Alchemisland

Like my bank balance was less than what it was

Selling it like I was destined

Places you wouldn’t send a delegate, full of indelicate rascals akin animals

Full of odalisques trysting for profit, profligates and whoresons, gambolers

On the walls of this place, caked dirt smudged into a resin like an unguent

It hugged the walls, dampness of a dungeon where ratbitten

Bludgeoneds lie hunched having been hunted

Fun of abundant torture to come, oh the Tower of London

Far from that here in Dublin, been in the pub now we’re back

Gums getting rubbed down like sore backs

I’ve got balm, it isn’t tiger, eyes burning bright

I’ve got bath bombs for your bloodstream

I’ve got toxin-laced chronics have you vomiting

I have more cheese than Gromit sees eaten per week

One bird clearly into me, she’s a feek, fit on fleek

I flick her a glance then I scan for the bag

Peg it, grab it, pour it, lines like a subway map

On an Afternoon Tea lid I got last Christmas

Isthmus I’m between Charybdis and the Hippocrene

Some crib this I whisper, copping the dripping ceiling

A week here would have you coughing until you’re bleeding

Exposed bulbs periodically blink to orthodontic brightness, inducing seizures

They choose a place like this because of the weight

They’re afraid of cops coming, crop seizures, crunch truncheon

Thought I’d grow up to be somebody, a celebrity

Lager extra strength in a rundown tenement

Pegged it like I was battening down the tent

After eight cans 

Feeling Great Kahn 

Dangerous and vengeful

Genghis is a handful 

Your breathing made manual 

Head of a host hundred hundreds

Horses barded in harness 

Archers shooting sidesaddle

Making acrobatic stunts look easy 

If three arrows are fired 

Three arrows hit 

And the target dies 

On a horse more than half my life 

I was born to ride, unafraid of dying 

My life has been a trial 

I am steel, tested I have triumphed 

Bested others with my mettle 

Soft as petals they were nothing special 

In fact they felt brittle 

It was wood versus metal 

Would you fight me 

Would you fuck are you mental 

Forget what hospital you were sent to 

After I punched you once, runt 

Cunt, imagine two

Words for your tomb 

Shouldn’t have moved

Removed your aura 

Read the room

Saw red, click boom 

I went ignition, vroom, none to most 

Naught to ninety, always violence 

Where I smooshed him on his cheek

For being cheeky

A print of the Nike swoosh

From the bottom of my shoe 

Bet him black and blue

Rocked, lucky I didn’t bottle him 

Throttled badly 

Be a while before he’s coming back 

Won’t be living fast or loving madly 

Lucky if he remembers the name of his dad

Or the way back to his pad

Ngannou style, it was that bad.