Jade Rust

 In Quarantine, in Budapest

In an attic, like an insect

Spider, beetle, buzzard, bird

Crawling Heath cliff all overheard

I'm in an attic, no panic

The pandemic, is claustrophobic

It doesn't like being indoors

It is downstairs, outside

Roaming the moors

Like a giant invisible monster

No one can see it, before

It is on yer

I arrived two days ago

In the zombie fields

Of project x

In the mouthguard mountains

Of the south

The police woman made me fill out the form

I said I'll stay inside to keep warm

She said 10 days, I said 2 months

She laughed in my face, said now fill it out

Twice, 

so I did, with the lid of the dustbin

Lifting like a mouth

Swallowing trash and flies

And outside everyone dies

That's what they tell you anyways

But in here we are safe

Alone but together

As the human race

To face

The greatest of our fears - death?

Yes, but no

What I mean is being alone

We don't like it 

Can't stand it

Need some others around

Just the sound

Just the scents

Of them hanging above ground

We are Humans

And animals

Not an isolated species

We need this connection

Coracle Chronicle

Like Coral Conic

Like a cone a funnel of all comic verse

Swallow it down, medicine for the hearse

That reverses through the universe

Until it finds a parking space

Says this will do, we'll drop you here

Two dollars twenty

What I say coughin

No coffin, he says look boffin

Use your head work it out

I thought you guys were meant to be smart

Well duh! Yes I said

But be reasonable

You've left me in a remote corner of the galaxy 

Where I don't know where I am

And you expect me to cough up some change

Like it was a leg of lamb

Now don't get bent out of shape man

You just been in that attic too long

Try seeing the long view

The big picture

You've got a front row seat to the end of the universe

Shipwrecks

 Take my hand

The rough sands have deserted us

Take my hand

The lover's candles

Burning us

The dirty tricks which lick

The skull

Have been moving down the barrel

Of the gun

That shatter all innocence

In the breaking of the dawn

And colour the shark's teeth white

And paint the rose blood red

And all the swallowed Edens

That the man walks through

In his life

When he is back on the street and alone

Where the deep black loam of time

Seeps into his soul

And she says to him

Take your time

And the Angel flies away

She leaves on a train

And it begins to rain

When in their way

They say goodbye

All for one

 Oh you are living the lowlife

You should be living the highlife

You should finding a fine wife

Before you're too old

So step into my old shoes

Throw off those tired blues

You should be getting some good news

And get used to those

You keep saying you're down and out

When what have you got to really complain about?

You know you make me want to scream and shout

When I hear you say that

Why don't you get on a rocket ship

You know the sky is the limit, init

You could on an upward trajectory

Stop all this business self-reflectory

You're not the only one in this room

There is an elephant and a witch with a broom

She was sweeping up hair from a loom

When she pricked you with a spindle

Now she's sent you into a slumber

But no worries I've got her number

I'll ring her up on my pile of lumber

And roll her down the hill

The light is on

 She is out there living it large

Painting the town pink

Downing some drinks

Before hitting the road

They are all fired up

Each other they goad

But she's not the same

Although I think I can claim

Felt she was a more sensitive soul

Well I can cajole

And keep on parole

Her flame

But I wouldn't wish to

Be

The dark wizard in his tower

Casting magic spells

To control her

I am no bar roller

They are out in the city streets

Where the light meets

The pavement in excitement

And rain puddles splash under feet

And voices go crashing like

waves in the deep

Somewhere out there

As I am somewhere in here

In my room

Though it is no great gloom

It is a lighthouse of news

That shines on and off

As the world's news is like doom

There is some hope at the end of the tunnel

Some flash of light

I can catch in my funnel

Like a spider

Like a web through out the house

With little bells that tinkle

Jingle and jangle

When she walks back in

And my light goes on

In the loft

And her care is so soft

But tough

And I haven't had enough

yet of love

Quarantine

 You better get ready to quarantine

If you wanna

See your family today

Let me tell you friend

That is has an end

But you've got to get ready today

We are living inside this bubble

Within the heart of the tube

And it is a little trouble

When you start seeing double

Through the hubble space telescope cube

I've seen these four walls

For longer than St Paul's

Has experienced his road to Damascus

But well I'm in isolation

With some fascination

At what these four walls mean to us

I've seen them again and I consider them friends

they are made of such visceral stuff

That one may go wrong on the road to Babylon

As if you hadn't suffered enough

And old Armagheddon was the end of the world

But perhaps it was only the end of the beginning

Because where we are hurled, whether a boy or a girl

Is into a whole new world that's worth winning

So take flight todary, spread your wings fly away

To Rome or the new Jerusalem

For unless you're a crusade, you should be well made

For the life into which you are winging

There will be shocks a coming

Andd rocks will be flunging

And flood waters will surely rise

But if you hold the the course true, and steer with the corkscrew

Then in the end you will open your eyes

Not going out (covid coracle 6)

 So I guess that is it,

I'm back in the square

There's no going out

I'm not going anywhere

And anyhow anytime

There can be few leaves on the vine

For the day is picked

From the tree of time

Well I'm not going out

And I'm not staying in

I'm forced to remember

All the places I've been

And it's not like December

No it's no kind of sin

If you forget November

And all the faces you've seen

Well I've got a party to get to at four

But it's not here now anyway, anymore

And I'll be late, if I stay, and I must stay I'm sure

I met a lot of people on my way through the door

But that was outside in, now I'm inside out or

At least I know beyond doubt, that out is in

For I put on a pout and stick out my chin

But it's not use complaining about the trouble I'm in

For the inside is out and the outside is in

Lighthouses

 Well I think I told you 

All about the day knots

They tie yourself up they do

But nothing like the night hots

It's like the spiders are walking over you

And they tickle your throat

Or like the shudder

When someone walks over your grave

Well I thought I told you

About the night hots

But they are nothing compared to the evening cots

They snuggle you up

In a wrap of contentment

Like you are a baby, they never meant it

Like you were the crack and they were the pavement

I think I told you about the evening cots

But they are nothing compared to the morning rots

They stink and the swole

Like a sewer's wide goal

Full of scores and points and winning joints

That creak and appoint a doctor to you

Well I think I told you about the morning rots

But why don't you see for yourself 

The noon tide tots

They play and they fluster

Like filibusters who hold kites to

The age of the middle roster

And then the curtain falls

And they all run back home

Well I think I told

you about the light house

That was where I spent my time

Lights going on and off

Warning and the rolling of the ocean

Outside