Questions

The young student was impetuous and eager
Did you ask him how he wrote the lyrics
Did you ask him where he first played
Did you ask him where does he think
He is going to go next with his music

Questions rattled off
At such a pace which suggested
That there was little time to wait for answers
But Joe fielded the questions
Studiously, thoughtfully, steadily

Here in the calm of the coffee house
He could not use the one word answers
Which he had shouted out in the pub
Over the blare of the Juke Box
Anyway James was a more serious student

He had been quiet
On the night they first met...

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Family

Tom’s daughter Desiree was the love of his life
She had hung on when his wife could not
He would have given his all, or so he said
For the relationships between the three of them
To have been somewhat different

Tom had made his money in microfiche
He had been in at the beginning
Of the electronic archive revolution
Now he held the licence, for the world’s foremost
Document storage and recovery software

It was produced on all continents
Sold by internet, shipped worldwide overnight
He was a very wealthy self-made man
Desiree was the love of his life
But she was also the trouble of his life...

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Stonework

Down the valley from the town
An old cotton mill provides
Modern, tastefully developed
Executive accommodation

As the advertisements claim:
Village life accommodation, with a nearby wealthy
Town community; electric gates, double garages
With elevators to totally safe environments

The mill, a century earlier
Had been a place of graft, of industry
Driven by water wheels
The buildings had teemed over with factory workers

Many who were no more than children
Weaving, spinning, combing, finishing...

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Manifesto Is It

Eventually Joe opened the folder
He had wondered, at first
Whether this was like reading
Someone else’s letter
Which he considered he would not do
No, that would be a private intrusion
But a folder he thought of as something
For the whole world to see
Even so, he did not feel comfortable
Yet he still began to read:

Neo non-intellect

It is not

That I do not want them to have a voice...

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Disturbed, Deluded

What happened at Weatherspoon’s then
He could hear his old friends say
But what would they say now
To see him in the sociology block
Of the university

Off limits Joe lad
Way off limits
They would for sure
Echo his mother’s warning
At this thought, he panicked

If he disturbed her would he lose her
If she thought he was prying on her
Would she cast him off
If he did not measure up would she
Discard him for a more educated type

Without any further delusions...

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