(no subject)

[baloonworld]

I was tidying up because I don't need thesis-things in my life quite as much right now (did I say I submitted? I think I said I submitted), and in my pile of stuff I found some poems inspired by the antics on the train on the way back from one of my interviews. My main discovery is that everything sounds violently Scandinavian in alliterative half-lines.



My railcard is fading
So you can't see the data
The ticket man insists I can get it restamped
(I have written the date on)
But that is no good
'cos just anyone could rub it off
and write a new date on
But the ticket office have a stamp
(I did not think that a second stamp
would look more convincing)
I need to take it to the ticket office
To get the date stamped on

Find the security issues in this kone
and you will be enlightened
(and your ticket will be stamped)


Train guard spake/ ticket-truth telling
date-stamp/ defends against duplicity
when honour holds not/ his hope is folly
crypto-nerds curse/ his crude system
intercom chimes/ telling of train-speak
Brian of Bedford/ blith chariot's lord
alas for he you/ had ahead of me
hath left no/ herb on the hearth
but nimble in night/ like a ninja
deserted this /desolate diesel
and control shall/ give us no crumb-comfort
the have haled in/ haste at the home-hour
and leave us deserted/ in desolate derby

More spoke Brian/ movement-manager
accommodation/ by class is coded
coach A for /thanes is furnished
the forefront of/ train's thrusting motion
the rear of the/ train rides restful
for silent coach/ sleepers that speak not
electronic equipment/ echos loudly
so grant this gift/ of your fellow- guests
that you silence/ the sound of their speakers

The scribe now/ ceases his scrivening
and fumbles/ for things on the floor
his pen-cap/ can not be found
it is gone/ in the grease and the ground-grit