James Austin
ALL THE KING’S
HORSES AND ALL
THE KING’S MEN
Dedicated to shit TV
Copyright © James Austin, 2015
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Contents
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
TRUE MEN .......................................................................... 5
LOST .................................................................................... 6
SHELL FIRE ........................................................................ 7
DOES ANYBODY REALLY SHARPEN SCISSORS
ANYMORE? ........................................................................ 8
NO MORE WATER ............................................................. 9
WHERE FOOLS COMPLAIN (WISE MEN…) ............... 11
ANYTHING ELSE YOU SAY .......................................... 12
PORTE DE VINCENNES .................................................. 13
IF YOU WEREN’T ALWAYS RIGHT ............................. 14
LOSING EVERYTHING ................................................... 16
INHERITANCE.................................................................. 17
Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
TRUE MEN
Men are judged by deeds, not words
True men always practise what they preach
Men are strong
Yet affectionate
True men always know how to be compassionate
Never confusing magnanimity for weakness
True men know that tears shed have their purpose
Tears shed, have purpose
Men are judged by their own qualities
True men never have to recourse to being another
Men of power
Strong will
Who nevertheless know when to fight, when to yield
Never confusing strategic retreat for cowardice
True men know they must pick all their battles
Battles lost, are lessons learned
Men are judged by their relationship to others
True men love and are loved, passionately
Men have depth
Hidden qualities
True men always know just how to surprise their mate
Leave them always wondering, speculatively
True men are more than the sum of all that you see
More than the sum, of all you see
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James Austin
LOST
Now that everything is lost
Gone
We gather up the remnant pieces
Of whatever it was once belonged to us
Possessions, pride
Or something deeper inside
We are now all hollowed husks of men
Now that everything has been surrendered
Done
We need to find something else
Something that'll keep the fire burning
Before it dies
Put some spirit into deadened eyes
Eyes that long since spent their reserve of tears
With centuries of development
Long since behind us
We have come to a shuddering halt, stagnated
All at a time when so much was expected of us
Knowledge was there on a platter, to be taken
The "mysteries of the known universe"
Now we are its most lowly specimens
Now that everything is spent
Used
Our remaining reserves of compassion and empathy
We gather up the only emotions
That are now of any use to us
Anger, determination
Not to let this happen to us
Though, to all intents and purposes, it long since happened
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
SHELL FIRE
Nothing is as it should be
Happiness dissolved, irrevocably
Can never return, now
To where we were
Because all the King's horses
Could never put us back together
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
Nothing is as it would be
If other people had not intervened
Contentment gone far, far away
Can never get it back
No
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Would have a pretty hard time trying to put us together
Nothing is as it had once been
You, or I
Can never be the people
We each hoped we would be
Our relationship, on the rocks
Egg-xtreme tragedy with few survivors
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James Austin
DOES ANYBODY REALLY SHARPEN SCISSORS
ANYMORE?
Scissor sharpening
What a quaint
Olde worlde activity
I really never believed people bothered any more
I thought they just bought a new pair
Replaced the ones in the drawer
Scissor sharpening
Once a traditional
Household task
Taking several sets at a time down to the ironmongers
These days one just goes to Tesco
Or (if necessary) Robert Dyas
In our capitalist society
We would much rather dispense with such industry
Much better, economically
And it generates £££ for the economy
Imagine where Robinson's would be if we all still made our own jam
Or Haywards, if we pickled gherkins
Scissor sharpening
Such an
Expensive pastime
And, I should think frowned upon
Gallivanting around with pairs of scissors
As if we were domestic "jihadist" terrorists
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
NO MORE WATER
Once the waters have receded
The channels narrowed
The sands of the desert come flooding in
Undulating and suffocating every living being
Ships once several miles from the shore
Are now several miles from the coast
Rusting and forgotten
Once the waters have been dammed far, far upstream
Diverted for heavy industry and agriculture
The Aral Sea
Is a sea no more
The same thing is happening
To inland oceans the whole world over
Becoming increasingly congested and polluted
Nations fight over an increasingly finite
Resource
Recourse to several increasingly bloody wars
Governments squabble while the torrent becomes
A trickle
And the Dead Sea is a sea, no more
The Caspian Sea, is a sea no more
Soon they'll be forecasting the virtual annihilation
Of the Mediterranean
Once the glaciers have melted
The tributaries are muddied
The sides of the mighty river now barren and dry
All that is left is sewer outflow from petrochemical plants
Water so contaminated, you could set light to it
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James Austin
Till eventually rivers are put out of their misery
And culverted, to run underground
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
WHERE FOOLS COMPLAIN (WISE MEN...)
Where fools complain
Wise men
Just get going
Nothing ever gets done when procrastinating
Bitching, moaning, "as-a-matter-of-fact"-ing
Where fools complain wise men just pitch in
Keep their own counsel and
Get moving
No-one ever claimed that the world was perfect
So
Why spend your entire life bemoaning it?
Where fools complain
Wise men
Rush in
Fools are loathe to tread where their predecessors did not
Forge their own path in the realm that sense forgot
No-one ever claimed that the world was perfect
So
Why spend your entire life bemoaning it?
The loss of one's innocence
When one moves from woe to simple acceptance
That is the origin of wisdom
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James Austin
ANYTHING ELSE YOU SAY
The damage already done
Pain already wrought
There is no use in attempting to heal the breach
When we have said all we care to say, to each other
Superfluous
Superfluous
The silence between exchanges
Lengthening
Makes a change from all of the recriminations and shouting
Verbal abuse is kind of redundant
Once all of the sting in the tail is taken out
Your bags evidently already packed
Sitting as they do on the floor by the door
The words already spoken
Spoken
Inflicting a thousand wounds
Words are deadlier than the deadliest weapons
You have said everything you want to
That you just do not love me as much as you used to
So get out
Get out
All attempt at reconciliation impossible
So do not take the trouble
We both know the score, being grown-up... mature
Do not spoil the memory, by anything else you say
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
PORTE DE VINCENNES
Whether you are in London or Paris
Soho or the Porte de Vincennes
Whether you live in Tokyo or Dammartin-en-Goële
Terrorism lives
Terrorism thrives
Terrorism is everywhere
From Australia to the steppes of Russia
Where President Putin still struggles with insurgents in
Chechnya
And let us not forget the situation in the Crimea
Terrorism is relative to many
One man's criminal... another man's hero
Freedom fighters or dangerous criminals
The only thing is that Robin Hood's merry men
Were not armed with Kalashnikovs
Whether in the markets of the east
Aleppo, Damascus
Or in the genteel environs of Finsbury Park, Middlesex
Terrorists are all around us
Discussing
Planning
They are plotting acts of aggression, against us
They do not know us
Not really
Any more than we know them
And the reasons for why they are doing what they are doing
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James Austin
IF YOU WEREN'T ALWAYS RIGHT
If you weren't always right
If you listened
You would find
That things have been wrong
For such a long time now
Things went awry and you did not take much notice
Convinced as you were that you would notice
A thing worth noticing
If you weren't always right
If you listened
You would know
Our relationship went wrong a very long time ago
Persistently distant
I know that you never meant to be so distant
And that is what is oh so ridiculous
You wrought harm without ever intending what you're doing
If you weren't always right
If you listened
You would find
That I've felt so wrong
For such a long time now
Things went awry and you did not take much notice
Convinced as you were that you would notice
But you couldn't just
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
Expect me
To hang around forever
Would once have done anything to hold us together
But, with nights lengthening and life slipping away
It would have taken a stronger man than me to stay
If you weren't always talking
You would have heard
My moving farther and farther away
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James Austin
LOSING EVERYTHING
With our lives at a crossroads
This way, or that
Which direction should I take?
What mistakes will I make?
How many friends shall I make along the way
And how many shall be torn away?
With so many options there, open to us
We must rely upon our internal compass
With our lives at an impasse
This way, or what
It is important to make the right decision
For the further development of our being
So many sins have been
Visited upon the son
For those of the father
That, in truth, none of us much believe in religion any longer
But one thing it does teach us
To pay heed to our moral compass
How many friends shall I make along the way
And how many shall be torn away?
It is always important to save something for a rainy day
A little balm set aside, for your soul
In case things should all of a sudden go awry
Because at the end of the day we are all human
And you happen to make the biggest mistake of your life
Losing everything
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Volume 210 – All the King’s Horses and
All the King’s Men
INHERITANCE
We are only as good
As our fathers
Before us
We will make the same mistakes, and pass them on
To OUR sons and daughters
Our sons and daughters
That is how we can relate
So easily
To our immediate, and more distant ancestors
They have already made the same choices, good and bad
The effects reverberating down through the ages
No matter that their life and times
Were in most respects
Very different to ours
We are the same flesh and blood
As our fathers
Before us
We will make the same mistakes, and pass them on
To OUR sons and daughters
Our sons and daughters
Eventually our grandchildren will follow in our footsteps
Whether it is in 50 or 100 years
Whatever the socio-political conditions
They will still grow up, marry, get jobs
And all the way through life do their best to f*** it up
In the best traditions, of their fathers before them
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