Shades of Grey

The cigarette swans, the ashes fall down
Like white confetti after the cigarette wedding
Of Cinderella and Ashley
And the Chimney Sweep brides maid
The best man swept her up the aisle into
A heap at the end of the knave
And what a navel she had
Would make a blind man join the navy
To see the ships insight

On the hill where the Ashes sway
Where the snowy coloured buzzards sit
And the egrets in the thick oaks shit
And Squabble over every measly fish

In the pines by the drove where the crows
Chatter in their parliamentary murderous way
Plotting treason with gun powder as black as their feathers

And all the shades of the sky as she melts the yoke of sun
Into the mixing bowl of creamy blue robin egg cake mix
Baking in the horizon's oven
Tomorrow the new day will rise

Over the meadow

The sun cuts low
Over the Meadow
The sheep they go
Over the meadow
Over the meadow
This evening

Over the meadow
The cows low
They cast their long shadow
Over the meadow
This evening

There goes the black crow
Over the meadow
Over the meadow
There leap the deer
Cotton tails bobbing
Over the meadow
This evening

Salmon Souls

My soul is tickled pink
Like the salmon clouds that swim towards the sunset
Chasing the dying of the light
Chasing upstream to where they know they will die
Dissipate their rain seed
Into vapours of steam
Lay their atmospheric eggs down
In the settling dew
Lay them on the flower or the weed
Both glisten beautiful
In the morning as if new
And then mother Sun lifts them up again in her warming rays
Puts them in the misty plays
And there they stay until father fire summons them
To greater heights
Where afraid of the chaotic wind swirls
They band together and travel the world
Out into the ocean of sky where they breed
With other clouds
To live lives in thunder or lightening
in the Caribbean
Or less loud and frightening
Over the English Seas

kissing gate

There is a kiss on the door step
That says come back and see me honey
There is a kiss near the forceps
That says give your braces some money

There is even a kiss in the shower
One in which two tug boats touch
They have been pulling the wreck of love
Too long up the river, that flows too much

There is a kiss that says good bye
That says see you now I must fly
There is a coward's kiss
And I have given it too many times

There is a kiss that is kissed by a lover
When you wish the planets would kiss one another
So that heaven would align
And star-crossed under cover
The perfect would come true of father and mother

The land is in sight

The time will come when all
This sand
Will seem like shit
In my hand
But for now
I wipe my brow
Continue to sit
Continue to stand
And pass through the day
Like a ghost without sound
Like a ship without sail
Trying not to run aground

And the storms may blow
And the seas may sink
Before the tow
I pull and think
Upon my oars
that reach for the brink
Where the water runs over the gunwhale

I have seen many like me before
They cry caterwauling from the stocks
The captain has whipped them
Then they're sent below
To be out of sight of St Peter's Rock
But I know
There is land ahoy
Although I see it not
From my crows nest
I see clouds gather
There one day I may rest

Woman in the Window

There’s a woman in her window and she’s watering her plants

Just as the sunlight marks the day’s start

And she tends to the seedlings and watches them grow

Which she put in three weeks ago

And there are men with suitcases wheeling them down the street,

for their families are leaving their hotel in retreat

And elderly women towing their trollies behind

Back from the morning shop at the grocers

Red Letter Days

Let the dust settle down

Let the air rush in

The fury and the sound

To bear anything

I have ten thousand pounds

And it rests on a king

If I pull out an ace

I’ll ruin everything

It’s a hard, hard place

When you’ve everything to win

And you’re in the wrong place

To even begin

You’re on a rock out in space

Circling the moon

And you fall from grace

Though you’re born with a silver spoon

It’s a hundred lives

All traced back to one

Just the circus of the humans

All under the sun

It’s a red letter day

And a star crossed bun

That you bake in the oven

And you give to someone

The tree lines are endless

And the birds circle round

The bridges and the pigeons rattle with sound

The banks of the river back up in green

And you think you should shoot them

There are ten thousand actors
and hundreds of scenes

And ten thousand lives
All condensed into one
The red letter lives lived under the sun

They bring you the chapters

To their latest books

You read them, close them

Give them a second look

There are ten thousand pages

And ten measly words

That mean anything to you

Beyond swollen dead birds