Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

a sad donky
and a fat man smiling

speaking as a man who doesnt eat cheese
and who paddled into 2nd place in the
kent schools under-18s slalom 1975
(three entrants only)

speaking as a man who doesnt own a television set
doesnt read daily papers
and the radio remains clicked to off

speaking as a man with twelve fillings
four verucas
and one o’level (art grade A) walderslade secondary
school for boys 1976

speaking as an artist of dubious merit
and the writer of lewd verses

speaking as a man who caught paul wellers plectrum
thrown into the audience at battersea town hall
jubilee week 1977 (support group the boys)

speaking as a man who carved the reclining admiral
and van gogh without a moustache
apprentice stone mason
her majestys dockyard chatham 1976

speaking as a man who wore second hand shoes
up untill he was 33

speaking as a man who tried to run down johnny rotten
on the pavement outside the roebuck public house kings rd
london 1978 (drunk in charge of a push bike)

speaking as a man with eyes the shape of little fishies
the hands of my father and somebody elses legs
i see that truth only comes staggering up the mountain side
like a sad donky teetering under the weight of a fat man smiling