DEATHLINE

Ten tae five here it the mobile covid testing centre

Security night shift it the thrill factory

Sitting in the canteen

Netsurfing, screengrazing

Here there everywhaur

Aw oor human history

N back again, ye ken whit that's like

Bored shitless by the breathless majesty ay it aw

Taking nane ay it in, restless lobotomy trance

When ah hears a sudden metal rattling

Right ootside the dark winday here

Aw shit fucksake, somebody trying tae brek in

Like mibbe that wastit junkie cunt thit Shug

Telt tae sling his hook it four in the morning

A couplay week ago, wean caught wi hand in a biscuit tin,

Trying tae squeeze in atween gate n fence

Shabbily flung up by some done-fir-a-bung chancer firm

Leaning crazy like a drunk oan a midnight hame mission

“Ah've goat a test here pal!”

“It's four in the morning, get yersel tae fuck.”

So mibbe it's the wee junkie wank back again

Oan some spurious mission fir drugs we dinnae even keep

Desperation, covid restrictions, anti-social distancing

Fae the reality ay a nation in random diseased doonfaw

Ah fuck, better go check, it's whit ah'm paid fir

Pretend ah gie a fuck, chuck oan the hi-viz, cauld ootside

Been blawing a fucking inhuman tornado roond here recently

Yellay direction signs blawn ivirywhaur, dents and bends,

Undelivered that-wey messages, fucked sandbags leaking

Blood rid sand oantae the pavement (though mind n move thum

it the end ay the night or some dippit cunt could trip oor thum)

Jist didnae even bother pitting thum up the day

It's probably jist the noise ay some carriage rattle n crash

Fae the train station nixt door, fuck knows, sounds like bedlam

Roond here some metal-crashing-assailed nights

Nip intae a cabin thit should be locked 

Peer roond the corner nae cunt so far

N oh aye right, whit um ah gonnae dae

If thir's somecunt there, some unshaven junkie wi a syringe

HIV-promising in his filthy trembling hand

Security guard defence, like Jason in a Friday the 13th film

Advancing oan me like aw Scotland's worst diseases

In yin shaking shivering stabby-death-jabbing malnourished form

Ah'll boot the cunt in the baws or get masel tae fuck

Ah dinnae git peyed enough fir hand-tae-hand combat

N tae dae dubious battle wi nocturnal centre-brekking cunts

So we'll see still nae cunt, sound, getting sounder

Check in atween the generators, the illuminatit tent

Circus ay nasal swab horrors during the day

Zerobody, halogen illuminations revealing nuhhin

Bit whit should n shouldnae be there

Looks like wir aw sound n sortit fir the night

Slowburn crash ay trainsounds, corrugated iron death rattles

Covid sources ride the wind, liquid-filled-lungs exhalation

Intae the dark inscrutable sky above

Near-full-moon oor the train station,

Sleekitly keeking through the wind-torn clouds

Still-lit passenger-free trains tae naewhaur

Sitting silently patiently waiting, teased coiled lapdogs

Ready tae carry maskfaced morning passengers

Tae the ends ay the earth ay thir daily routines

Wid make a sound picture, phone oot click click click

Fuck knows if it'll come oot, zoom in n see

Aw the starryskylit wonders ay the modern unnatural world

Ready tae take ye roond Scotland or roond the block

Freight trains, eywis-wait trains, tracks tae naewhaur or

Mibbe thir here tae transport the ghosts ay the deid

Whae died ay the disease we're here tae test fir

Luminous atrocities, well-worn deathlines

Cackling deadly pandemic murder victims

Oan the hauntit hoose screamspiller

Carriage tae the underworld

Or mibbe ootay it, cos these days

Whae the fuck kin

Even tell the

Difference

Onymair?

THE END

(5.23 a.m., 25/2/2021)

PS: ma coworker's name wisnae Shug. Ah changed it. Nae coworkers or Shugs wur harmed during the making ay this production.