Master of puppets

The shadows of the past
Play puppets on the wall
Strange animals run fast
Monsters are there ready to fall

My hands cannot hold them all
My fingers untie
I am tired of all the acting
Tired of the charade, the lie

I see her in grey approaching through the white
Each time I think I may stay
She turns on another light
And it illuminates my mistakes
It casts doubts' shadows against the wall

My own past is merged with her's
And I cannot see clearly at all

There must be some reason for its standing
This cinema of life
Like I am watching my own play unravel
Like she is an actress, And I am
An editor, making the cut with my knife

The scene of us together rolls around and around
The film reel feels, like a loose end
That must be tied
I am the puppet master
But I do not pull the strings
My shadows dance without my asking
They are autonomous things

Have I responsibility for what they do or say
After all am I not just a puppet myself
In this strange shadow puppet play?

Crying for Othello

The fire beneath my breast
Burns faster in Budapest
The times that call for jest
Are less
But the rolling robin calls
As fans kick footballs
Across the pitch of their tomorrow
Birds sleep on the wing
As the Martins or swallows
And all the half price houses fall
With the grace of a still standing wall
As the city park is built
After dark up to their necks in silt
Yet there's no use crying
Over milk that's spilt

The roses of my mind
Grow terse in time
Grow like nursery rhymes
Where crows fly out of my eyes
Lay their eggs of lies,
Somewhere deep in their sockets
Where I just cannot believe them
And deep in thoughts' pockets
Where I search for loose change
To make it through another day
Until they hatch these fledgling lies
Black birds that fly away

After them she shoots her arrows of truth
And they fall down everyone
In the field of bare looks
Where scarecrow glances
Hide winces in books
Convinces us that all eyes have hooks
And all eyes have fishes
That swim there waiting to be caught

Roses are Red

Roses are Red
So is your hair
When we walked up the hill
In the fresh morning air
to Gul Baba, looking like a saint
The walls in the background could
Do with a lick of paint
Yet that is Budapest - tired and torn
Living like fish in a bowl, new born
Swimming around staring goggle-eyed at things
The sweetness in a crisp packet blown up in the wind
The temperance of shadows that lends buildings their mood
The light plays and puppet hands of a life when its good

Your hands also played in the snow
Shifting it back and forth ceaseless cold show

Roses are red, they lay dormant and freeze
On the balconies of the mausoleum
Around the holy knees

They climb their way up hill
She rambles like a rose
They climb their way up the trellis of time
She flies straight as the crows
They all have their heads cut off by a prudent gardener
Prudence, leaves her shears at home
She watches as her red hair grows

The sky line skates beneath the cloud,
Out lines of the Parliament cry aloud
And roof tops, taking weight lifter bets
To prove how much white stuff they can hold
And the rose grows its thorns of the past
Prick us and we bleed our red onto the snow
That somehow we know will soon melt
And yet we can never forget

A white Christmas

In the snow we hide
Ourselves, our clothes
The white space inside
Unblemished by the knowledge
That the truth did stand on lies
Pure white as the snow drifts
Upon the roof top tiles

In single nature
We split ourselves like mitochondria
For every shaving of the self
Comes out its hypochondria
That every ailing Christmas Elf
Has before Santa seen himself
A reflection of eternal health
For the safe milk formula

And slowly, oh so slowly
Do the half truths come to light
Like little pimples bursting through
The red ring surrounds the head of white
If in this whiteness is the bad
Then bad must be squeezed out
Just let the rivers run red
Let the streams trickle with blood
The blood tells no lies at last
Blood cannot lie
It ties us to our distant past
Those swimming genes in nuclei

All at once I saw you

All at once I saw you
Like in a dream
Some vague notions of forgiveness
Mixed in an unrighteous stream
But its all on the dark side
Cold in the shadow of a mountain
Those mountains of youth
That just do not move
And won't allow you to love

So I brought you back to that mountain
and gave you a shovel and spade
And told you to start digging
A hole for forgiving
One tunnel that will let light into the shade

Some nights it seems so distant
That train whistle in the grove
The darkness in the valley of the thistle
Where the wild heather grows

Some nights it seems so invisible
Like ghosts, revealing themselves
Through the eves of the past
To make your love last
Down among the sleeves of book shelves

All at once I saw you
Like the moon from behind the clouds
Like I knew you were there
Some forest with a bear
Some trees with the thickness of crowds

Sahara Sarah

The day that I saw you in a single's bar
Was one of the happiest I must say so far
You had on a dress the colour of Ivory
I had a bone to pick with you
It was the elephant in the room
But I wasn't the poacher, there is the irony
Because when you spoke I lost my tusks
To your Savannah robbery, your African musk
Your Leopard skin hide, and the thorn in your side
I just couldn't pull out, like Daniel and the Lion
I tried to save you from dying, and you did the same
For me
When they threw me to the wolves, and the wolf whistles
and calls you had to endure, but you were sure-footed
And True
As the sky turned blue, and we could see through
All their games to the horizon

The Sun never sets, on our relationship, like the moon it gets
Wet in the ocean of night, and sails like a ship on the blind side
Of light, passing day hauled up at bay, then in the darkness
We pass, through the holes of each other's hearts
Like some invisible thread, like some camel that treads
Through the desert to the needle's eye

Emperor

Oh now don't worry he's an emperor
He'll burn up your heart
No don't forget his interior
Its a mansion's noble part

Now the Sun never sets on his empire
He spends seven lives on his art
For what he's created, he's destroyed in the fire
And it's burned several holes in his heart

Now Judas he was a liar, a deceiver right from the start
But he believed with all his desire
In the empire of his heart
Now silver coins they could buy him
And gold could turn his will
But what he conspired was for an empire
And a prophecy to fulfill

Yes now here is the empire
Here is the loquacious machine
And it turns a dark will, as a Satanic mill
And it makes a mockery of the heart

The Sun never sets on his empire
The sun will continue to rise
But the day will end
When he can't find a friend
And his empire will be his only prize

The falling stars

The stars are falling down
In the city, in the town
They're falling from the steeples
Like jewels from a crown
They're falling from the tower
From the lapels of those in power
The stars are falling down

They're falling from the Christmas trees
The stars are falling in the cities
They're falling off the flags
Like antlers off the stags
The stars of the city are falling down

You look up from the gutter
And see them glitter in the sky
You think of all the utter
Business of truth telling over lie
And try to reach beyond to pluck them
For your piece of pie
But they fall between your fingers
Like tears fall when you cry

The stars are falling down this Christmas time
They're falling like the fairy dust
On twinkle town
They're falling from the tree
The stars of the bold and free
Falling down on you and me
In our prime

They’re burning trees in Budapest -There’s a forest fire in Budapest

They’re burning the trees in city park

There’s a fire in their heart

There’s a smell of timber in the streets

And the logs are loading up the cart

There’s fungi eating up the wood

and a disease in the bark

There’s a war between the bad and good

And they’re burning the trees in city park

The branches are barren and bare

The fertility of the city

Is on fire, like Hell's lair

They’re attacking her womb

And from the rotten roots

Grow twisted trunks

So, they’re selling her shoots from car boots

Giving the dogs back their bites

While taking away their bark

Not letting them sleep with the drunks

They’re burning the trees in city park

There’s a canker in the heart

There’s a smell of bonfires in the air

There’s a pest eating us apart

There’s a worm in the pear

There’s a bug within the leaf

And a cancer eats at government

There’s the breeding ground for our grief

Corruption written on the walls of Parliament

Ballad of a Budapest Bicyclist

Releasing the inner bicyclist I set off down the street

Not yet sure of my direction nor of who’d meet

The road was long, with many obstacles in my way

The cars, pedestrians even other cyclists making hay

My sure foot in England counted for little here

The Hungarian green cross code, is less rules

More guidelines by which to steer

And very few obey the lights, that much to me was clear.

To navigate, I must admit my method somewhat poor

I held extended to the front an open book as cure

with one hand I held the road list, with the other I did steer

And as I made my progress, my eye was half in the distance and half near

Few things come to mind about that dreadful morning

That now in hindsight might have given me a warning

Perhaps one was the traffic, and another the beeping horns

Perhaps the capricious nature of the zebra crossing more like a unicorn

For guidance as to how to be, I followed the cultural norm

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, be like St George who fights the Great Orm

I took as my example the cyclist in front,

She weaved and dived between the traffic

like her bike was made of magic

I likewise tried my hand, losing some sense of self

In the pursuance of an unreachable dream, what one may lack is mental health

So stopping at a lights at a meeting of two roads

One Erszbet tér the other Joszef Attila ut, is where I begin my ode

The cyclist ahead had seized the chance and crossed when lights were red

I felt this cannot be right so held my steed from rearing dread

As I waited, I looked around, uncertain of my location

And yet in the same moment perceiving its general commotion

The air was tense like in a tennis competition

We stood at match point poised until the lights changed our constitution

In my general perusal of the scene

I spotted a red-haired ruffian, looking large and rather mean

I decided in my mind he was one I should avoid

And so, looked back down at my book to follow the route I had thus far enjoyed

It seemed no clearer from the glance that I briefly took

And yet without another guide I did decide to keep out my book

At that moment the providential lights did change their hue

And I followed on the rolling traffic in its crawling queue

However, I did not make it very far before I had to stop

As the green man had signalled pedestrians across his shop

Most made their way quick with efficiency

But one man lingered on the pavement rendering my path unfree

If you have not guessed it, this was my red-headed foe

Who had beside his gym-built bulk his bull dog in tow

Since my own light would soon be changing back to red

I had to take my chances in the pedestrian flow now drip fed

The green man he was flashing, and the majority had crossed

Just this one hulk slacking, not even on the pied path tossed

So, I proceeded with a gentlemanly care

Slowly pedalling my bicycle in the crisp morning air

In one hand was my book

And my eye it fully did look

A clear path to my fore

And so, I advanced and seized my chance as if through

An open door

All at once I heard a pitiful yelp,

And to my surprise, the Bull-dog's cries preceded my own need of help

The impact of a stepping fool (the man)

Had caused me to unbalance nearly falling from my stool

This great Hungarian Hulk then proceeded to yell

‘You have run over my dog’ or something of the ilk, I could not tell

His face was mad and steaming, red as a raspberry fruit

The ginger hair upon it made his look a fiery hirsute

Before I even knew what was going on

He had grabbed my rucksack and from my bike I was being flung

I landed on the hard road, my lap-top laden bag nearby

My arm was cut, the shock like lightening strike from a blue sky

I picked myself up quickly and looked this man in the face

He was still yelling some Hungarian, his dog had run from its place

As I put on my bag, he left and turned to find his dog

I took that as my cue to leave the scene of this mad grog

Some onlookers stood and watched, but I had cycled on

I had no desire to face his mad fire, nor to gather a throng

Hurting from the bruising, but wheeling not in vain

I made my way to my destination, vowing never to cross his path again

Just the next street on, I met a couple of cops

And thought to tell them the incident so up to them I stopped

Luckily one spoke English and I explained my case,

However, his look and shrug dismissive,

Meant the criminal could not be traced

Looking back in hindsight, I reflect and trust

That this man lacked perception, his reality was rust

Imagine on the long weekend, he had filled his veins with drugs

And on this bright new morning he had slipped on reality's rugs

Then again perhaps the city drives such men berserk

As they go about their daily duties or see about their work

It must be a place of ditties, and this ballad is but one

Just another song of the city, and now my song is sung

Bonfire of Leaves

Fire plant, chameleon
Salamander roots, licking up
Burning in a purifying fire
Cleaning the old skin, dusting off old boots
Roasting in a midnight oil
A twilight toil before its rest
The candle burning low
At last goes through such beautiful
hues
Phoenix shrub and burning bush
In less than a month
It will be skeletal branches and ashes
Ready to rise again in Spring

Woodland lane

Woodland rain of brown leaves
Coal tits feign and turn with speed
Little gains, little needs
Pirates of the Oak trees

Seeing all amid dropping
Paper brown crowns
From once proud branches
Flitting in and out the hedges
Beside the woodland lane

Bones

We are all bones
Jiggling to the same life tune
Some move faster than others
Some have more rhythm
And others suffer
But that is the field of undying loneliness
And Strife
That makes up the stuff
Of life

The Name of the Pub

There was a kind of sickness of mind evident in the corroborative clause
A negotiation with the truth that led all right speaking minds to contest
The best thing in the universe
Was still sliced bread
Nothing had swallowed the shallow shoals of undermining burnished levy breakers more than had the sun
That's not its name, that's not its name
They call it Red Lion, they call it white horse
They call it traveler's rest
That's not its name

Its in the name of the pub
is that place where you rub up against
Others bones
Old pig and slaughter
Th Arabian daughter
The knight who atones
The Royal Oak or little turtle
A fine resort, a brittle portal
Into unknown fields of words
Its all in the name of the pub

What's its name we were there last night
I lost my glasses, we had a fight
A bottle was broken so was a tooth
I went home, I forget in truth
The best times of my life
Are hidden beneath
The skin I clean each evening
And the carpet I hide underneath

Skin Deep
The skinny dipper
The old piper
The strong canoodler
Armstrong,
The Millers arm
The Ram's head
The Queens head
Cock and Bull
All the foreign inter pole pull

Sudden remembrances of France in a salty sea breeze
The old wives tale
Sailor's rest
4 in the morning a mast, a test
A broken token,
 A swinging emblem
Folded
Bespoken by the bride's trial

River Song

I heard singing from the mouth of ears
I saw things thronging, going south for years
Brought my song singing to the river of tears
I heard singing from the mouth of ears

I saw winging slings in quivering fears
Held counsel with great men and seers
Who said somethings wrong
When I said what? they sneered
When I heard singing from the mouth of ears

I brought my wrong to the sandy shores
Shored my heart like a boat with oars
Heard my bong beat foxes, shoot boars
As my dogs run on through the woodland wars

I saw the birds flock and stir
In the sky, full of stockings and pearls
Whirling above the currents that curl
When I heard the song from the River of the World

The mouth was open, but it could not speak
The ears were wide but to hear they were weak
And it ran on, I did not listen to the creak
Of the doors that open, every day of the week

Every minute the river is talking to us
Every wave that is broken
Each one made whole in trust
Like messages spoken
It's sent with love
Let it wash its token
Its voice's calm hush

Moon song

There's a big moon rising
like a pale horse in the swamp
There's a dead moon rising
Like the bones of those I've loved

There's a new moon rising
In the ashes of the heavens above

There's sad moon rising
Saying what it needs to say
About the sun and its horizon
At the closing of the day

There's a faint star and its sparkling
In the crystal clear dark night
Far from all the fighting
Of the tribes of wrong and right

Love poem

You know I'm sad to say it, and it is probably true
There are no two ways of it
I fell in love with you

They know it in the fields, as they go about their work
Even making hay with it, its like the shadow of a hawk

The cat and mouse play of it, sad but its true
There's a brick wall made of it
I fell off it into you

Some may rant and rave of it
Some may stand and queue
But I can't afford to wait for it
So I fell in love with you

The turkey's run away with it
The roosters always crew
So I thought I'd make a day of it
When I fell in love with you

I'm standing in the green grass
But above the sky is blue
And the sun is golden as a gas
Lamp burning love for you

I've run the clock, and turned the stile
Stuck between a rock and a hard place for a while
I've seen a face longing for a smile
Then in an act of grace, I was lifted from the pile

There are not too many times
I can say I knew
But when you feel it in your veins
You know it must be true
Call at my door, listen for the chime
It rings one time or maybe two
Then you answer and guessing game is through

The opportunity is taken
The bird's wing is broken
But once it flew
I will keep it not as a token
Just as a promise left unspoken
Or some secret I know is true
When I fell in love with you

Love Song

Freedom is the great retainer,
Bold new reasons for a justified remainer
Earning crust in a lip less land
Where lovers walk hand in hand
Sharks and storks, stalk the sand
Following currents of words

Following currents of words
And grape vines of news
Berries like snippets of information
Pipettes of a muse

Love is pigeons freed
And tying me up
Only to let me go
Love are the dying leaves
On the pavement
Where builders have scored
Their lines in old cement
For plans of ill pursuit
Plans of ill pursuit

Love is the I
The spit in the Eye
That makes you get up and try
Some more each morning
It is the bitterness of dawn
When you realize she's not there
Or when you forget she was even there
Or when money surrounds your thoughts like sharks in a calm lagoon
Spoiling your fun
Like pricking your thumb
On the needle of the loom
Like focusing on the sun
With one
Eye on the moon
Hoping it will work out one day when you're too old
To climb a dune
Like in an American movie
Where they all eat apple pie
But they never show the apple pickers
Nor the millers working
Their fingers to the bone
To give you flour in your home
For 5 cents an hour
Down in old Mexico

Hollywood sweet bread rules the
City arcades
It is in the faces of the charades
The hopes of young girls and boys
Who would have been better off playing with toys
Than joining the real world so soon

Chicken stew

Chicken Stew, chicken stew
Mix it up, make it pew
Kneel down and give the offering
Like a priest for the proffering
Heal the soul
Chicken body
Legs patrol the earth

Lift the chicken up to God
Hold its wings and see it nod
This is what you were born to
Chicken stew your soul

Which came first the chicken or the egg?
Which to choose breast or leg?
Which witch cooked
Which beggar begged?
For chicken stew hen pecked or pegged

Hang it up
Cut it down
Like a cup
Turned upside down
Empty contents over the floor
The chicken pecks the grain some more
Grain of whisky
Grain of field
Grain of wind
Of piece meal
Grain of gleaners
Bowing low, humble cleaners
Thoughts in tow

Chicken stew for your soul

The Webdings of Yu Mincho Demibold -the writing is on the wall

I want to see Calibri's body
I want to meet Arial
Or Times New Roman marching down
Fleet Street with all the journalists in a bow

Tell me about Agent FB
I
wish I could meet such an exciting guy
Or Lucinda without her unicode
She should have passed it on by now

Perhaps Bahnschrift passed it to
Baskerville Old Face
He was hounding Bauhaus 93

He wanted an autograph
But left in some disgrace
After Dante and the Engravers MT

I would like to lie with Georgia Pro Black
Or wrestle with Goudy Stout
Tell me how long will Miriam
Be fixed on Narkisim
Will it be ad Perpetua?
Before Poor Richard Shouts

And we all knew Rockwell was Extra bold
When he wrote in Italics
To Sitka Small

But she was not meek, no not at all
When after a week
She wrote the Univers condensed on the wall

You see Verdana Pro Semibold
was christened in the font
and named Yu Gothic
In wide Latin

But what got everybody's goat
Was that Courier new note
Comic Sans MT
Was really born in the attic

Of all the things I thought I knew

Of all the things I thought I knew
There was always you
And yet the beams of the Mercedes Benz
Ring true
They caught you in the head lights
And towed you for a mile
It was a white rabbit dawn
That caught up with you

What did I know?
I thought I knew it all
That there was nothing left to teach me
Then I met you

I thought I knew
How the story goes
Girl meets boy, boy gives girl rose
Some such saccharine thing
I remember in the throes
Of all the things you taught me
That one thing is true

I thought I knew
We sailed off into the sunset
And the hero gets the girl
There are diamond studded pianoes
And Rubies on dancing shoes
That all the world's your oyster
And the whole ocean blue
But the briny has some surprises for me
That much is true

I thought I knew
If I stayed on the beach
That I would be safe out of reach
Out of harms way
But that was only half true, anyway
The truth was like a speckled egg breaking
Like a broken heart aching
What more can I say?
That much is true

These prison walls

We were born in a prison
Locked inside
Between our mother's womb
And our father's dark side

We come out into the sun
Fresh and screaming with life
To be put back in the prison
One of toil and strife

I was born in a prison
The walls were high and wide
I could not look over the other side
The Prison of Pride

I grew into my prison
And the bars began to rust
Sometimes the rains came
Dissolved the bars between I and Us

But between the lust and the trust
They were my jailers
My torturers too
One put me on a crucifix and nailed me there
it is true

The other took me down, pulled me apart
Examined my entrails and my heart
Then they called me an animal
And sent my soul to the zoo

I was born in a prison and there I will stay
From the first breath I take
Until the final judgement day

Tell me what it's like on the other side
Is the grass even greener there?
I can see it, but can't touch it
Lord knows how hard I've tried

Try to tame eden
You put a wall round paradise
Try to break even
You only end up breaking your eyes

By the lights of the big city

Traffic lights in the window
Lightning disco in the sky
I'm stuck in the mirror
Between thoughts of you and I

Too much self reflection
Doesn't make a nice guy
When you forget the important things you know
Like when you forget how hard to try

Lightning bolts crack the black glass sky
All that I thought I knew
Now I'm stuck in the mirror
Between thoughts of me and you

How do I separate myself from the lightning?
Creation and destruction
In the mirror's reflection
Dividing like the tram lines
Two sides of the road
Keep your Gods under different signs
Your Odin for your odes
Your Thor for ....who knew?
There were certain doors you should not walk through

Now the lights have changed from red to green
And little bells of rain ring on the window screen
And the bells of church towers are ringing in the wind
As the storm the summer promised
Comes to shatter summer dreams

Its blowing like a tempest
Come to deal out its punishment
No mercy for the faithless
Its tongue is like a serpent
Forked fiery flames
With fangs ready to strike
The ocean is no match for its electric pike
That snap and whip and maim
As it hurls its sea at us
The buoys which float in the sky are pounded into dust

It is lathering up its hands
Showering us with blood
Clapping its salty palms
Churning water into mud
Washing and rinsing up to its arms
In a Noah's flood

Slinging down all from the heavens
Sent from an all powerful judge

Come lady

Oh Lady come down your hill
oh lady come down your hill
Well the gathering tide
Goes far and wide
And your moat it would like to fill
Oh lady come down your hill

Oh lady come down your hill
You've spent too long
In your ivory tower
Let your hair hang down
From your window sill
Oh lady come down your hill

Oh lady come down off your hill
The army is strong and it may kill
But while the soldiers are strong
The fight must go on
So kind lady come down your hill

Oh lady come down your hill
The night is long
And it can chill
Come warm yourself
I'll keep your health
Come lady from down your hill

Oh lady come down your hill
The buzzards soar and shrill
The sky is clear but there are
Grey clouds still
Come lady down your hill

Oh lady come down your hill
I know you have a strong will
But put that aside
Just be my bride
Oh lady come down your hill

Bone Kissing

I didn't want to turn back
Didn't want to face the storm
That I knew would turn me black

Didn't know that I was torn
Like a rending thunder
Shaken to the very core
Of my foundations laying under

I never got used to your face
Never could learn to trace
The outline of your cheek
Nor to draw the breath you took
Just before you speak

I never learned to call you mine
Never learned to drink the wine
Never knew what a fine line
I had had to walk

And now we do not talk

I chose to come here
I chose to stay
I chose that some year
I would fly away

But the swallows return each Summer or Spring
Are they the same ones
Who left on the wing
Is it the same prayer
I can hear
The choir sing?
As their voices rise into the skies
Of a horizon forever setting

She plays the cello
On her own stage
Keeping back the fellow deer
Like a do rey me so far te da
Like a guardian of her age

She guards the garden
She turns on the hose
She turns over the earth that hardens
around the Summer rose

She is like a starling
Singing in a flock
Away arise, the may fly flies
Dragon fly alights upon a rock

Sweet streams and rivulets
Stun the lady Juliet
From her reverie of regret
In too many long walks

Suddenly the walls
Are trembling from the thunder
Suddenly all she knows falls
And is cast asunder

That the one strike fell
Like a hammer on a bell
Rung out the good
Rung in the bad
Wrung the clothes on the line
Wrung the water into wine

One fine day when I look back
It will not seem so blue
Just the Sun fading into black
Before from behind the clouds
It appears a new

Fan

I had my own fan
I held it to my heart
And when the men did come along
A flutter it gave a start

Like a butterfly this fan picked up
My womanly grace
And emphasized all the contours
And lines upon my face

But my fan, fanned the flames
Of desire in my eyes
And when I wished for cooler days
Hot passions in me did rise

I held my fan close to my heart
Like a pendant from a lover
It stilled the beating before its start
Kept those feelings undercover

But unmasked from behind its blind
Unmistakably you will find
A woman in love with every kind
Of man, beast or lover

Sun

Dictator of a dead grace
The sun rises in the sky
It was the same that rose when I was but a child
But now my heart is older
My temperature is blue
The heart that felt its sweet rays
Is not the same that once was new

It leaves its grace like scars of clouds
Upon the face of the sky
And it shall outlast everyone of us
While we each must die

Sun, of heaven, shine on
As a chariot of fire
Racing from the east to west
Crusading holy pyre

Beyond the thoughts of a boy
Who knows not his future joy
But stays in the present
Time for him is but a toy

Beyond this the great dictator
Climbs its elision tower
The spires of the heavens
Find him there never ready to cower

All the stark blankness
Come spilling from its face
That candles burn in the deepness
Of the outer space

Mercury

She holds the moon
in a silver cup
She needs no spoon
To stir what she sups

Silver is the honey comb
Of her memory
Of all the bees in a bomb
Exploding in her tree

Silver are the rain drops
Rolling down the steel
Stopping in the silver pool
Of the place she feels

Her name is Mercury
She changes like the ocean
Flows like electricity
Solid metal into liquid emotion

Mercury like a switch
Turning on to off
Letting the current change her body
From hard to soft

Precious as Silver
Conducts like Gold
Mercury in a fever
Changing faces like the moon she holds

Black cat mood

Black cat like a hole in the night
Blacker than pitch
Blacker than jet
Eyes I never will forget

Black cat in the Coal dark
Dusky as dust
In a shadowy park
Black will
Violent and still
Harmless and cold
Beyond the being, the non-being untold
Un-named thing
Anonymous wish
Lay out a milk dish
Out comes the pink tongue
Lapping up like an ocean
Laps the shore with its fish
Fingers

Whose hands are on the moon?

Flying figures in the sky
Racing across the moon
Shining seraphims
Guarding the palace
That once I built from
the cuticles in my finger nails
But now what can these hands do?

If our nails grow with the moon
While we sleep
Even while we die
Our skin reflects the sun
It is shadows and dust
Of interstellar lust
Sun people saving their skins
Everyday
Hanging them out on the washing line
In mutual habitual action
That the Sun dictates
Like our father

The flesh is warmed then it drops
It is blown in the wind
Our eyes are the rain and the oceans
And the weather of emotions
That fill with salty tears
That no matter how many fall
They still dry
In the end
All the while the moon is
Pulling our finger nails out
Into the evening sky

Tear drops for Yesterday, a pasty smells of Summer

I figured you were up with that
The single cream for the cat
The only place I thought I knew
Just a Parker
pen or two
Just a reasonable Policeman's conference
Made up of small faces
In the mugshot gallery
All the toothless wonders of a frightening history
Beamed out under American imperialism
The Chivalry of Donald Trump in the
Space Race
with book ends from Romania
And Nuclear War Heads from Iran
The thought in the head of Spying
From a Russian co-federation
Of Interstellar bar staff

And all those records that lie broken on the moon
The longest long jump
For example
From a standing position
It isn't difficult to win the Olympic medal here
When you are literally in the house of the Gods
But what do I know of the odds?

Yes, Mr Rain man

He is not all I thought he was
There is a certain hole in the head
He gives
Like a stroke
To the weather
The storm clouds fill dark skies
And I am in the hole

A rain doctor came to forecast my health
He gave a dance
Then rewarded himself
By pulling the oceans around the shoulders
Of the land
And comforting the wet sand
Of unknowing universes
Of unkind minds
And the dredge of what
The swallows call spring

He tied a poesy around cider with rosy
And let her be the single
Succulent tree of life

 Because the truth is nobody gives a shit
About the little man
We are the inconsequential stuff of life
That others more powerful
Gauge their own success by
The measure of what it means to be free
By degree
But no-one is truly free
Just the anointed hierarchy
Of a duodenal dawn
That leaves everything tochance
Even the consequences of being born

The juggernauts are coming, oh my gosh!

I should have bought you flowers
But I gave them to another woman
It would be nice to talk for hours
But I prefer a nice soft bossom

If you asked of what am I made
I would say the salt
That drove the slave trade
Because a slave is what I feel I am
To the idea of being a man
I am fed up
With these anachronistic hubris
Of the unplanned
The self entitled being
That loves
Then loses feeling
Quicker than quick sand
And I am falling
I do not deny it into a deep dark hole
Where my future's wishes don't match up
To what will make me whole

But I see it is only excess hubris
That has disillusioned me so far
When I knew really
It was under another use of 'Us'
That they named a falling star

Only the kettle kept boiling over and the river over spilt
The kittens in the bags were no well man's pursuit

A Celtic Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wedding bells ring true
May the scarves of the well wishers
Fly down the wishing well to you
May the halves that were divided
Be placed back in the seal
May the swords of our fathers
Be put in heat to melt the steel

Perhaps I deserved it - you know I tried 
the volunteering it was ok,

I tried not working but I became a slave. 

I tried giving over all power into another's hands

But it left them like a desert wind blowing away dry sands. 

You know I tried the course of least resistance

I tried the fool's road

I tried the path where her insistence

Would have brought me relief from the load

But the only luggage was in my heart

The only real thing I possess

I cannot let go

Of what I start

Even if ends up a mess

The only season I know is joy

The reason I have to destroy

All that I can't second guess

Is the residue of what I confess

Poem for teachers

Teachers, teachers don’t be preachers

You don’t know what the students may teach us

You don’t know the truth of all things

Power in the class room ends when the bell rings

Outside

Only respect rings true

But it rings hollow

When activity staff look at you

They have venom, and bitter jealousy

It is wrapped up in their modicums

Of daily pleasantries

It is barely hid

By the failures of their day’s pursuits

But hey everyone needs a scape goat

When a leader they can’t shoot

Power to the powerless

Power to their heads

Run around a young circus

Who have no frame for the nervous-dead

Some incognito tribal rallying drum

Beats their rather void like lives

For to borrow the gun

Aim it like a coward at someone else

But them

Then justify their actions

In the guise of men

Nothing can excuse them

Not even being young

Just the misuse of wisdom

Borrowed from someone

Just the stupid actions

Of some young guns

When eighteen meant dying for country

Now it means dying for fun

Well go and die for your gods

For your false idols

I had my dreams in education

Of the ranks of chivalry or bone-idle

And I see that it has failed if a pupil

Can turn out like you

That a few glasses of the strong stuff

Can reveal your true colours to be

A faded hue

Nothing but the shades of racism

In a classes war

Nothing but the bitter rivalries

Between rich and poor

Nothing but the dumb distinctions

On a playing field

Where if you paid attention in school

You’d remember

all men were created equal

And deserve such dignity

Despite the way your insecurities

May make you feel

English Oak

Old tree stump

What do you know?

The corn has been cut

Now only corn storks grow

Where are the dancers

Who with their right hand

Lead you in the dance

Across an ancient land?

Plush are the hay bales

Rolled up to sleep

Lying in their yellow beds

Yellow blankets at their feet

Somewhere salty death

Is wrapping her fingers

Around the candle stick oak trunks

And waxing its leaves

It’s bleeding in the heart wood

It’s rotten to the core

But it stands upright in the night

And shines on all the more

It shines on in its dying

And in its finest hour

It shines until the sunlight

Has burnt out all its power

And in the death of the English oak

Grows something more

Not as strong as once was known

Its mantlepiece not made of stone

But a force to hold a door

Less in its redistribution

among the rising ranks

But in its ten thousand multitude

For its own strength we still give thanks

Cloud Watching

Once I did see jellyfish

Swimming above in the sky

And then a tiger’s stripes became

The image in my eye

Sudden flames of grey hue

Change to lakes of sacred dark blue

As the fires which rise in heavens

Part from their earthly curfew

And the firmament of stars

Turn in pin prick turns

The saddle of the space cowboy

Cradles the knowledge he learns

And from the tentacles of grey grew

The leaf veins of life

The lung like bronchiole tendrils

Breathing in space dust

I stayed out upon the hill

Feeling that familiar chill

When the sun has lost its grip

And the moon’s power is yet to slip

Its hand to take the reins of control

That twilight- dusk

Where do cross the souls

From one side to another

To my left the sad dark forest

Green in all its envy

Yet to the right, chasing the light

The creatures like me

Flee to keep up with the sun

A cheesy line

A pleasant scene

So nice and green - a riparian garden

Through the hills

The winding rills

Twist gentle then they harden

The Summer spring in elysian fountain

Coy carp rest easily in reflected black

The lilies float

In moon mountain craters

Elephant footprints smack

A trinket for a cat

A piece of reed

She swallows flat

The tiger and the mouse

Both escape near Martin’s House

For the followed, swallowed fog

Has escaped the abandoned dog

And the buzzing dragon fly

Beneath the cat’s claw does lie

Out upon the frosted moor

Where grass snakes knock on the door

To the anima enlightened

Just the wolf don’t be frightened

Firing Squad

She said that time
went upwards
And I said I thought that was spiders
No memories, she claimed
Were washed down the drain
When the single sun shines in the sky

I got the feeling of abbreviation
In the annulment clause
That somebody was not
Connecting what I was feeling
Like a draft coming in from outdoors

The house was sacred yet shattered
It had been, but would be for no more
The type on the computer mattered
But it was tattered prit-prattled
and poor
By the evening of the atomic bomb
A large shark was thrown through the roof
And the oceans boiled
As with turtles and whales
Who suddenly knew their own truth

You she said in closing
Have been acquitted of the true crime
There was dust on the shelves
Of your library of selves
The further back you looked in time

A candle was burning the evening
A thought conspired to form
But extinguished it was
By the hot winds flush
From the salty fleshed
Women of the storm

I slugged my way to the carpet
And left with a terrible head
The dawn came up on the parapet
And in the morning we counted the dead

Hegylab

What do you know of mountains?
I only know of the coast, the cliffs
The taste of the rain
The smell of toast
Or the streets

I could follow the cats
And tap them on the shoulder
I could caterwaul the taps
And turn over a new rocky boulder

But what use is all that?
What is the revenue?
Where are the black shadows
that pass under the rainbows
Along the avenues?

Mobile phones kill quality time

I lost my mobile phone the beginning of this course
And I have never been happier
No body phoned me up in my sleep
No one invited me to things I did not care for
Or if they did I felt ok not to go there

I was not pestered by whats app
Or meeting reminders
Or mobile phone updates for whatever crap

The organizers did not have the ability to contact me
I was free
In a word
If somebody died I would have heard
Somehow
But it did not trouble me
Nor did any desire to phone or speak to someone
Unnecessarily
I did not waste money on texts, endlessly
Inquiring of another's business
Or even organizing skype

However what I had was more cash
To spend on useful pursuits like swimming
That in fact chilled me out

When in the waiting lounge of certain arrivals
I looked up from my lap top
Which replaced my attention's focus
When the world got wired
And I saw a room full of young people bored staring down
Someone commented look at us now
And I thought of what could have happened
In a situation like this twenty years in the past
From now
Some bright spark would have started a game
Some camaraderie would have brought us together

It was there in virtue in vitro
In idea the embryo
Perhaps instead we would have read
A book or done a crossword
It is just that life not is too often wired
To the these black boxes of electricity
That are an anathema to the Human soul
Perhaps it is not all lost
Just the Ghost in the machine
Is beginning to take control

Old Rocks in the Sun

Today when the rains came
They came with a flourish
Like a goose shaking its ruffled feathers
A bristling kind of cold
And the dirty sky above the stones was enough
The photographer said it was good
To shoot a group in
To capture the moments of youth
Against such timeless monuments
The light was proof
Somehow in his lens
Of our existence and theirs
The Young ones
And the Old Stones

And who amongst them
Would be interested in old rocks?
Some relics of a bygone age
Some irrelevant artefacts
Who are not on Snapchat
Or facebook
Maybe StoneWall if such a social Media site existed

And yet of its day these Stones
Where the network hub
The consciousness centre of the people who lived then
The young and the old - probably not much older
Than many who were there today yawning
Complaining of how boring it all was
Of how long everything was taking
And how nothing was happening!
And there was nothing to see!

Only History!I thought to myself in disgrace
Only the geological and spiritual face
Of Time
The encapsulation of an epoch
Captured in unmovable objects
As permanent as their faith was to them
As certain as the seasons and the Sun
And the moon -were these monoliths to them
And their lives are all extinguished now
Yet these stones have stood the test of time
And will be standing even until the end of the world

Perhaps when the sea levels rise
And then the ice age comes
Perhaps someday a glacier
Will slide over them
And obliterate all trace
That Britons and Druids ever existed
But I hope not
And yet that would also be a fitting end somehow
To these doorways that have guarded
Gods from the early dawn
To the final sunset

Song of the Stones

Stone the crows
And crow to the stones
The litmus paper test
Of a life alone
Jeering, cheering the dog with the bone
Stone the crows I'm all alone

Stone the bees
They've buzzed for me
For the love of three,
The bark of the tree
Stone the bees

I've walked along
The single ducting
In the sight of wireless fluctuating
The needless tyres
On the wheel of life
That keeps on turning
As a turbulent strife

Song of the heart
Song of the Stones
Who stand apart
And never are known
Yet see with eyes as mysterious as seas
Quenched in the fire
Of the Sun of Salisbury

On the tides

All the alimony that we owe
To be phony if you know
Call the kettle black
Its boiling over at the back
Snake and wind, through the vines
Where I hear you ring
Who brought up the proposition
Like a childish kind of thing?

That was then and this is now
The golden goose and sacred cow
Both turned loose from the stable whose
Horse has bolted like a flying sow

Just immediately the truth was known
Like a hoof crushing a bone
Like jelly blackcurrant lake
That shakes in visions of my mistake

For the rest is yet unwritten
As the swallow flies so the bittern
Stares his snout to the sky
And asks again why he is shy

Hog weed a cautionary tale

Hogweed, snogweed
Everybody bog bleed
This way that way
Everybody making hay
But don't strim it
Don't you even try to skim it
All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

This weed, that weed, everywhere a Hog weed
snort out truffle, get your feathers in a ruffle
Pig nut, pig root, Pig iron, pig boot
All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

Ham plant, bacon rind, 

Squealing herb, make you go blind

Trotter hoof, so aloof

Big leaf, Pig belief

All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

Pigs might fly, so you say
If they do stay away
They touch your skin, it's a sin
White death burning thing
All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

Curly tails, mind the snail,
Avoid the elder, like the plague
Witches broom, witches tree
Pig on a broom don't be silly
All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

White spot, Sun spot,
Blisters burst, and hurt a lot
Itchy arm, itchy neck
Catch that hog, make an arrest
Call the pigs, on second thoughts
Do the test - does it snort?
If it does stay away,
Or send him to market down the motorway
All I have to say is that
Brush cutters make Hog weed go splat!

Shades of Grey

The cigarette swans, the ashes fall down
Like white confetti after the cigarette wedding
Of Cinderella and Ashley
And the Chimney Sweep brides maid
The best man swept her up the aisle into
A heap at the end of the knave
And what a navel she had
Would make a blind man join the navy
To see the ships insight

On the hill where the Ashes sway
Where the snowy coloured buzzards sit
And the egrets in the thick oaks shit
And Squabble over every measly fish

In the pines by the drove where the crows
Chatter in their parliamentary murderous way
Plotting treason with gun powder as black as their feathers

And all the shades of the sky as she melts the yoke of sun
Into the mixing bowl of creamy blue robin egg cake mix
Baking in the horizon's oven
Tomorrow the new day will rise

Over the meadow

The sun cuts low
Over the Meadow
The sheep they go
Over the meadow
Over the meadow
This evening

Over the meadow
The cows low
They cast their long shadow
Over the meadow
This evening

There goes the black crow
Over the meadow
Over the meadow
There leap the deer
Cotton tails bobbing
Over the meadow
This evening

Salmon Souls

My soul is tickled pink
Like the salmon clouds that swim towards the sunset
Chasing the dying of the light
Chasing upstream to where they know they will die
Dissipate their rain seed
Into vapours of steam
Lay their atmospheric eggs down
In the settling dew
Lay them on the flower or the weed
Both glisten beautiful
In the morning as if new
And then mother Sun lifts them up again in her warming rays
Puts them in the misty plays
And there they stay until father fire summons them
To greater heights
Where afraid of the chaotic wind swirls
They band together and travel the world
Out into the ocean of sky where they breed
With other clouds
To live lives in thunder or lightening
in the Caribbean
Or less loud and frightening
Over the English Seas

kissing gate

There is a kiss on the door step
That says come back and see me honey
There is a kiss near the forceps
That says give your braces some money

There is even a kiss in the shower
One in which two tug boats touch
They have been pulling the wreck of love
Too long up the river, that flows too much

There is a kiss that says good bye
That says see you now I must fly
There is a coward's kiss
And I have given it too many times

There is a kiss that is kissed by a lover
When you wish the planets would kiss one another
So that heaven would align
And star-crossed under cover
The perfect would come true of father and mother

The land is in sight

The time will come when all
This sand
Will seem like shit
In my hand
But for now
I wipe my brow
Continue to sit
Continue to stand
And pass through the day
Like a ghost without sound
Like a ship without sail
Trying not to run aground

And the storms may blow
And the seas may sink
Before the tow
I pull and think
Upon my oars
that reach for the brink
Where the water runs over the gunwhale

I have seen many like me before
They cry caterwauling from the stocks
The captain has whipped them
Then they're sent below
To be out of sight of St Peter's Rock
But I know
There is land ahoy
Although I see it not
From my crows nest
I see clouds gather
There one day I may rest

Woman in the Window

There’s a woman in her window and she’s watering her plants

Just as the sunlight marks the day’s start

And she tends to the seedlings and watches them grow

Which she put in three weeks ago

And there are men with suitcases wheeling them down the street,

for their families are leaving their hotel in retreat

And elderly women towing their trollies behind

Back from the morning shop at the grocers

Red Letter Days

Let the dust settle down

Let the air rush in

The fury and the sound

To bear anything

I have ten thousand pounds

And it rests on a king

If I pull out an ace

I’ll ruin everything

It’s a hard, hard place

When you’ve everything to win

And you’re in the wrong place

To even begin

You’re on a rock out in space

Circling the moon

And you fall from grace

Though you’re born with a silver spoon

It’s a hundred lives

All traced back to one

Just the circus of the humans

All under the sun

It’s a red letter day

And a star crossed bun

That you bake in the oven

And you give to someone

The tree lines are endless

And the birds circle round

The bridges and the pigeons rattle with sound

The banks of the river back up in green

And you think you should shoot them

There are ten thousand actors
and hundreds of scenes

And ten thousand lives
All condensed into one
The red letter lives lived under the sun

They bring you the chapters

To their latest books

You read them, close them

Give them a second look

There are ten thousand pages

And ten measly words

That mean anything to you

Beyond swollen dead birds

She used to eat roses

She used to eat roses

For the feel of love

To imbibe in her body

The rich sensual stuff

To embalm by her tongue

The death roll of arms

The dying of the light

In the passionate night’s charms

She used to eat roses I’m told

Those figures in poses

All wrapped up in gold

Glowing in the prescience of a dream

But her roses were not what they seemed

Now that she’s grown and tasted love

And lost love in the passing wind

She grows roses in her garden

Tends them with her green fingers

Bruised down to the bone

The constant feeling of earth and weed

We must remove what we don’t need

After brutality the rose may grow

Unimpeded, only after the brutal blow

She used to eat roses I know

Now she sits in her garden,

Where row after row

She watches the breeze blow

through her roses

The house of the Wolf

All the houses are dug like wolverines

The opening lines of smug underlings

Fall by the wayside of a certain despair

They know no happy endings

They forgo repair

I salute the happy cats

The bold bright eyes

The pigs even fly

Above their sties

And such are the cornered hues

When heaven lets go her deluge

Upon the unsuspecting folk

Dragged out and beaten put in yoke

I looked for humility in the hands of those I knew

Looked for a caring touch, but they were few

The salad days are over too

And looking back now I’m older

It seems colder there though almost new

The lucky ones with tickets to this life

Get to ride the train without much strife

Those of us without the fare

must dodge the inspector

When he comes to claim his ware

We must slip between the tracks, jump the carriages

Hold on tight to cracks, as the train rumbles past

Like thunder we shall ride the lightning last

Some of us must choose marriage

For that is the building block of society

By that token you earn your keep

In the land of peaceful sleep

And yet if you choose to rebel

What is there left which you can sell?

Nobody wants what you can give

A humorous life is what you live

Then is it better to live in drama

Of the fading corpse?

You know the deal, you’ve seen the scene

In the movie of course

It will be a re-run, of such pride eroding toil

That would break the back of camels

Sent out to walk on sandy soil

It would be a desert dry

And yet I think that I could try

For there is something left in the sky or land

That speaks of rain

And then a little rain could come

And freshen up the hopes of one

Whose confidence had been hard done

Under such a blazing sun

Silver Bullets

Your silver bullets have not killed me yet
Meet me in the morning
In the land of no regret
Shoot me dead at midnight
When I am the beast and yet
The werewolf in the wardrobe is not dressed to kill
But easy to forget

Sometimes I like to dress up. Halloween spook
Or crazy vet
Your silver bullets hit me
In the centre of the chest
Luckily my heart had moved
To my mouth or maybe my feet
You left me there in a pool of blood
As the moonlight swam in your eyes
And all those silver fish of lies
Came out about the carpet

You left me there in the moonlight
Your silver bullets in my chest
A stake through my heart
A crucifix to digest
But I woke up to smell the coffee
Your silver bullets haven't killed me yet

People of the setting sun

People of the setting sun
Look upon what you have done
The beauty fades in your eyes
Look once into their dying skies

People of the setting sun
I have come to walk among
The fire branded soulful ones
Out in the street as night comes

See their flags sail high
In the western breeze
Hear their trumpets sound retreat
To the Mountains and the trees

Know the customs of the Hun
People of the setting sun
East meets West invested in
The bloody tide of Hungry skin

Far beneath where shadows shun
All the curtain calls begun
The cast walk out on to the stage
The setting scene for another age

Open up the cuts which run
Deep red blood of dying sun
Flowing from the mother
Down to her son
In the streets, the budding streets
People of the setting Sun

Ladles of Letters, Sandals of Sand

What light through adjacent window breaks?
Smother me in all your kisses speak
Of soft nothings in my ear
Gertrude was my love in all the wild west
My Wind in all the eves
She spoke as angels do from bed clothes
Irons the sheet music of  METAL DAWN
rOBOTS KNELT WHEN SHE OPENED
Her mouth to yawn
Yes she was queen bee to me

The moths and spiders knew her as Frank
They stole her ignition keys
St Agnes and Ignacio stank
Of the filthy knowledge they were rich in

And blue bottle flies sang her tune
Above a jazz city under a full moon
All interstate numbers were re-registered DOOM
As Columbus fingered the jury

He spoke without looking blind was his faith
His East was his West, phenomenologically obtuse
Dialectical materialism versus un-real proof
THat God is a sandwich and love is his roof

Because in the house of the sung out praise
All oil paintings are dripping with the last days
The sign of the times, The Zeds in a road
That Zig-Zag like a yellow brick trail to Oz

The Label of Love

Something in the blue slit of sky
Something there beneath the horses hoof
Trodden into the mud a foot print of proof
That love lives, in its many colours
In its perennial return as a weed in the garden of Eden
But who calls love a weed?
Most call it a rose, and tend to it nurture it
But is this passion?
This thorny crown of roses we grow
Is it this sex that pushes up all the daisies?
This unearthing of the forgotten death
We sweep under the carpet
Speak of in hushed breath
In quiet tones when we are alone
And face what passes for fear
Of ourselves

A time upon a storm

Who's fretting now
God disagrees,
His glorious vengeance reaped out on the seas
Who's fretting now
The tumble weed blows
The door creaks
Nobody speaks
And nobody knows

Who's fretting now in the light trees
Planted like tombs from heaven
Dropped like bombs from the grave
Of the Somme
Where someone died
One or other

It takes a certain kind of craziness to cut and run
Especially if there is nobody there pointing a gun
You choose your annihilation according to your will
Pick your poison that pill to kill
You swallow and you don't look back or if you do
It will be too late
Yes there's a time to love and a time to hate
A time to save a life
A time to kill
Whose gonna tell you when the time is right
Nobody at your back holding a knife
You just imagine the persecutor there
Before the open window
Taking in the air

Once upon a lightening storm
I was riding,
Rode through the shadows of my past
Flashing up in memories
Some distant remembered scene
Lightening in the brain
Life goes by so fast
It seems like only yesterday
You were riding with me
Stormy weather blowing cloud ships through the sky
Treading soft as angels
Broken glass in front of me
Cinderellas' slippers in the hall

Sitting in a glass house
A vast house, the last house
The last time some such a voice did call
God he had to disagree
Put an end to misery
And miserly collect the fall

Where do moths fly in lightening storms?

Pearls

Take me too the mountain top
Make it stop, make it stop
Make all this hurt and pain just stop

What is loving
What is it?
Is it salt is it grit
Is it that grain in the oysters shell
That's rolled around
Through years of hell
Discomfort and pain
To make what
Something vain?

To make what? A pearl
The most valuable gem in all the world
Just look at it possess it
Put it on a string and make a necklace
Hang it there with pride
Because you know love's many sides
Have made it smooth
Not golden but mysterious like the moon
Too delicate to touch
I want to hold you so much
But I can't let it go
I can't sell my soul
Or perhaps I can,
I already have
Now I live in a clam
Buffeted by the wave
I just have no sign of a grain of sand
To rub in my own wound
To coat in my own silver fish flesh
My own fish scale clothes
That I wear underwater
Where all the fish breath

All the world's your oyster
That's what they say
Only all I want to know is:
Where's my pearl today?

Bridgwater in the rain

I remember in bridgwater
road in the rain
All those bloody traffic jams
All those

I remember bridgwater in the rain
And the roads that flowed
Out
The forests on the verge
That never emerge
From the corners
Of your blinkered vision

I remember the turns
And the dips in the road
Of the little old track
That ran
Down past the willows
Down past the the peat centre
And the Marshes that lay
Asleep in our hands

Do they still run,
Do the rivers still flow
The way I remember them in my youth
Do the roads still subside
And dip and dive
Do those same Peat tractors
Still pull their black load?
I suppose
They do

But what if its changed
If the falling rain
Has washed all foot prints away?
What of the people, their voices
Their triumphs
What if their hearts couldn't stay?
What then for my hopes of returning
What then for the time of a life
that's kept burning?
What if the jack knifed
Lorry is blocking the road
And the hearts blood is pumping
Its heavy load
And its blood is black with the peat
That its knowed
And the rain washes all this blackness
Away, away

All in a day's work

The saluting general came by this way

Forgiving all the ink

He had his pig

He had his sway

He painted them all in pink

And nuts fell from the balding sky

Like hair down in the sink

And I asked - lord why must we die?

And he said why do you think?

I said I think the jelly

The jelly, what the hell?

I said yeah I think the Jelly

When it rolls you cannot tell

But when it rolls, you know you live

You know you don’t wanna die

So, keep them pennies falling from heaven

And in time the good saints will fly