1610 - Jamestown sticks its stakes in the ground

In 1610 the Jamestown colony
Was struggling to survive the harsh winter
Attacks from natives meant they had to flee
In the end to find a better shelter
Elsewhere in untamed North America
After crossing three thousand miles, to die
In a harsh hostile wilderness, to fare
So badly when their hopes had once been high
Seems rather like the stuff of tragedy
Heroic failure, yet this odyssey
Would pave the way for great success later
Stealing the land from others' custody
European advance, glorious history
But at what cost to once holy nature?

Note: Jamestown, Virginia was first begun as a settlement in 1607.

1609 - Cool corner

Josephine's birthday tomorrow, she's eight
Today me and Pearl spent some time with her
We went first to Pizza Express and ate
Well, pizzas, Einstein, obvious, to be fair
We then walked round Didsbury but the air
Was nippy to say the least. Charity
Shops, a few open, not much else. Yes there
Were eateries but we had already
Eaten in one - I told you in line three
We then drove to Chorlton-cum-Hardy, straight
Up Barlow Moor Road, past the graveyard where
Morrissey hung out, yes, Southern Cemetery
And left up Beech Road, where we drank and ate
In a cool cafe called On The Corner

1608 - The inverted pyramid

The pyramid is inverting this week
Just for a moment. It will be righting
Itself in due course. Sheikhs don't need to shriek
Across Arab lands. No need for fighting
Just replace your top men and say nice things
Act like you care and want to share the wealth
That you and your friends and family bring
To the top table. Let us drink your health
Raise our glasses and watch the masses. Stealth
Will return them to their flats. There's a creak
In the state machinery needs oiling
With Yankee money. There, that's better. Self-
Righting, see the pyramid's man-made peak
Once more squash the poor's hopeless uprising

1607 - Shopping for Josie

It's been a busy week at work but now
It's time to relax. Might watch 'Cabaret'
Got Josie's birthday presents when in town
A seventies space-hopper should make play-
Time fun in her back garden. Friends will say
'Can we have a go on your space-hopper?'
Wait till they see what else I got today
You walk on it, it's called Pedal Racer
She might fall off, but she'll soon get better
All good healthy activity. I'll show
Her these things on Sunday unless she says
She wants to wait till Monday, her proper
Birthday. And so I now must rise and go
And bloody well do something, as always

1606 - Peas and cheese

I feel like eating something nice tonight
There's not a great deal of choice in the fridge
Some frozen fish in batter, but it's white
And that's healthy, dieticians allege
To that, of course, I'll have to add some veg
I usually have peas, because they are green
And their little jackets count as roughage
Carrots and mushrooms also make the scene
Jacket spud done in microwave has been
Chosen often. So has pasta. I might
Eat my main meal AND have supper, a binge
Of sorts. I have two eggs. Omelette's a mean
Late snack with grated cheese. It gives no night-
Mares, just a pleasant nocturnal image

1605 - Thinking after drinking

Alcohol means I remember nothing
Destroy memory whatever happened
To lyrics hymns we used to learn and sing
Now beyond recall and long forgotten
When you're young it don't matter, it's such fun
But you forget the future which is lost
By your twenties or earlier, it's gone
You find out later that there is a cost
But you can't remember, it's all a mist
Each evening's a test, each evening
Like Alzheimer's, you live for the moment
Abandoning the future and the past
Living for the moment, this is living
Pleasure beats pain, so we exhaust our funds

1604 - Flash of desperation, Moscow Airport

Suicide bomber in Moscow Airport
In January when it's cold as hell
One British man and thirty others caught
In the arrivals lounge. Innocents fell
Left to TV their final tales to tell
Experiencing a sudden bright flash
The brightest light they'd ever seen, a smell
They thought was food cooking but was their flesh
Lying in red liquid like sauce on mash
And in a second flash the dire thought
They were dying. One moment all was well
And then the world was turned to flying glass
Bomb blast and body parts that really ought
Not to be flying separately at all