He took everything but the kitchen

He took the hoover

The cupboard door

He took the watering can, the bucket

And the bucket list

He took the hose pipe

The drain pipe

And the chipped mantlepiece

He took the inglenook fire place

The stoker, the poker

The dust pan and brush

He took the oil lamp

The rising damp in the skirting board

The wall paper, the curtain draper

And the curtain rings and poles

He took the carpet, the plaster board,

The coat hangers and stand

The cupboard the closet and the wardrobe

He took everything but the kitchen sink

He took the sofa,

The armchair, the pouf and futon

The cushions and pillows

And the bath matt

He even took a seat, when I offered him the chair

But it was my bed that he made

And he lay in it

He took the bidet the toilet

He even took the piss

He took the hot tap, the cold tap

He even stole a kiss

He took everything but the Kitchen sink

He took the garage door

The front door

The back door and porch

He took the launch

It took him ages, it took him minutes

But it was gone in the blink of the eye

He took the china from cabinet

He even took the bull by the horns

He took this, he took that

He took the mickey and the piece of cake

He really took the biscuit

But I asked him to leave it

He took everything but the Kitchen sink

He took the lounge room, the landing

He took the picture frames from the wall

He left the pictures there hanging

Because he didn’t like them much at all

He took the dog, he took the cat

He took the cat flap and kennel

He took the back yard, the front yard

The rose bushes and rails

He took the picket fence

And he took offense

When I threw the post at him

Well he deserved just what he got

He even took the holes in the wall

He took everything but the kitchen sink

He left me that at least

Where I can sit and think

In peace now he’s gone

Letter in a bottle

By the time you get this

The hills will have boiled

The shrugging chimneys

Will have spouted forth smokes

The dignity of trees will have reminded you of forbearance

And given shape to your patience

In the fulfilment of time

As you wait out the winter

In the quarries of sadness

The sad stones are crushed

Into mountains of lime

As the rubble lakes lie

In the seas of your eyes

Where blood tears have fallen

From the railway line

These tracks are so forlorn

As iron whiskers worn

By cats

And children who play in the ruins

On the brown broken down platforms

Of the railway line

The picture of sadness of Hungary are not the trees

Or the dereliction of the buildings

These are just superficial responses

To an underlying cause,

What future hopes are there

for any of them?

What future for any of us?

Burning the Bridges in Budapest

They're burning the Bridges of Budapest
Watch as they all fall down
They're burning them slowly
Like a fire vest, you wear
Then jump in the river and drown

They're burning them slowly, they're burning them fast
all of those bridges not only, bridges to the past
Bridges to the future
Hopes and dreams
They're all falling into
The Danube streams

They're forgetting the town
Forgetting people too
They're burning the bridges down
That means you
Its time to get out before its all lost
Once the bridges are all burnt
You won't get across
There are tongues that are tied
Speaking languages many
There are beggars on the ground
Saving every penny
But its running around
Rolling down the hill
And the mob is in town
On a bridge burning bill

Don't ask me for a reason
I have none to confess
Just time and the season
Of restlessness
Spring is coming
I can feel it on the tides
They must be turning
Because their burning bridges and brides
They're holding up the stick men to the flame
They are setting light their heads
In confusion and blame
And we're all done for
In the final name game
Nobody gets out alive
But their burning bridges just the same

You owe me your love

You owe me
I gave you all I had to give
Yes you owe me
I had to live the life I live
It wasn't as if I was running around
Blowing my roses all over town
I gave you it all even the thorn of my love
Oh now that prick in your conscience isn't enough?
You owe me your love

I've seen days when the rays don't come
Slow days that march to the beat of a drum
And many more besides these where the field marshall sung
Of things the army owes him
While another young man is hung

You owe me I want to scream
It is like living someone else's God forsaken dream
I've put everything I've had into this sinking ship
And its rolling to starboard and the cliffs are rising in the dip
Now don't say I never swam to your rescue
I always reached out my arm but now its me who needs you
You owe me, this life saving procedure
Cut out my heart resuscitate me from fever
And If you ever say that I'm the one who flew
Never forget all those handles that you threw
You never knocked, you never turned, you only shocked and then burned
Like a fuse that shortly blew
You owe me, I don't owe you

My heart breaks, it really does

My heart breaks it really does
It breaks like a wave on your shore
My heart is made of something more than this blood
This flood, these ropes that tighten
These cello strings, these harp's chords
My heart breaks, it really does
My heart like a vice for a crocodile
Like a purse for crocodile tears
As an oyster's shell holds pearls

My heart rolls you like grit
It hurts to rub you against its walls
One day Inside will look pearlesque and shiny
With your memories smeared
By my paintbrush of lies
My heart breaks it really does

My heart is a painting
It is a gallery of faces
It is an audience
An auditorium of eyes
Who stare at me accusingly
Like at the last judgement
When God asks what men
Have done with their lives
My heart breaks, it really does

And in its catheral organ of tubes
In its chambers and atrium
You are there singing your beautiful blues
Your Cantata of loves Equilibrium

Carnation hill

Maybe its colour of the red red rose
And maybe its the colour of the nation
Maybe its the colour of the road that goes
Maybe its time for vacation

Well I'm walking down the street in a certain pose
Raising my flag of damnation
Whoever told you that, he surely knows
There's only one road to salvation

Maybe its the colour of the dog at night
Maybe its the frost in the early morning bite
Maybe its the snow goose, maybe its the crow
Or maybe it just something I ought to know

Of Life and Death

I've seen you in the corner store
Next to the margarine
You were reciting Nietzsche's words
And the supreme human being
However the universal soldier
At the check out
Dropped his genes
Into the checkout girl's draw
And told her she was
Out of this scene
The director walked in all upperty
And wanted to settle a score
The producer had fallen in with the wrong sort
Of onions
And was known as 'cucumber obscene'
He said I'm not having this sort of carry on
In my show
You can go now,
But don't forget the blow
You owe me
Out back behind the bins
But he left under shadows of booms
Through the emergency exit
Behind a stack of magazines

Some time later the director
Was sitting in his chair
Interviewing a new actor
For the role of Fred Astair
So you say you can dance?
Well show me
Bring out the fast hearts
Lay your cards on the table
And the actor turned aces of faces
In his eyes
Black clubs made his boots
Diamonds stolen from skies
Sparkled over the spades of his shoes
And she knew
He had played his cards right

The next night
She was out there waiting for him
Ginger Rogers
In her costume
Of flowers in bloom
And colours like shrapnel
Splayed across the room
When she lifted her skirt hem
And swished like a balloon
All head and shoulder
and traction knee
All break a leg at the universal sodiers
Waiting in the quay
All sailors must love her space jamboree
And suck at their lamposts
Where she sings in the rain

It wasn't for love of money
That he stayed
You see the job was a good one
His days were arranged
And every brick of time numbered
Like in pyramids of the pharaohs
Egyptian mummies loved
To see their Cleopatre
And fathers and mothers all become
Strange when you think you don't
Their ancient histories
Yet it never comes out except when its laundered
No not the dirty money
The dirty mummy, silly
That's what I mean
And they reveal their mysteries
Inside a false magazine