My Imaginary Friend

He is all seeing and knowing, my imaginary friend.
Ask me anything you want? he calmly requests.
The future is void and without form.
Anything could happen in the next half hour.

The scriptwriter of perception, my imaginary friend.
I think therefore I am: Or; am I? I hurriedly ask.
If you paraphrase your peers you will walk
endlessly in circles, he warns.

Every day he is with me, my imaginary friend.
So, I ask him: Who were the pollinators of Eden?
He smiles at me and whispers:
The gods themselves came later than creation.

He protects me from myself, my imaginary friend.
Wisest is he who knows what he does not know.
She cannot compete with him.
Her satisfaction is temporary..

My imaginary friend was the real myth of the cave, he says.
And he explains to me;
the deception of the shadows.
Bewildered, I gaze in awe. How can I doubt him?

I'm in the primeval playground with my imaginary friend.
He shows me a pair of scissors. These cannot be improved.
Nevertheless he courteously invites:
Here is my atomic Lego.

What is your greatest invention? I ask my imaginary friend.
I listen as he shifts; north; south; east; west.
Common sense is not common. Neither is a common cause.
But. We have so much in common!


Capability Red           December 2015

Nursery Crimes

Peregrine spied on a council estate
reciting nursery crimes.
Little Jack Horner's an Essex man
he wrote in the Sunday Times.

Mary had a little lamb
but now it's growing old.
She'd like to live in a council flat,
sadly, it's already been sold.

All things bright and beautiful
Johnny won't work any faster,
he cut his hand on the lathe
and there's blood seeping through the plaster.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
'cos they wouldn't let them in,
a policeman stopped them at the top
and asked them where they'd been.

Fashions come and labels go,
still; wealth remains in style.
The sign said; 'Do Not Trespass'.
Where are the rank and file?

The rich man is still in his castle
but there's trouble at the gate,
folk have had enough of this
and why should they have to wait?

Today I met an old man
who would not say his prayers,
struggling on his pension
he reckons nobody cares.

Bankers in their counting house
drooling over their money,
heard about redundancies
and thought it was so funny.

Humpty Dumpty had a pay cut
Little Bo Peep has lost her job,
Little Miss Muffet stood up and said:
"why don't we join that marching mob?"

Margaret Hilda quite contrary
how does your conscience rot?
Those unemployed were null and void
the folk that you forgot.

But we march along singing
as the red flag is unfurled.
My enemies might be dead
but I still want to change the world!


Capability Red             November 2015

Lay me to rest in your memories

Lay me to rest in your memories,
on a day without tomorrow.
Hotel 'Only Yesterday'
has no vacancies for sorrow.

These lines that you now read.
You can still hear flowing from my tongue.
In those days when you were younger.
And I was simply young.

The two of us wore No Entry signs,
back when we first met.
And you recall every moment:
Ha! Even what you wore, I bet.

I'll always be a part of you.
Don't imagine I have gone.
And don't waste money on flowers.
Or a grave to rest them on.

If there's life beyond, I'll let you know.
If not; c'est la vie. So:
Lay me to rest in your memories.
That's where I want to be.


Capability Red       September 2015

Flee From Ganymede

Let the sentinel lie buried.
Perishing not in the frozen depths.
So deep beneath icy terrains.
One day to warrant man's respect.
Oh. Flee, flee from Ganymede.
Before it's too late.
We will never return.
Flee, flee from Ganymede.
The rampant ice will surely burn.
One day in the future man will arrive.
To conquer the desolate barren waste.
That day, we too shall be alive.
To pass judgement on the human race.
Oh. Flee, flee from Ganymede.
Jupiter's child.
Metaphysical moon.
Flee, flee from Ganymede.
Lest man should discover a day too soon.


Capability Red     1979

When The Moon Explodes

When the moon explodes.
What are our children going to do?
When the moon explodes.
Their options will be precious few.
Wastefully wandering carelessly casually crawling around.
Melodramatically playing the parts that are dragging them down!
Day after night. After all: They are only an experiment.
And sooner or later to their creator they shall be sent.
When the moon explodes.
Are the mutants going to run amok?
When the moon explodes.
Will they recognize the tangent plot?
When the moon explodes!


Capability Red            1979

From My Lonely Hotel Room Window

There are no leaves on the trees, nests left abandoned.
No sound from that upright, solitary telegraph pole.
A pitiful view, as temporary as a lonely hotel room.
And I wish I could see a lovely red phonebox.
Where people once queued to dial a call.
All those busy people.
All those rustling leaves.
All those greenstick warblers.
Where have they all gone?


Capability Red           Dec 2014

Colin's Gone Camping

O'er hills, down the valleys,
day's breaking all around.
Can't see no shops or factories,
can't even feel a sound.
Got away from vans and lorries .
Left behind next week's worries.
Colin's gone campnig.

Soon we'll go walking,
heading out of the night.
It'll be morning.
No need to be right.
Shouldn't be any complications.
Can't see no tube stations.
Colin's gone camping.


Capability Red                1979

Commit No Nuisance

I was blinded by the shine of her cold metalic stare.
The place was swarming with uniforms, but nobody seemed aware.
She wasn't wearing those leather boots just to keep her legs warm.
I sensed an eerie atmosphere, just like the calm before the storm

We were all born naked and open mouthed.
But I find it easier to lie than to let my feelings out.
Sometimes I wonder where I'm going.
And I wonder where I've been.
I think that I've been here before.
Or, was it just a dream?

Jim was counting down the second hand on his second hand watch.
We'd been sleeping rough that night, I could have done with a wash.
There were so many people listening, I felt an itching in my brain.
And I was blinded by the shine. Oh no! Here I go again.

We were all born human, a little while ago.
Do you love your girlfriend? Do you let her know?
Sometimes I wonder where I'm going.
And I wonder where I've been.
I think I've met you before.
Or, was it in a dream?


Capability Red                 aprox  1975

Our Little Secret

Folk would laugh if they just knew.
How could it happen? Me and you.
I won't tell a soul, I promise you.
It's our little secret.

Neither of us was really to blame.
And afterwards we both felt the same.
No guilt, no regret, no sorrow, no shame.
Just our little secret.

It's not as if we were naive.
And you were smiling I believe.
Nobody knows. What a reprieve.
It's still our little secret.

So. What on earth am I writing about?
Offering no clues to work it out.
Hidden away and shrouded in doubt.
Stays our little secret.


Capability Red                  April 2015

Read The Morning Star

Does anybody ever buy the Morning Star?
Tell me; is there a paper shop
Somewhere, near, or far.
That sells the Morning Star?

Do you want to hear an alternative point of view?
Listen to me Comrade,
The Morning Star's the one for you.
And you can take out a postal subscription.

You're not satisfied with the way things are being run.
Would you appreciate a system, that's fair for everyone?
Well! Make a start somewhere:
Read the Morning Star.

We've gotta speak up. Build a people's press.
It's fourteen pence a day: More or less!
Give or take; a dirty look, or two.
Because they're out to get you.

If you:
Read The Morning Star.


Capability Red                        1978

At Leytonstone Station

Dawn breaks above dark tunnels, tired signals and tracks at Leytonstone Station.
Cold steel tracks struggling to carry weary, dreary, hum drum trains to and fro.
And a struggling morning sun casts September shadows onto platform 2.
Shadows which never sleight the shattering mosaics of the subway.
A subway that seasons don't sweep.Where their eyes first met.
And busy remote commuters avoid eye contact at all cost.
Questioning the cost of smoke and print at the tiny station kiosk.
Leytonstone Station, where two young lovers embarked on their journey.
A journey begining with a lingering glance and a teasing sense of vertigo.
Sensing amorous tingles and the bleak moodiness of brown leather.

Darkening moods at Leytonstone Station strain as autumn takes a grip.
Gripping onto distant dreams, prospects and tales that strangers tell.
Just who was that passing stranger who asked them for directions?
And directed his gaze towards the light in that upstairs window.
A window pruriently overlooking platform 2, witnessing trains departing daily.
Platform 2 soaking up the seasons' never ending wanton emotions.
Seasons come and seasons go. But, today it is cold at Leytonstone Station.
Eerie coldness of ticking clocks as time passes slowly, passes slowly.
Minutes pass into hours, hordes of passengers pass through station barriers.
At Leytonstone Station. Where two capricious spirits intertwine.
And then disperse......................................


Capability Red        Feb 2015

All Quiet Outside Bracken House

It's all quiet outside Bracken House tonight.
listen: You can't hear a single press rolling.
It's all quiet outside Bracken House tonight,
see the Chapel sitting in the shadow of St Pauls.
There's a blind new peace rising out of the storm tonight,
a gentle soothing calm will be ours tomorrow.
And they've abandoned the moral vigils in Distaff Lane,
brothers, are singing in the pouring rain.
Outside Bracken House


Capability Red          aprox' 1979

Lon, say a prayer

Lon say a prayer and cast out your vanity,
look in the mirror, see your sanity.
Lon say a prayer, or cry tomorrow.
The candle will flicker
through the gales of sorrow.

Lon say a prayer and I'll pray for you,
for the people we know, reprobates too.
Let's sit down together, open our minds,
shall we pick up the pieces
and see what we find?

Lon say a prayer, value this love.
Make an ode of a happening , float above.
Don't interupt, almost there.
Oh Lon, say a prayer.


Capability Red       aprox' 1976