WASTING AWAY. A Poem by Bradford Middleton

Life has dwindled out here
On the periphery of this nightmare
At the edge of full-blown catatonic
Fever sweeping through me
As the waste has done its job on me
And this thing I call a life
No words have been written
As too much life has spent being lived
Until now when at last craving peace
I get a night home alone with
No major worries afflicting my
Mind.
 
This room is sorted for as long as I want it
My job is still hated but plans are being made
To get out of there too and not before time
As the ten year anniversary suddenly looms
Taking me back to that time when I arrived
Dreaming of a better life only to be dumped
On the refuge tip of creativity, to forsake money
As the evil of all evils. But here everything
Costs something and my brain needs special
Meds to keep it functioning and
All that weed costs a fair old wedge
Whilst all that booze costs a whole lot more
Leaving me with little after rent and food
Have been taken care of.
 
Right now though I’m just happy
To get this room sorted out as the first requirement
Of a life like this is a room in which I can sleep,
Write, drink, smoke and eat as that is
All I ever really want to do.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
BIOGRAPHY
 
 
Bradford Middleton was born in south-east London during the summer of 1971 and won his first poetry prize at the age of nine. He then gave up writing poems for nearly twenty-five years and it wasn’t until he landed in Brighton, knowing no one and having no money, that he began again. Ten years later and he’s been lucky enough to have had a few chapbooks published including a new one from Analog Submission Press entitled ‘Flying through this Life like a Bottle Battling Gravity’, his debut from Crisis Chronicles Press (Ohio, USA) and his second effort for Holy & Intoxicated Press (Hastings, UK). He has read around the UK at various bars, venues and festivals and is always keen to get out and read to new crowds. His poetry has also been or will be published shortly in the Chiron Review, Zygote in my Coffee, Section 8, Razur Cuts, Paper & Ink, Grandma Moses ‘Poet to Notice’, Empty Mirror, Midnight Lane Gallery, Bareback Lit and is a Contributing Poet over at the wonderful Mad Swirl. If you like what you’ve read go send a friend request on facebook to bradfordmiddleton1.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include
 
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
 
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

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