Bradford Middleton lives in Brighton on the UK’s south coast.  When he ain’t working his part-time supermarket job he can often be found either drinking at one of the many local bars or at home working at the words he dreams will let him escape this life.  All his poetry chapbooks have sold-out now but he does have several new ones planned and under consideration.  Since 2020 he’s been working on his first proper novel ‘All the Way to the End of the Line’ which he hopes someone will get to read soon.  He tweets occasionally @BradfordMiddle5.

A SUNNY CORNER HAS BEEN TURNED

The nights now pass in a glare of TV screen
And smoke as I forget all about the word,
My true purpose here, and lose what little I 
Had left of my mind to US soap operas &
Bad UK dramas as outside lays a world that
Simply doesn’t interest me anymore but
Tonight something feels different.  As if a 
Weight has been lifted off my shoulders &
At last I can sit here doing this as suddenly
Everything feels just about right, as if life
Has turned a blessed corner & all the roads
Laid out ahead of me are sun-drenched where
Anything is possible but hell I’ll probably
Fuck it up or worse yet the mad Russian may
Well start World War 3 and bring an end
To all of us.

POETRY ON THE RADIO

I get home from work, the one that 
Keeps me off the streets, and am
Straight on it, this work that keeps me
Out the nearest madhouse and the
Words start flowing until suddenly
A distraction comes from my radio;
Normally at this hour it’s some idiots
Droning on about politics but, right
Now, i hear a rhyme and a line and, 
Oh fuck i think, it’s some god-damn
Poetry.

“That was amazing!” the over-eager
Host cheers as the poet comes to the
End of his last stanza and I can’t get
To my radio quick enough to turn the
God-damn crap right off.

DONE IT AGAIN

I’ve written my way to
Friendlessness as another
One drops word, but to 
Me it just shows signs 
Of a pattern that I fear
Can never be broken.
It shows signs of disease
Of a hate that has somehow
Convinced them I’m fake
Even though they’ve seen how
I’ve lived down all these
Years throughout which I’ve
Lost some good ones, some
Who made this life just a 
Little bit more fun & even
Sometimes drunker.  The 
Ones they turned me against
As slowly we got down to just
1 + 1 and they are all that
Is left from the olden days
Of drinking the blues away
In this town by the edge of
The sea and now I have
No one to turn to escape
Their clutches of hate.