The Crows of Shepton

 The crows are coming round again

And I'm sitting on the bower

The knives are drawn behind our backs

But the parliament's in power

A murder is a ripening

The time is coming soon

But who knows death

Is a harbinger bird

Who's crying out at the moon

I held a leaf

Like telephone

A nautilus shell alone

I talked to the sea

And my mother was there

In spirit but not in the bone

The flesh of the fish

Jesus was a skipping stone

He stepped so fast and far

It seemed

But then sunk when I got home

When I think of Jesus

He is a promise I have to keep

He is the others in the meeting

Who face me, lay their bets

That life is at stake

Will you take the wager?

The older you get the more you must play

But the higher becomes the ante

You need to join in or else you have lost

You must join before it's too late

The crows still sit on the rooftop

Crows are so human I think

When night closes in they want

The company, of another shoulder

next to them,

Another body, in a group

I don't know what it is about sharing

But you must speak to unburden yourself

A trouble shared is a trouble halved

But that is not even what it's about

It's about building a community

A communion of voices and spirits

Who see in each other similarities

Like the flap of a wing or a preening with beaks

The crows have flown off now at nightfall

To the safety of their treetops or chimney pots

Humans are much like crows I think

We each need our gatherings around

hot spots

Candles, or fires or sunsets

Company at the dying of the light

Courage in togetherness

Serenity in the night

Wisdom to let the day breathe

And let a new dawn bring a

new hope and fresh flight or fight

Hang to the left

 Hang to the left

Do you hang to the left

Or to the right he said

My father that is

And then he said

If you are a man then

Or that is what I heard

That is the gloss, the filter I put on everything he was

Back then

It was because I was trying to be a man

Whatever that was

When I was twenty something

So I drank and smoked a pipe

But I was just finding out who I am

Or was

But even that is always changing

Or perhaps never is

Because you can never see your whole self

The hand that holds the mirror

Is always hidden

Only in glimpses and snatches of other people

Can we realize who or what we do

Or are

That is why we must keep sharing

Stories and experiences

And keep listening

Seal of approval

 It was a Saturday afternoon when I heard you

You were calling from inside my wall

I thought at first how absurd to

Be stuck inside a place and then call

But of course that's what it is to be human

And I was a child once too

I climbed to the top of  an apple tree

And then didn't know how to

Climb back down for before tea

So I just waited up there for hours

Until my mother came looking for me

Then she encouraged me to climb down

The same way I got there

So I thought crow, crow what do you know

We can all get stuck in places we don't want to be

So Crow, crow what do you know

I'm going to try and rescue thee

Well it didn't work out quite like that

I actually sat down in my chair after gardening and 

Then heard it cheap cheap

I thought oh no there's a bird stuck in my chimney

What am I to do?

So I phoned up Shepton Vets

They suggested I phoned up Secret World

So I phoned up Secret World. They weren't in

So I left a message: there's a bird stuck in my chimney

Saturday afternoon about 4 pm

I should before going any further

That I've never had a fire in the fireplace

It's a rented property and they told me 

I wasn't allowed to, which I thought was unfair

I kind of see why now, but really it would be

nice to.

Anyway the chimney, I was told was sealed and

I couldn't open it. So I never tried

I never even used to come in this room

Well actually I did at first

Nice people

 Hammon was an ex dominatrix

Used to like to dominate

Now only in the Matrix

Cool dude 

Shades

Jacket like a Rapper

All wrapped up in himself

Like a Christmas Papa

Ama was a suplimatrix

But they were both really nice people

living death

 There are some things

I can't live without

Some Things slide off my spoon

And somethings I can't give any doubt

You know I want them like the moon

Oh but if you you've gotta live

Live now

Because

It's gonna be over too soon

Takeaways

 Give me the end

I want to know how it ends

Girl in the Chinese restaurant

I want to give you what you want

I want to know your name

I have a flame burning for you

The spring rolls too

Screw into the chop suey

And where am I left in

The whole milieux

I ask you how to be a writer

Send in your work

You seem to know what I'm saying

Without me needing to speak

I like that intuition

In one so young

I think we could do things together

Beyond the sun

And Another

 After some weeks of sobriety

I feel more on the level

Life lacks the variety

But I can live like a bevel

Sharper. more crystal

But life is dull as shit

And I long for losing control

Just to forget it

The fact is out of mind

Out of space away from myself

In a hidden place

It's better Ifind to have this

clarity of grace

The AA meetings were a hoot

Well they were great shares

Of dispairs and cares 

And powerful stories

Of rising up from the boot

From the bottom of nothingness

Desperation

That is the hell of an addiction

I do not wish to follow that route

So I keep shovelling coal on my stomach

To keep in suit