I miss Budapest

 I miss Budapest

And the tunnel with the mess

Near the Nyugati station

That you walk under to find the street of thunder 

Where the bullet holes

From the revolution lie

Like blocks of swiss cheese

Left by the armies

The Russian soldiers

Hungarian revolutionaries

How I miss Budapest 

It's all such a fucking mess

But that is why

I love that country

England is so boring and

Predictable nothing

Happens but the rains

And a submersible

Goes missing down a drain

A mother suffers

Pain

Or a PM forgets the name

Of his wife

Then

The Economy unbounds

I mean like when 

Paradise Lost is found

And he calls for all Football fans to lament

And he calls for all Opera fans

To start laying cement

On the yellow brick road To Eden

Or Scotland or was it

Swindon

I forget

I am forgotten

Because at Bottom

We are top

And ready to Rock

The world to its foundations

Just hold the gun

And pull the trigger

Because you know he is bigger

But you are better

Despite your

first reservations

So hold true to your quiver

And deliver the river

Of hearse resuscitations

I mean rehearsed recitations

I miss Budapest

and you

Baby

I miss Budapest

and you

A plague on all your houses

In the dawn of Budapest
The city sleeps
I get no rest
The wind whistles up the streets
Where babies are born a new

And in each house a plague

Sin cities

 Sin city

Budapest, and Bristol too

Paris and Naples

Are too Staples of the choir

Singing the Sin city song

Tokyo is dirty

Prague is a nest of vipers

And New York ranks among the wipers

Clearing mud and crud from screens

What is this sinful sordidness

Seedy alley and dark doorways

Tempting sailors and young men away

From the light side of the road

London's greasy underbelly

Athen's heat strung out their poor

Shanghai's dizzy sparkling lights

Hongkong's techno neon nights

Sinful cities where their snakes bite

Their dogs bear their teeth white

Like lady's of the night whose skin shines bright

As their pimps bark through the dark

From purple suits and fur seats

And twinging red lights that blink

On and off

City limits, borderlines

Who crosses over? Who loses themselves?

In those cities of sin

Blue Swoon

 Mayhem,

But minor lease

Was given quarter

 Csallon, Sonne lemontina

Turner cancelled all her shows

Since David Bowie's whirligig

And fuchsias showered their spectral bigs

Bouncing flowers forceps swigs

On the pole of baron robbers

Out the empty streets of pants

Licking the corn stalks

Broken in ranks

Clapping pandas for the NHS

Give thanks to China for her

Sturdy banks

Enrolled the dirty dozen cousin

Rolling down the logjam

In the Mississippi

Which she wishes she misses

But she can't outflank the planks

And princes whose pincer movements

Draw orchestral keys in the dark

To unlock Takeshi's castle

Or Bankban, Orban Viktor's

Finger in the dam of certain consorts

And Jam desserts, or Just ones

And twos, his finger's turning blue

Like the Danube he clings to

And claims as his own

My truly befuddled friend

Calls option one

On the dial phone for Queenly resorts

And pizza

For for a king 

So Danube King come rolling back the tide

As Moses swallow your pride

Unless you can drink the whole sea

You better stop now

You can still say at least I tried

Drink to love

 I drink and remember the times

In the Hungarian pub with Dorka 

With a beer and an unicum, and 

An unicum and a beer

And her showing me around

And the excitement I felt about being in Budapest and meeting her

And everything was new and thrilling

And I just don't feel that now

Everything feels numb

And dead to me

I wish it wasn't so

But it is

Maybe I'm depressed

I probably am

Maybe it's that life is as thin

As a slice of

Parma ham

And the night seemed filled with possibilities

Only I screwed it up like I always do

Like a piece of paper

In the trash I threw

Away all the love I felt for you

All the love

Like a velvet glove

So soft to touch

But I've had enough

Of stuff

Like guilt and gelded reasons

And postures meant for older seasons

I've met an elf

Who said the self

Is not what you make

But what you shelf

And store like a cake

a wealth of the twelfth 

night or aching tooth

I've tried to evolve like some

Elven flower,

But I must admit I lack the power

To dynamite the proof

Of life from out the quarry of expectation

Where I live my life

Forever tunneling into

Hard rock excavations

But when I was in that pub, my heart was

Sore because I loved another amore

But could not walk back through that door

And yet the feelings lingered

And so not in might to move on

I kept singing a slow sad song 

Of a deep river along

Which we meandered together

But up on the surface

I was flitting as a wagtail

On a river bank

Hopping like a turn

Dancing the cucaracha with Dorka

While inside singing of Saigon

And Madam Butterfly 

Who I loved, but had to leave her

Like a sailor in a song

Yes and now that river is slow and dirty

Murky waters

Over wasted lands

What's polluted and what I've tasted

Is like sand falling through my hands

There was once a sweet spot in my heart

It's true, and I kept it oh for only you

But not for long, like the morning dew

We must depart

We're through

And I always had to be the barrel

Chaser

Walking on the rolling wagon

And off the double spacer

Taking love like a leaver

Pulled down by the believer

In the pub or in the pew

But here's the rub, 

I was always in love 

With you

Danube Girl

 Danube girl, on the banks of a brand new world

Making waves with your hand shoe twirl

In the sand by the river

Danube girl, I want to swim with you in the curls

Of the water as you dive for pearls, on the bed of the river

Can you hear me, singing through the sea

Did you hear the voices of a Europe that was free

Danube girl, some where upstream, 

Where they make your dreams

Come true like in magazines

Trying find a new world

Training day

Train rumbles on
With the inevitable song
Of the bumble bee hum
On the iron drums
That roll like bread pins
Upon the flat iron railings
They flatten as they go on
Their iron rumblings

And I see without despair
The green river running there
Like a serpent as a spare
Jade sea snake dragon
Like an ornament upon somebody's shelf
Where dynasties once dwelt
But now they are remembered
In old people's retirement homes

Identity

 It is a bit of a come down

But I'd come to expect this of life

In its lifeless distress,

The clock ticks on but I'm not bored

I've just become like the stone on the sword

Waiting like a weight

Heavy as a date gone wrong

But this is meant to be my song

I was a someone, once

But that was all pretence

And I should not be afraid

To throw off my disguise

My make up had started to flake

And there was a small dark look in my eyes

And a sense of the fake

The imposter crept into my skin

I had to drop all the lies

So that was when then

I lost everything like Trump

I must admit defeat

Perhaps it does take more courage say

I didn't win

And return tail between my legs back home

To England

Because I never wanted this ego

This ID that was created by circumstance

Inflated opinion of one

Who is a native English man in a foreign clime

But really I'm

nothing special, just one who had a chance

And took it.

But back in England I am nothing

To speak about

I will need about a year of hard graft

To turn things around

And get back on my feet financially

And now there is a slim window of opportunity

I may be able to grasp

If only I can let go of Hungary and my ID

Budapest Hotel

 The dumb bells spoke 

And the fires smoke

The travelling salesman

Told another joke

About the poor folk

And the rich folk as well

But he can't tell you nothing

Except what's good to sell

The Arabian knights

They charged in ten thousand

To the top of the hill

Where the dunes golden sand

Glistened and sparkled

And listened like the stars

But they only spoke silence

Like the surface of Mars

And somethings stand

While other things fall

I thought the hotel was grand

Until I saw the holes in the wall

From the bullets that were fired

When the communists came

Well they never said nothing

Except nothing does change

Penguin Spotting in Budapest

 We are the Penguins

Flipper flop waddle down Bodza street

Like a family of ducks

On a jaunt

That chatter and quacker away

and question like Penguins

Then look into the sky

And watch the planes fly by

Then fall over backwards

As they track them with their eyes

Carrier Freight to Mozambique

Government cargo

Those flightless birds wish to break the embargo

Unfasten their clipped wings

And soar outdoors

And up, up and away from their Balcony

Where Juliet sits lazy

And Romeo in his hovel stews

And brews another tea

Biding his time

Realizing it is far too late

And he is too beyond the garden gate

To p-p-p pick up a penguin now

Middle man between the devil and the deep blue Europe

 War

It is now the use of the word

In the news since

The rest of the world will soon feel the effects of rising fuel costs

What havewe been missing?

We thought we could return to a former world

But everything has changed

Nothing stays the same

But at the end

Russia will come out stronger

In terms of land and resources

When they capture Ukraine

But what will be next for the border with Europe

The hard borders with Poland, Lithuania, Romania

Or the soft border with Hungary.

What will the result be for militarization in Europe

And if Hungary don't militarize

Then what will happen to Budapest

Hungary is Nato

It will be strategically important for the West

But also Russia

But also Orban will play the middle man

He has invited in the Russian money

Oligarchs etc and also Chinese money

And money talks

Counting the miles

 I was travelling on the Orient Express 

Working as a stoker to earn my passage.

I wanted to get to Istanbul,

But we stopped off in Budapest

Then Bucharest

The rest is history

 

Well somewhere about Cluj Napoca

A strange man walks on board

A little stiff

Like he had a splint for a neck

He sits down

Calling himself The Count

I think I heard this one

before

But the thoughts don't mount

 

Soon the passengers start dropping like flies

I don't know the body count

But it was pretty high

And they all seemed to have been given

Two inoculations to the neck

The anti-vaxxers said

That was just what they'd expect

The vaccine is a killer

Well, the truth is far from that

For when he alighted from the train

I noticed the Count was rather fat

"There are more calories in a pint of blood he said

Than in a pint of beer, did you know?"

I said "I didn't know that, no",

Then he said "And who might you be young man?"

Well who is it who wants to know who I am?

Count Vlad said he, as meek as a lamb

Indeed you see he was a Siam

Or perhaps a twin of one who came from Japan

"Well of course then kind gentleman Sam

My trade is Stoker and my name be Bram"

"Unusual", said he "for such name to travel

One had thought it would stay home on the gravel"

And not gravy and stir the newly passing year

Well said I, I heard Istanbul is nice about now

I'd like to see the Blue Mosque and circle the prow

I'd like a dip in the Bosphorus and to see and delight

In the Turkish city's quarters in the midst of the night

 

"I too", said the Count "would like to explore that foreign world

Which is why I have travelled with gold and with pearls

You see a lifetime of living has set me quite dead

With the hum drum voices of pageantry and dread

I've heard too many screams and too many calls

To fill my dreams like a nightmare's halls

And instead, I want to drift down consciousness' stream

And out to Xanadu with the restless bream

I want to let go of this Romanian Rowel

I want to throw the dice, let them fall where they fall

Will you gamble with me friend come and seek out a night?

For in the shadows, they are hiding my Turkish delights"

 Well, I said "Count if you promise to behave

I'll go along quite easy though I'm not looking for my grave

I wish to have some fun and paint the town pink

With that he bit a currant bun, and I watched his teeth sink

In quite deep and noticed their length

I thought to myself now Bram how unusual their strength!

They seemed to be capable of biting through a shoe

With that I commented "Count, I'll see what I can do

When I get off at Istanbul, I’ll get cleaned up then find you."

“A deal it is” he said it kind of sly

And I thought I could see the glint of a silver moon in his eye

But now I thought I'd leave it and turned back to stoke the boiler

One day I thought I'd write a book and don't want to tell a spoiler

 

So that was how me and the Count we got well acquainted

I must say I found his ways quite strange, a little antiquated

But none the less we made it some twenty hours later

Across the Bosphorus strait, that lovely stretch of water

And the heady lights and sounds of Istanbul bit us like a bug

As like more passengers seemed to drop dead in the grip of a death hug

I counted myself lucky to have made it with the virus going round

And as I stepped off the sinking ship, I felt like the last rat who hadn't drowned

 

Istanbul was pretty amazing in its ways, the sights and sounds of markets

The smells wafted up in a maze,

I felt lost and found all at once, and gladly fell into deepest slumber

As the stars they whirled in wonder

Around and round

The fires grate was spitting, when revived I came to sitting

And remembered of my promise to the Count

It seemed so strange yet fitting, to be here with one so noble

Yet my brow was knitting as to how me and him might dance the paso doble

COVID Coracle 8 or 9? 20th November

 Today I had early lessons from 7.30 am again, and my bum felt so sore, that I had to lie down for my last lesson. I honestly don't know why more lessons aren't given in bed or from a bed, it really is much more comfortable in my opinion.

The main thing I find that is hard is getting to sleep with this pain in my ass, I think somehow I deserved it, perhaps it was for coming hre in the first place.

So Today I slept in after my last lesson which finished at 10.30 am -I slept until about 1500 and then start to think how to solve the pain. So I phoned up the Hungarian Doc -dr Maynart - who quite rightly proceeded to check my credentials as a Hungarian resident - in general he seemed fed up to hear from me - who I assume he thought was another stupid bloody tourist asking for help, and really he can't give it until he knows you have a Hungarian health card - though he seemed to take a somewhat obnoxious attitude as to condescend to me, slightly as if I were  a child - like he simply couldn't understand my name Scully - it was virtually impossible to spell it out for him, and his rather brusque and bruising attitude made me even less sure of my telephone number - so each of these things I had to repeat several times in English and then I tried saying them in Hungarian but found I have forgotten most of my Hungarian knowledge through lack of use.

It is not really so useful, but anyway he got to the end of his questions and then I noticed my TAj - Hungarian health card expired in April this yearso effectively I am not insured, except I pay tax and should be - but there was a pandemic and I left the country. 

The second thing I did was to book my train ticket from Luton to Bristol on Sunday, that was worrying me - it leaves me a very small window inwhich to find somewhere else, and if I need to I suppose I could change the ticket back again.

The thing is accommodation here probably won't be ready until January and then if it is I need to survive here until then.

So the other problem if I choose to stay here is how do I pay for extra stay, when Natwest have kindly cancelled my card as they suspect fraud and re-issued it to a UK address? This poses a problem as my Hungarian money is nearly all gone. I could ask for it to be forwarded to me and stay here or I could just return back there.

If I go back there I will need to continue with care work - unless I get the car park job - in which case I'll have moved slightly forward in nature conservation ladder from volunteer to car park attendant in what ten years? - ok the last 4 years I haven't been trying but still that is a hard slog. Still it is worth it if you want to work outdoors.

Then again here - there seems to be a potential job through some company in Batorbágy near Etyek Budapest. And then I could stay put here. I would need to pay another 300 pounds roughly, but from my UK account and that could get me to January when I could move into Ágnes's house, and then I would still need a job to cover it.

Covid Coracles Blog 6?

 Saturday I filled in RSPB Ham Wall car park job

Sunday I applied for Climate change officer in Glastonbury

Monday was my birthday spent in Quarantine. Rather a difficult situation, but mostly nice, my room is small, but I had some lessons in the morning. The Chinese student was sick when I called her so that was cancelled. A bit of a relief actually as I find it quite difficult to speak with her at the moment. It may be my patience - she is very nice, but I get the sense I speak too fast, and I find it hard to teach below intermediate level students. The lesson before that was interesting and with a Hungarian student who is an expert in water melons, and we previously discussed Mary Reynolds who was the youngest person to win the Chelsea flower show and had a film made -Dare to be Wild - no actually that was last Mondays lesson so actually it was on the meat free diet and the impact this can have on climate change.

So this vegetarianism idea she also previously prompted me to watch The Game Changers which tries to repain the male stereo-type Macho man because he eats meat into it being acceptable for him to be a vegetarian. That is a good thing and I watched this on my birthday- and for that day I felt a renewed resolve to become a vegetarian - I found it such a convincing film, but alas these feelings don't last. It is probably lacking the echo chamber of friends or simply other humans being on your own so long - that a video can influence your mind to the extent you do not want to listen to your own body - and in fact that was exactly what Brigi said who works here, when I went downstairs to meet the police I think. That it is a dangerous thing to watch these kind of well marketed films. The other one I watched was the social dilemma and that was similarly disturbing and not so inspiring. I mean it made me want to quit facebook. Because of how everything is tracked and it is polarizing society because it is only providing you with your friends who think like you. One advantage of Hungary is that people here are very different from me - and many facebook friends here are from very different backgrounds and I feel I have a much broader range of options here -although my British sensibilities come up against harsh realities.

There are clearly times when it is important to stare and stand your ground - such as if an angry dog is attacking you - or maybe a bear...I think at least - and then the occasion in 2018 here when a Budapest man who seemed crazy and I was staring I think just at the size of him and the fact of his appearance and evidently clocked me - I was on a bike and then he some how engineered it for his dog to collide with my back bicycle wheel as I was turning the corner across the erzebet street and Jokai something or other and he was on the crossing any see Ballad of a Budapest cyclist for this https://scullychristopher.blogspot.com/2018/11/ballad-of-budapest-bicyclist.html

Anyway I can't remember where I was  oh yes - so the fact is this quarantine has been pretty ok generally - the police come everyday -sometimes in the evening mostly in the morning in the past few days - and they are nice and friendly. The thing is today - and it did not effect me too much - but there is one police guy who came before with two recruits or at least more junior officers and they said please show us ID - which no one else had done -since they call my number and ask to see me -but this guy wanted to see my ID -I didn't have it on me as I don't normally show it. So a slight delay I have to go all the way back up the stairs to get it and come down - they are all down their smoking by this time and I show it to them and I feel there is this intimidating presence to this policeman - then today 18th November two of them are back but with a military soldier who is carrying a gun - I do not really notice this since I just go straight out and hand over my passport - but the receptionist looks actually visibly pale and a bit frightened - I think just the presence of a soldier there when it was completely unnecessary for the job.

    I think this is why I mentioned it on facebook - I felt a little nervous of these people -this specific guy who was very serious - I wonder whether he is pissed off at having to do this job. In the UK police are not going around enforcing quarantine so strictly - they are eating donuts and drinking coffee. Then again there are a lot more of them probably and there is nothing to do. I don't think policing means throwing your weight around unnecessarily because that is plain bullying and intimidation. Perhaps Hungarian police are stretched, but really what is going on for them to police, hardly anyone is out on the streets - there is a so called night time curfew in which everything is shut -and yet they are acting like they in some kind of police state and all the rules of decency break down - I think that is slightly what I find frightening here -there is not a web of decency among people that I can understand that means when normallife of commerce or picking your kids up at school goes - there is not much of a community left. I am sure my saying Hungarians are not decent will put peoples' backs up but I am not saying that I am saying that there is a common level of human dignity that I know in the UK or have grown up to believe exists between people and I just haven't had that experience here - I mean maybe I would feel it if I had grown up here. The fact is being an alien here somewhat is trying to navigate so many pitfalls of social graces and customs - if I say police authoritarianism then people will spout the rule that police must carry guns and they are accompanied by soldiers as part of supporting their work. The question of can citizens be trusted to stay in quarantine is a whole other thing. 

For me it is especially weird because I have no sickness, but perhaps it would be weirder if I were sick being visited by armed police.

Bloglog 2

 14th November

Today I woke up feeling more refreshed and listened to radio 4. There was a nature documentary on Roseate Tern on Coquet island - someone who was the warden there speaking about being humbled by the force and power of the sea. It made me look up the island and the RSPB and then I saw an advert for a job on Shapwick Heath near where I come from and have lived most of my life. So I applied this morning. It was as a car park attendant, but you know actually I think that it would really suit me, I love being outside, I like meeting people and I think that nature reserve is fantastic. It did used to worry me being a local there and seeing how many cars parked up there and along the road side, but since the car park that has significantly solved the problem. There will likely be increased traffic flow along that road over Christmas, if there is not another lock down, but I also expect that people will still want to get out.

I think overall it has to be good that people visit these reserves, because we need to protect the environment, but also stop peat digging due to the carbon loss. Ironically if there had been no excavation there would be no wetland reserve probably. Also ironically there must be quite a lot of carbon emitted by all the people driving there cars to go and visit the reserves. Perhaps it would be more fuel efficient to organize a bus or coach there, but that is probably too much investment and planning. There also used to be a train track running down there, so could there not be again a network of more fuel efficient or electric trains that run on solar power or the like that ferries people along the track and saves all the cars?

Anyway, perhaps all this is pie in the sky, or pipe dream thinking since I am currently in an attic room in Budapest.

Bloglog13th Nov

 Blog log -Friday 13th November - I arrived 3 days ago on the 10th into this hotel/house named SXXXXXX HXXXX in Budapest. It seems interesting, and nice staff - the one I have met named Brigi offered to do some shopping for me, while I am in quarantine.

I do not know why I returned to Hungary, perhaps it was a divided sense of loyalties, perhaps I have become more attached than I thought here. Probably I feel more independent here living away from my home environment.

It is a hard one to grasp because it is also more lonely but because of that I feel I must challenge myself more, and I enjoy the challenge.

I teach online and this is going ok from here. There are the odd clients who do not see things from my perspective  - anyway I need the money right now so I can't or should not complain if their wife hangs around the screen also.

Besides this I am living in a small attic space and I am not meant to go downstairs to socialize or cook - so I order food in the evening, which is nice but unhealthy - I feel I am getting that way. I have borrowed a stove which makes things easier - to make a cup of tea for example.

The guy living opposite seems a bit strange. He has been friendly but I have been more guarded. Perhaps I went a bit far - he just seems a bit imposing.

This morning I started a new fitness regime - online video workout to strengthen core muscles. I am hoping to keep it up.

Last night I watch Once upon a time in America by Sergio Leonne and starring Robert Deniro with a musical score by Ennio Morricone which has a beautiful theme -called Ampala-my choice about the girl called Deborah who rejects the protagonist David "Noodles" Aaronson.

It was a very long, but inspiring film. So I did not go to bed until 1pm then woke at 4.30am and so I'm quite tired, and have my first lesson soon.

Jade Rust

 In Quarantine, in Budapest

In an attic, like an insect

Spider, beetle, buzzard, bird

Crawling Heath cliff all overheard

I'm in an attic, no panic

The pandemic, is claustrophobic

It doesn't like being indoors

It is downstairs, outside

Roaming the moors

Like a giant invisible monster

No one can see it, before

It is on yer

I arrived two days ago

In the zombie fields

Of project x

In the mouthguard mountains

Of the south

The police woman made me fill out the form

I said I'll stay inside to keep warm

She said 10 days, I said 2 months

She laughed in my face, said now fill it out

Twice, 

so I did, with the lid of the dustbin

Lifting like a mouth

Swallowing trash and flies

And outside everyone dies

That's what they tell you anyways

But in here we are safe

Alone but together

As the human race

To face

The greatest of our fears - death?

Yes, but no

What I mean is being alone

We don't like it 

Can't stand it

Need some others around

Just the sound

Just the scents

Of them hanging above ground

We are Humans

And animals

Not an isolated species

We need this connection

Coracle Chronicle

Like Coral Conic

Like a cone a funnel of all comic verse

Swallow it down, medicine for the hearse

That reverses through the universe

Until it finds a parking space

Says this will do, we'll drop you here

Two dollars twenty

What I say coughin

No coffin, he says look boffin

Use your head work it out

I thought you guys were meant to be smart

Well duh! Yes I said

But be reasonable

You've left me in a remote corner of the galaxy 

Where I don't know where I am

And you expect me to cough up some change

Like it was a leg of lamb

Now don't get bent out of shape man

You just been in that attic too long

Try seeing the long view

The big picture

You've got a front row seat to the end of the universe

Maglodi ut

 I'm in the land where they walk down straight

The dogs are the gods behind the garden gate

And I'm in a condo with a bottle full of hate

The dogs in the farm yard

They double up late

Calling us angels, calling

Pigeons on the lamposts

Carex in the garden

Tumble down Hungarian

buildings that stand on

Their last legs

Well I went to walk where

the dead don't talk

And the living all are sighing

And the breeze like chalk

Cut in circles and forks

Around the ones who were crying

They said you're a marked man

We have you in our sights

I said "I am what I am, now don't

forget the plan-

I won't go down without a fight"

But then the tombstones baulked

Under their ivy leaf storks

At all their words that were dying

It's a living language, a honey tongue

And the bears are off fighting with the dragons

In the grit on the dirt road lying

with butterfly wings and dead acacia blossoms

 

I see the Roma women calling to their husbands

Convicts inside the prison

And they call back darling what I lack

Is the eyes for you to be seeing

"Your children are here, come on shout to your daddy

Don't you know that he is your Father

And you are his sons

Though many horizons

Have set while he's been in prison

The children are well, another says with a yell

We love you the mother prompts the little boy 

To holla'

He he cries back, I love ya, though the lack

Of seeing is like I'm dying

In this living hell, where everyday gels into

The next and the next one

And it's all just a rap

I've been caught in the trap

Of being a young gypsy man caught in the system

It's the same as well for those who ring the bell

The prison yard bell it is chiming

And their crawling along the floors

Their rapping at the doors

And those prison walls they are climbing

But the bell still tolls for one and all

The bells of freedom are a ringing

One day the siren calls, will not herald what befalls

Every young gypsy man in the system 

They come out again, the family, this time

Another young boy is with them, he is getting

bored and restless sitting on the grass

Scuffing his feet in the gravel

Sending up a shower of angry stones

To heaven

On my way back after they are gone

I see they have scrawled with pink and blue chalk

We love you Apa (father) on the side walk

While I hardly dare look or listen, but I must

To the sounds the men make in the prison

As the daylight dims on a hot Sunday evening

And they face another night in the cell

Without his family, whose graffiti on the pavement

Is the inverse of his own howling sentiments

To the government

This is justice, this is the consequence

For the criminal all life is denied

Outside visiting times, if there are any,

And the high prison wall that keeps him

Tears in Budapest

Well I know I'm not my best
But these tears
Continue to fall
Like leaves in the rain
They take away my pain
From the hours that always seem
The same

Tears in Budapest and the river it is blessed
From
The paragons of rest
Who nestle in their nests
In the ivory towers
Letting down their locks
Under lock down
Over river docks
And scenes of lock and key
Where nobody is free
Except to cry their
Tears in Budapest

Tears in Budapest
The reasons flow
Through bridges guessed
Like hopes raised
Like eye-brows
Like frowns
Like smiles upside down
Over the topsy turvy Danube
That scurries, and bowls
And tumbles and rolls
In its mouths open
And gaping in shouts
And words, and language
That wriggles and bursts out
From the blisters of boils
And current buns of the thirsty
Turbulent flow

And over arching them
Are these Eyes with their lids
That open and close
In daft surprise and blink
Over the Danube sink
And basin, and drain
Where Tears in Budapest fall
Like leaves in the rain

Carparks in Angel land

They're putting up carparks in Angel Land
Where angels once walked
Now men are greasing their hands
With the dirty money
And the golden bands
That they pass around now in Angel Land

They are rolling their dozers down the main roads
They are swinging their cranes and carrying their loads
Where angels once walked softly, they now look on in dread
For Angel Land is a place they now fear to tread

They're raising their structures, erecting their towers
Blocks of offices for foreign powers
They are building and bumping and turning their heads
In Angel Land where angels now fear to tread

Gone is the gentleness of thought or action
They are using their heads in cold calculation
Compacting the soil, with blood, sweat and tears
Ignoring their consciences or the angels' fears

They're putting up carparks in Angel land
And paving the paradise God's made with his hands
They're doing it today, it'll be gone by tomorrow
When the only angels in the land will be walking in sorrow