Railway dreams

 I remember when we used to

cycle across the railway bridge

With friends

Down the road from Ashcott

And the walk through the glens

And hanging greenery

That was the woodland there

All is gone, or have I moved on?

What remains is just a memory

In my mind's ear I hear

The steam trains shuffling

Whistling clear

their boiler bellies puffing

And yet I know the end of the track is coming

And yet I know I'll follow it to the sea

Burnham and Highbridge

Try to launch ourselves

Across the Severn estuary

We have no chances

Just to be swept up

And drowned in the wash

Still there's the hope

We could catch a boat

And make it to Cardiff or Penarth

And we could keep going

Because the end of the line

Is so far off

Perhaps it's a lie

But it's a good one

I wish to tell myself

That we can reach the end

Of the rainbow

That there's a future

Worth thinking of

Folly

 We were standing at the folly

That silly place of fun

To build a tower to nowhere

But by building it, it's a somewhere

We stand and gather every year there

almost

Like you, folly, were almost a tower

Almost a mansion

Almost a reasonable action

Our friendships are for their own sake

Just because, needing no reason

But you're beautiful in your pillars,

Cornices, plinths to nowhere

To noone in particular

And therefore to everyone

And anyone who cares to visit

Can claim this folly as their own

Like you, we were created in the image of a

Grand design, the rest is left

To the imagination

Like that moment when we were

young and our futures

Were left unwritten

Still up to us to fill in

The blanks

Slow Owl

 Slow owl slow owl

you go so slowly

Why do you take so long

To wake up in the morning

Cause you've been hooting all night long

Slow owl, what d you mean about

burning the candle in the morning

and in the night time too?

Is it any wonder you're asunder

Caught between the devil

And the blue

If there was thunder would

you wonder

What on earth it all meant

To you?

Slow owl, oh can you tell

what I am knowing?

Slow owl, can you tell

If it is true?

That the lives we live

Are always going

Down the toilet

With the toilet paper too

Slow owl, slow owl

When you turn your head

I think that you aren't knowing

What you just said

I think the sun is slowing

Yes it's burning low and red

So slow owl, slow owl

It's time you showed 

Yourself instead

You and me

 Some people blame the patriarchy

Some blame the wishing well tree

And you, you blame the anarchy

Of what separates you from me

I loved an image, I loved an age

It was far gone in antiquity

And you, you love the liquidity

Of seasons that to me are strange

I fell asleep on my head

And you fell asleep on the page

And we would rather be dead

But Who am I to say that it's rage?

I kiss the ground that you walk on

But you kiss the cat on the stage

And she walks the cat walk of fashion

Which is a passion of our age

I think that I'm modern

You think that I'm caged

I blame it all on my mother

Who had me when she was middle aged

Maybe your theories are just theories

Maybe we are sand in the waves

Being washed by time's ravages

But it's in our love that we can be saved

To Be Having or not to be having

 Some people don't want what they have

a baby, a love or a cab

Some people want what they don't have

And that can be harder to grab

But which is the better?

The having or the missing?

The loss or the obtaining

I'm not complaining

Or even saying

Whether one is wrong or right

It's not in our hands to fight

But if you never fight

Then you never might

Gain control of what you

Want but do not need

It is food for the soul

Or is it fuel for greed

It's a skill to know

Whether you fail or succeed

For there's still a while to go

Before the sands of time bleed

American dreaming

 Let's hear it one more time for

The American dream

Fear and loathing

It's a brand of clothing

You can buy in a Walmart

But if you're smart

The Chinese have made it

And you've paid for it

With the American dream

Oh everybody's equal

Or so it would seem

But only in America

Because that's what it means

But really what they're saying is

We're better than you kids

Comprendez?

It's a foul game,

It's a penalty

Except the referee's

The one holding the keys to Life and Liberty

And how about the pursuit of happiness?

Well that only exists in excess

So buy, buy, buy your way to heaven

Unless you live the American dream

Who knew things could go so wrong?

It's just a show kid, no need to be your swan song

It's like we're playing Risk or a game of double jeopardy

On the Tv, with your host the President and his First Lady

It's not as if this is reality, could have fooled me

How about a parody? How about a comedy? How about a tragedy?

Is it any wonder that the world's a disparity?

The glass is half empty, or is it half full?

Well I know some have plenty and others hungerful

Can you see enough vulgarity, is it wonderful

Is this what you Americans want on your dinner plates?

Just a plastic president who spouts out rage and hate?

 Just a smarmy army, full of red neck types

Just a whisky swigger and stereotypes

Tell me if it's wonderful or really if it's ripe

That you're eating chicken by the binful

And scoffing down the tripe

I need to take a moment, I can't believe my eyes

No, justice is blind, or I thought that was right

Now I can't believe my ears are those my cries?

Or someone else in pain and should I try to be nice?

Now I've lost the power of speech, I'm mute

But the voice of reason it doesn't sound cute

And it wouldn't get a season on the Disney plus network

So Let's all just play dumb until the President forgets it

And nothing he says means anything at all

Because there is no truth just a game of lies 

in his American dream

Wait until Spring

 I can't, can't wait until Spring

Keep on, how long can you keep on

Fighting the darkness, battle to win?

Keep on, how long can you keep on?

I can't wait, wait until spring 

Winter's are glowing

And rain it is flowing

Down from grey skies

And I am knowing, yes I am knowing

I don't want to die

But I can't wait, no I can't wait

I can't wait for my life to begin

I can't, but I've got to wait now

I can't wait, wait until Spring

There are birds flocking the fields

Finding their meals, beating their wings

They can't wait, wait until Spring

And the martyrs are looking up from the puddles

The world's in a muddle, reflected within

They can't wait, wait until Spring