A lost apostrophe's
come all adrift,
suspended in mid-sentence
so the sense is all skew-whiff
and nobody's listening now.

The art of persuasion
sifting fiction from fact,
diversion, smoke and mirrors,
it's all part of the act
so no-one's really listening
in the audience.
Time will tell
just how much is soft soap
and how much hard sell.

In the audience
the five minute bell
toils underwater,
this won't end up well.

Here's the one-trick pony
with all the gift of the gab.
You never know the worth of what you have.
He's sold his stock of baloney,
giving it one final stab -
he never entertained the slightest doubt.
You never know when time is running out.
The words are falling on deaf ears
all sense and meaning disappear,
no language of precision lasts in these declining years.

A breath I've been holding in,
a pregnancy of pause,
a phantom punctuation
in an inconclusive clause...
well, nobody's listening now.

You put the words together, no-one's listening now.
They clap their hands together, no-one's listening now.