................ travelling hotshots ................

TT Rider

He played until his fingers bled
he'd found his Way -

but he dropped down dead

or at least that's what the audience said.

'We liked what we heard
but his speech became slurred
he puffed and he wheezed
looked a trifle absurd
'til we realised he'd uttered his final word -

something quite ancient
but sad and unheard........'

'I am perplexed'
he breathed
as his voice cracked from the fifth to the third
'I've found a way
where I don't have to pay
for the pleasure I find in every day.......'

But he'd started to sway
then his legs gave way
and the audience stared
at the ground where he lay.....



He'd played until his fingers bled
he'd found his Way
but he'd dropped down dead.



They stepped over his corpse as they passed up the street
shared out the coins around his feet

some glanced back at his tousled head -

all hurried

some fled

some sighed -
and then looked

to the Future
ahead.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

........................

Their SilenTT Song 

____________________________________

Life has nearly overwhelmed them

in an almost undeniable drenching

by some far-off

tumbling

tsunami

a crashing

crumbling

catastrophe.

Although guttering in the wind sometime

and dimmed by teams of tortured slaves

the flame has flickered and kept alive.

Straight-backed and straining

on exposed hillsides

TThey laboured

standing firm on heathlands vast

where it never stopped its raining.

Leave the children

inside

Home

by firesides bright

where all is right

and nothing's overwhelming.

Love forever

live for Now

and keep tight hold of

our star-shaped

Plough.

We were not born to dither

or linger in the shade

Life will not overwhelm us

nor will our bright light fade.

++++++++++++++++++++++

'gheTToised'

(at home with the TTs)

Live your life in the ghetto

with the other dispossessed -

amongst the sari and the hijab
the tank-top and the yashmak,

and warmth and love and friendship

and a simmering unrest.






There’s markets and there’s sewers
and lines of flower stalls,

there’s miscellaneous shop-fronts
and brightly lit dance-halls.

There’s billiards and there’s poppadoms
and piles of rubber shoes

there’s majesty and misery
and people hooked on booze.

There’s a backdrop of bridges
and cats amongst the litter -

twisted paper and some plastic cups
in puddles of Yorkshire bitter.

There’s churches and gurdwaras
and parks for the older men,

there’s shouting and there’s screaming
and a flashing police siren.







There’s no entrance and no exit,
no sign on the tourist trap -

just a multitude of faces
that span the human map.







So let the stateless find a homeland
on these streets just made for giving -

and let the solitary find their family
in these homes crammed full with living.







yes, let’s stay home in the ghetto

with our friends the dispossessed

where the roads are full of All of Us



and our simmering unrest

++++++++++++++++

THE TRAVELLING 
TITHOTS
HOTSHOT STREET SHOWS
2008
2009
2010
++++++++++++++++

mouTTh organ

    play 

some midnighTTnoodling

LOVE FOREVER