators and sandwich makers
Perhaps dead and useless
Or perhaps simply rendered obsolescent by next generation technology
Questions flood the mind
What natural resources were consumed in the manufacture of these goods?
Or should that be bads?
What rare and precious metals do they contain?
What toxins and poisons?
How much pollution was involved in producing them?
Who got ill? What creatures died?
What amount of cash was paid for the stuff?
Where will it go now, this waste mountain?
To a huge hole in the ground
Where it will leach into the groundwater?
To an enormous incinerator
Which will belch more toxins into the atmosphere?
To a giant ghost ship back to China
Where most of it was assembled?
One thing is for sure
It will not just go away
For as someone once said
There is no 'away'
What was taken in production
Stolen from the Earth
We must ultimately sacrifice
As Gaia takes its revenge
Such is the law of things
Even as the council taxpayer takes the final hit
To foot the bill for the disposal of these disowned discards

TRUTH

The
most
important
truth
is
always
your
own
truth

MYTHS

The myths we really believe in
Are the ones we don’t notice we believe

CRUMBLE

Slip road and motorway
Watch the weeds grow
Watch the weeds grow
Hydrofoil and aeroplane
Grind to a halt
Grind to a halt

Ariel and phone mast
Turning to rust
Turning to rust
I-pad and Satnav
Crumble to dust
Crumble to dust

Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly

Facebook and Google
Server gone down
Server gone down
Blackberry and Apple
Juice running out
Juice running out

Bank and pension company
Wither and die
Wither and die
Dow Jones and FTSE
Breathe a deep sigh
Breathe a deep sigh

Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly

Loyalty and credit card
Throw them away
Throw them away
Check-out desk and shopping aisle
Nature invades
Nature invades

Manicure and high heel
Cracked and worn
Cracked and worn
Fashion accessory
Faded and torn
Faded and torn

Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly
Crumble slowly

Campfire burning bright
Keep yourself warm
Keep yourself warm

RECIPE FOR A RIOT

1) Create a society that values material things above all else.
2) Strip it of opportunities for meaningful work.
3) Raise taxes from the poor while exempting the rich and corporations.
4) Prop up failed financial institutions with public money.
5) Ask for more tax while vastly reducing public services.
6) Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people’s ability to afford the products.
7) Allow the cost of food, energy and housing to eclipse the ability to pay for them.
8) Light blue touch paper...

9) Condemn those who rebel.
10) Lock them up in the name of justice.

VICTIM

You stare at the box
You are glued to the screen
As your Internet phone
Burns a hole in your jeans
You’ve got no time to lose
As you burn up the road
You are on a short fuse
You’re about to explode

Your parents don’t care
That you’re out on the street
They curse and they swear
When you get under their feet
So you run with the mob
You riot and you loot
You steal and you rob
Then you put in the boot

But you’re not bad
You’re just getting your own back
You’re a victim
What did they do to you?
You’re a victim
What did they put you through?
You’re a victim

You unleash pandemonium
You are heaped with opprobrium
You have no sense of propriety
You have no place in society

So you self-medicate
To escape from your plight
And the stuff that you take
Gets you high as a kite
You’re untamed and you’re wild
You’re condemned and reviled
You’ve got nothing to lose
And everything to gain

But you’re not to blame
It’s something you can’t explain
You’re a victim
What did they do to you?
You’re a victim
What did they put you through?
You’re a victim
What else can you do?
You’re a victim
They’ve taken everything from you