set free at last to rocknroll m’lud

i sleep with my bass guitar in realms of royal marine

shooting down the long warm summer highways in darkness

asleep in a careening hunk of tin and all its little motors n engines

cooling system heating system

the system that checks the other systems

white widow whispering in back of my mind

the air rushes in an open window

the blank emptiness around us

i get up and talk to the pilot for awhile

as we fly over flyovers and layovers and underpasses

we get to somewhere and we go for a swim in the pleasant murky atlantic

the rocks are hard studded with cockle shells

as the blurry summery night comes down

as we dream up our music in a motel mirror

as we stroll across open fields around the beach with families in picnic

and their blasters blast out something incomprehensibly beyond my ken

an über guy arrives

he’s young and a latino (i guess)

and driving a lexus

he is impossibly sharp looking and handsome in a tough way

he is a kickboxing champ

he is a big rolling gambler

he is studying criminal psychology

he talks about his life and suddenly he fixes his eye on me in the mirror

i’m gonna do something you know what i’m saying…?

coz i came from absolute nothing..!

our eyes lock for a moment in the rearview

and we exchange some brief shot of mutual empathy

he understands that i understand and a goofy smile crosses his stern face

i hope this man succeeds he has won my admiration for his chutzpah

we find a good vegan restaurant i drink deep of hemp milk

woe upon the idiots who demonised hemp , such a useful plant

i do yoga consistently

flexibility remains a side effect of whatever yogas main agenda is

yoke me to the fucking universe because I’m starting to feel it

it had to take this long to understand because thats how long it just fucking takes

my bass guitar strapped to my frame i stride across a stage belting out my numbers

my bass goes right through me and then through you

it is warm and round and blurry like a summer night

the rain goes on falling out there in the  north east bits of america

its all pretty gorgeous in the sweet sweet summertime

onstage i am repossessed night after night so i live it up to the hilton

i crouch and lunge and i bounce and i hammer on and off

my words flood my head waiting to get let out like all get out

the guitars conjuring up all that sound

surges of power jolt me and i feel like i could maybe levitate

regardless which version of the band you like

this band right now with craig and with ian on board

is the righteous slayer of audiences

a machine now lean from a load of shows

and ready to crunch down and rock

yes rock and fuck it if you don’t like rock

because rock can be thine deliverance if you would just let it be

anyway rock has got me now i can feel it

i walk in its presence and i dream in its shadow

i labour in its blistering groves n grooves

where the trees bear riffs and bloom power

in stately arcs the keys flower around

i am quite gone

we meet some people but i am gone

we drive away but i am already gone

doing this every night has a strange effect on my feeble brain

i miss my five beautiful daughters

i imagine miranda and elektra doing their gigs somewhere

the noise and the lights have dazzled me tho

i am an efficient machine

a rocknroll soldier or something

a delusional itinerant old bassist

and yet

the show must go on