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Richard Barrett

from Images, Meaningless

 

1.

 

argos history, chat, exclusionary

slang based, suggestive of    some greek god

of tomorrow, saturday                             gathering around to look at

clock radios, sony,       wedding

                                                  and engagement rings

and other fancy goods

too fancy to afford during this decade of childhood, remember

that dark arndale corner of

special brew and porn mags, connecting corridor to

some unknown there        from here

no better known, via the                           bus station, yawning cavern

of buses, unrecorded, bum trips of 80s acid

waiting to come on

on the bus home, to no mother home            80s cancer death

tripping, miserably yet hopefully towards 80s demolition

and the forgetting of all this

                                         cheap plastic crap


 

2.

duran duran music video, miscellaneous               memory

marry a supermodel        80s excess as

compared to        question the term        simon

le bon, who    wouldn’t love this life    married to a    

yacht rock music video aboard         your dead dad’s

high-backed chair             compared to        

friday night, sat up, still, sleeping                    in other             

high profile shows etc       and magazine covers    

this friday night    beyond          such tired images

and sleeping off the                previous night’s

excess, and              too much 80s             re

dundancy, and suchlike    illness, and late diagnosis

80s cancer specialists    top of the pops 2

on bbc4, how you hated this stuff when       spunking

money       shining       social realist deprivation in the

duran duran video, the capering ninnies        twenty

years earlier you thought           what sort of music is this

shit    when young, you 80s child, remembered now

emptily as        just an okay tune

 

 

3.

 

tunnel network, forgotten           connecting the to

to the from, of 80 consumerism, without omission

here, where

                    each gets what each most deserves

 

entrepreneurs of                   meat dump and

                              distressed denim    

                                               cheap

doctored receipts, 2 quid skimmed from

future careers, the descent into

                                       , whirring and clanking

flies, solidity         cloud of black over

head, looking down upon

the tesco express store            

                                  of all our futures and pasts

via ravenous elevator         

                                         carrying one down into

meat dump, forgotten        carcass stink aroma

of rot         animal death

 

               our moment, our one shining moment of

                                              money, fashion

                                                                pop

80s death          trap, sealed shut

                                    closed off         memory

                                                         lingering, stale

poppers, all                                             

                                                              under our feet    

Richard Barrett lives and works in Greater Manchester. He enjoys going to the cinema, reading and working out at the gym (Pure Gym, Stretford). Why not follow the link to join Pure Gym, Stretford yourself to enable Richard to be in with a chance of winning a £500 sports bundle for referring a friend for membership.

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