A Gripe, A Whinge

        Rippling muscles flexed with ease
        A long day, a longer night
        Then pin sharp at eight
        Looking good smelling good
        Meet you at 5.00, usual place
        Then practice with the lads
        Touch, then the club
        Work, booze and exercise then more booze

        Thought at the time this was life
        And would last forever
        Were did this pot gut come from?
        The tired feelings, the thinning?
        The broken marriages?
        O youth were did you go, were did you go?
        Sold for fragmentary nights of joy
        For hangovers supreme
        For it all its gone and sold
        Gone forever.

03 Jun 99 
 
 

   Collapsed on the line
 Fiddling around with bytes, bits and options
   Phone calls to friends, advice given
   Panic eased momentarily
   But it still doesn't work
   Growl, growl, growl

   Another coffee and head down I dip
   Into the morass of directories, files and set-ups
   Curses to Windoze and Doze writers
   Silly share-ware proggies that sap my memory
   Alarm bells ringing and lights flicking

Until I throw the switch and say to hell with it
   Have the last cuppa and hit the sack
   More tomorrow, when the email stacks up
   Shit that's right - the machine is stuffed
 Oh well I'll toss and turn and start tomorrow

The next day I sit and stare at a blank screen
   Why not
   It is the most comfortable chair I have
   Sup my morning coffee
   Habit draws my hand to the on-off switch

   Whirring sounds and flickering lights
   "Then it was there - dam"
   "What I had fought so hard for last night"
   "A familiar Windoze screen."

      11 Jun 99

more Ewan Elliott

  Swamped in beauty, youth and limbs
  Gawky and fresh, experiences new and fun
  As they should be - flatting is fun
  The rising tide of youth swamps all
  For youth belongs to the youth
  No room for the middle aged or old

  They have lived with that all their lives
  So far - Now is their time
  Stand aside - don't be a fool
  She is too young for you.

03 Jun 99 

   Prepaid cards to scrape ice of the windscreen
         Cellular secretary sapping money
         Oh, but I am connected
         Every where I go my little phone follows me
   Forgotten in crowded rooms - picked up again
         This robust little piece of wizardry
         Hasn't rung yet - I wonder whether it works
         Oh, but I am connected
         I rang OZ! wow a $100.00 call
         Telecom can't touch me
         My phone line is safe
         Oh, I am connected.