WHEN THE WORDS DRY UP I'LL DROWN MY SOUL IN BOOZE by Bradford Middleton

The days pass in a blur of work

Writing and smoke as the words

Return, tumbling out.  Ten days in

Thirteen poems and a couple

Of new shorts have already been done

And for once I've no idea where

It's all coming from.  Tales of people

Never met and lives

Incomparable to mine, often alone

But never seized by a desire to

Shoot down men to free their women

To come to me, already knowing

All three are in love with me and my guitar

My guitar which always sounds better

In my dreams as it gently weeps

Over the Mississippi delta before

Turning automatic weapon and

Shooting them boys all the way

Down to hell.

The drink ain't gone down as good as

Sometimes before and for that I'm

A little grateful as it leaves my mind to

Wander, free of the stench of the good

Old rum pub.  The freshness of thought

Is pleasing as, just this morning, I wrote

A new one about a guy on a mission in a

Seaside town desperate to shut off the

Voices, those damn horrible voices that

Often taunted and occasionally provoked

Him, who gets snowed on despite it being

A previously warm Summer's morning.

Ideas come as the words flow but I know

Eventually it will be time for a rest and time

To spend drinking this life of mine away.

Bradford Middleton was born in south-east London during the summer of 1971 and won his first poetry prize at the age of nine.  He then gave up writing poems for nearly twenty-five years and it wasn't until he landed in Brighton, knowing no one and having no money, that he began again.  Ten years later and he's been lucky enough to have had a few chapbooks published including a new one from Analog Submission Press entitled 'Flying through this Life like a Bottle Battling Gravity', his debut from Crisis Chronicles Press (Ohio, USA) and his second effort for Holy & Intoxicated Press (Hastings, UK).  He has read around the UK at various bars, venues and festivals and is always keen to get out and read to new crowds.  His poetry has also been or will be published shortly in the Chiron Review, Zygote in my Coffee, Section 8, Razur Cuts, Paper & Ink, Grandma Moses 'Poet to Notice', Empty Mirror, Midnight Lane Gallery, Bareback Lit and is a Contributing Poet over at the wonderful Mad Swirl.  If you like what you've read go send a friend request on facebook to bradfordmiddleton1.