IV
SHE DOESN’T FEEL LIKE HOME
I’m gonna go far on the turning tide / S’about time I did so, but I am terrified / And it’s true, they build no statues of the man who never leaves / Got big ideas in my eyeline but nothing set in stone // I’m gonna go soon on the push and pull of the honeymoon / The blood runs thick but it’s thin on the ground /And yeah, skin deep graffiti is seeping from my veins but we all outgrow the goldfish bowl eventually // Hear the thunder before you see eyes of Humber mocha crying in the street as a siren trying to save someone / Pretty watercolours run across the skyline so it’s a shame she doesn’t feel like home //
PERVERTIGO
I sharpen my knives and throw ‘em at those I call friends and foes to see if I’ve still a bit of that edge about me / And yes, I’m still an acrobat but there are caveats // Every lick the same flavour / An eye for an eye tastes sweet on these chattering teeth but it strikes five / I haven’t moved from the kitchen and the chitchat’s gone and grown fingers and prose // I don’t wanna black out on the wire somewhere between pervertigo and time to go / But I don’t want to go // Damn close to comatose / The last of the poison is causing this noise in my head / And I am trying but how can I wake up and smell the toffee apples with all these holes in the plot? // I don’t wanna black out on the wire somewhere between pervertigo and time to go / I could have told you so / I don’t wanna be a punch-drunk subhuman cannonball sleeping it off at the bottom of the barrel until that fuse is lit and I'm ready to do it again //
THE EVENT HORIZON
On the event horizon there’s a handsome façade I’ve had my eye on / Meet me and we’ll sweet talk a way past the insecurity guard // Knew you’d like this room, looks great through a lens, decorated all gloomy so put a sting in the tail and show it off to your friends // In the middle distance beside the station signpost is the ghost train of intrusives you thought the rest of us ought to hear // Knew you’d play it cool and that’s great but it tends to come across cruel when you suck the wind from the sail and bring the fun to an end //
HORRORSCOPE
I stop in and check each day on stronger forces out to play but it’s tough to navigate by the stars when the sky’s so grey // Looks like I’ve landed on the dark side of the moon / Feels like I’m stranded on the cold side of the room // It’s all here to be enjoyed but this and that and then we’re all annoyed enough for the gravity of the remark to strike like an asteroid // Red flags refract through the walls of the glass house I made my home // Dark shapes project upon the walls of the theatre I go alone //
© MARC AINLEY / 2025