LOCKED IN A GROOVE

saturday AM Aldi opening time

    at the carts
    stands
    a throwback / a resilient retro rocker
locked in the same groove 
    for decades

    a head full 
        of       
        Charlie 
        Feathers

he has a towering white quiff
scraped up out of thin hair - plastered lines 
    climbing 
    up from his ears

he is all in pale denim
and
under his neat turn ups
is two clear inches of ribbed white sock
    and
    an
        old
        mans
            shuffle

wheres he been ? and whats he seen ?
fish hooks behind leather lapels 
    on
    a
    saturday night Triumph rally
    struggling with petrol rationing ?
or
    the
    same
suburban working mans clubs of flat soapy ales
    for
    50 years
    stubbing out woodbines 
    on the same 
    bar lino ?

he survived 
    hippies punks skidkids faux-romantics 
    skaheads and skins and casuals and baggies 
his
LOOK
survived - 1956 says his quiff 6 inches high
    rigid
        in the car park petrol breeze
        and the 
            fast food smell 
            coming in from the market

        i am timeless it says


his face is collapsed / a matt finish
hanging on his old skull 
like a ball-bag shaved in the dark

    
    his face smudged on
    in
    wet
    charcoal 

from artrebels.com