It’s a sunny day in Camden, and I
walk with a gait like a star in a play
there’s a song playing somewhere, I think it is Blondie from back in the day
I know all the words, it’s a song I could write but never reveal
so I hide in the tune,
thoughts that I know I have to conceal
I have conquered the winter, I have
learnt how to shine like a flaring flame
I jump on red buses, I have learnt how to shimmy at the sound of my name
You ask if I’m happy
I am singing the ode of the man I still am
I am dancing in Vauxhall, I am the
charming man in Morrissey’s song
I laugh like a mad man, there’s a never a track that I ever got wrong
I know all the words, I grew up being clever so they never would see
now I hide in the verse
of someone else’s poem that’s almost like me
I have made it to Spring, I have
learnt how to walk without holding your hand
I sleep in green parks, I am the man in the video between shots of the band
You ask if I’m happy
I am reaping the wind for as long as I can
There’s a party in Chelsea, I’m a friend of
host so I dress to the nines
I am writing a poem, but I’m placing the truth between phrases and lines
I know all the words, I could write you a thesis of Lennon and Freud
but I hide in the script
the prospects of loss that I have to avoid
I will make to Summer, I have
learnt to accept that everything’s fine
I follow white rabbits, down the tube at the station to the end of the line
You ask if I’m happy
I’ve just pickled my heart and stored it in brine
It’s a beehive in Brixton, and I am
flying the swarm with other misfits like me
there’s a chorus of soldiers, I think it’s The Killers or maybe just Keane
I know all the words, I know what they mean, I know how they feel
now I hide in vocations
to plaster the wounds I never could heal
I am a man of the season, I have
learnt how to waltz, waiting in vain
I joke with black cabbies; I am crossing the Thames, then I cross it again
You ask if I’m happy
I’m that line in the song that you never explain.
NOORMOHAMED 