issue 7
September 2005
This issue written by Mark Ritchie and Gary Simmons (where stated)
DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN IDIOT
After the usual morning routine of shower/breakfast/coffee, I got a subway into town (it was raining) and bought my train ticket to London, got some food and had a quick look in Borders. Got the subway to Cessnock and walked to work because the sun had come out from hiding. Had a SHIT day at work. The cunts I was calling were SO fucking RUDE. One woman said 'Do you get fed up of doing this? Of people saying no and putting the phone down?' I said 'Sometimes' and then she said 'Well, you should maybe
get another job'. Although, to be honest, she didn't say this is a NASTY way. Another woman said 'My boys are just 'orrible and I wouldn't leave 'em a penny. Awright, mate?' Still, I made 3 sales. Would have been 4 but the woman was putting the dinner out! One guy left at the final break because the shitty campaign we were dialling was causing him so much stress! It�s amazing, really, that it�s taken me until the end of my 8th week doing this job to feel this way about it. Before, it didn�t really bother me. I didn�t let the �customers� effect me hardly at all. It was almost as if I was someone else while I was at work � just divorcing myself totally from what I was doing because I didn�t and don�t give a fuck about the job, what I�m selling, what I�m doing. I wonder if anyone who works there really DOES. At first, I tried to make myself think I was acting � like a kind of Dan Fante alter-ego or something. He was a salesman for years and wrote about it brilliantly in the novel �Mooch�. But I was FORCED into doing this job and now I�m forced to KEEP doing it, because leaving would really fuck up my life. I wouldn�t be able to get dole money and I don�t particularly WANT to go back to being on the dole because now I�m used to earning some decent money for the very first time in my life and, although, I don�t have much time to actually SPEND it, it looks nice sitting there in my bank account! But there�s more to life than money and if this job starts to interfere with my mental health then I WILL leave. After work, I bought 4 cans of Stella from Oddbins then got a pizza from BBQ King. The fucking useless immigrants burnt the 1st pizza and didn't even bother to tell me about it OR apologise, so I was waiting about half an hour. I was pissed off. Drank and ate in my room. Watched some TV. Got my pay slip which John had slid under my door. At least I got my 30 quid bonus for last week. Watched an episode of 'Hammer House of Horror' I had on video - it was really silly, about a boy returning from the grave to take revenge on his father who cared more about his rabbits than him! Weird! And shit acting!
CDS
VARIOUS ARTISTS- HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED - REVISITED (UNCUT) TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW!
Lets� face it, free CDs aren�t usually much cop but the freebie with this month�s Uncut mag is a notable exception. As the title suggests, it�s Bob Dylan�s classic LP as interpreted by some of Uncut�s fave artistes (and, of course, that means a LOT of alt country types, which is just FINE by me!) It kicks off in fine fashion with Drive-By Trucker�s version of �Like a Rolling Stone�. I really want to investigate this band further on the evidence of this and a GREAT original song on ANOTHER Uncut CD but the only release I can find by them is a bit too pricey for a mean sod like myself. Their track on THIS CD has very nice male/female vocals and recalls Wilco in their more countrified moments. One of the male vocalists sounds a bit like Rod Stewart and the other sounds a bit like Mick Jagger! Blimey! And the female vocalist sounds a bit like Emmylou Harris. �Tombstone Blues� by Marc Carroll (a distant relative of Hattie Carroll, perhaps?!)* chugs along nicely, steam train fashion. Sounds a bit like the Waterboys, or maybe that�s just �cause I heard that the guy�s Irish. It�s been a while since I sat in my favourite Irish pub, Failte, listening to bands like that. Even U2 sound good when you�ve had a few pints of �1.50 cider! Rumour has it that Paul Westerberg is back on the sauce after several years of abstinence and his version of �It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry� sounds whiskey-sodden, bluesy and fucked-up. Great! This isn�t as good as his version of �Positively 4th Street� which appeared on another Uncut Dylan tribute CD from a few years back, but pretty much anything dear old Westie does is brushed with gold, as far as I�m concerned. Regular HY! Readers will know that I think Portland, Oregon�s Richmond Fontaine can do no wrong, so it should come as no surprise to learn that their reworking of �From a Buick 6� is another flawless addition to their ever-swelling catalogue of greatness and the �graveyard woman� of the lyric could have stepped straight out of any one of Willy Vlautin�s own amazing songs. Willard Grant Conspiracy cover �Ballad of a Thin Man�, which is fucking HILARIOUS when you consider that their main man Robert Fisher is a SERIOUSLY fat bastard. We�re talking �Jerry Springer Show� material here! Now, the Willard Grant boys DO give good compilation, though I�ve always found their full-length albums rather hard to digest. That was a food �joke�, readers! Ho ho. Serious, life threatening obesity NEVER fails to amuse, does it?! American Music Club (my very favourite band in the whole wide world, ever!) come at �Queen Jane Approximately� from a weird angle. About 42 degrees, I�d say (MORE shite jokes! Somebody SHOOT ME!) They turn it into a ghostly, late night piano bar ballad, with faraway tinklings and shimmerings of sound fading in as if from another room. The trouble with AMC�s covers (bar their beautiful take on the Carpenter�s �Goodbye to Love�) is that they never live up to their OWN life-changing songs. Mark Eitzel has often been called a songwriter of genius (as has Dylan, of course) but, sometimes, when a genius covers the work of ANOTHER genius, the result is a dilution; a watery, tasteless concoction. But I realise I�m just being a hard-to-please arsey fan-boy here. I LOVE Eitzel and AMC soooo fucking much, I EXPECT everything they do to be absolutely heart-stoppingly brilliant and, if it falls even slightly short, I can�t help feeling disappointed. That�s the downside of being an obsessive fan, I suppose. But their contribution here is a grower and may even prove to be the track I end up cherishing the most. After all, AMC have stuck by me through thick and thin, bedsit after bedsit.. Dave Alvin is somebody I�m only slightly familiar with. I bought his 1998 CD �Blackjack David�, which contains 2 wonderous melancholic story songs and a few more pretty good ones. I�d love to hear a definitive compilation of his best work. Here, his windswept take on �Highway 61 Revisited� is a straight-forward rock and rock rendering complete with spoken-word vocal. Sort of like a GOOD Chris Rea, if that�s not a contradiction in terms! The Handsome Family�s track (�Just Like Tom Thumb�s Blues�) is possibly the best thing on this entire CD. Brett Spark�s deep baritone duels cheekily with wife Reni�s eccentric warbles over some luscious pedal steel backing and melts your heart with each successive listen. Finally, �Desolation Row�, as tackled by Songdog, is rather fab, although it wouldn�t be hard to do a good version of SUCH a wonderful song. I would have bought this CD for the Richmond Fontaine, AMC and Westerberg tracks alone, so the fact that it was given away free with a rather great magazine is pretty cool.
(With apologies for all the bad jokes, especially the one marked * - sooo obscure and not even FUNNY!)
BABY SHAMBLES � FUCK FOREVER (ROUGH TRADE)
After staying up almost all night drinking cider and vodka with my flatmate, I was nearly two hours late for work, so I was having quite a Baby Shambles sort of day anyway. Rangers and Celtic were playing a football match right outside my workplace, so me and Andy went to soak up the atmosphere on our break and were late going back. I was still half drunk, too! Maybe that�s why I found myself buying this single AFTER work. It was only �1.99, after all, and I thought that was a worthy investment to find out exactly WHAT all the fuss is about. As I�ve said before, Pete Doherty is THE perfect fucked-up rock star, I�ve just never liked his music. This is OK, though, but I still don�t quite see what all the hoo-ha is about. The main song is quite catchy with some pretty nifty lyrical steals (�Fuck Forever� being an old Sex Pistols slogan, in case you didn�t know). I like the lines �I can�t see the difference � New Labour, Tory, Purgatory� and �They�ll never play this on the radio� too. Second track �East of Eden� (another pilfered title) is Shambolic to the point where it�s falling apart. Impressive or annoying, depending on your mood. It�s a sort of Beefheart style stomp and the whole band sound wrecked throughout. Third track, the actual song �Babyshambles� is much of the same. There�s also a fourth, �enhanced� track, which is the video for �Fuck Forever� and it�s rather hilarious, with the Shambles larking about with farm animals, etc.
VARIOUS ARTISTS � PASTE SAMPLER 17 (PASTE) WWW.PASTEMAGAZINE.COM
Had my shower after 9 then went out to check my wages were in the bank. They were and so was another month of housing benefit, which I should have stopped getting a couple of month�s ago! So, after going to Somerfield, I decided to go into the housing office and tell them of their mistake. I got ready and caught the subway into town. The receptionist in the housing office seemed like a right stuck up old bitch. Like a Victorian school mistress or something. Bet she thinks she�s SO fucking superior to all the �customers�.. the fucking COW! I waited a while and then saw a woman who I explained everything to. After much fiddling with her computer (�The system�s down.. Oh no, it�s not. It�s just not letting me in�), she said she'd ring me if the payment WASN'T a mistake. I gave her my mobile number but she never rang, so I assume they'll send me a semi-threatening letter demanding I pay the money back. Even though it�s THEIR mistake. Useless cunts. I walked through George Square. The bagpipe festival had begun so it was quite busy. Looked in Borders and bought Paste mag with a free CD and DVD. Looked in some other shops (Fopp, Missing, etc) then caught the subway to Cessnock and walked the rest of the way. Work was half OK and half shit. We were in a BRAND NEW campaign for Littlewoods and team-leaders Colin and Bobby said how they both LOVED that campaign when THEY were Tele-Sales Twats like us. Well, they've got a weird idea of fun. I DID get 4 sales really quickly within the first hour (my first contact was a sale!) and made 9 overall throughout the day, but the �customers� weren�t quite the lovely, sweet old ladies Colin and Bobby had prepared us for. Nicola put a new 'boy' with me for a while - this Asian guy who's worked in hard sales call centres before. He was a bit of a cocky twat and Samantha was creeped out by him as he was chatting her up. Went to Somerfield in Byres Rd after work for cider and a pasta bake thing. Saw John, buying booze, but he didn't see me. He was probably going back into the next door pub with people he knows and I didn�t really feel like talking to anyone after a WHOLE DAY of talking to people. I got back at 9.30pm, made my pasta bake and opened my mail (my wage slip � I made my bonus again!), an Eitzel CD from Rob and Gary's letter, which I read while drinking my 2 litres of Old Somerset cider. Andy M texted me from his date (he was in the Griffin and they played the Smiths, which made him think of me!) Watched 'Extras' and Catherine Tate on video till 1.20am then slept. So, ANYWAY, this Paste Sampler CD thingie.. When I FINALLY managed to prize it out of it�s almost impenetrable plastic case, it turned out to be 23 tracks and kinda reminiscent of the Uncut mag samplers. I�d never heard of most of the people on this, but many tracks proved to be pleasant surprises. Highlights include �Exodus Damage (edit)� by John Vanderslice (seemingly about the 9/11 events), �Mars Loves Venus� by the Brunettes (a kind of post-modern Lee and Nancy from New Zealand), �Heartstopper� by Emiliana Torrini (who sounds a bit like Bjork.. and no wonder �cos this chick is ALSO from Iceland.. and no, I DON�T mean she works in the frozen food shop), �Right Now� by Grey DeLisle (urgent, impassioned female vocals over mid-paced indie guitar rock), blah blah, blah. Does anybody REALLY care? The familiar names here are few and far between. I already knew and loved the Son Volt track from their recent album, while Death Cab For Cutie disappointed me somewhat, probably because I�ve heard so much good stuff about them for so long without ever actually HEARING them (that�s ALWAYS a recipe for disaster, I find.) Frank Black�s track, from his new �grown-up� solo album, is OK but, as usual (and unfairly), it ain�t no Pixies. It�s the song he performed acoustic on �Later� a few months back. John Hiatt�s �Master of Disaster� is good but would be BETTER without the cheesy sax solo (I fucking HATE sax solos!)
RICHARD HARRIS- MACARTHUR PARK (THE SONGS OF JIMMY WEBB)
A hell-raising young Irish actor with an almost suicidal penchant for Guinness.. No, I�m NOT talking about Colin Farrell, RUDE boy, I�m talking about the late, great Richard Harris (well, he was young when he recorded these songs, anyway). I snapped up this CD for just �7.99 while in the midst of a Monday afternoon booze binge. How I�ve managed to get through 331/3 years (331/3! Just like the RPM of an old-fashioned RECORD. You probably don�t remember THEM. They�re what we used to buy in the old days before compact diskies, but even THEY have become old hat.. Now kids are downloading everything from the net for free or for pennies and packaging and sleeve-notes and, y�know, ART and BEAUTY have been sadly forgotten.. Oh well. That�s �progress�, I suppose) of barely-life without these albums of tear-stained gorgeousness is BEYOND me. One can only wonder what sort of medication songwriter Jimmy Webb (who, fact-fans, wrote THE most perfect pop song in the history of the world EVER in �Wichita Lineman�.. Glen Campbell�s version, natch) was on when he wrote these weird-as-fuck songs which, on the surface, sound like pretty standard MOR fare.. but lyrics such as �laughing at the mirror as she combs her paper hair� and Harris�s eccentric vocal stylings elevate them to the level of genius. �MacArthur Park� was the big hit, of course, but it�s in good company alongside such string-laden weepies like �Didn�t We� and �Name of my Sorrow�, while �Paper Chase� is sort of Elizabethan chamber pop which pushes ALL the right buttons. Stunning! I even managed to turn on a work-mate to this album, so much so that his final days of call-centre hell will forever be remembered (by me and him BOTH) to the strains on �MacArthur Park�. Sometimes there are diamonds to be found amongst piles of stinking shit.
GREEN ON RED � BEST OF (CHINA RECORDS)
You know you�re SERIOUSLY obsessed with a band when you start to check out the singer�s favourite bands/writers, just so you can soak up some more morsels of juicy goodness. That�s why I spent so many of my teenage years sitting in a darkened bedroom reading Oscar Wilde and listening to shit like Twinkle, because I was SUCH a massive wanker.. er, I mean Morrissey fan! And that�s EXACTLY what�s happened with me and the band Richmond Fontaine. A band I�ve heard singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin mention several times in interviews is Greed on Red. I remember the name from music papers from the 1980s but their music has always somehow escaped my radar. Sometimes, I think there�s just TOO MUCH music out there. It�s IMPOSSIBLE to hear it ALL! Anyway, I finally got to hear Green on Red on another one of those pesky Uncut mag CD samplers a month or so back. It was a rather good live track entitled �The Drifter� � kind of Neil Young-esque, I suppose. But I KNEW they had better songs than THAT (Richmond Fontaine cover one live, which I have on a bootleg) and this CD (which I got for the, rather good, price of �7 in Fopp in Byres Road) contains several of them. When Green on Red rock out, they remind me of the Stones or the Replacements (another 1980s band I didn�t discover until years later but who I grew to love with a passion bordering on obsession. Meeting ex-Mats bassist Tommy Stinson last year was a highlight of my life and he�s the only person I�ve been awestruck enough by to ask for their autograph in YEARS!) It�s on the quieter tracks, though, that GoR really shine. �You Couldn�t Get Arrested�, �Tenderloin� (which contains the classic line �After five years, four apartments, three abortions, two cities and a dog, she left me�), �Little Things in Life�, �Hector�s Out� (which sounds like Neil Young singing with American Music Club!) �Baby Loves Her Gun�, �Two Lovers (Waitin� to Die)� and many more of these 19 tracks are all classic slices of melancholic Americana. Shame it�s taken me so long to �find� Green on Red but now I have the pleasure of trying to track down their entire back catalogue! Well, everyone needs a hobby..
GIGS
UNSANE � THE GARAGE, LONDON, 14TH JULY 2005 by Gary Simmons
Saw Unsane last night and had the time of my life!! First we went to the West End for to get M�s jam rags and Neurofen. Then to Virgin for a piss. Then we tried to get to Stoke Newington to check out where the Hobs are playing but, alas, the traffic was awful, especially around the Kings Cross and Euston Road area (this bus goes past TWO of the bomb areas� Saw all the flowers and press and cameras and shit). So we scrubbed our mission and had a walk from the East End-ish to London Wall, where we found a tiny little park all secluded and in cool shade from the surrounding tower blocks where we had our kleb and liver pate and drank the 3 litres of GAYmers cider. It was very NICE cider! Got pissed, had a big row with M about my sex drive. She didn�t just go on about it� She didn�t STOP going on and on and on for 2 fuckin� HOURS!! We even were arguing about it at the Barbican, loud and shouty!! (Barbican = the concert/culture centre and 3 residential towers, man-made lakes and lovely 60s shit architecture, I want a PAD there!!) In the end, I could take no more and threw the bottle of water down and ran off!! But she stopped me and I was yelling at her. EVERYONE puts me down; my dad, the cunts on the street, Pelcombe and now M!!! Well, she shut up after that and we bused it to Highbury Islington and had a �2.80 Carlsberg in The Famous Cock!! I TRIED to make it all nice and it WAS! Nice pub, nice (ish!) �beer garden in the sun� (�Holidays in the Sun�!) albeit v noisy due to the air conditioners outside. So we sat inside at a corner with a big window, watching the world go by. I had to hide my knife, so I walked across the road to put it behind one of two call boxes� and found a �2 coin!! So, my pint only cost 80p!! This spurred me on to buy a �2.90 (!!!!) pint (the fuckin� CHEAPEST!!) in The Garage. It had already cost me �24 to get in, I paid for skint M, and I got an Unsane �Blood Run� T-shirt for �10 too� �40 in all, thereabouts!! I have �10.50-ish to last until NEXT Friday�s dole day. Oh well. The first support band was cartoon-esque death/thrash metal and I REALLY enjoyed it!! I felt good with very few people �down the front� and I felt safe and I felt WHITE and WESTERN and that I was submerging myself in my own culture. It ain�t racism or BNP mastabatin�� It�s just nice to be with your OWN kind and your OWN music, however much like a comic strip they, possibly inadvertently, come across to be! It was FUN!! Next band were AWESOME!! Called Capricorns, they were 98% instrumental and it was as accomplished as a metallic Dakota Suite!! This band are MUSICIANS and the sound they make ELEVATES you to another plain!! Ab-so-fuckin-lute-ly outstanding!! I definitely want to see THEM again!! And it turns out that my two old Tower mates were at this gig, Pip and Marion!! And Marion is married to one of the guys in the (Capricorns) band!! I couldn�t get a cloth patch of �Capricorns� coz I only had a �5 note and the seller had just �2 in change� so Marion BOUGHT one for me!! I love IT and I love HER!! What a nice girl!! So, there ARE beautiful people in this DUMP of a cuntry! (Er� she IS Canadian, actually!) I smothered her in chaste kisses as only I know how! I will sew that �Capricorns� patch onto one of my pairs of tartan bondage strides! Yeah!! Go and see this superb band if you ever get the chance. They are WONDERFUL!! Unsane were magnificent too, unsurprisingly!! They did �Body Bomb� which was kinda, er, �topical� here in Lundun and it went down as sweet as a pint of Golden Eagle bitter!! At the end, I shook hands with spurting-with-sweat guitarist Chris Spencer and gently squeezed his cheek, uncle and auntie fashion!! WHAT a band and WHAT a night� Why can�t it be like this ALL the time? Only annoyin� thing was the normal CUNT who boarded the bus at North fuckin� Finchley�s Tally Ho Corner� He HAS to oscillate his pissed-on-two-Millers eyebrows at me to make contact and say something about how I look and the local pubs. I was still deaf from Unsane, so I just said �If we went to a pub round here they would just wanna KILL us, even though I�m white and I�m British�. Ever get the feelin� you�re not in your own cunt-ry anymore? Goodnight.
THE GREASE MONKEYS � THE 13TH NOTE, GLASGOW, 18TH AUGUST 2005
Ate tonnes of curry for breakfast, all of which was reduced in Somerfield. Yum! It rained. I had MORE cash in my bank a/c, for some reason. What the fuck's going in? Might be the tax credits I applied for. I had a 'back to work' meeting with Lee after my � day off/binge yesterday. I told him how I'd been feeling and he said a lot of folk get sick of the job around about this time - that's why so many leave, etc. But he said just don't think about it and how they'd hate to lose me as I am a good worker and all that shit. Anyway, I felt a bit better about it and tried not to think about what I was doing, which helped. Talking to Andy N, who is a good laugh, helped as well. After work, I went to the 13th Note and had 2 bottles of Westons. Andy M turned up about 30 minutes or so later. We were meant to watch his mate's band but he got his dates mixed up. But it turned out the Grease Monkeys were playing, who are yet another of Jim Spence's bands. He came up and said hello while I was still on my first Westons. When Andy showed up, we went downstairs. It was 3 quid to get in and I had another 4 pints of cider or so. The first band were pretty good. No guitar, mad singer who 'sang' in a broad Scottish accent, sax player, etc. Good! They covered a Beck song. �We hate Beck too. That�s why we did THIS to his song!� Next band were a surf/punk/ instrumental 3-piece. A bit like the Shadows but without the dance steps! The Grease Monkeys were good. Female sometimes-singer and Jim sang some songs too. Brendan was doing the sound. He said hello. He has glasses and a grey beard now! How time flies.. Andy went out to a club after the gig (after we had a drunken conversation about deaf-mute midgets!) I walked to Hope St then got a bus back to the West End. Was in at 12.40.
NO KILTER � THE 13TH NOTE, GLASGOW, 23RD AUGUST 2005
After work, me and Andy went along to see this impossibly young band, who all looked about 15. Hope they didn�t have to be up early for school the next day! They were sort of Fugazi-esque but much faster and SO short (in stature, I mean), I could only really see their little heads popping up from time to time. We�re talking midget rock, here! I had two bottles of gorgeous 6.5% Westons cider upstairs and then three pints of Strongbow downstairs in the Basement of Rock during the hour and a half I was there.
DINOSAUR JR � ABC, GLASGOW, 29TH OF AUGUST 2005
Didn�t wake up till nearly 12.30 because I was up till nearly six talking utter, utter drunken shit on the phone to Tom. We were �at it� for HOURS, darling! Walked into town. It was a lovely day. Tom phoned me AGAIN and reminded me that Dinosaur Jr were playing tonight (he�d rang Kenny who had told him he was going), so I tried to get hold of Kenny too, but got only his voice mail, so I left a message then rang Grant, who had told me he was going when I�d seen him in the Horseshoe on Saturday. So, we arranged to meet. I went to Ticket Talk and asked Vinnie if there were any tickets left. He made a face and produced a massive PILE of Dinosaur tickets! When I moaned about the price (nearly �15), two nice Dublin girls told me that tickets to see them over THERE were �45! They�d come over SPECIALLY to see them in Glasgow! So I told them I�d see them at the gig and they could buy me a drink! Went into the Crystal Palace and bumped into Joe M, who was on the puggy machine with a mate of his (who is an even BIGGER gambler than Joe, it turns out!), so I spent a couple of hours in their company. Had a bottle of Westons and then a pint of cider which only got �1.99 but which was 7.5% and tasted like rocket fuel! Vile, but I managed to keep it down, somehow! After Joe and his mate left, I toddled up to the Auctioneers for Monday Club. Had a pint of �1.20 lager but no one I knew was in. They had signs up saying they�re closing for refurbishment on Sunday! Gasp! How will the lost and beautiful patrons cope?! I went into Borders after that, so I didn�t drink TOO much before I met Grant (I was already drunk ANYWAY). Ended up buying a John Martyn CD for �7.99 (a double!) Went to the Horseshoe and planked myself down at the bar and had a pint. By the time Grant arrived, at about 7.20pm, I was ready for another. I was so pissed I was talking borderline offensive shit, about how I thought his dad looked sexy with his new beard, etc, but luckily Grant is used to me and was obviously in a good mood that day. We walked up to the ABC and went inside and watched the, shit, support band and drank cider (well, I did. He had softie soft drinks). Dinosaur were great, of course. J Mascis looks like Gandalph these days, Murph looks like a skinhead thug and Lou Barlow just looks like Lou Barlow. A few folk were crowd surfing and it fair took me back to �the good old days�.. the last night of the fucking Proms.. the last night of my 3 � day bender. Next day, I spent the morning shaking and convulsing in bed and had to go for a late morning curer in Oran Mor before work.
Early afternoon
and I�m looking at
the river from the
middle of the
millennium bridge.
I look down into
its icy stillness
as helicopters and
seagulls take flight.
The peaceful calm
running through the heart
of all the city�s madness.
The warm sun, the icy water,
the silent skyline
of ghostly shipyard cranes.
-----------------------
Fante hated Hollywood,
Bukowski, the post office,
and my mother, the factory;
so why the hell should I feel
any different about
my simple lot?
I, who am so much less
than them,
who thinks he has a monopoly
on complaint,
who somehow thinks he is
made for better things.
What a fool.
What a sad, deluded fool.
-------------------------
The little insect
madly scuttles across
the tiled floor
of the suddenly bright room,
as a giant and looming
figure takes a shit,
reading it�s television mag and
watching the tiny and frightened and
helpless creature with pity,
knowing that all it wants
is to find a dark and silent
place to hide.
Some peaceful crevice in
a terrifying world of
harsh, unforgiving bright light.
Suddenly, without warning,
the toilet flushes and once
again the room is dark and
cool and safe.
For them both.