Barges on the Danube River

Barges on the river

Rolling slow

Like trains on their rails

On the rivers flow

Sun over bridges

Cars toe to toe

The sunlight shimmers

And I too must go

Perhaps I’m just a reflection

Fleeting as a ripple

Seen in the morning

A little tipple

A dibble dabble

Where the sunlight dapples

On the river out of Eden

Where Adam took a bite from the apple

I’m just a reflection of his former self

And Eve is no different she’s no evil elf

Its just that we tasted of the tree

Of Forbidden Knowledge

And found it impossible to hide ourselves

There should be no fig leaves

Nor need for this shame

Call a rose anything you like

We all recognize its name

And if it smells like love

It probably isn’t

Because the most beautiful flowers

Rot the fastest in the end

Torn Today

I am torn today

Like a newspaper into strips

Like an old man’s tendons from his hips

I am torn like a shadow torn from a play

Like the sun in the window on a cloudy day

I am torn in two as a philosopher’s stone

One divines of wisdom, the other

Of a love alone

I am torn like a flower

From a daisy chain

Torn like a lightening power through

The falling rain

Torn in a semblance

Into something new

Torn, reborn and moulded

Into something strangely Blue

Like as if Neptune had risen from the seas

And thrust his trident of life

Into the heart of me

The sun light and the moonlight

Are torn in two

Like on that evening

When I kissed you

The sunrise is definite and so much of one

That it could be the infinite at last has come

But it will fall again

This familiar flame

Like the torch of passion, the same

Sometimes it climbs high with her name

Sometimes it sinks in the misery of pain

But always torn in two again

Cutting Glass

All along the paths of stone
That bruise and hurt our feet
There are none who would throw us a bone
Among those we meet

So many so the wild dog howls
Up from the depths of hell's bowels
Its been rejects of them that prowls
All along the jetty

Sometimes out on the lake at night
The wild wolves roam,
Their homes out of sight
All alone their eyes are bright
Out on the lake tonight

Sometimes out in the deepest forest
Tigers roar, warthogs forage
But it is all in jest
Of every last homage
To Budapest
Or the road once promised

Sometimes in the dreaming spires
I catch a glimpse of burning fires
Spiraling up into the sky
Like tears streaming down from the Sun's eye

Sometimes I feel the hilt dig in my side
Sometimes it is a thorn
Sometimes a spike, mostly
It is the sword thrust from love
That makes me cry

Why do you always move the stairs
From the steeple?
Why always move the chairs
For all the musical people?
Why when nobody cares
Do the wolves show their wares
And sell their teeth?

Why in the crooked house
Where snow white sleeps
Does the wicked witch creep
and always preach?
About how trolls should not be trusted
And how Goldilocks is crossing
Over another bridge
Then she tires of her stroll
And reaches for the porridge in the fridge

And why is puss in boots stuck in
The smartest suits when you
Feel he is a Spanish kitty
Meant for ally-cat pursuits

There can be no let up for
The open can of worms
That Cinderella is left to hold
After the cigarette factory burns

She should have worked in a glass works
And held onto a zoo of animals
Instead she lent towards the prince
Who was consumed with financial windfalls
And sucked into Pumpkin growing
On the slopes of Kilimanjaro

Day at the Lake

We walked by the reeds

And we read by the rocks

We saw by the seas

By the cold water were shocked

Sat and we pondered

We pondered and sat

And the things that we wondered

Stood up or laid flat

I have spent my life waiting

waiting, waiting for you

Now down at the lake

I see a reflection of somebody

new

I am no longer the man I used to be

In the water I didn’t see anybody

I knew

Down at the lake, I waited, waited for you

Waited for you to rise from the water

Like Guinevere, like Excalibur

Like a sword somebody

threw

Now by the lake you can cut me

Cut me with your double-edged blade

One side for things I’ve said the other

For things I left unsaid

Down at the lake, you drew me

Like an artist’s portrait

Sometimes it was a caricature

Like a cartoon that somebody

drew

Now with your pen you kill me

You take away my soul when you make

That picture of that time when you saw me

Sitting down at the lake

Polished Diamonds

She's polished in the art of what she wants
What she wants

And she always, always gets what she wants
What she wants
What she wants

She's nobody's fool, she's nobody's fool
She is nobody's fool
But you know she's old school
You know that she's old school

She is diamonds in the shaft of a mine
She is diamonds in the shaft of a mine
You might find them, but she's always on the line
She's always on the line
Always on the line

Singing Canary, singing out from your cage
Singing Canary, singing out from your cage
Makes you think she should be on stage

Polished diamonds in the hands of the thief
Polished diamonds in the hands of the thief
Fall like sand when you know your time is brief
You know your time is so brief

She comes alive when she's staring out from the shore
She comes alive when she's staring out from the shore
Always thinking that there must be something more
There must be something more

Polished diamonds, shining in her teeth
Polished diamonds, shining in her teeth
When she smiles you know there's an end
To all your grief
When she smiles, there's an end to all your grief

The River of Fortune

I sat by the buckets of sand all around

Brought up from the river

Placed on the bank

I was waiting with my buckets of sand all around

Waiting to build a new temple in thanks

Well it was only a river

A river of fortune

It was only a river to me

It was only a river,

Just a river of fortune

And I followed the river

That flowed into the sea

Well I walked up the mountains

To find its old source and

I searched for the gold at the end of the rainbow

And I followed the river, the river of fortune

I followed the river that flowed

Into the sea

Well I cleared all the tables

Threw white and sable

Flags over the things that were never meant to be

And the river took them all

All my possessions

And they carried them out and into the sea

It was only a river, a river of fortune

Only a river to me

It was only a river, just a small river

But I followed the river down into the sea

Well I fished on its banks

And cried and gave thanks

And it answered my prayers sometimes

And it gave back in barrels

When I sang of its carols

Oh the river of fortune

For the bold and the free

It was only a river, a river of fortune

Only a river to me

Only a river, just a small river

And I followed the river that went down to the sea

Sun on the Parliament

The sun on the parliament

The shining white government

Cleaner than clean, holier than thou

Looking backwards or looking forwards

Holding on to something I can’t see anyhow

Where are the dreams that I once mastered

Where is my shipmate to stand in her bow?

It came like a triffid out of the blue

It shot like an arrow or a bullet that flew

And there was no stopping the love in the morning

There was no cropping the growth that was new

For we all fall down, when we sneeze

We all come down with that flu

Love is as catching as a fire in thatching

And its impossible to put out what has grew

Finally, there came a question

It was asked of our lives if true

Or if false it meant we must return to our boarding

on the chicken wire fence where we crew

Seven days a week

Context> Isis defeated in Syria,
A factory has been burning for half a week
They've just discovered how to scan a baby's heart while its in the womb


Well it burned from Monday to Wednesday
But on Sunday was when the fire went out

The factory burned, burned, burned
From Monday to Wednesday
It burned down the chambers of the heart
An the cathedral bells there
Rang in the boiling air
And what can be a greater organ than
The human heart?

Well the organs blew their pipes
And the strings strummed their pangs
And the choirs of the angels
Sang their hymns

But the church still burned
In the ferocious desert wind
That fanned the flames higher
Through the knave

An incendiary bomb went off
And melted the lead roof
And it dripped on the stone slabs
And the pews
The font filled up with ashes
Where the babies cried their lashes
And the mothers lent against the pillars
With tear soaked eyes

And the church of the sacred Heart burned on through the night
It burned as the planes dropped their bombs
And it burned from Monday all through to Wednesday

On Thursday the fire crews came in to save the pews
And they doused the crucifixes in water
On Friday the mothers carried crosses and saved their daughters
And on Saturday all the fathers saved all their sons
So by Sunday the water ran down all the church walls
And the flood came in until the fire in its heart was gone

Falling into the hands of trust

All of my yesterdays are as a nothing
And  all of my tomorrows are dust
The wind blows a gentle breeze of understanding
And I fall once again in your trust

I fall again like the night from the sky
As certain as a pure ray of sun
I fall again like a prisoner held captive
Under the aim of your gun

And the mountains still last in the distance
Despite all our human affairs
They will pass and out smart us
And endure beyond the years of our care

But how can I just a man
Hope to leave a trace in the sand?
When the tide will come in
And wash away my footprints
As if I never did stand

And how can you, just a woman
Hope to command the wind
When you may for short time direct her
But in the end she'll make up her own mind

Virtual Love

Strung out
Like you knew I would be
Strung out like socks on the wall
Waiting to dry in the noon day sun
Waiting, waiting you never call

Its all been a waste, like kissing dead bones
Its all been a pocket of ashes
Which I thrust my hands into and walk down
The street asking for how nobody bashes
Nobody blinks an eye
Nor bats their lashes
Like I was in some kind of cell or cage
But it was nobody's business
Just a sign of the age
We fall in love
We turn over the page
SWIPE LEFT OR RIGHT
On the tinder match stage
And you're in or out of love
Before the website has saved
We have digital hearts
That amount to units
Your noughts and ones
Are in store
They're all countable quantities
Love is a statistical mean
You can estimate and account for
In a relationship
Just a little less or a little more
Just what the woman was asking for
And the man is some part of the score
Just a piece of the equation
To make up the sum
But it could be him or someone else
It could be a prince or a bum
Or it could be herself
That the variable, the factoring in the result
Is its always some poor fucker's
Left waiting on the shelf

Franchised out

Franchise called out
Stuck in with a hammer on my head
Brought it out
Of all the things left unsaid
Crack cocaine of her name
Running in the veins
In my blood stream she is mixed up
Like a drug I can't get enough of
And I want to say her name
Over and over again

I can smell her, like cherry
In the fragments of memory
The reel of our movie
Something unearthly
And out of control
Like a ghost dog that runs
riot at the moon


I am franchised out
I have her taste in my mouth
I am up for sale
What love I have,
I work for her now
In her bar or restaurant
I'll clean her dishes
make her bed
I wish to make her in her bed

But she will go back to him

Mouth full of Ashes

I've been kissing
her with ashes in her mouth

Now I only realize in my last breath
That who I've been kissing
Was the angel of death

She gave me some poison
I swallowed it whole
She was my bad mother
I her good boy
What I need what she wanted
To gain from another
Just a toy, just a toy

I never knew, perhaps
In the farthest reaches of my heart
That this was just a ploy from the start
So when you're through playing your games
Tell me why'd you make a toy of my heart?

WHY'D YOU MAKE A TOY OF MY HEART!

I came across a stranded turtle
Lying on its back in the desert
Well what do you think? I turned it over
I couldn't let it die in this heat

But the heat of the heart
Is like some kind of furnace
That burns all your thoughts
Like paper
And I am so tired of writing this art
I'm fed up of being my own soul's raper

Heading for a fall

It was the Spring time but I was heading for a fall
Just like me to spring into action
Just before losing it all

These must be my grapefruit days
For life is so bitter sweet
And though its happened to me in so many ways
I wish now we never did meet

My beer tasted bitter
I can't eat my food
And the streets are full of litter
And everyone's rude

And I'm not a quitter
But my actions are crude
And I just want to hit her
But I know that's not good

My salad days are gone
I can't think how to finish this song
And I am just a fool for love in the end
A fool who has loved and lost a friend

Into Spring love

Spring time can make the hares go mad
So why can't it make me turn bad?

Spring time can make the moles turn sod
So why can't it make me stop believing in god?

Yes and Spring time can make the cockerels crew
So why can't it make me fall in love with you?

Well I can ask others my questions why
But Spring time for me is a good time to to die

There is so much life in this month of May
And April showers are ripe for the hay
Now march Spring flowers bring the buds today
So why can't I blame my love on they?

Spring time can make the blue birds sing
And Spring time can make the wedding bells ring
Oh why can't ourselves be flattered by a thing
As easy as Love in Spring?

The doves are cooing, and the pigeons chime
Their white collar necks call your place or mine
And butterflies play in a blue sky
So honey when I love you, my oh my

The Spring is the right time for being with you
But maybe we're just buying time
For somebody new

Cherry Cola

Now I don't care about
All your flout and flare
I don't mind if you say what you mean
You can shout and you can swear about
How everyone you know is so mean
Just don't come about here
Flouting all your high flown things
Because I don't care about
Going round your whereabouts
It don't amount to a hill a' beans

I should ha told ya, I guess I should ha
I never warned of how bad I been ba
It seemed so natural just to cry on ya shoulder
As you seemed to know exactly what I mean
But just don't go tellin' about how you been
Sold out, I told ya about that kind a thing
It don't mean ring doughnuts, because
Them wiv' no guts don't own us
No nobody gonna take my soda stream

I got cherry cola, and lemonade
I got any roller you want on your blade
I got some drink that'll knock ya flat
And some slice of lemon that can
Cut a cat, if you know what I mean

On a nine dollar bill, on a washing machine
Where his ninth live's used up
And he wants to get clean
So he launders, saunters, and kind of crawls
Down the street
This street cat, this alley pussy
Ready for the big time baby
Ready to get big
But inside he's bricking it
Like a lime kiln kit
He's all fired up but nowhere to go just
Sitting tight getting hot before he
Goes watch a show
That's the Lime kiln kitty
That's who I'm on about
Speaking of him, talkin' of me
Have you seen what I've shown because
Its the only thing free

The Moron Prince

His father was the king of the castle
His mother was the queen
And he was that little parcel
That was so special but never seen

He grew up the third in the family
Behind two hansom princes
Both in line to inherit the throne
Both whose strength by which convinces

Yet early on in the reign of their world
Tragedy struck to unfold in furls
The delicate threads that held their kingdom together
The bonds which broke were severed forever

The Princes died in some foreign land
Off defending their country and
They spent their fortunes after mis-read hands
That their father and mother could not understand

So who was left but their little brother
A weedling prince, the runt of the litter
Who was never fed much nor given much love
Who of his brothers had been bitter
For he would never get enough

So in his way of dealing with his lot
He too escaped but to live a carefree life
One in which women and pleasures were king
In which nothing much mattered not amounted to a thing

And when he was through with his spendthrift living
He returned to the home for his father's forgiving
But that one thing he could never enjoy
Was his fathers favour for he was the wrong boy

My best sons are gone, he cried, he cried
The lord has taken them into his arms
And left me this weedling who acts like a snake
And slithers up to my throne, like he had made no mistake

Now the queen butted in and cried father oh King
You must forgive capricious fate for your suffering
This your only son and heir
Has returned to his family, with his loyalty laid bare

He is the one Prince who may save our throne
So as a mother to a son, she doted all day long
Cooked him dinners and laughed at his jokes
And even stood up to her husband's cruel pokes

Until enough time had passed, and his father
The king turned old
His head was grey, his ears were weak,
But while his cantankerous soul was bold
His body was failing

And all this time the snake was rising
Growing stronger on the carcasses
Left by the mother, killing others weaker
Than him, feeding his belly
Until finally he saw his father sway
Like in a stupor of faded glory
And down he struck killing him
With a thump to his heart

Now the snake king ruled the land
And the king was laid to rest
His mother the Queen was glad but old
She just saw the fruits of her invest
She just witnessed the natural unfolding
There was no valour there
No desire for higher moral standing
Just a wish to rule her lair

They entwined together till she died
And the now grew and twisted prince
Looked back at life like biting his tail
He won his desire, but to succeed was to fail
For where was his love? Where was his wife
She had left him long ago to lead a good life
Yet he would never sacrifice his goal
For her, so he cut her adrift in a cruel world

And she suffered much at his hands
Until one day she came back to finish her plans
And she took her revenge on the moron prince
She poisoned his chalice and he has died since
To be sitting rocking in his old mother's chair
Where she swaddled and fed him once
In her vipers lair

And the woman who was once to be his wife
Left the dagger there and took up the knife
And with the snake king's dying hand
Made him sign the contract to show she owned the land

Later she knocked their castle down
And rebuilt a home for children
From the worst parts of town
And the kingdom was ended with
The death of the king,
But still she engendered the spirit of care taking

English Roses

I asked for a Rhododendron
You called it a rose
Its a Rhode island baby by any other name
I suppose
The chickens were clucking
And the goose was getting fat
When you put all your eggs in my basket
And I began to wear it as my hat

Finally the golden egg has hatched
And its a hatchet job
Of Margaret Thatcher
And the banker, Rob
Together they've been growing
These gardens of English Flowers
And they've been turning up the borders
And twisting the halls of power
And the English Country Cottage
Is showing signs of wear
Its time for a Spring clean
Time to wipe the walls bare
Get rid of the stains and smears
Get rid of the shadows
Draw back the curtains
And open the windows
Let in the fresh air
Let the sun shine in the corners
And mind you tend
The English roses that grow outside their borders

Perfect Strangers

We were perfect strangers
When I met you
Then you took me in your arms
Now I cannot forget you

Honey this is what it means
To be perfect strangers
No need to explain things
Like lending coffee to your neighbours

Just giving to another
When the feeling takes you
This is what it means
When the music makes you

Perfect, perfect Strangers
No cracks or flaws
Just the melody changes
Listen to those open scores
No questions like why are you late?
Or who did you spend last night with?
I spent it with a perfect stranger

I wanna be perfect like you
I know I need the security
Of another's loving embrace
I know I need a mirror held up to my face
Because I don't like to see me
When I knock on closed doors
They never were closed to me before
But now I'm a perfect stranger

I'm just like you
The love we had has changed
Into something newly blue
This is what I feel
This is what I mean
The part in the movie reel
Like on the platform where they meet
The train is moving on and he appears from the steam
And she goes up to meet him
But its difficult like in a dream
They sit down in a cafe
In the waiting room of life
And over drinks discuss
What each will say to their husband or wife

They were perfect strangers
It could happen to anyone
Trying to start out from the middle
Is like going on the run
Together through life
They're in a crowded room
Two horses running on a shore
Beneath a crescent moon

They always meet up somewhere
Further down the tracks
When they'll be no longer Perfect Strangers
But Old friends just looking back

It always happens to somebody else

It always happens to somebody you know
But it never seems to happen to me
But then love struck its lightening blow
And scared all the fish from the sea
They ended up right on my plate
And so I sat down to a fish supper tea
Well it always seemed to happen to somebody else
And it never seemed to happen to me

But then love came down like a hammer blow
And it thundered in the chambers of my heart
I thought all night of the wind and snow
And in the morning my car wouldn't start
But it wasn't just that I suppose you know
It was because I had forgotten the key
Well it always seems to happen to somebody else
And never seemed to happen to me

Give me a letter, write me a part
I promise to be better, now's a great time to start
I fought and I fettered, down the highways and lanes
But it just seemed the go-getter was trying in vain
So I put on the brakes and I began to skid
Like a man falling, I became a little kid
Because the snow is appalling and so is the rain
And I feel my self stalling to stop all this pain
Well it always seems to happen to somebody you know
But never seemed to happen to me

The arsenals of guns, are shooting bullets at the sun
And the silver trains are gliding down the street
And fairies weighing tons are crying out their lungs
At the bodybuilders lying at their feet
And it always seems to happen to somebody you know
But it never seemed to happen to me
As the spark of inspiration, that came from negotiation
Tied me in knots that I couldn't help but repeat
Because it always seems to happen to somebody you know
but it never seems to happen to me

Time to say good bye

I've been trying to control the borders of my heart
Its Northern Ireland back stop was trouble from the start
It was the common denominator amongst all my problems
How could I open doors to the future negotiations
When she was still in there threatening retaliations

I'm on a mental Brexit
But in my hearts its a no deal
We'll part with some rejections
Or that's just the way that I feel
The European Union of our lives
Has experienced a rift
And its no thanks to you or me
Being so spendthrift
I should have invested more
In your fiscal policies
But then you shouldn't have expected me
To adopt all your regulations
You know I passed them as you said
But they conflicted with my own authorities
And conviction to govern myself instead

But what you must understand is
Its a question of constitution
I cannot go against my own will's resolution
They were written down in laws
On the manuscript of my soul
But you tried to steal it
You are a thief of control
So that's why I must leave you
Its written in the golden stars
There are a ring of 12 of them
On a blue flag,
Like the heavenly bodies
Sometimes our paths must cross
But I cannot always be calm Venus
Sometimes I must be warlike Mars
In our negotiations that soon will close
I will try the path of least resistance
I suppose
And it should be not a question
Of my wrong or right intention
But whether we want the best for each other
Do not try to determine my future
It is in the will of the people
Living under one steeple
One church
But its still a question
Whether we're all singing from the same hymn sheet
And if our leaving song is a discordant lurch

Lions of lives are roaring

Thunderous applause of the salt
encumbered shoes
That walk like
Pirates walk the plank
And give no shoulder anyway
To the crocks that give way
As they balance along their flanks

It must be seen to be believed
How strange it seems to finally see
To wake up in the world
As if from a dream
Of the long encumbered sleep

I never slept well
Why couldn't you tell
Each day in heaven
Was a night spent in hell
But somehow we got over these
Disastrous things
And somehow
It just feels so raw
Like peeling back your skin
Then sprinkling on salt
Or rubbing your wound with
Lemon
It stings, it is sore
Like I've shut my fingers in the door
And I carry no truck with that queen anymore

No I played my joker
And she played her ace
And in our game of poker
I got egg on my face

I did so wrong that I can't ignore
This feeling I have in pocket
This string on the purse of my
Rich understanding
Has come loose
And all the coins have fallen
To the floor where I'm standing
And I can't sit down
And I can't let go
And I've lost my crown
But must still act in the show

It seems I have cut off my own nose
At last
Just to spite my face in the glass
Where too much self analysis
Is useless as grass
To a cow who has lost all her teeth

I wish there were some safe place
I could go, where we would all laugh
And it'd be on with the show
But that ship has sailed and she
Has moved gone
Because I marooned myself on this island
With a madman's song

If I might say it
I don't know me well - not well enough

Foot steps on the street

All the chrome horses had run around
Their courses
And are now leap frogging
Over the hedge
And the drivers are waiting in the
Queues anticipating
What sentences will fall
From my head
They are blocked up
Like a Mental Brexit
There is no road map to my
Soul
And I am lost in this city
Where the girls are so pretty
I have fever that is hard to control

If I've said it once
I've said it a thousand times
She will not call
She is wasting my time
I'm backed up against and iron clad wall
And the rust is peeling off
Blood red

The sentences fall,
with no trouble at all
I have to stoop down to pick them
Off the floor

And the park lingers on
In its cold tree song
For the old men
Who wander unfed

Unfed, unfed
They are going to bed
On the benches, in the
Galleries of bushes
Under the hedges
Where the birdies
Befriend them
With reveries of lives
Long dead

Long dead, long dead
Inside their heads
With reveries of lives long dead

Peeling back the tarmac
Taking up the cobbles
Digging beneath the street
Where the old beggar hobbles
Where the old beggar hobbles

And underneath the sooty street
The earthen sand stare
Are the graves of those long gone
Those bone people who lived before

Before, before
Those who lived before
Those are the roads that they tread
But are they the same
As we walk in vain
Are all our footsteps
destined instead?
Are all our footsteps predestined
instead?

Horses trot
And graves they rot
Horse hooves just clip-clop
Their certain air
Of a midnight lair
Where the past walks down the street.

All the Saints today

Come on Saint George
Set down your grey hair
Set down your false disguise
You're in the Angel's lair
But there's a devil beside

And Saint George you should know
About the times she's lied
And it isn't fair
The times the maiden's cried

But oh Saint George
You know the truth can't hide
You're in the dragon's lair
Pick up your shield with pride

And I think you should know
There's a devil there
But an Angel beside
So set down your grey hair
Pick up your sword with pride

Now the flames that scare
Fly from her mouth and fried
All the saints held there
To the stakes where they're tied

And I think you should know
How much the other saints tried
Saint Andrew's bear, Saint Patrick
Down on the snakes did ride

But its all the same
In the dragons lair
There's an Angel there
But a devil beside
So pick up your shield
Fight back the flame
Loves a battlefield
Where all the saints have died

When love comes to call

Your hands are up against the wall
The seconds pass but they never fall
A grain of sand can be a cannon ball
The speeding bullet leaves no trace at all
And you think you might cross the line
But your'e still just a clock wasting time

They line you up in the noon day sun
Stand you there and point the gun
Ask you son if there's somebody you wanna call
And you look up into the blazing sky
And beg your father please tell me why
I am made to suffer the indignities of grace
And you think that you might cross the line
That mercy might walk by, or show her face
But you know like a clock you're just wasting time
Cos we're all just standing up against the wall

Can there be an Eden where all our thoughts stand still?
That little forest path on the edge of the hill
That place in which time and love are held in suspension
Like the clock had stopped and we were held in detention
It happened to me once, then it happened the other way around
A friend hurt me, now I've hurt a friend
And how do we know just what we will do?
When love comes to call, when love comes to call?

I was walking in the forest of good intent
And thought I spied a deer so towards her I lent
I shot my arrow, it hit her heart and down she did fall
How do we know what we'll do
When love comes  to call?

Fire your burning arrows, ye gods, ye gods
Some of you play with our hearts
Like you play the fish with your bait and rods
Some of you toss the coin, some roll the dice
But its all the same in the final flame
When your hearts turn to ice

I thought I saw you in a dream, your
Grass snakes out numbered me
We dug them out, did they return?
All I know is how hot the arrows burn
When love comes to call
When love comes to call

Good Bye Vienna

Well its goodbye Vienna

And so long Saigon

Hello Honolulu

And my love is long gone

Ten thousand miles

On the blade of a knife

But it never cut me once

Not like my life

I shot through the country

And into the yard

And at the back of the city

My head hit down hard

Well its ten thousand borders

That I need to cross

But just one line between us

That decides a win or a loss

And I don’t like to gamble

With my heart in that way

Its already a shamble,

like a needle in the hay

I’ve lost my bearing

Somewhere on your map

And you’re out of my hearing

As you sit on my lap

There’s a wild unknown country

Where I must go

And so its out of the city

And on with the show

Where do those rails run?

Cold iron, cold iron
Where do these rails run?
Into the cold heart of the country
Into the hearts of everyone

Cold iron in my soul
A sliver of shrapnel
Just the last part
Of the bullet in my heart
Where you shot me

Cold iron, cold iron
Come to take my cares away
From the cold, cold morning
Of the railway

Cold iron in the north wind
Cold iron to the west
All I see are cold iron people
Wearing their chain mail vests

Come lay down your sleepers
Come lay them to rest
Cold iron creepers
Like vipers leaving the nest

Up past the scrub-land
Of the good intention
Out to the bone white trees
Into the frozen hands
Of a cold morning's breeze
Too cold to carry pretension

Some rails lead nowhere
Some tracks are dead
Some are like wild hair
Growing on a homeless man's head

Some sleepers are just rotten
They never find a bed
They can sleep no longer-they've forgotten
How to rest their heads

But the cold iron will remains
Even if their rails
Will carry no more trains

Their intention has been hammered down
By nine inch nails
Coffin ground, coffin ground
I can hear that coughin' sound
From the heart and lungs on fire
Smoke pours out from Hell's choir

Coffin ground where they lay their iron
Across the world, made their bed to lie on
Where are those rails running?
The devil knows and his cunning
Where have them rails run?
From hell below to heaven's sun

Let you go

I'm sorry I never meant to go
Down the streets against love's flow
Where people always fight
The sons of darkness
The daughters of light
To the towers of despair
I never meant to meet you there
I never meant to climb their stair

Just to find you
Just looking for you
I never meant to die for you
To seek you, or lie for you
In the pond of regret
Where we ponder and reflect
We are just tear drops
causing a ripple effect
Twisting beauty out of shape
Making pain in the neck nape

But slowly the image that was perfect
Has gone, its shattered like an ice lake
With the cracks in its surface
I began to lose your face
In the memories I make

I'm sorry I never meant to let you go
In the river's turbid flow
I never meant to let you drown
Or let you down
Now you're the queen
And I'm the clown

The War of the Roses

You give them away

A petal a day

A piece of your heart

For you own peace of mind

The Queen of hearts turned down her thumb

The ax fell, what's done is done

Another dead head

In the rose garden of her soul

The white and the red

They fight in your bed

And prick your sides with their thorn

It was more truth than lies

That tore at your pride

And it hurt just like being born

Oh please tell me why

When all loves may die

Must the War of the Roses rage on?

They cut up their soldiers

In a paper chain

And send them marching into the fray

Again, and again

But you just give them away

A petal a day

A paper heart inside a paper cup

No use screwing up

Those love letters you never sent

Just to scribble them again to vent

Your frustrations on the situation

It is impermeable, like a fish tank

You can’t get out

And everyone just watches you

Swimming around and about

With no particular purpose

No definite scheme

Just a clown in a circus

Or a boat adrift in a stream

No one said life was a bed of Roses

You made your bed now lie in it

We all wear the thorny crown

Each have our crosses to bear

There must come a night

Between the white and red light

When you have to decide to pick a side

So please tell me why

When all love may die

Must the War of the Roses

Rage on?

Women on a train

Women on a train
Like snakes on plane
Biting like vipers, shaking their mane
Drinking their vodkas in the quiet zone
The quiet zone, you did hear me right
"Quiet Zone" - "To RELAX" I want to shout
But they party on, toasting cheering
Not that I'm a killjoy
I just enjoy the peace and quiet
And I felt my employ
Hard enough this last month
To buy it

Therefore we had right on our side
Didn't we? We did!
And that is why I sidled up ta
The ticket conductor
To explain what the sign forbid
And point out their errant
rule breaking
As if some truant kid

In my mind they were due a detention
And I was the rat who dobbed them in
For my part I don't regret it,
They spoiled our journey
With their raving, bad behaving,
Their mock yawning
As if to show others respect were boring
And so they deserved their comeuppance
And receive a dose they did
Although a gentle but firm reprimand
At the hand of the conductor / the train God
Who gave them a scolding showed them the iron rod

Their eyes flickered in unnerving vengeful certainty
Seeking out their accuser / me
The atmosphere quietened to a whisper
Of the forked tongues of snakes hissing
Behind their teeth

The joke was on them in the end
And we alighted from the car
The trail of their wounding scar
Across their backs
Yet what conceited creatures were they

Pangs

I have pangs of sadness
Pangs of regret
Temporary things I cannot forget
Fleeting as sea gulls
Across summer skies
Like islands in the river
That rise then subside

I have pangs like shoulders
I shrug
Pangs like ripples
In an otherwise smooth rug
Pangs I want to iron out
Pangs that will not flatten
That want to shout

There are bitter fruit
That will not ripen
That hang on low branches of my gut
So low they brush the ground
Where weevils turn, worms are found
And the apples turn brown

Pangs like shattered glass in my soul
Like glass slippers I stole
But could not give back
Pangs of a dance
Where my feet were flat
And the music stopped
And when I got off
There were no more pangs
After that