Tag: poetry

The Carpenter’s Go-fer – 15th October 1984

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Sawing and chopping
Planing then stopping – and saying
Go-fer the tape, go-fer the screws
Go-fer the coffee, that’s what I could use
Having a rest, drinking his coffee
Just enough time to bite on a toffee
Before
Planing and chopping
Sawing then stopping
And saying
Go-fer the wood, go-fer the square
Go-fer the nails, go on – over there
I went for the rope
And put it round his throat
And pulled it as tight as I could
You know I think he wood –
Go-fer

6th July 2023 – I did a couple of days of work with a builder who was a friend of someone in the family in some way. I only remember moving bricks and sand around in a wheelbarrow but it’s probable that this experience inspired this verse. I guess I also did a pretty shit job as I was never asked to come back again.
To be honest, I felt pretty useless. I didn’t really understand how things worked at all. Common sense was still a way off for me. I was a late learner in some things. When Hayden shows signs of this too, I have to remind myself about how I was even up until my thirties.
When I consider how Thai students are coddled through school here and learn some of the stories of behaviour once they leave it’s a wonder that many can even dress themselves.

Bravo – 13th October 1984

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You look so hard
You marked my card
I’m down to die
But I wanna know why
Bravo

6th July 1984 – As an awkward and different teenager, purposefully outside normal society, I was always a target for the normies. At the time I couldn’t understand it. No matter how I looked or acted I was still a human being just like everyone else. I would be kicked and punched and called names just for being different, for being a punk. Whatever hatred and misunderstanding they had of me they passed along and I returned the favour though never took anything to violent extremes. I could let people be if they could do the same.

Rising Free – 12th October 1984

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Broken boredom ecstatic relief
I have fallen for their false belief
They got me rising so high
My head is in the clouds
Right where it was before
But with a different level of crowds
Broken boredom always on your toes
I have to wear their uniform clothes
Was so high, now I’m tired
I rose to the summit
My body was exhausted
I had to submit
I rose free wearing their chains
No code to decipher what’s in my brains

Hong Kong Gong – 8th October 1984

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Ring the bell
The plastic’s here
Meltdown, meltdown
The atmosphere

Plastic plastic on your shelf
Is it really good for your health?

Who cares? It’s making money for the Hong Kong Gong
If you can’t see that, something’s gone wrong
But you can’t tell cos you’ve never seen the light
You’ve always been told what’s wrong and right
So doped up you don’t feel a thing
Until you hear the Hong Kong Gong ring

2nd July 2023 – During my life, there were various countries that were associated with manufacturing cheap plastic items. In the late 70s, as memorialised by the Epileptics, it was Hong Kong, then still controlled by UK. Other poorer Asian countries would then take their turn even as their products improved and eventually, as in the case of China, they took over such a large percentage of manufacturing that innovation started taking place there instead. Many in the West spent their time scoffing at hard-working Asians struggling to make a couple of dollars a day whilst they sat around getting fat, lazy and smug.