Leaving town

 you know you're meant to hold down a job

To put the jump leads to the dead dog

To afternoon an evening in a mount pleasant

vein

I can't keep saying what I was going to say

She already killed me with her eyes so vain

Hers were the windows of a house of pain

Don't be so dramatic, oh let me explain

It's all so plastic just a weather vane

The leaves of grass have grown again

Did I lose my job in the harvest grain

Did I eat my job or bury my pain

I've eaten my loss, like a moss of stain

It's human to cross the river again

Because the circus is over they've packed up and left town

And I can't shoulder the burden of feeling so down

It's all a charade of the last act of the crown

Leaving this place is tearing me a frown

Across a night of lights falling to ground

And smiles on faces for miles around

 

Open mic nights

 He's your friend

He's my friend

Is he anyone's?

Where does it all end

Don't ask me

I'm only the MC

I'm just behind the scenes

I'm on the beams

I'm the DJ

I don't exist when the music stops

Well none of us do

It's a hard world gone soft

It's the bright lights with the colours toned down

It's I would rather be born

To someone wearing brown

Because the colour of life is in the human interaction

Whether that's a voice singing

Or a glance, an eyebrow raised,

 a leg shifted

The turn of phrase 

It's not in the music

But that is the sauce

Because we all just taste life better

When were in the main course

I don't mean don't pay the piper

I don't mean abandon the band

But the point of going to a music night

Is the whole darn caravan

So don't drown out the conversation

 with too much loud noise

I mean let us enjoy our own company

Not only the sound waves, boys

Art wank

 I went to the louvre

And I wanked over the Mona Lisa

I saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers

And whacked off all over them

I Jacked off over a Jackson Pollock

And it made no difference I could see

I masturbated over Matisse's blue nude

And even Monet's water lilies

And then they banned me

What reason did they have?

I was only showing my love for the Arts

Self-expression, that's art, that's all I was doing

You can't ever please some people

A Liverpool Lass

 She's was a Liverpool lass

She turned off the gas

Got out of the house

And came down south

To getaway from it all

Getaway from the Mouth of the Mersey

On the ship of education she sailed

And the black sailor paled

She was one of these chips

On the shoulder

That floated

And failed and floated back up again

Into a better life where the little city droids

Buzzed around the town

Her boys were there living better than her fare

She was ambitious

From the lanes of poverty

To her rich uncle Tom Cobely and all

Inherited some money

Tasted the honey

And controlled her aches and pains

With the common strain of marijuana

Forgetting all the human stains

That wash away from her brain

When it rains

Manna from Heaven

Marijuana from Devon

To live amongst 

the unleavened lawns of Shepton

Recycling Eve

After the book club

I went to the pub

But alone there's the rub

Compared to the bookish affair

It was like a lonely men appreciation society

There were men whose wives were on holiday

Men who'd been single most of their lives

Men with families who go there to mingle

Men who go there just to feel alive

And me why did I go to the open mic night?

Just to listen to the music and enjoy a pint

I had a pizza as well and it was a good evening

Not every night can be the night of your life

And I sort of went because I was talking to you

And you left to go home and I took my cue

Maybe a woman needs a home and a family

maybe a man does too, there's the tragedy

because they've got to be in love or have respect

for each other, I don't have anything else to report

the pub is place to share a table with a friend

When you find men and women cannot truly do that

That they really see each other as sport

Then I'd rather get lost in the music of men

Who are missing their loved ones

Than have be with the one who has torn my world apart

After I offered her sympathy and an already damaged heart

To have it thrown out like the garbage into the dustcart

I remember it's recycling day today

And I haven't put mine out yet 

Path through the glades

 So the shadows have been shifting and there's

A way through the wood

And what I understand

Is the path must be good

Not Hailing away to each song that's sung

From the tree tops

The killed birds

By the woodsman are hung

And fallow deer rest 

In the hollows and glades

And I will visit there best

On some holiday

It feels a vest of armour I wear

When the screaming crows hollar

From their self built blockade

I'm used to the figure

Or the grand larceny ball

Of colourful folk

In their shades at the hall

In their tokens of blessed

Sovereignty calls

I awoke to the woke

I lay down with the laith

That turned me a yoke

That I shall carry as I path

A new path through the forest

Where once I knew graves

New shafts of daylight

Have broken the shade

Miami Mallet

 Miami Mallet

It's no Ballot

They've taken the tickets for the free Chalet

The heat hits you like an iron hammer

The street greets you, you start to stammer

Miami Mallet, Miami Mallet

I can't hardly stand it

Gotta get me out of this inferno

It's like a towering tornado

Of heavy heat flow

Overpowering pallette

Of scorching reds 

Miami Mallet

Beats on all our heads

Mandy

 Oh Mandy, you came and you gave me a warning

And then you did it again

Oh Mandy then you banned me

From the academy of all your lack lustre friends

Oh Mandy pour me a shandy

I'm through with whisky and rye

Oh Mandy your artless bank needs a banksy

But he's already run dry

Oh Mandy, I'm thirsty, for the first tea

of the day in a dog worn afternoon

Oh Mandy it's like stealing candy

From a baby for you

Oh Mandy you make it look so easy

Can you teach me how you do?

Oh Mandy

Good Ship Shepton

 Shepton, Shepton mallet

It's a place I keep mind

Surely I'll go back there

one last time

Fight with a pallet

Trying to hold my line

Shepton Mallet

Gets you everytime

Is it the Ballet

Or the Opera in the Amulet?

No it's not even the ampule

Nor the lighted cigarette

It's a town like Alice

It's Shepton Mallet

Is it the high street

With its Haskins Skyline?

No it's not even ScrewFix

That peeks over my eyeline

It's the little insignificant

indiscreet town of roulette

Yes, it's our secret Shepton Mallet

Don't tell your friends

Or else the whole world would

Want to come here

To sample the ample armchairs

Of the Art Bank or 501 Bar

But I'm not raining on its parade

Or dousing it in petrol

I just want to fire the man

Who put me under its control

Just flip me, and hit me

Throw me out and quit me

If I see another Whitney Houston

On Whit Sunday talk shit at me

I'm gonna shoot so many holes

In Shepton's litany of hippies

in their shipwrecked ship

And ship shape let slippery

dogs of war slip

Until all the sheep die uncounted

in their sleep

Upon witnessing a young man in Shepton Mallet trailing behind

 Walking with my bitches

bitches, bitches

Keeps giving me stitches

stitches, stitches

Cos they walk so fast

fast, fast

I can't hold up my britches

Britches, britches

My pants fall down

down, down

All over town

town, town

So I try and them pull up

up, up

But my bum it itches

itches, itches

I trip over my hoes

hoes, hoes

And over we goes

goes, goes

And we land in dem ditches

ditches, ditches

So now I don't walk with them bitches

bitches, bitches

But I work at the old people's home

home, home

Where they walk more slowly

slowly, slowly

Come and visit me homey,

homey, homey

Flounders in Flanders

 I saw her there in a chestnut chair

She looked like a widow with willow stair

She stared out the window, she was hidden windrow

That billowed and bellowed her pain pellets spare

I saw her there like a crooked chameleon

All bent like a stick insect changing her feeling

Coloured hair like a maniac, bold and brash as an anorak

Crazy psychology of the sociopath's lair

I saw her there she stopped me in the doorway

All guardian of the universe her sphere of blue shit

Like a globe of becoming a purple mist succumbing

Combing the beach for wasted lives they have quit

I saw her there, but she is a little hitler

In charge of nothing but a dream that is wished

Who knows what to believe in, I don't think odd or even

Are numbers she's gambled on just bad waters fished

Her name it is Mandy, her banks they are sandy

Shores where her ship is scuppered and wrecked

So she started a bar for Amazonian pirates

And she banishes all those not on her wish list

Just ask for your hard hats, there nothing is stolen

Just ask for your dry tongues, just ask don't speak

Unless you've been spoken to by the Queen of the showroom

Just a Caribbean dive full of drunk fools and old fish

The Emporium of Past lives

 Pandering to Mandy

Why do we pander to Mandy

Why do I meander and pander

Like a river of pandemonium

Into the mandated Mandy kingdom

Of utter strangle hold dominion

She has on social currency and fuel

Like in the strait of Hormuz

She's got her claws around it

Choking, she's about as crazy as Trump

In her utter blindness of vision

No multi-channel options like Netflix television

Just a Mandy towers, mini Mandy apprentices

To carry out her bidding

A pit of vipers, a stinking compost of rot

And corruption

A seething bed of vice disguised 

as community relations

A necromancy of diplomacy

Casting evil spells from a witches coven

Getting her evil elves and fairies

To dance around her sacrificial table

Oh Heathen whores who unholy dance

Burn, burn in the fires of chance

Bowsprit

 I wake to the sound of traffic

Buzzing in my ears

Busy bees so hard at work

Goes on and on for years

Where do they get to while I rest?

A few more miles up the mountain

Pushing the boulder as Sisyphus

To reach the eternal fountain

Well I'm down here in my hovel

But I don't bow and I won't grovel

It seems like spit is rain off my shovel

I'm staying home today

Shepton Shearers

 The sheep shearing season is short in Shepton

So short in Shepton it's stepping on septums

And September is too late for conception

In Shepton the sheep saw a ram

A ramming went Rambo through Rotterdam and

Ramsbottom, a Rutting a tutting a Solitary Sam

Who settled in setts where badgers made bets

On mother hubbard's long laboured lamb

Oh but not to be ham, the pigs they globe trotted

And Forgotten the begotten Ramsbottom Ram

They cried out oh Dad, Delivers us Do

From Do da days dallying daily with dew

After the glitter had fallen

 After the glitter had fallen

The ball had stopped spinning

The music turned off

The costumes were hanging on their hangers

The models had danced their socks off

After the manikins of bodkins

Had scaled the omphalos of night

After the slim ones, the trim ones

Had returned their souls to the light

After their bodies and shoddies 

Had shouldered their blames and their shames

After the love of their eyes had smouldered

In their ear's last refrain

After their mouths had powdered and chowdered 

and lisped their clasps undone

Then I knew that I was older, but not

colder for the sun had still shone

As the hall let down its decorations

Like a dog shaking off

As a christmas tree moults its needles

So spring crept into our midst

And winter was a burnt out candle

That really no one could handle or miss

Still I knew I was a vandal for the words

I'd used when instead I should've kissed

Yet Jesus still lay on the cross

And Mary Magdalene cried at his feet

And all the holy wine had cost

The word forgiveness spread on the street

Right in the heart

 There was a time when waters flowed

When feet tapped to the drummer's art

When people danced and bands played

When rivers ran right in the heart

When church bells tolled

When markets stalled

When children schooled

Right in the heart

There was a time when snow drops sprang

When church bells rang

When prison's cart

And so when men believed

In nation's pride right in the heart

Right in the heart the spirit sprang

The choirs sang

The sun rays dart

When skies brighten as dark clouds depart

And future's form in solid gold

Moulded in, right in the heart

And on palisades, or in rocky glades

where cider's made, a cunning craft

Where times have changed

But some things remained

Because they stayed right in the heart

The Amulet, and church a couplet

A twin, like chalk and cheese

So far from each other's trouble

But in a bubble of cider's seas

And the bubble burst

All the thirst was scattered seeds

So gather up and sow again

In fertile earth

The rain will fall, new life it calls

will spring forth out of the dark

As things must turn right before the dawn

And kindle fire right in the heart

The drovers

 End of the drove

Where do they go?

All those people

When the bar closes?

All those lost people

All those lonely souls

Bitter as litter

That blows

When the field knows

The cattle in rows

Filled, eating the bar

Chewing the cud

Drifting back home

In their droves

But where do they go?

Another bar opens

And they hang there

Like pegs

On a line with no

Clothes

Amulet

 Amulet, oh amulet

Are you for sale or let?

It's the way you dangle like a charm

Just out of reach, fall into my arms

Swinging like a chandelier

Once so far, now so near

I'm in love with you Amulet

Oh Amulet, you're like Juliet

And I'm your Romeo

Come down from your balcony

And we'll go home-o

No I don't want an Emu, I want an Amu

But it'll have to be an IOU, I won't forget

If you want us to walk in our dancing shoes

Dear Amulet

Oh Amulet, oh Amulet

I can see how it's dangerous for you

To stand there so alone with vacant eyes

Like a warehouse with no goods

Empty as a pocket, oh my poor Amulet

Once you were filled with eyes and ears and legs

Once there were boys and girls and now

There's only pigeon eggs

Well if all the world's a stage,

Then your's hasn't been written yet

Woe betide those who've tried

To write-off the Amulet

You're going to make a come back

I can see it in the stars and I'll bet

You'll make a bloody good theatre

And you deserve another go-get

So let's raise a toast

And make a boast

Of our Dear Amulet

House of love

 Put one brick upon another

 For your father, for your mother

And build a house of love

Put one brick upon another

For your sister, for your brother

And build a house of love

Build a bridge across the valley

Throw your TV into the alley

And Let's build a house of love

Build a bridge across the valley

Let the train run forth and sally

And build a house of love

Yes it's a coming out the dark

It's a burning with a spark

So let's build a house of love

Let's leave behind the darkness

Turn on the heat of the furnace

And let's build ourselves a house of love

Yes, you know this could be our finest hour

And it's all in our hands, within our power

So come on let's build a house of love

I heard an owl call

It was a roll call

To build a house of love

I heard an owl call

Gather one an all

Let's build a house of love

The Ex boxer

 Micky was a big fish

A prize fighting man

He lived in a pub called the Bell

When he used to ring it

You knew there would be Hell

Oh everyone wanted a piece of Micky

Yes he's gonna keep fighting

Till that last bell tolls

And rings time on his fight

Some days he was fighting other people

But it was himself that he fought at night

Cut off an ear

Or swing to the right

But he was a southpaw

In almost every fight

You can call him the devil

Or maybe he carried the light

But everyone wants a piece of Micky

Now that he is aging

Who will hold his spoon?

Who is it will collect his mail?

When he came out yes his body was broken

But still he fought on till the final curtain

Everyone wanted a piece of Micky