Rapid Response

the gap between my mouth and the mask is a universe worlds of difference the space between the epic and prosaic encompassed in a simple act of placement we recognise each other by our eyes searching out meaning in the aisles there's a spanish food promotion at lidl  my masked nose nuzzling the tins of calamares the promise of a break from the norm in bright orange tins a splash of the future as the present eases its weight slowly on my easily breathing face it's a freedom sorted into a new neat category the relief of less expression I  can read so much in your eyes and we recoil from the unmasked the man in shorts with the Red Hand tattoo ten tins of shandy there's fresh bread now it's a whole new subset of inadequacies another toolkit to riff through to measure peg and not say judge never say  judge the highest order as ever a rewritten verbal agreement unspooling before our eyes which say everything as we wheel and spend through the ne...

Social distancing and COVID-19, guidance for pubs you don’t have to wear a mask and you don’t have to be ashamed but it helps if you’re angry some words of advice and guidance it is your right as englishman native-born and oh all right some others too but we won’t say who to gather and spit indifference into the maw of the bar, we prefer the 66 replica   but in a pinch a decent shirt will do, we’re not animals and it’s your right as a free-born patriot to sing about long-dead wars and all the tropes that the arseholes with their opinions deplore well fuck them because this lads lads lads is where we’re standing, well swaying and it’s a tricky one for the cunts and while they wonder if it’s class hatred we’ll get on, on a nod and a wink, keep on and we want to let you know that all your lives matter all of of them and anyone who tries to tell you other wise is getting banged, my son because whatever end you look at it from, her...