If I have something on my mind then I should write of it

If I write of it then perhaps I have something to say

If I have something to say then I think that someone should listen

If someone were to listen then just maybe they would hear me

If they were to hear me it is well that they would know me

Stepping out through the front door,
The Walker emerges into the glare of sodium street lights.
Turning right, he heads for the outer wall,
where his pre-determined and sterile route awaits.

Clad in a garb of hooded top and jogging bottoms,
he struggles to free the headphone cable
that has become caught in his iPod case
and repeatedly dislodges the in-ear speaker as he moves.

At the wall he veers left to hit the walkway there.
With measured precision, the poured concrete slabs
guide the way out into to night, temperature lowered
by the clear late autumn skies above his head.

As his pace picks up, The Walker feels his last meal
rise from his stomach, burning its way into his oesophagus,
the bitter acidic taste of chilli and tomato reminding
him of older more serious discomfort, but not tonight, not tonight

The rhythm of The Walkers' stride settle to the beat
of the iPods' output; random play serving out tunes unknown
and leaving behind those to be instantly forgotten.
Roger Sanchez sets the tone for the next 6 minutes

Please enter your password:
Good morning Mr Sanchez
You have accessed your computabank
please select the track you wish to hear now...

With electronic precision, The Walker counts his way
past the monotonous regularity of the 2 meter slabs
wall right and dark, houses left and anonymous. The slabs
blur, the numbers blur, The Walker moves ever ahead.

Remembering events of the day, a wry grimace crosses his face
Insignificant victories scored, minor humiliations endured
"We'll have you next time, you bastard" he thinks
"your days are numbered...". The pace increases a touch

Ahead, two figures appear,
ghost like beneath the toxic orange light.
The first with a familiar outline, the second unknown
Heading towards him, his co-conspirators gain detail

Convinced, as he is, of the first's identity,
he raises a hand in friendly salute of a shared task.
The first looks mildly phased by the greeting, but
returns the wave. Not who The Walker thought it was...

Not wishing to repeat the same mistake, The Walker heads
towards the second impassively. As they pass, a glint
of puzzlement crosses the second's expression at the blank
stare. The wife of a work colleague passes to one side...

Reaching the halfway point, The Walker feels the prickle
of overheated skin on his back, the evening no longer cool,
but instead temperature rising uncomfortable, heat trapped against
his torso, the hoodie now an unnecessary burden to comfort.

Heading past a street light, The Walker sees his shadow extend
in front of him, fading all the while as the next is approached
knowing as he does that a shadow unseen shrinks and deepens on the
ground behind his back. The Sweetest Perfection keeps time...

Takes me completely
Touches so sweetly
Reaches so deeply
Nothing can stop me

Clip, clip, clip raps his ankle, stooping in recognition,
The Walker stoops to re-tie a loosened lace, and once more
he feels the burn rise above his stomach, sensation unwelcome,
unwanted and uncomfortable. No stopping now the race not yet run.

Passing the field, he feels the fine mist dispensed in darkness,
smells its past life, must trust the plant did its job. The path
now fully dark, trusting to where he knows it follows, aim for the
bright spot ahead, no oncoming train this one...

Into the open and the brightness again, road crossed and safe
from its users, The Walker passes by the supermarket loading
bay. A hive of industry by day, but not now. Dead to the sleeping
world, a new dawn awaits ahead, events to unfold

Taking the extra loop, urged on at the iPod's request,
The Walker cuts right out of sight of tarmac and into
the corridor, the bushes encroaching from either side
providing a claustrophobic cover for those who desire it.

Escaping the gap, bland and unremarkable dwellings feeding
away left of him, The Walker recalls names, names of the day,
names of toil, names of weight and import, never forgotten.
But not here, not now, not at night - "That's mine"

Turning towards home, exercise drawing to a close,
The Walker eases down slower, nearly done till another
day. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after, but soon
With the door in sight, a Friend of a Friend takes The Walker home...

When he plays
No-one speaks
No-one speaks
When he plays
No-one speaks

The more I look around other people's blogs, the more I find a propensity for creating lists of salient (and not so salient) facts and figures about the blogee. As one who can rarely resist a trend and probably because I doubt I ever had an original thought in my life, I may as well start one here. The prime reason for this I must add, is that I've not said an awful lot in these parts of late. For my inspiration this evening, I give you a list courtesy of sex blogger in-Chief, Ms Margolis - her list. I should add that there are aspects of her list I will not be attempting to match - I'll leave you to work out what those are for yourselves...

• I was born in the 60's and can even claim to remember parts of this
• I have lived and worked in the Middle East for the last 10 years
• I spent some 9 years in the Royal Air Force
• I love music above any other art form, even more so if it contains big raunchy guitar sounds
• I have noticed that everything on this list begins with the letter "I"
• I own and play quite a few guitars
• I am something of a fidget, and can't sit still in front of a film, this is an art form that's never really grabbed me
• Probably my favourite song is Rush's Limelight from their 'Moving Pictures' album. I use the first 11 seconds of this song as my mobile phone ringtone
• The irony of the conjunction of the last two items has not escaped me...
• I can account now for two marriages (2nd one reaches its 10th anniversary next July), so you could say it's an institution I'm comfortable with
• It's probably fair to say I'm fascinated by web-tech stuff, but I never feel I know enough to do anything productive in that vein
• My other significant art form interest is photography, something readily confirmed by a quick browse here within
• I do tend to get bored rather easily and engage with, drift away from and pick-up again, a wide range of interests
• Currently, I'm trying to work out how to write something that might stand some sort of test of time
• I will of course tire of the notion at some point over the next 48 hours
• Reading is another place you can find me, this may be one the few interests I have that I never tire of
• Despite my best efforts, I almost always become emotionally involved with the story line and its characters
• ...I should at this juncture state that the above was not strictly true for "A Brief History of Time", sorry Stephen
• I have a deep seated dislike of exercise, as much as I know it's good for me
• One three and half year old coronary stent later, there is perhaps the suggestion that I ought to deal with the above
• The less said about golf the better - I have history...
• I've never been to Agent Provocateur
• I tend to view food as something of a chore, though I can cook perfectly well - I tend to think in terms of knitting patterns here, just follow the instructions
• I abhor boorish behaviour and will actively seek to avoid it
• Mornings are to be avoided at all costs, unless they are approached from midnight onwards
• I'm not what you would call a big drinker, though I do enjoy a pint of Guinness and a descent bottle of vino collapso
• I am of the firm belief that the mouth and the ears should be used in direct proportion to which they are provided
• I 'get' Twitter (though not yet the new lists feature)
• I miss Pownce - damn you Messrs Rose, Burka and Ms Culver - will SixApart ever resurrect it I wonder? I hope so...
• I have no interest in clothing or fashion - shopping in this area is an in and out job, there is much more to life
• Unless of course it is any form of technical clothing related to a sporting or recreational activity
• I am a proud season ticket holding Stoke City fan, even if it does currently mean that a home game is a 6,000 mile round trip
• The old Victoria Ground was no more than 100 yards from the house I inhabited for the first 8 years of my life - it infected me righteously
• Dentists are to be feared and preferably avoided unless essential maintenance deems their services unavoidable
• I detest green and runner beans in all their forms - I spent many a miserable hour at the Sunday dinner table in their presence, however the battle of wills on their account was always settled in my favour
• I prefer buying CDs to downloading inferior quality MP3 or other compressed format media
• As a direct consequence of the above, it has taken an awful lot of time to get the 6,600 tracks I have on my iPod processed through iTunes
• I am not overly concerned by the presence of chemicals in my diet, or the use of prescription drugs where required
• I would though, actively avoid the latter where there intent is to somehow alter my mood, even where prescribed for addressing sleep pattern deficiencies
• You are unlikely to change my opinion, though I will not press them upon you
• Likewise, I have no real desire to have you proselytise your opinion on me - let's agree to disagree now and save any aggravation later
• ...how many is that?
• I have no use for religion and would generally consider blind faith in the absence of empirical evidence to be nonsensical. Where empirical evidence is not available, I have no desire to ascribe any untested or manifestly unusual behaviour or observation to any given choice of deity - in this regard, I subscribe firmly to the Adams school to whit "Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
• Anyone who believes that the concept that "all men are created equal" can be put into practice needs to visit the Middle East
• I firmly believe that no one reads this blog and that the b2evolution stats pages are auto-generated to make me feel better about the time their software steals from me
• Were I to start tomorrow, I would produce a different list
• I have almost certainly gone on for too long, though surprisingly the spelling and grammar appears to have held up really well

I am hopeful that I have done the list meme proud, but only you can say for sure...