A cruel magic

 He is gone, 

the magician Jonny Miller

It was his final trick

A disappearing act

Like he pulled a rabbit out a hat

But it's second hand news

It comes to me like a rumour does

Whispered

Gossip,

Shock

Most things appear and vanish

Like that

But she is the magician I know

On a sunny day she can make it snow

She is a keeper of secrets

In the sacred circle

It comes to her, easily

Like a hotline to God

To the Gods

I'm always praying

It's like a condition

Or my conditioning

She never does,

as I'm aware

And yet she is closer to

The holy crew

She just lays it bare 

on the table

Her cards

and wins the lot

Like a sweepstake

I have to take

 a back seat

 in the auditorium

Of her dreams

And mine

While she's on the stage 

she shines

But to me she shines more

when off it

She's got the magic

touch for sure

I'm off stage left

Looking to score

a draw

On her fiery breath

But the world is cruel

And fame is a test

And if you seek it

It may destroy

What soul you have

left

You saw yourself in half

And tie yourself in knots

All to feel the audience

Laugh

Or cry

Or cough

Or hold their breath

Or scream or shout 

Or cheer

And it will kill

You in the end

For there's magic

Over here

It's getting late

 It's getting late

Too late to care

It's getting late

And I want you there

But I can't hold a gun

and watch you stare

Me in the face

While I leave you bare

It's getting late

Too late to care

All the people in their houses

With a little hope

Watch as the wind blows in their blouses

Like a sail snapping rope

It's getting late and 

I don't know

How to change the cards

I show

I'm losing ground

It's stalemate

It's getting late

Too late to go

Machete

(Heard accompanied to the sounds of a machine clanking

and chomping, cutting and pressing, slashing

pressure release in steam and rising and falling, crashing 

metal kettles and plates, like a steam train that can't be late

a machete machine)

 I only want to tide things over

Oh I only want a bride to be a wife

It's not just a four leafed clover

I only want a knife to cut through life

Oh so won't you be my machete

Match eatty like a parrot or a kite

always flying over my shoulder

Always on the lookout for some strife

Oh Machete, match eatty, cut

and slash through the undergrowth

You can cut a path through the trees

You can cut, cut unto ourselves

Get us free from our ties which bind

Oh Match eatty Machete

Cut my hands off and use them as ashtrays

I'll be your gorilla in the mist babe

if you'll only give me your kiss

I'll even waive my rights to habeas corpus

Corpus christi stigmata of the wrist

Run a nail through my feet babe

And hang me up on my own crucifix

Oh match eatty machete

Cutting through the hearts on the list

What am I to do?

 What am I gonna do

Now you say

"I don't love you"

When my whole world feels

As if it's over

Oh yes it may be true

That I can live without you

In that case my lonely days are over

Still what am I meant to do

Now you say

I don't love you

Must I wander forever

The whole world over?

I'm shooting arrows into rainbows

I'm blowing bubbles at volcanoes

I'm throwing boulders over waterfalls

Just to see if I can shatter their illusions

Oh what am I to do

Now that you say

I don't love you

Am I really a hopeless bum 

On the sidewalk?

Well that's how you make me feel hun

So you better run, if you see me coming

I'm a son of a gun out for some hunting

And I'll shoot you too, if I see you running

Just tell me where to aim my gun

I'll be coming for you

Oh What am I to do?

I only like librarians

I want a woman who will tell me my book is overdue

And the loan I took out needs returning

I need a woman is it you?

But so long as I'm learning, she'll keep my pages turning

She can't be book burning it's true 

You can beat me with your shoes

You can beat me black and blue

But I only like Librarians

Oh there are all kinds of women in the world

There are secretaries, C-sections, and sectarians

But there is only one who'll do

Yes, I'm talking about you

Oh I only like librarians

It must be the way they files their books

Oh in alphabetical persuasions

Colour coded or by title it gives me titillations

Yes I only like librarians

Oh there are women builders, gardeners and enterprising

dancers, 

Engineers, teachers and farmers too

But beat me black and blue

Cos none of them will do

Oh I only like librarians

Oh there are many kinds of races in the world

There hispanic, European, Black or Asian

But I don't mind the skin tone or colour

It's the way order books shelves that matters

Oh I only like librarians

Throw away love

 I threw away 

Yes I threw it all away

I threw away the love I had

Why I should've taken the good with the bad

But I squandered my chances

On fleeting romances

And I threw away the love had

So don't follow in my footsteps my lad

For you may never love another, it is sad

To say that you have life only when you have a wife

That's the truth, It's no colouring of the truth

I have lived the life and am the proof

I threw away, yes I threw it all away

I threw away the love I had

Wren story

 Straight as lace she walks

As an arrow down the catwalk

Tartan tinged with mace

The pace of hell and scarper

Escape the rate race

Come out West

Where the air is clear

And all that forgotten grace

Will return to ring in your ear

Sing little wren of the hedgerows

Sing and show that you matter

Sing because the cruel wind blows

And will tear your nest to tatters

Hold on little wren, your home

Is a growing thing

The buds will blossom

The wood will lengthen

And protection come in Spring

Hold true to the hedgerows

And eek out existence here

Raise some young

Or hold the one

That you feel most dear

Tragedy is a circling crow

Hungry for its meal

So fly, fly to the deep hedgerow

Or hide down low in the field

Love labours day and night

 Trying to find the words

To say I love you

But nothing seems to come to mind

It's like it was just on the tip of my tongue

But now however much I look I can't find

Searching for it in books I've read

Looking for it in signs on the street

Seeking it in the faces of people I meet

And in the pavements I tread

Nothing seems to work, no

nothing seems to work

The more I seek, the less I find

i'm wearing the same shirt then rolling in the dirt

And I wash away the stains from my mind

Yet nothing seems to work, no nothing seems to work

Even if I say it, you cannot hear

It's like at the pitch of a bat

Oh the dogs all have my back

But it never rings a bell in your ear

Yes my love it labours day and night

At the coal face of your heart

But I can't seem to break the ice

No matter how hard I fight

The hammer blows, they echo below

And up the valley resound

But no matter how I work at it

The right words I have not found

So I'm going on strike

I won't work for dirt

The love I have is in my shirt

It's on my sleeve, I still believe

But this just can't be right

For my love it labours day and night

Indigo bay

 The river floods with our blood

Like wine

All indigo in hue

And you, I miss you

In the river of indigo

The swollen towers of pride

Have fallen down beside

Its banks

And all the children have cried

All the mothers given thanks

I have no other lover

I want to make you mine

But I don't want to steal you from another

I have only our precious time

There is nothing left beside to say

Except the river between us flows on

into the Indigo bay

Early morning serenade

 It's 3 o'clock in the morning

And I'm making my way to you

Walking along the pavement

Like the bones in a skeleton crew

Fighting to stand alone

Stand on one leg or maybe two

But the grave is calling me home

And I don't want to go without you

Looking forward to the sunrise

Holding my heart in my hands, it is true

Guessing that you'd see in my eyes

That I truly love you

Hoping to God I can see you again

Maybe just as a friend, who knew

The depths of longing and pain

I've gone to over my love of you

Treasure

 Upon your cliffs I have kissed

Your thrift

Your spare ribs of a ship wrecked hull

I've hugged your skeleton crew

And thought I knew you

Bones and all

But what did I know of

That rattling chest 

Where you keep your heart?

Treasure

Your speedwell fell

fast as a peregrine

Your glass back

Was a waterfall

Broken trembling

Your arms

Were a figurine resembling

And I have fallen

In the spray of your sea cave

And drowned beneath your teeth

Which you keep

Behind the shark's jaw

But I don't think of you

So much anymore

My Caroline

 Oh my baby Caroline

G My peace and my war D Am What do you wish for Emfrom this Red Wine?A7 DTo Compare your blood to mine? [Verse 2] G What if, what if, if so your human woesGcould all amount to the indigo C D Bm EmFlowing river under the bridges of VeniceC Am EmBeneath the Gondolas' oars [Verse 3] C D G C My struggle and my torment Am C D GOh God grant me deathG C My baby Caroline, what a pity, G Dwhat a pity this love is in this cityGWhat a pity

love times

 I loved you left, I loved you right

I loved you wrong and in your flight

I loved you day, I loved you night

There's nothing left, you're out of sight

I loved your soul, I loved your body

I cannot control, or mollycoddle

The sense your life is precious light

I loved you dark, I loved you bright

So don't leave me now

I can't bear the weight

Of sorrow

Of the pain

It is too late

To lie to you now

Of the shame

Of the shadow

But how can my love be wrong

When I love someone so good and strong?

Back in the Land of the living

 I'll let you know 

If I'm still in the land of the living

I'll see you tomorrow

I've never seen a ghost

In the land of the living

I'm glad to be back in the land of the living

Glad to be the black cat and not grave digging

Glad for your life hack that kept me breathing

Glad to be back in the land of the living

 Am I really? Yes! Well why?

I guess, it's that we were born to die

And all our days are numbered

But if I thumbed a lift with Thumbelina

For a little time her trampolina

If I humbled myself at her cortina

A courtly show for a fashionista

But nothing must glow as hot and cold as

The sun we are all under

We regret to inform you

That it will not rise tomorrow

Has never crossed anyone's mind

But for the fact that she breathes

I cannot detach myself so well

I've tried to pull her out of my heart

But the seed was planted, love kick started

And now it's banished by her rule

I fell apart for a bit, not sure if I'm

Together again, just yet

It's just a letter I write from the base of wall

Which I fell off last night

It was just my pride that's hurt, I'll bet

I'm back in the land of the living

And I'm trying to live without regret

The body snatchers

 Moving the mannequins

How do we carry them?

How can the body be spare?

Nobodies, everybody nowhere

Nothing to wear, no hair, no air

But graceful poises, not making noises

Standing so silently, spare

In use or out of it, in storage in the cupboard

Up in the attic

Wholly vacant like some static

The status quo of not moving at all

All hail human existence

Looking in the mirror at the dummy

The numb, dumb country bumpkin

The straw man, scarecrow

Worzel Gummidge figure

Come in to transfigure the interior design

Portfolio of foliage

Caught a cold you know like Coleridge

Walking out in the snow and storm like Keats

Cathy come home staring out the window

For Heathcliff

On the cold moors, the dale

That separates our homes

Mechanical walking of limbs

Legs and spare arms carried

As if by medical students to the 

Dissecting theatre

The autopsy of the dead relative begins

Where is she now?

Where is her soul, I can't find it

In her model's eyes

What do I want with her body?

With her imperialist grey skies

That have dominated me

From sunrise to moonrise

The set order of a regimen of lies

To get me down the endless catwalk of Winter

Into Spring

Looking in shop window reflections

To make sure I still exist

And have not been turned into

Yet another of her mannequins

On her archived list 

Forty something

 I'm over forty

I've got Dr Wolff at my door

Howling out he's got a cure

For my grey hair

I'm over forty

Now I'm a victim of time and fate

If I wasn't before

Well now there's no time to wait

You see my father was over forty

Before I turned naughty

You see he is behind a bullet proof glass plate

And history always comes to those too late

They tell me to inject caffeine in my pores

They tell me to believe in the male menopause

Well I believe, I have no cause, it goes

The same with Santa Clause

But I don't remember anyone getting on his case

About his over rosy cheeks, rotund belly

Or beardy white fakes

Why didn't he ever use Just for Men?

I suppose they wouldn't trust any dark haired strangers

Coming undercover down chimney ranges

Probably would have burnt him in the grate

Than suffer the indignity of a milk tray lover

Whose cover's blown as is his sperm count of late

But as I say I'm an over forty victim of fate

I'm an over forty son of

A man who's over eighty

Who's father never run the clock so late

But you can't say I've begun to hate

I still feel love could come by my gate

And we'd meet

At number 28b

 or not 28B

Two score and twenty four blackbirds

Baked in a pie,

on Pigeon street

And don't be late

Valentines

 It's when you love the wrong woman

Valentines is a traitor's heart

broken in two

Pieces of a queen's tart

Lay it on thick

Holding all the cards

She's ready to take their heads

Queen of broken hearts 

How I wish you were dead

I thought I loved a woman

But in fact I loved the wine

That's where thinking gets you

Thinking, such a waste of time

Gravity lane

 Gravity lane

Fallin down

Down on my luck again

In gravity lane

Wishing well quarter

I threw a dime in the water

Gravity pulled me in

I forgot how to swim

Won't you pull me out

I don't wanna drown

In the town 

where it rains 

forever and a day

Down gravity's lanes

Gotta walk on the moon

I'm gonna leap pretty soon

It's gonna be like a swoon

But it might take me til June

Cos here gravity's thick

Just like your lipstick

And I could float on your lips

Only your rip tide rips

And gravity pulled me down

Don't wanna wear this crown

It's heavy as horns

My little crown of thorns

So won't you tear it off

I love you hard not soft

But I can't wear your cloth

It drags me down to earth

And I need to be free

Cos I'm made of gravity

The phases of the moon

She I can't follow

Up and down like a yoyo

There's the new moon

Better let her know now

She, I can't follow

Silver thread to her bed

The Waning Crescent

She's the lady in red

She, I can't follow

I'm like a rainbow on the blink

The Third quarter 

She gives me a wink, I think

She, I can't follow

Her summer swallow

The Waning gibbous

Her wax wings I kiss

In her wax work museum

And the full moon

Was I a loon crying at noon?

Was it a neap tide

Was she a true bride?

Had she lied? We all lie

It's just the phases of the moon

It's only true at that time

The waxing gibbous 

She was melting like a candle

Too hot to handle

I never tried

The first quarter hid us

Occluded from the light

I saw a polaroid flash

I saw a polar bear dash

Across a wire and I didn't care

The Waning crescent slid

Down our throats

Like a lemon slice

Like a glass of wine it disappeared

Brought into focus

The sharp taste

Bitter as leaving your lover

And that's how I follow her

like the phases of the moon

Lily

 C I give you all my love, F Lily

G I give it to you for C free

C I'll give you all my love, GLily

F Yes, your heart is the C key

C I'll give you all my love F Lily

G Without you F I'm all at sea

G Oh so give me all your love

C Lily

C I've seen you like a dove G

F In my dreams, in my C dreams

C I've seen you like a dove

G Who I've set free

C And though you're G flying away

F I know you can'tG stay

C But still I'll give you all my love

G Lily

C I've seen the stars shine G above

F And held your hand, C I held your hand

C I've seen the diamonds sparkle

F like jewels in the sand

G And you are quite remarkable

C Oh yes, my little miracle

G I'll give you all my love

C Lily