Johnny he’s gone awa’ na fer all time: me brutha who died in 2010

Johnny in the cardigan 1966

Johnny he’s gone awa’ na fer all time

I threw ma bruther oot

Inta tha rubbish bin

Afta I’d burned every bit of ‘im

He’d pissed me off

Turnin’ up in ma dreams

Like liquorice an’ a spit of salt

Like black cloud

A bad fart

He hung about

Fillin me hed wi’ dreams

Of Johnny 

When Johnny did na exist

But I did

An’ I was havin’ na more of that!

‘Em big boots!

Tramplin’ ma hed

An’ me whimperin’ in ma sleep

Like a bairn! Like a babby!

Me awake’ in’ up at every soond

The cold sweat, Johnny,

Of havin’ ye about the hoose

Like a gun shot in the night

Like an echo of a bad ‘un 

that dunno ta let be

He hung himself

It was him or me

And Johnny

Yer ha’ ta go

I tore Johnny into strips

And watched by the cat

I set Johnny on fire

Until he was ashes

I burned every bit of him

That came to me

Twenty five years on

And then I put him in a jar

And made him go

I threw ma bruther

Inta’ tha rubbish bin

It’s been quiet since he’s a gone

Na dreams

Na shadows stalkin’ me at night

Na one to play marbles in me heed

I am back to bein’ me

Bye Johnny, bye-bye

Stay away is all I’ll say

An wherever yer are

In this life marra

Yer now done

So stay gone !

January 2012, Sydenham