Mountain Man

 Now you see me,now you don't

That often misquoted quote

When what you see is a ghost of me

It is but a footnote

Literally the mountains have turned into the man

The mole has crawled out of his hole

The iceberg has cracked and fissured alongside

The ocean of well-wishers

And if Mohammed can't go to the mountains

Then the mountain must visit him

Except the mountains are self-isolating

Under the new covid restrictions

They must all keep at least 20 miles apart

Peak to peak

We must not touch the rock

As it is a carrier of disease

Try telling Moses that

He's up there with his staff

As we speak

Tapping into the great unknown

The hard stuff

He likes being caught between a rock -God

And a hard place - the Earth

I'd like to say this is how

I imagined my honeymoon

Back on Earth

But Mars is proving a draw now

Of course

The sky's the limit

 Only two planes today will take off

The sky is the limit

Well the covid runway is a quiet affair

There are no lorries or trucks anywhere

The staff are being furloughed

And a grey cloud lies there

Over their future employment

But the sky is the limit

Well what is the limit?

How much more can we take of it

When there seems no end to this

Dreadful COVID

There is a vaccine that's been developed

In a Lab

But it's a shot in the dark, still let's take a stab

There is a purpose to all of this drivel init?!

Well why do I drone on when the sky is the limit!

Everything was shut in the departures 

Except a WH Smiths and a Cafe 

Covid vs Ovid

 Ok what ever happened to Ovid at the age of 19? he seems to be largely forgotten in the current state of emergency for understandable reasons.

What did Ovid have to say about COvid and other acts of god or nature?

I ask the questions I know you want answering, like never mind covid 19, but what was Ovid doing at aged 19?

Through the darkness the light will shine

Well Helen, I don't know where your light is

But I think you have a light that is

Brighter than mine

Covid cardiff

 And you think your shit smells better than mine

The car stooled

The alarm bells rung

The words Gastro-enteritis were yet to be sung

I call COVID

Then I thought C-diff

But what's the difference

What's it matter when you hear

Your swan song sung?

The body is a truth teller

Or it's a body of lies

But Your mind is where it matters

And when that's got crossed eyes

It doesn't matter what your body says

You'll listen to the others

Who would think they were better than you

And their own mothers

Hell bus

 The bus was late it

Flew

But spate had splattered the

Mosquito of fate

From Manchester where

They all are mixed

Down to Bristol

And an empty

Practically empty coach

Of sleeping passengers

Why are they sleepy

You may well ask

But perhaps because of the mask

But no not covid

In this case

But the heated foot bar place

It was roasting

Like a grill

The women had their bums

Up on the seat to chill

But feet were hot not cold

Only nerves of the over heated

Oh the bus of hell

Down the road to Bristol

A demonic driver at the helm

But no you may be overwhelmed

Or under to hear me cast asunder

Such aspersions as the driver's

Own diversions

But he was closer to moronic 

Than demonic, closer to ill-informed 

Than devil deformed yet

Still he should have known

The drill how to turn down the heat

So 2 hrs later we passed the broken down

Stage coach being towed. 

It looked like it was making fine progress

Now, at least as good as our own

Some thought it'd have been better to 

have been on the broken one

While I was emailing Megabus

Asking for a refund and complaining of 

The heat

The driver miraculously

Turned it off

We all breathed a sigh of relief

However another 20 minutes later and the

Fierce heater came back on

We were stifled

We were reaching up to heaven

And pulling at our collars

Then finally 

We hit the M30

And soon we were dropped back

At bond street, Bristol

Wagons Roll

 Covid brought me here

and it will send me back again

All these faces fall like tears 

down my window pane

But take no heed of fears

That fall like icy rain

For the sun will shine on the gears

And the wheels start moving again

Easy come and easy go

 I was off the map, and driving up the wall

The Atlas was upside down

Satnav had stalled

And I said well I know

It's easy come, and easy go

I booked a plane to Japan

But when Covid came, I made another plan

But it's all the same and I know

It's easy come and easy go

I thought I'd settle for some sand

So got a visa for an Arabian land

But down the drain went all my plans

When Covid came I made my stand

I will not move from this spot

No not if soldiers force me at gun point

And I'll argue with the Policeman

Who tell's me I'm an illegal immigrant

I wish for peace, I wish for quiet

Away from scenes of a public riot

tired of being blamed for what is not

In the remit of a game of join up the dots

So I go to the parliamentary hall

And claim my right to speak for us all

Declaim the heroes of the past

Dethrone the pearly kings, nail my colours to the mast

I'm an American I want my green card

But they stopped me in Luton, said I could not pass

And yet this quarantine will end I know

It's easy come and easy go

And the last they heard, I was off again

Driving through the channel tunnel on a train

But the French authorities cried Non Monsieur!

And turned me back from behind their door

Do not offend the European Union

With your separatist ideas, and herd immunity

I thought I saw it spelled the Holy Communion

But I was mistaken when I saw the lack of humanity

Yet in the end I guess I know

It's easy come and easy go

Some say I'm better off on a desert island,

But who needs that stuff when you have a lock down environment

Bring us back to the victorious land

When the man in the street was the man in government

But my memory is foggy from the history books I read

stolen from the bonfire of vanities they said

And so I stepped inside the mirror of my insanities

And searched my reflection in the eyes of my enemies

And all I saw was what I already know

That it is easy come and easy to go

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 7

 So last night - being the 17th November I heard back from the car park job with the RSPB and the fact of an interview on the 23rd. For me I was really happy about this. It is a move away from teaching - but I could still continue online teaching I think or just cut it out altogether which would be a shame, but perhaps I am finding it rather difficult to use computers so much. So anyway I had a morning lesson early from 7.30 - it was hard to want to do this so early but it is work I suppose. The thing is it is only two lessons per week.

So then I was more free - I tried to feel motivated to study - well to make these English articles which someone else very clever has written and then I pick out the interesting words and make gap fill exercises based on their definitions. It is fine and it was by adam Rutherford - he loves saying how Humans are animals - and very closely related but then at the same time we are not - this is my overall impression - basically we share many genes or DNA sequences with a cuttle fish or a shark or a chicken, but at the same time he refutes the apparently alt right psychologist ....who says we are all like lobsters - and we have an in built hierarchy. So basically this is all the same kind of thing connected with gender bias and equality of work roles for men and women - there is the point blank concept or belief that we are all equal - this is the fact that we should all be treated equally - and then there are those who don't think that who sue evidence as they see it to prove this from Science - like the lobsters- then Rutherford comes along and says yes but lobsters also urinate through their faces which is obviously also disgusting and any way you get the idea. I actually think even if we find all this proof both sides of the argument - it will still divide people because proof and the truth are things that are in doubt internationally - we each have a right to believe in something or at least you have a right in a free world or country, the fact is in these free worlds the liberal agendas flourish and in the countries where there is no right to believe anything you like then people are scared to say what they think and that is like it is in Hungary.

        I see this because if I look at responses in face book - there is not a great free discussion - people are afraid to say what they actually like because of being criticized. I also felt somewhat criticized today -18th when I said that the police made me feel a bit nervous because they carried guns. People acting in a certain way makes me feel nervous - not the guns. But if you add guns into the equation then you add the risk. If you encounter somebody who has a screw lose and they are unarmed then you are not as worried as if you encounter them when they have a screw lose and they weild a knife or carry a gun.

So getting back to the 17th - I did some more on the climate change application too and then Mate the y guy from next door and shares the same birthday as me except 6 years earlier he was bringing in wine and offered me some. I had had a fairly sedate birthday and so I thought why not and found my self famished so I over drank, mixed it with left over birthday beer we discussed the house, smoked a bit and then I left him to write his book. After this I watched a film about police actually very good - called End of watch about a tough US neighbourhood with a high mexican population and people traffiking and two cops who were best buddies and discovered some bad things that it would have been easier for them to look away from, but obviously they didn't because that is why they are heroes and they do the right thing.

Anyway actually I watched that the day before I think - it doesn't matter -so I definitely also watched Avengers infinity wars on the previous night and then last I watched avengers End game. Then I cooked some potatoes, beetroot and carrots or undercooked them ate them and at 330 am woke and had diarheoa for an hour. The result was I felt ok for a bit did some work wrote a poem, went back to sleep for an hour got up at 7 ish cooked some leftovers but more fully and ate that for dinner. After this I had a lesson with someone  yes. Around the middle of the day I realized I needed a shower and while doing so discover pain in the ass I felt was indeed a thrombose haemorrhoid. It is still with me now as I write and so I may need to lie down to write.

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.

Fresh Air

 Out of whack, hay stack

I'm in a field without a meal

In the can without a plan

On the straight and narrow arrow

I'm in a jam with a little lamb

Down the pan and far from real

Making an appeal

To an orange peel

Too much to grind its rind

I'm asking it to slip and slide

Off the edge of the tide

And be my bride, be on my side

In the war to end all wars

I've got my Goat, but whose got his?

Is it yours or is it the Kid's?

I've asked you twice now I can't write

The potato blight has blotted my ink

And I can't think inside the sink

No I can't stink on the brink

Its in my brain I've got the grain

Its all this toil in the soil

Washed down my drain with the rain

In the forests of the night

Its off the leaf and suffered relief

It's dripping, tripping donkey brief

As Ehor, or Elron, deltron, electron

Mastercard poor

American express, is useless, unless

You can self-express first

I don't mean breast milk

But the best silk or satin sleeves

When the shore rises and you can't believe

Your luck to be where you were born

Inside the truck driving through the storm

And suddenly bright lights are torn

From the dawn's hue, as cascading

Valleys of thorn criss-cross in virtue

Of being new

Or solidarity of what we've all been through

Before, before the storm

There was no time

And 

We wait it out

And give up doubt

Because somewhere, somehow

We must come out

Into fresh air

Not going out (covid coracle 6)

 So I guess that is it,

I'm back in the square

There's no going out

I'm not going anywhere

And anyhow anytime

There can be few leaves on the vine

For the day is picked

From the tree of time

Well I'm not going out

And I'm not staying in

I'm forced to remember

All the places I've been

And it's not like December

No it's no kind of sin

If you forget November

And all the faces you've seen

Well I've got a party to get to at four

But it's not here now anyway, anymore

And I'll be late, if I stay, and I must stay I'm sure

I met a lot of people on my way through the door

But that was outside in, now I'm inside out or

At least I know beyond doubt, that out is in

For I put on a pout and stick out my chin

But it's not use complaining about the trouble I'm in

For the inside is out and the outside is in

Budgens Sent (Covid coracle 5)

 Standing in the queue outside

Budgen's post office

A man arrives in a mini

Painted like a cow

I point it out and how

Interesting it seems too

And a rock chick woman

Says it's a pig, and I say a choo!

A man says how dairy

And I say I beg your pardon

Oh I see you're punning free

And this is no place to bargain

One pun a day says me

Is all that I can manage

And he comes back: that's udderly awful

I say you've reached your punnage

Now more and more people want

To join the queue

The man at the front says

Are you for the post office

And if you're for the shop

Go on through

Though he is no charmer

He gets the job done that's all

While a lorry driver steps

Out his cab and asks is this

The toilet line -how cruel!

No, we say there is no queue for fuel

So, this is the only post office

Open in the whole of Wells

And we must all decide

To use it on a Monday noon as well

There is one lone teller

Standing at the stall

Fighting with the tillage

And telling his parcels one and all

When I have sent my tube of paintings

To my sister in Australia

I come out to some applause

The Rock Chick 

Who is the character

has held them all enthrall

And she is entertaining

You would want her on your side

If you ever were complaining

About a public service suicide

Because that is what this is

This crisis of public planning

Why we were queuing outside a petrol station

Being chaperoned and served

By chaps who make one unnerved

Because they've left their personalities at home

Oh for the kindly British post office assistants

Who had the time to talk to you like you were a human being

Rather than like motorists, who have just filled up their tanks

These skin-headed bozos don't deserve our thanks

Although they probably didn't expect to take on this extra role

Why not reserve it for a person who might sing a sweet carole

Perhaps they could chirrup like a cockney sparrow

And keep us all in good spirits while waiting

Rather than left examining our own bone marrow

Maybe play some music outside to keep the troops entertained

Anything but the rather banal forecourt that is rather inhuman

and pained

4 am bookshelf

 It's 4 am and I am

sleeping on the shelf

My book cover slips, I take a dip

But I can't recover myself

I know I fall, against the wall,

I know I'll hurt myself

But I must read between the lines

On my pine bookshelf

There are few bees who follow me

There are few victory posts

I cannot tell if I know full well

If I have rights to boast

There are but steeds with rights to read

There are but colts and gelds

I know full well my otherselves

Are left on old bookshelves

I seize the day, but suffer not the attacks of fools

Who fool themselves and others into thinking Life is cool

Of course we live in times and places

Of a covid rule

But what I can abide the least

Are references to school

I see the shadows and wait a while

For the sun to go down

And every romantic fact

Speaks out from each new fangled part of town

That England is never dying

But only in an image of ourselves

That what we seek are romantic acts

Reserved for our book shelves

Covid Coracles 4 -Corvidness

 Ravens and Rooks keep the castle

They hold the castle keep

But the black crows, in thorny rows

Can catch no feather bed sleep

They chatter and they cajole

They caterwaul and holla

They cat-call through the wooded deep

And in the tree trunk hollow

They scratch and they nuzzle

nibble and they peck

They pick fights with black night

Until the owl turns on her neck

Until the cows have all come home

Until they roam and roost in loam

And clay and mud and sticky chrome

Yellow of metallic piss

Yet the hill fort still squawks and portcullis

Gates are dropping

The drawbridge is drawn above the moat

And the Bishop's eyes are popping

The Egrets stalk about the cows

The herons pose alongside crows

Pretending in their statue clothes

To stand for liberty and freedom

But under them the corn storks do not grow

They rot after their heads have rolled

And all lie down like dominoes

Arranged like iron filings

And who is the rich magnet

Who has attracted their maze gaze?

Who has got them singing

Amazing grace?

Is it Trump or Biden?

Is it just that like the corn

They now must lie down

To rest after summer's vitalness

Into a winter of repose

In order to be again reborn

Covid Coracles 3 - tipping the iceberg

 Ok so it's the end of the iceberg

Democracy has been frozen

But now we have the ice pick in Biden

And Trump has gone off again

blowing his own trumpet

But there will soon be too few people

To listen

The Champagne is on ice

The real pain is twice

As bad as that imagined

By those in paradise

But noone can travel there anyway

Under the Covid restrictions

So, so long Saigon

And the paddy fields

They've brought all the chocolate ducks

For the old folks' meals

Well it's been a golden girl reunion

For all that we feel

But Cronos the Titan father

Still eats his young

And cantilever brakes are applied to 

The economy by a prime minister

Who would rather be in prison for petty larceny

Than be the one responsible for this high scale

robbery of democracy

But hold on says Trump- the unfortunate one

You stole my line -that's my one

I invented cruelty, lying and malice

I gave you all the rabbit holes

Like I was your Alice

And you were my mad hatter

who had gone bananas

Down at the Havana restaurant

Where the Mayor of New York

Julianni, he knows what he wants

But it's not on the menu

Only a sting operation

Of the greatest retinue

And in Avenues of pines

Who continue to cross over the line

From Mexico to El Paso

Juaez to Miami

We are sticking to the numbers game

And counting our names

Like we don't know who to blame

And just blame the blacks or the Jews

or the Catholics or gypsies

But we see that is only the tip of the iceberg

It is only balanced on a razor blade's edge

If you really want to know

Who won the election

Just talk to your neighbour

over your hedge

Covid Coracles 2

 The students rest inside the cage

Suspended several fathoms up

In a tower of burning rage

And resentment at the government

The simmering pot is brewed

As Susan goes into the kitchen

She makes a tea for herself and Jude

Who obscurely is dressed as a chicken

Susan it seems is more of an egg

She will crack and then she will beg

Not to be fried

But get scrambled instead

In the wifi waves now exuding

But Jude the chicken

Is happy in her brood

Her feed is flung and her food is chewed

And the pecking order of housemates

Has been established

As they settle down in the hutch to roost

They ought to be doing their homework now

But there are no tutors nor lecturers anyhow

For whom to owe some accountable reason

Their absense or presence or being

They ought to be watching some lecture online

But who has the motivation

To keep inline, when humans and chickens

Are social creatures

Not meant to be caged

In faceless building features

And university is a place

To be free range to experience change

And strange and wonderful things

But no

Not today

They are like string beans

Just hanging around

Waiting for events to unfold

Or for them to be picked

Or left on the vine

But online

It doesn't matter

We are more faceless than time

And if the clock should strike the dreadful hour

When the tower of chickens

begins crowing not to cower

When a cockerel leads them

In a rooster line

Out of the cities

Into the prime

Green pastures

To live new lives

far away from their work

laying intellectual eggs

Killing time

Then perhaps the nation may once again change

As the seasons on the face of the earth

Change the hues of the leaves

And rotten corn storks

die and make room for 

Fresh shoots to grow

But we are all feed for worms

Which all chickens well know

Covid Coracles 1

 The day began the same

They were burning the bonfires of their vanities

Again

The effigy of me

That so many years has passed

Guy Fawkes, of course

Who else jack ass?

I guess you could say I was the virus then

The genetic mutation

From the all English gene

The hidden priest

Behind the scenes

Laying down libations

But liberation must come at a cost

From tyranny

Or tyranny's ghost,

For we all are haunted by those we love most

And everyone must have a ruler

But your God and my God

They are the same

My religion differs in more than just name

But essential truths

Burn one pure flame

That love above all is the name of the game

So as you burn me remember

That love never dies

That a coup d'etat is in everyone's eyes

Even just a twinkle

In the heart but a winkle

That grows

And sucks on the blood of England's rose

A canker, a cancer

A busy bee dancer

That buzzes between our ranks

And stings our flanks

And answers our thanks

With a death watchman's handshake

And the pikes are resting against the wall

The heads on the spikes

Stand on London Bridge

As warning to those who would

hanker for change, or fidget

In the restlessness of revolutionary fervour

My own body in an iron maiden

Dripping Catholic blood of martyrs made

And fireworks fly into the sky

In the Arena of the damned

Under the houses the gunpowder is still stored

Some fuse is lit, by the nations poor

Who rebel and quit

But the crowd want more

No matter who has paid em

Trundle rhyme

 He is the red island recruit

Of stupid sums occurring

Down the parklands ever burring

From the thistle to the fruit

He is common as a tractor

Outside of a reactor

On the farmland of xfactor

Who grows the unknown brute

And out he comes in fields

Along the hedgeline in search of a meal

In the plethora of woodland

Birds of long pursuit

But what covid flame

Has burned his covid name

Into ponies rump and side

By the river where he cried?

I can only guess at what

Was not spoken but was forgot

In the hours of the chimes

Before the ponies joined the rhyme

And all fairground castles

Are turning, turning pastles

About the necks of doves

Who harmless fly above

Covid carol

 Talking of the sacrifices that we made during the covid serenade

When death danced amongst our ranks

And gulls called about our flanks

The army of the nation marched on

Talking of the penniless arcades, where jingle bells played

And all the Christmas tinsel displayed

But then there was no-one left

To share it with - two into one

Talking of the typos left at the printers that cut out all our vowels

Like a samurai cuts out his own bowels

In the final act of hari-kari

Well I ordered an uber taxi and stayed

Well out the way

Of love or death and taxes

Ever-after

Perhaps

If there were a case of him versus me

The God of Him would win the

War against the 'Me' disease

But we are all so sure that

some cure will be discovered

That we never took precautions

To ensure

Our own egos

Were covered

And the personal personality insurance went broke

After they gambled all their

Winnings on some private joke

That went up in smoke

Or fell flat on its face but it

Was even funnier that way than saving the

Whole human race

And I thought that I owed her a family

At least

I thought I could own her

I'd be her hairy beast

And protect her from the wild woods

But it did not work, it all ceased

Just as the rain is too beautiful

To Cut the shoulders of sheep

Who graze long after we've stopped

Talking of covid

And tunnels that never cease

Where we look for the light

But darkness is a comfort

And too much light is blinding

And I can only tell

What my shades are finding