past times

I used to go to a sweet shop
Some kids wanted a gob stopper
I just wanted to chew
I used to, I used to

I used to have the sweetshop blues
I used to I used to
All the candies there from which to choose
I used to I used to
The penny sweet, cola bottles
Sour lemon drops
Some kids want a gob stopper
I used to want to chew
Gum,

I bought the cards and rolled out the strawberry chew
And we walked home
My friend and I
talking about this and that
Teenage mutant ninja turtles
Bouncy balls
And yo-yos
I 've got the sweet shop blues
The post office blues
For days gone by
Sitting on those flag stones
Where the ivy brushed our legs
And the sun baked on the lichen
You run your hands over
Watching little money spiders
Run on their brittle red legs
Too small, too small to be real
I used to do that there

I used to climb trees in the orchard
The four or five that were there in front
Old apple trees big and strong my mother said they were cookers
When we picked them earwigs fell out
And you twisted one, one way and one the other
And if they came off without pulling too hard
They were ripe
Otherwise you left them - they were the fallers
The wind would blow them down both day and night

I remember looking around in that orchard
The high grass cresting my elbows
Before it was mowed
And Healey the dog bounding through them
I was so happy back then
The trees were our spaceships Katrina, Tanya and Peter
We could ride them and turn on the knobs
And then run down and change and chase
Each other or avoid the sharks below or alien blobs
We lived in our imaginations or least I did I know
I could spend hours day dreaming on the woodshed rooftop
Baking in the sun drenched old wooden doors
I remember especially I liked them especially the locks
The heaviness and oldness of them their copper turning green and blue
Or brass
And then a family cat, Emanuel, Smokey or Bimbo would come up
And sleep next to me
Down the side was Virginia Creeper the whole shed was covered
And I liked to go up there so I could be alone and hide and no one could find me
And now I wish I had not spent so long away I miss the company of family
On these long lonesome days

Josie George is missing

 Josie George is missing

I read it in the news

I remember beauty

No more black and blues

The sum of life is pretty

It is the thing that lights the fuse

Of Josie George is missing 

I heard it in the news

What if I were missing

Would anyone really care

I've been thinking a lot about quitting

But I think I'd miss being there

She once squeezed much stomach

I felt affronted but also thrilled

Why would she do that thing

Fuck I lost the plot I was killed

By my own denial of attraction 

From when I was a boy

As if it mattered the compaction

Of a certain quantity of joy

I never pursued my own

Dreams

Was always willing to be somebody's toy

But now Josie George is missing

I know she's dead her life destroyed

It's a far cry

 lesserback gull

the short straw

draw the match

parents say to the child you drew the match

Childhood heroes

 Captain Scarlet's doing time for grand larceny

Probably he's down for espionage

Or trying to hijack the BBC

Aqua marina was caught exposing herself on Clevedon pier

Now she's doing community service

cleaning up the marine mere

Oh Sting Ray, lovely Sting Ray

I can't say this no more than a quip

It was caught speeding while trying

To rescue the earth on a highway

And now it's locked up in a skip

And now I know my childhood isn't near

It's off on another plain

I have no need for anything to fear

And anyway here comes the rain

The Thunderbirds were very cool

Just like the phoenix from the fire

They tried to stop the terrorists

In their pursuit all across the world with righteous ire

They were hired by the British intelligence

To track down Osama, of course they got caught

up

in all kinds of stuff

And now they're serving time in Guantanamo

Oh Thunderbirds, where did they go?

Oh where did my childhood heroes go?

I see them all behind bars

Even the Gingerbread man has gone AWOL 

I think he was caught stealing cars

The gingerbread gang are terrorising us 

What a sight it is to behold

Perhaps I'd have liked it better

If they had never showed us

That at the end of the rainbow

Would be waiting a pot of gold

Perhaps it would best if the illusion was crushed

Perhaps it would be better I'm told

Than over protect the young minds

With the world's half truths

When they tell us that not everything

 that glitters is gold

See the apple orchards and the starlings

they're flocking from tree to tree

like a long lost friend, 

like a long lost memory

Somewhere down long winding lanes

I wish they'd come back to me before the end

The horse shoes and the scarlet paint

 oh the horse shoes

And the scarlet paint

All these things are so worn out

And blood ties 

In blood shot eyes

Oh the horse shoes

And the scarlet paint

What makes you live a life without taint

The horse shoes and the scarlet paint

What takes you from sinner to saint

The horse shoes and the scarlet paint

I walk and I want to shout

All these things I have no doubt

For when I was a child

Then I played in the gravel

With the horse shoes

And the judges gavel

Oh the horseshoes and the scarlet paint.

timeless

 Do you remember the tropicarium?

No nor do I!

Except that tarantula they put on my hand

Oh what jerks they were

But

I am a nice guy

I never complain

If a venomous beast is put in close range of a child

To give them a thrill

Well

In life it is either kill

Or be killed

No I don't remember the tropicana

Perhaps the coach journey there

When all the kids

were singing

found a peanut

to the tune of "In the quarter master's store"

That's what I rememer

and the round kerbs of the new 

School building where we could play

The extent of it

Its potential seemed vast

It's just who's gonna listen to this bullshit

blast

I remember my grand dad who I never met

Who said according to my dad

Who was also known to invent

That he didn't write because there were better

writers out there

God I even bore myself with this claptrap

Horse shit

Bring on the dancing Russian bears

I mean why can't they tell you when you are a kid

That when you're 40 you

Will write down this kind of shit

As if it were the best time of your life

Well it probably was

You were a child with absolutely no rules or responsibilities

Except there is the lie

You had them, even if not by law

They were forced down your throat by your parent

Who tried to instil

The moral virtues in you

until the drink became a problem and a player

What does Gareth think?

That's what I'd like to know

I really miss him

He probably doesn't miss me tho

Dandelion kiss

Everything felt like childhood
The stinging night does sing
About times that I have lost
And about songs that I did sing
The rocks are by the lily
And the stream flows to the sea
And each and every butterfly
Beats its wings to be free

Now the day is like a cumbersome
Toad that I must roll
All along the footpath that is made of gold
And she is like a flower
Growing by the road
I pick her for an hour
Before I blow away her soul

There are headlights in the evening
The foglights shining bright
And I stand up from the ceiling
To the morning's drowning light
French windows are blowing open
And the wind begins to call
These memories into being
From a world outside so cold

I hold her in my pocket
This flower of memory
And I will not forget her
Nor shall she forget me

The day is growing brighter
And the sun begins to shout
About the doors that we left open
When I decided to walk out
Ah but these slides are frozen
And the reel has turned on
And all the vases are broken
And now my flower is gone

Just one final word
Before I do pass on
The singing of the bird
In the lyrics of a song
She was like a Dandelion
Waving her crazy head
And I kissed her in the morning
Until I left her bed
So blow away my kisses
Like the seeds of a Dandelion head
The wind will take my thought dreams
To another land instead