Droplets

you'd have found me down the ginnel
swaddled in my dank habit
smoked myself dry
the moss about my feet

bored moorland boys with useless wooden toys
when the rain drove us to sin
i was sucking rain droplets off the ivy

i was sleeping long and low when the gutters overflowed
it was gushing out my throat as you did
called me little SHH
i gip up blood in the gutter
when the tungsten light was glowing off the brick
hymns of devotion i was ascetic
i'd traded in you to forget it
simple commotion directive
same story old man stays septic

i quench my thirst with poison
i learned your poise but it hollowed me
you took it so lightly

close my eyes, still in the air i taste it
the headwind howling down dogshit alley
the sideways rain on our faces

skinny vine climb, winds around, ingratiates
and the drainpipes burst where the joints can't hold
and your volvo rolled off a sip

i'd neck a codeine drip, just to kip
i've loose lips
i made sparkles on your road and the tarmac slick
we rub together, a bundle of sticks
the kindling could spark the wick
kept me the dark and then remarked i'm ill-equipped
teeth stained tar black, pearl on the lips
heard you scuttled down some next back passage
roaches down the manhole quick

i was sleeping long and low when the gutters overflowed
it was gushing out my throat as you did
called me little SLUT
i gip up blood in the gutter
when the tungsten light was glowing off the brick
hymns of devotion i was ascetic
i'd traded in you to forget it
simple commotion directive
same story old man stays septic