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

Hurt me

 Come on don't you shoot me

Donut don't, donut don't shoot me

You know you are my sugar coat

Ohdon't don't shoot me

I've heard the goat, and I mustn't gloat

But it's not a patch on me

Oh I hear you now, through the crowd

Like a sea

Yes I can hear you loud, Just promise

Don't hurt me

Don't shoot me down, like the other planes

With your artillery

Don't let me burn my crown of thorns

In the burning tree

Oh don't, don't, just please

Don't hurt me

I'm not some kind of a doll

You can pull and push around

You can't eat my heart like it's a cruel art

That makes you feel profound

Oh don't, no don't

No darling won't you stop hurting me.

Hold me

 Where have you gone?

Well, oh,oh dear

Where has it gone, well oh,oh dear

Where did you go

Oh oh oh dear

Where have you gone?

She was down, I saw her go

Down to the river

To drown her woe

Why did she, where has she gone

She is not here

Only the swan

And the swan swims

On a lake so clear

Where has it gone, why is it not near?

Well I went down

Oh, oh oh dear

To the soul town

Oh, oh oh dear

And I saw her swim

In the river clear

Oh let me go, I want to go too

Down to the river

Down to the river with you

Let me write you a letter

I'll write to you dear

I'll write where did you go?

I'll write it so clear

Oh where have you gone?

Oh,oh oh dear

Where did you go?

Oh,oh oh dear

And can I come too

Down to the river with you?

Well she lay down

Oh,oh oh dear

By the river so clear

She said now you must deliver

Your letter to me

You better send it today

For it's too late tomorrow

To say the things you must say

That we don't have time to borrow

So tell me so clear

So hold me near

I'm telling you dear

My letter will bring you but sorrow

I'm going away

I'm going today

I'm going away

I won't be back tomorrow

So hold me so near

Down by the river so clear

And and tell me today

How you will still love me tomorrow

Now I see her so clear

Down by the river she swallows

As she holds back her tears

And saves them for tomorrow

Because I'm going away

And our time I can't borrow

So I write her a letter

But it only brings her sorrow

Body Politic

 I guess what you saw 

When you opened the door

Was me forgetting my name

But I had to be sure

Each time I abhor

The way of getting the game

Sheets fall from the sky

Sheets of rain

And I cry

There in the corner

There must be the coroner

Of England's body in a foreign field

And he is trying to resuscitate it

England is flat-lining

It's fitting to be fit

No it is fit in ways I can never imagine

In ways that leave spectators to gaze at 

Football and rugby stadiums

And young people who fight

With their bodies at night

While in the day they train for the army

And these bodies go overseas for months

And sometimes return in black bags

While other bodies swim in the Adriatic

Or the sail yachts and attend parties

That are quite erratic

With the King of Monte Carlo

But my body has never done that

Perhaps in my mind that is a place

I visit in my dreams

Perhaps I hold a candle for the chances

Down the stream

Or for the memories of times which

Like diamonds gleam,

Gleam in the mud and the dust

Perhaps but in all honesty

I don't know where it goes

My body is this thing

That goes along in tow

And I must keep it happy 

Like England proper must be kept moving

And in good working order

In order for it to function well

Stop the economy and it will get sick

Don't listen to the doctors

They can be dicks

Listen to your body - the democratic one I mean

England proper - the body politic

The Demos or else the mob may rebel

You've got to keep it tickety-boo

Ticking along like a nice choo-choo

Serving time

 In a restaurant

I want lip service, I said

And she kissed me

The waitress I mean

It was like she had missed me

"No I mean pay me attention at least"

It is like this fifty-fifty tension

Has ceased

After that she brought steak and peas

I said you have made a mistake and

"what on earth are these?"

"When I asked for peace", I expected your speech

For you look like Miss World to me

She said fella, you've got one hell of a

Lot of nerve

To speak to me in that way

Where is your reserve?

I said I made it already doll

Over the telephone last night

I booked a table for ourselves

Now come and sit with me in candlelight

I don't know, she said, the boss is kind of testy

I said I know he has an extra ball

But that just makes him pesty

No I mean he is the king around here

You gotta perform like some kind of a jester

If you wanna sit in his hall

So I gave her a tip

And she went on her way

Swinging her tush in that playful way

But it was only the iceberg as they say

And the cold ran into her finger bone

I was sitting alone, now alone, quite alone

I thought of my wife whom I'd left at home

My other half, the better part of me

So I invited her out, out of memory

As her ghost walked in, it passed through the wall

And they all turned their heads who were

sittting in the hall

And they said the dead have answered your call

But aren't you afraid of what's out there?

I said oh no not me, it was funny in this

I wanted to be free, but couldn't quite shift

The shadow following me

I couldn't quite lift the chip from my shoulder

The waitress came up and said do you want fish with that?

I said that would be my wish and then she brought a cat

I said I thought I asked you for a dog,

She said but this one had whiskers and it looks like a frog

Well in that case I'll try it I said with a smile

But then it jumped off my plate, down the road a country mile

I guess I'll go hungry, I told her then

She said don't give up, she still had her pen

She said tell me your order and I'll write

It down in my book

When I said sausage and mash

She gave me a quick look

That said don't you know this is a restaurant

I said I know but that's what I want

So when she went away then, I slipped out the door

And I never have been back to that place anymore

Just

 I'm asking you for some news

From the foreign front

Give me the cues that I may use

To decide what I really want

I cannot tell, if this living hell

Is sound or fury or noise

But warning bells, begin their knell

Like psychological joys

When all is drifting down the river

And salmon are leaping free

And carp play harps, in musical

Tarps of mysterious melody

And trout make noise of gurgling boys

And fields of ripe corn

A million miles from where I am

And where I once was born

I run the gauntlet of this life

Up the torrid stream

And every footstep that falls

Is another vaunted dream

But if you call me Noah

Or if call me steam

I will flood you

With a rainbow

Of my vaulted beam

All the rocks are cold

All the trees are dripping

Sometimes the wild seems so bold

While I can feel less gripping

And the battle that must be fought

Is one against ourselves 

But whether it needs fighting

Is a decision made by elves

They are voices calling

Take it easy

Go to sleep

And I am willing to oblige them

As I crawl out of the deep