43 Years in the Life of an Untrammelled Moisturemind

1973

I sleep in a phone box
(not much room)
and eat only toadstool
(not mushroom).



1983

I put on lederhosen
and go out and boogaloo.
I say
"Keep me abreast,
preferably two."
I return at daybreak,
looking like summat
the Maine Coon
has won
in a scrap with a stoat.



1993

One day
in the perpetual Ashbourne autumn
she said
"You've done your gallivanting
and your Knight Riding to hounds.
You can buy the Magic Bus
for one hundred English pounds."



2003

I have now satisfied myself
that the human race is doomed
so I spend my days
setting an example to the Daleks.

It's so cathartic an ting,
ruthlessly exterminating.



2016

Here I stand,
clucking;
an unpleasant
plucked peasant.
Imagine Tom
(from Tom and Jerry),
unzipped of his fur.

Stick an apple in my mouth
and roast me on a spit.
Don't stand around on ceremony.
Flipping get on with it!

B.R. 16/10/2016

Syd Barrett, photographed in his back garden in 1971 by Mick Rock.