Wayne Dean-Richards has shared 18 poems for us to publish during 2023. The collection is called It's a Mad World, But Funny. Eventually there will be a free, downloadable PDF of all the poems and a planned A6 compendium too. (Links to all of the poems way down the page.)
lanyard life
we sit on rows of plastic chairs,
some suspiciously red, some yellow,
a few calmingly green.
once we’re seated, we’re inspected
to see that our lanyards are on straight.
are reprimanded if they appear to be
a hairsbreadth from what’s requisite.
each week there are new targets.
if we meet the old targets there are new targets
if we fail the old targets there are new targets
each week there are new targets.
wearing a lanyard is always a target.
during a break I whisper to the newbies:
“to survive you must master the art
of eating shit
whilst laughing on the inside…
“…oh, and don’t forget to breathe...”
© Wayne Dean-Richards
Essential Information
The 18 poems comprising Wayne Dean-Richards' IT'S A MAD WORLD BUT FUNNY series are listed below. Outsideleft published them all throughout 2023 and 2024. A free downloadable PDF and a limited edition A6 Outsideleft Booklet (for neither profit or loss) is available now we are at the end.
Buy A Mad World But Funny from our new otherwise quite empty shop here
Download a PDF version for free here
It's A Mad World But Funny (complete)
- a father's advice to a son being interviewed to work on the Coventry Ring Road - 1958
- a shopping list and Lowry
- alone
- big dog training
- buying boxer shorts in next
- lanyard life
- melancholy
- snowman
- this house
- fight in an art gallery
- you cunts
- road rage
- different face
- Dostoyevsky didn't have to put up with this
- the cleaner
- bailout
- glue
- are you
