I was HopSkipJumping through a glade
one strangesome Summer’s day when
I “lost my marbles” in the kind of way
which seems to irk straitjacket friends
who revel in their self-appointed roles
to judge the sane as being ‘round the bend’.
The marbles fell covertly from my pocket as
I ran with joy across the desert of this world,
although I was not really disconcerted but
instead was grateful to have been relieved
of such an ill-conceived collection of
those glassy balls which weigh you down
like nosey eyes inside your drawers.

This seemed to trigger some lost soul
to tell me I’m completely mad or,
to be precise, that I’m a “total nutcase” —
you may judge if that is right today but,
as for me, I do admit that this is true
and wouldn’t have it any other way!😉

So now I will present the evidence for
the prosecution of none other than myself
by those who ‘section’ anyone who’s sane:

I am quite mad, for in the fields I talk
to trees and touch them as I listen to
the breeze sing rustley in their leaves.
I am quite mad because I favour poetry
above a country’s constitution, and all forms
of prostitution (to which most do subscribe
in 1 way or another) and all airport novels 2.
I am quite mad, 4 I arise from time 2 time
at 3am or 2 or 4 or any time will do
to gaze with fondness at the moon or
listen to the stars’ own shiny tune and
if I’m also able then I listen to the sea.
I must be mad because I never get
depressed or ‘down in the mouth’
or empty talk gone south or what
ever could result in being glum for
I am more than blessed, even with none.
I am quite mad, for rather than a sweet
I have a boiled egg as my dessert!
I must be nutz, for when somebody
says that I am mad, I laugh like crazy,
don’t get sad, wonder what on earth
the darkness was which spoiled them.
The stain by which they disapprove
of others must have sadly soiled them.

I must be mad, for I would rather be
alone than in a crowded room where
‘hell is other people’ of ‘no exit’ doom.
I’m such a loon that I do as I please
without a care if I’ll be judged as nuts
by those who strut about defending
their insanity with vanity as being the
only version in the world of being sane.
I must be ‘nertz’ (old euphemism from
the 1920s as a substitute for ‘nuts’),
because I checked its etymology & origins!
(To understand why something is, one
must first look @ where that thing begins).
I must be mad, for I forgive all those
who’ve called me mad, knowing well
that those who are unable to control
a soul will then perceive him as a threat
and pigeonhole him in a drawer. To call
him as “mad” is thus to wage a title war.

A soul who does not take with seriousness
pecuniary matters, or success, or their career,
will soon be labelled (the result of fear)
with the telling title known as “lunatic”
(I love to be associated with the lovely Moon!)
unhinged, a fruitcake, batty, out to lunch,
or off his trolley, off the rails, up the wall,
or cuckoo, screwy, screw loose, bonkers,
round the twist — I’m sure you get the gist.

I’m mad enough to think that everything
(especially music or a long-wet kiss) is more
important than big money in the bank.
Irresponsible? Maybe. Insane? I guess
we’ll have to disagree. For when I look at all
the mad stuff folks will do to fill their coffers
with some gelt or shekels, moolah, dough
or dosh, or spondulix and lolly, readies,
bread and all the other names we give to
what is just a load of manufactured tosh,
I’m pleased 2 finger my guitar and let my
mouth sing words I’ve gathered from afar
into a wholesome song shaped like a heart,
should ever such ‘insanity’ infect my art
which, without a doubt, it plainly sanely does.
Yes, you are so right. I am a total nutcase and
against your bitter-judgements of my lifestyle,
no matter what you summon, I will never fight.

Off my rocker! That I truly cooly am! I do not
want to in my head the world’s detritus cram.
What’s inside is only what I think or do imbibe.
I have no time for all the blarney, blather, froth
and lather, foaming on the likes of Instagram.
To truth & love & peace, is what I do subscribe;
feel free to join me in my lonely little tribe!

I’m such a nutcase that I would much rather be
the fool who lives up on the hill than be
the smartass in the valley or the town, you see.
I reject the watered-downness of their
automated paint-by-numbers frownness.
I must in their myopic view be quite insane
for I would rather do what morally is right
than merely zombielike obey the law.
(Please let the reader truly understand).
That’s what ‘insanity’, or what is called “insane”,
when understood correctly and done right, is for.

Long time ago, straitjacket-wearing folks like this
would put mad looney nuts who cause a stir,
the ones who are the dissidents and challengers,
inside an institution so they wouldn’t cause
them all embarrassment, not knowing where
to put their gaze. “Just lock the crazies up!”
as they would say. Well, here I am 2 haunt them
with a life they seem unable to ignore in all
their ignorance; and here am I, a troubadour,
offending them because they have suppressed
the child in them who loves simplicity and virtue
and who knows what’s good & right and would
never dream of making war, should they abandon
walking down their narrow corridor of spite.

Finally, I am evicting all the hard acerbic souls
who label those as madmen who do not conform
to how they think a human should behave,
when all their strong objections are not based
on someone being depraved but merely living
differently 2 them, 4 that is all they can condemn.

Happy as the nutcase which, in all that rancour,
some have made me out to be, I say to you in love
that this is who I am and love to be; I’m wholly free!
And while I’m on this roll and sparked to this degree
to speak my mind and not seek out another’s flattery,
it is my firm belief that such a genocidal, fratricidal,
feticidal, infanticidal world as this is very much
in need of many more demented fools like me!🙃🤪

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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