LONG PRESCRIPTION DAYS

when i run aground
i
play
the
songs
that make me feel / make me almost cry

 ( theyre LIFE photo'd in plastic )

remembering when i struggled
and 
they were beacons / revelations

  and
  Armour

we would play them
on portable tape players
on street corners
like
out-of-time urchins
lost without a revolution
  
 ( waiting
   for
   SOMETHING
   to
   happen )

we would play them
in hatchbacks 
parked up on the forest fire paths
where 
the 
sky would pretend
it 
had
secrets locked down in dense emptiness

we would talk about them
round the pub jukebox -
the 
lost art of mic'ing up a drum kit
that 
special scream of a frisco fender

and CLAIM them as OURS

 ( and if anyone else played them
   or they turn up on radio 2
   then
   its
   not
   right - what do THEY know ? )

and
i
dont
ask
any questions of them any more

they ARE what they are / what they NEED to be
in
the 
long twitch 
of these 
prescription days

~

  and
  then

  i
  play

  them
  again

  sat back
  smoking
  and
  still / always / forever

  enthralled

  their importance IMPOSSIBLE
  to
  overstate