Up In Smoke

The streets were not

Paved with ‘gold’

As she had imagined

31 long years ago

When at only 18

She arrived in the City

With stars in her eyes

Naive but pretty

She wanted to sing

So very much

She wrote lovely songs

And was blessed with the guts

To leave behind 

That little northern town

And head down South

Now she was ‘grown’

Convinced she could succeed

But not remotely out of greed

She wanted to entertain

Touch hearts and ease the pain

Of this thing

That we call life

With her lyrics and her tunes

To spread some love and light

She fought and she fought

But soon she got caught

In the web of London lies

Which ultimately caused her strife

Battling to stay afloat

In the toughest place on earth

For a young but driven soul

Not accustomed to ‘eating dirt’

To slumming it in hovels

Yet still she produced two novels

Then an actress she became 

And almost tasted fame

But again that boat capsized

When her health began to decline

Working multiple jobs

Her stamina couldn’t keep up

With little support

She began to buckle

Under the pressure

She forgot to chuckle

She stopped enjoying

The ride she was on

This rollercoaster of survival

Really wasn’t much fun

Nor did she find 

Her Mr Right

Just a parade of cockroaches

That further blighted her life

Who she clung to

For too long

In the vain hope 

That two was better than one

And then as the metropolis 

Became more and more gentrified 

She became priced out

Of her ‘penthouse’ in the sky

Actually a pigeon loft

Ramshackle and revolting 

Which decayed with her inside

Whilst her thieving landlord did nothing

On her knees

Debilitated

Broke and broken

She contemplated 

How the hell

She might escape

To pastures new

Before she breaks

Irreparably 

Her spirit weary

For crushed was she

And it was scary

Enter: Him

The Grimmest Of Reapers

More menacing than Kruger 

The instigator of nightmares 

Who inadvertently 

In persecuting her so

Triggered a calamitous ejection

Of her status quo

Catapulting her out

Of a deadly situation 

Like an astronaut abandoning

A rocket on course for destruction 

Yes, almost incinerated

Was she upon re-entry

But somehow she survived

Catastrophes a-plenty

Now in hiding

Awaiting repatriation 

To the life she DESERVES to live

At her final destination 

And woe betide

Any entity lacking a soul

That messes with her now

Or tries to take a hold

Of this phoenix rising

Steadily from the ashes

For mark my words obliterated 

Will that demon be if it trashes

This new trajectory 

She is on

For she’ll track IT down

And shoot that gun!!! 

Dramatic, huh?

Well, that promise is NO joke!

F**k you and this ‘Capital’ city

And ‘living’ in The Big Smoke🖕