Ghost lanes

 In the rain, in the rain

I can call out your name

In the rain of the wild wood air

No pain, no pain

When I touch the flame

That burns in my heart somewhere

In vain, in vain

I play in the game

But the pack is always one card spare

The lane, the lane

Where held your picture frame

And I looked at your long brown hair

Insane, insane

To be be feeling this shame

For a ghost who I know isn't there

Don't go, don't go

Sweet Sally Malone

Don't go where the pale horse rides

How long, how long

Will this carry on

How long before you turn out your light

Sleepers in rivers

 Sleepers in the river

Leaving their wake

Mourners in silver

Walking in moonlight 

Sleepers in the river

Catch them before they wake

Jumper lack the shivers 

Lumper jacks make

Timbers for archers

Whose aim must be straight

Flying fletchers

And fledglings flake

At the thought of jumping 

From a great height

But sleepers in rivers

Leave them til they wake

Hands at Work

Scrape on the river bed

Raise the rocks like you raise the dead

Pick the ground with the axe find the hole

Take out its claws

Clip Devils toenails, shells and barnacles

 Imbue with life ammonites and Brachiopods

Bring them back out of the dark

Lying there mud-bound for millennia quite happily

Read the lie of the land

This slope that dip

Roll up the rocks lift

With your hand

Dig up the turf,

Throw it down

Bore into the bank like a thief for the sand

Use the spade to cut out cubes of stringy

Rooty sodden peat, that is so water logged

You can hardly lift it

Precious, so precious this harboured flesh

Like a surgeon cutting out the Fat of the Land

It takes grit, it takes belief to make a path

A determination to reclaim that little piece of wild

Counting cows

 Now all the hills are calling

and the weigh bridge  is asleep

All the the candles blowing

And I can't see to peep

Out of the curtains

On the people on the street

Because it

all looks

As if it's snowing

Or maybe it is sleet

I hold the parcel

And they hold the meal

We win the castle

But we cannot take the field

If you had asked

Where I'd be ten years

From now

I'd turn and I'd answer

I'd probably

be counting cows

Troy town

 I used to be a policeman

but then didn't like it, didn't it

didn't didn't it

If were a policeman I would bang you

to rights

You have got so many vices

And it isn't nice

Come you must rearrange how you treat

The strangers

In your town

You bring me down

I didn't like, didn't like

Didn't like it

Don't you know that we're all the same

You call us by a different name

So treat us like the other

We could be your long lost brother

I don't think you have read that much

Never heard of Ulysses and such

Well there was once a place named Troy

And they spoiled the life of a little boy

He was just an innocent shepherd

Until he thought he'd be something better

The bright city lights

Changed his mind over night

And I didn't like it, didn't like it,

didn't like it

He fell in love with girl named Helen

He thought he could take her

And they'd be in heaven

So he tricked the palace by being their friends

But they never knew he wouldn't make amends

Helen was the girl next door

But he was rich and she wasn't poor

He stole her from Menelaus

Who got angry said Paris would pay us

Then he got Agamemnon involved

And it all went to hell in a hand cart I'm told

And they didn't like it, didn't like it, didn't like it

So next time you refuse a stranger a hand

Just remember what happened in that ancient land

The Greeks got pissed and they destroyed Troy

Well with a little help from Odysseus' toy

A little gift horse they looked in the mouth

Turned out to be the whole world went south

And they didn't like it, didn't like it, didn't like it

So you want to accuse and to blame

a perfect stranger of what's never named

So you want to mock and defame

A guest who's come to your house, for shame

They didn't like it, didn't like it, and I feel the same

I didn't like it, didn't like it, didn't like it

And every time you try to slander my name

And put out a rumour that tries to declaim

I did something that I've never done

Well I don't like that and your time will come

Yes your time will come, your time will come

Too many heads

 Nanny state and nanny's arms

Bubble gum childish charms

No one holds responsibility

No one talks it through

Nanny goat, nono nono

Nanny the boats coming through

Given women undue power

 Their troubled terms

Of Trump tower

I was sitting direct to trump 

He was small and irrelevant

In the corner another overheard

And I thought it was Donald bird

There was a swimming pool

the fast lane it was full of fools

The slow lane too contained tools

The middle contained nuts and rules

You wake and realise the irrelevance

Of all these theories of equivalence

Power is in others' hands

until it's wrestled by he who stands

To take back control

From  the bourgeoise capital

The monkey and the monk

 Monkey: I'm a monkey

Monk: And I’m a monk

Monkey: I've got a pocket full of junk

Monk: I’ve got a skeleton in the trunk

Monkey: And it smells like a skunk

 

Monkey: I am hunky

Monk: I’m not a hunk

Monkey: I am chunky

Monk: I’m a chunk

Monkey: I play the honky-tonk

Monk : Well, he’s a monkey not a monk

 

Both: We’re in a one-horse town

Both: We don't wanna let ourselves down

Monkey: He’s in a one-horse town

Monk: He keeps letting me down

Monk: Oh so won't you let me in?

Monkey: I don't wanna live without sin

 

Monkey: I'm a sinner

Monk: I’m a saint

Monkey: I'm painter who has to paint

Monkey: I'm gonna cater for you Cate

Monk: I'll see you later don't be late

 

Monkey: I am funky

Monk: I’m in a funk

Monkey: I'm not your a donkey

Monk: No, you’re my donk

Monkey: I'm wonky

Monk: And I’m a wonk

Monk: Well, he’s a monkey

Monkey: And he’s a monk