Blood down my drain

Rain on my window
Thinking of you
All of the green fields
Turning blue
The key is in the lock
But it doesn't ring true
Blood down my drain
For you

I wash blood off my hands
I hide the pain
Blood in my clothes
Its gonna stain
Blood in the carpet
Down the window vane
I wash blood down
My drain for you

There are six feet under
And a thousand above
The sound of thunder
From the wings of a dove

I have blood cast asunder
And blood in the tree
Its dripping from the branches
Dripping for me
But I do wonder
What can it all mean?
Blood in the vein
Blood down my drain
For you

Stand in the rain
Let it fall on you
Falling in pain
Of somebody new
Calling up your number
Calling it true
Blood down my drain for you

The sea within

There is a sea of eyes
That look up to the skies
And blink when you look that them
But they never blink at the sun

There is a sea of green,
Skirted by the dark unseen
Shadows and shades of hedges
The black balein bales swim
In the shallow yellow sedges

There is a hill of souls
Filled with little holes
Of shells from ages past
From a sea that did not last

The last sea that was forever
Changed geography
Topography and graph
Of this land
So that no more sea could stand the tide
And to the poles it went to hide
In ice

And it was as some end
When the forces of nature tore
And rend stone, from stone
Crust from crust
Dust to dust
And Ash well to ashes

But in an underwater threshing
It fizzled
And fettered, and threatened
And cajoled
The fish and crustaceans
Into mountains of white gold bone
Which it layered and striated
Fold after fold
And under pressure of time and sand
It turned them all to chalk
Into these limestone caves
And bank vaults locked with calcium
Carbonate
The Mendip hills foot at the gate
More ground down than
And oyster has shined her pearl
The rolls and curls
And ribbons of rock
Stand with words written through them
History
And they stretch on out
Into the estuary

Icebergs Ahoy

Well I guess I must have hurt her
Yes I got away with murder
But hey somedays that's just
The way things go

Well I ran on to the border
And said now I know you heard her
But you said you thought
That I oughta know

Well it happened on my watch
I fell asleep and I did botch
The one job that a sailor
Oughta know

Well I thought I heard it coming
That low and distant drumming
But the night was full of fog
And my eyes were full of snow

Well I guess I must have hurt her
Yes I got away with murder
And the criminal they brought her
Down below

Well the engines they were humming
And the sailors they were bumming
Cigarettes to bet with down below

A black jack game was running
And the thief he had great cunning
And he won his fortune
In the stow

Yes he guessed he might have hurt her
He got away with murder
But somedays, you know
Thats just the way things go

And he was just a passenger
Holding up the messenger
Who was running to tell
The Captain of the ice floe

But they never saw the danger
No they were safe asleep in manger
And it happened on my watch
So I ought know

Yes I got away with murder
I thought my medicine had cured her
And I rang the bells full stop
On the decks below

And they say that natures red
In tooth and claw
And all is fair in love and war
But it happened that her ship never
Reached the shore

And the ship it lurched sideways
And the Orchestra played
My Way
And I thought I saw Sinatra
Sing for sure

As the Ice berg cut the violins
They bounced and jumped upon the strings
And tore great holes in the hull
Of her score

And I guess I must of hurt her
Yes I got away with murder
But now I'm in the water
And nothing's like before

Well I hear the silverware clatter
Collapse, and shake the chandellier
The Piano is swallowing sea water
Like the shore

And it happened on my watch
I was dreaming of my scotch
And before I knew it a mountain
Had come in the door

Well the ship went down near Labrador
The cargo was jettisoned
The luggage was soaking wet on and soon
The passengers in life boats
In the flotsam

And I keep dreaming of America
America, my saviour
Who could save a wretch like me?
I keep swimming for that dream
For the land of the brave and free
Because I got away with murder
At the door

Goblin Coombe

The wind blows through the glen
voices carried on the wind
Of good/bad choice we can't mend
Where the fairy folk are ken
Gnarled and knotted in the sleepy glen
Quick sharp tongues of ice
Slicing through squeaks of mice
Chattering squirrels, patridge, hen
Hear the voices of the little men
Goblin, goblin, Goblin Coombe
Eating the turkey oak
By the light of the moon
Smoking bark
And evergreen den
Far in the milky dark
Of Goblin Coombe again

A Father's Day walk

Flocking crows down near Northload farm
Look and see a house on a hump
Tractors unload in yard or road
Like a yarn on a story spool
Hammers thump, thump
Starlings stall in midair
And fall, turn and bump
As flies buzz, buzz
Earwigs lug their prey
back to the rotten stump

Otter's little travel bristles
Through divided clump
The grass festooned
In the month of June
With seeds ready to jump

The old bridge tumbles into ruins
As days now pass us by
But the rhyne is green
With days unseen
No this is no day to die

Little green finch play on
limbs of skeletal Elm
And songs are sung by
Birds so long as sailors
Hang on to the helm

Clover fields are purple meals
For bees that suck at their flowers
And tea leaf docks
That spoil in cream shocks
Of clover patch powers

And the house rises up
On the high ground
The Doomsday Book once wrote
As safe on the island from
Avaricious eyes and only
Reached by boat

Now the house in ruins
Where periwinkles blossom
Brambles curl the Elder's bosom
Kingfishers cast their regal eyes
Down the stream
Of the sleeper bridge's dream
And the voices gurgle and gargle
Beneath, while
Above the butterflies float

The wool of sheep is cast about
Is strewn about the pen
Rusted troughs lie
Like a milk maids cry
Of the lambs many
begotten
Begotten, begotten
But not forgotten
This ruin on sacred Doomsday land
Saved by King William's hand
This ancient house still stands
Like a relic of old England

Elders have reclaimed most of it
Its roof collapsed long ago
The limestone bricks and mortar
Make up its end walls
Just a shell on this sea wrecked land
Just a cockle on the shore
Whispering to the wind
A home for nettles and starfish
And a collection of tumbleweed wool

Some how it is fitting
Somehow the fish just bite,
The green grass grows
Where cuckoos call, and the crows
black as night stare
As the clouds roll in so tight

Now the sea gulls cut fast
Like a scythe, the wind around
This summer island
And we say goodbye
To the feather and the sky
That rolls like a blue robin egg
Around them

Tree of Time

As I walked out on a midday dash
The mighty oak on the hill side stashed
Like a Spanish Galleon full of gold
This relic of a bygone age so old

As I walked out on an afternoon dash
The sun was rising in the fields of Ash
The wind caught its sails and the ship did stand
Like a spider on eight legs upright and grand

As I walked out on an evening stroll
the wind was blowing like a bell that tolls
And the Oak like a harbour for my soul
Kept me safe from the biting maul

As I walked out on a midnight dash
The Old oak was breathing as an octopus splash
Its heart was living but only skin deep
For centuries unforgiving its secrets to keep

As I walked out on a morning's stroll
Its green crown was balanced as a Yorick's skull
Held by a Hamlet from a timely stage
Speaking his lines to the wind and an age

That is lost now unless on the page

Rabble raising

Rabble Rousing in the swamp
Cheers go up
From the Bird hide romp
Ravers, engravers, blatant cravers
Of a drunken night-time's revelling
Now the morning after
They wake up in the wooden hut
To the quiet peace of waders
Curlews, dippers, divers
Nothing more than these skivers
Want than to beat their drum,
Oh come, come
Gravediggers of the swamp
What has your rabble rousing
raised?
What artifacts of civil war
What dead soldiers lay
Disturbed in their eternal sleep
Crawl out from the clay
And peat
What peat men are dragged
Black and dripping from their grave
Look how their death skeletons
Join your rave
Their bones jingle-jangle
And their death masks save
You from their hideous
Features
They do the bog romp
They do the rabble rave
They do the moorland stomp
In the Somerset grave
And you're so drunk
Yeah you're really brave
You dance with the fallen
Round heads and Cavaliers

They are dancing the conga
To Congelton, while between
Their spare ribs
The eels still steal
And their armour is rusted
But its clanking now
To the sound of the busted
Vibrating ground
And their flint-lock pistols
They hold in their hands
Are shot into the air
As the army stands
And the techno beats
Are drilling like tin cans
But you're too drunk now
To remember your plans

You vouched your life to the
Bridgwater league
To levellers these revellers
Swore oaths of blood creeds
The rabble was roused
By the saw and the plough
To fight for the farmer
Against power and greed

And the devils were dancing that night on
The moor
When the ghetto blaster blew
Its tunes
And the pitch-forks were raised
By the rebellious crew
And they danced and they crazed
They rioted and raved
Down the rhein drove
And played
But in the morning
Who knew they were even there
Nothing was saved
Save the black boggy
Foot-prints leading
Back -stomp..stomp...stomp
into the swamp