Today in NYC we came across horses’ arses of two very different varieties. First of all in Central Park there is a vintage, restored merry-go-round protected from the public by what only can be described as zoo-like prison bars.

Then this evening sitting next to us in the cellar of a restaurant bar we were privy to the ignorant bravado of two loud mouth drunken misogynist ‘horses’ arses’, with American accents and body language. These two sad men were winding one another up as they lied to their wives on their mobile phones. Up until today we’ve been so impressed on this trip with kindly and hospitable Americans. As we left in disgust at the end of the meal, we were surprised to discover these two sad ‘horses’ arses’ were in fact high flying German marketing men on a convention trip!

How is it that I shimmer

On this silver turquoise mirror

Not in sunset, not in moonlight

But exquisitely suspended

As the fires for the parties

Carcinogenically started

Smoke their huddles of fast fooders

As the dusk brings ‘Barbekudos’.

John’s recent trip to NYC reinforced his beliefs that despite great respect for the victims of the events of September 11, the majority of thinking Americans want to move on but also analyse what has been learned from the world events of the last decade. Head On is a political song in the modern sense of the word. John’s reputation for observation and contextualising contemporary issues is exemplified by his description of a small child watching the execution of Saddam Hussein on a mobile phone. The chorus of the song “Oh my God an Armageddon, time to screw another head on”, represents John’s view that the world must adopt a new way of thinking to come to terms with the last ten years and indeed the future. The rest of the chorus, “Now’s the time, make up your mind, someone else made mine – We will remember them”, sums this up pretty clearly.

John’s recent ‘In the Name of Good’ poem is another illustration of how he looks at the last decade of world events.

Soft
The world in white silence clad
`Til…
Scrape
The shovel rips white cotton world.

Then crow
Or seagull
Breaks the sound suspense
In a sense offensive
Innocence offended.

Soft
The contours of sweet slumber girl
Still warmth…
To countenance the rise and fall
Beside myself
In welcome duvet wrapped….

Soft.

She has her eggs at breakfast time
The lady with tattoos
she could be born in Leichtenstein
The lady with tattoos
She has a bright red lily twining half way up her arm
She sees the world through bright pink rims in positive regard
She wants to have a kid now, living solo’s getting hard,
She’s had her fill of clubbing she likes sitting at the bar
With an anchor on her ankle
Just above her plastic shoes
She has reached a threshold moment
Has the lady with tattoos.

In the name of Good
Men held up pictures of their wives and children

In the name of Good
Not knowing why the indigenous had killed them

In the name of Good
The cosmic contests overload them

In the name of Good
The world illusion had been broken

In the name of Good
They were victims of principles

In the name of Good
These ignorant invincible

In the name of Good
No legitimacy for action

In the name of Good
From Gaza to Afghanistan

In the name of Good
The schoolboy leaders prattle

In the name of Good
Though superior in battle

In the name of Good
They resorted to barbaric

In the name of Good
Oil bafoon and would be cleric

In the name of Good
The Great Disorientated
In the name of Good
Just held their breath and waited

In the name of Good
The refugees were frozen

In the name of Good
The retaliations chosen

In the name of Good
Bad apple interrogators

In the name of Good
And corrupt investigators

In the name of Good
One single violent act
In the name of Good
Will make a nation interact

In the name of Good
The last days of mankind (are)

In the name of Good
The last days of man kinder
In the name of GoodUnthinkable destruction

In the name of Good
Beyond human comprehension

In the name of Good
A multi-theatre conflict

In the name of Good
Faked Language is the culprit

In the name of Good
And failed imagination

In the name of Good
And news as entertainment

In the name of Good
You are with us or you’re terrorists

In the name of Good
Quoth the Pentagon Narcissus

In the name of Good
The rhetoric of cavemen

In the name of Good
The Megalomania mayhem

In the name of Good
The accumulating horrors

In the name of Good
As horrible as the attack was

In the name of Good
When jingoism prospers

In the name of Good
Ideological excesses

In the name of Good
And diminishing successes

In the name of Good
Simply galvanised the masses

In the name of Good
The decade of delusion

In the name of Good
Souls transformed by persecution

In the name of Good
For the Old World’s powerful nations

In the name of Good
Ten years disintegration.