the box

whalley range no marks you've drawn a blank once again the yellowstains remind
theres a gun and a bottle in the morning old mad annie n a 4 pack of the brew
breakfast in mind cracked open like rotten eggs cold sun on the grey glass yer
know yer shouldnt throw stones my skin feels like milky leather medication markers
swallow the day the spanish waiter has the box next door he's lived there since
franco called it a day, his wardrobe impeccable l972     the twins from Leeds pace
the l-shaped room resting actors don't you know     united 4.4O saturdays to a little
tinny tune a strange desperation belies their sickening state "One day we'll go back to
Leeds" synchronised  and a little hrumph and a smirk shadowin. this place has been
awaiting the axe to swing (the birds will swing) it's funereal style dictates    our
state of mind  the tree outside shrinks a cold shock of daylight and disappears, the
blackground beneath radiates atomic waste       i know      mr clockwork tick tocks
across a blur of boxes belching post industrial smoke     y know   i'm lookin now high
up on this long metal box a personal emptiness sits next to us  human freight every one
of us clockwatchers    then time is frozen sorrows    this man has been driving this bus for
thirty one years five months before that he worked insecurity    i'm just on my way back to
the box now  away from the liquid screens and the hotpoint queens and the territorials
holdin their own in office   the customer screams so we file her away like we do every day
theres forms to fill in to categorise callibrate our dysfunction     people to put away 
technopoly today and forever n ever as the desksitting beckons alien thought from you
to me     never understand    you never understood me   so i stared into space  there
was nothing to say    so back to the box  and the box  coronation streeted and brooksided
noel nicesweater n the family gang just to show you what life can be like   time for a fishtank 
 or a toy jack in the box  it"s becoming harder now to leave the box    as faces
dissolve to strange    thunderbird lubricates the senses and finally fizzle out to the weekend
which lasts 36 hours precisely including the money programme and going live oh n the
telly years n a socio economic breakdown of heinz beans advertising n you need some 
drugs to elucidate what the fucks going on    things stay square shaped though the edges
are softer a plant in the corner snuffs it light breaks thru the piss yellow nets wilting
against the glass    nervous n wreckless spirit n i want to break into heaven laid    a stomach
pump for your sins n psychokinetic energy destroyed      there's a party going on tho in the
biggest box Trever celebrates his 38th year with the local schoolchildren and his mum
she makes him sleep on the setee  i've seen his wristwatch it shows jesus lyin on the cross
he's the caretaker at the church  they invite me down little faces push up against my legs and he invites me to hear his darts
singles he bought at woolies   the smell detonates in my brain and something seems not
quite right         walkin thru the door is like flippin a switch on my tv monitor the
colour bleeds out into a dirty sepia the sound is wrapped up in cotton wool everything
gains a certain softness  it is a soft very flat dream  this house    the landlord has the
right to buy more of these places and he has   inhabited another box only 3 blocks away
there there was a man who papered his wall with crunchie bar wrappers he would pick
them up off the street when i wasn't looking  there i managed to appropriate a twenty
six inch remote control job a studio flat the paper said  the space was white on plaster
i had dreams of manchester dissolve in that very spot   the week ben johnson failed his
drug test it said on channel 3  there were some strange things happening ickie n billy
visited one night they cased the box i was unawares met them in the sports bar a 7Os
brickhouse then christmas day they cleared me out n dispossessed awarded me televiz
freedom for a while...still fucking lookin                                 out