The Strawberry line

 Strawberry line

Two tracks infront

Always one step behind

Like a camel threads

Through the eye of a needle

So too must I thread on a treadle

Of yarn,

And spin my web,

In the ebb and flow of

The Bristol estuary

That awaits all wrecks

Of land and sea

The end of the tracks

Run down to the beach

And launch the great Iron hulk

On her maiden voyage

Steam ship of the channel

Fruit picked, picking its way through

orchards of apples

And row upon row of strawberries

Two tracks in front

Still one step behind

Out of sink in the blink of an eye

Replaced by the steel horses

That race or fly

As the horse was replaced by the bicycle

And I will be replaced by someone younger

More fitting to an age of enlightenment

Or else as it ran over

fields

It now is run over

By men and women on two wheels

Not forgotten, but marvelled at

Like walking through the rib cage cavity 

Of a dinosaur or Blue Whale

A leviathon of the past

That men and women some how constructed

On will wit and ingenuity

And the endurance of living

on a island, and wanting to get to the sea

Or wanting to sell their strawberries

Two tracks infront

But always one step behind

And the destination doesn't matter

As much as the journey

The climb is a trial,

But it is earning a living

It is living your earning

And it is working your body

Like the steam trains steel limbs

Shunting and shoving and hissing and spurting

forth steam, sliding on their greasy poles and rails

Pistons bobbing up and down, back and forth, driving iron wheels

Around and around

Much like the bicycles

We have trained out selves to be machine like

To be repetitive and determined

And strong

And tuned our limbs, muscles and tendons

For what though? May I ask?

To be able to sleep at night?

Or to be able to compete with what we see on adverts

Or perhaps simply to occupy our leisure time

Two tracks in front

Always one step behind

Shelter me tonight

Give me comfort

Keep me warm

I need your love

From the raging storm

Come on and won't you

Shelter me tonight

Secret love, in a hide away

Upon a hill far away

I have wandered long and wandered far

My feet are weary, my head is sick

I need your home so light your fire quick

I'm coming in from the cold

Oh won't you shelter me tonight

I bought the bomb

I sold the world

But I'm a man too young and sore

To comb over the mistakes that have past

I brought a bottle, I brought a blast

When I saw you I thought that we would last

So won't you shelter me tonight

The world it is a dying fog

And I can be your Prince or your frog

Just kiss me once while we're alone

I can't bear to go back outside

And you don't need another reason to cry

So come on won't you shelter me tonight

I had left you on the stair

With coal black eyes looking like despair

But you don't know the times I've cried

The love we had now it looks lost

What was good turned bad then we got crossed

Wires in the fires of all repost

So won't you shelter me tonight

Nobody sings the folk songs anymore

 I woke up in make believe

I walked down into the street of autumn leaves

Where nobody sings the folk songs anymore

I past by the chestnut seller

Who was roasting his nuts for a fella

He said why you can't ignore

Nobody sings the folksongs anymore

I past up the street from him

The wind was blowing, the sun was thin

A film of sadness it filled my eyes

And I couldn't see through tears

That fell like rain through all the years

And I thought why nobody sings the folksongs

anymore

I crossed over the street again

To visit inside an old inn, 

I knocked upon the door 

and walked within

There were many fellas sitting there

Drinking beer to their despair

They said nobody sings the folksongs anymore

Where have all the good men gone?

Why have the walls of Babylon been broken

Down by the Pagan masses there

They cried 'We can't believe our eyes

The world got sold to our surprise'

Nobody sings the folksongs anymore

I asked the woman in the corner

Who was sewing up her husbands shoulder

Crying out like she was newly born

I said what on earth is the matter?

Why can't you explain the patter?

She told me nobody sings the folksongs anymore

Well outside in the light again

I met a strange immortal friend

Who glowed in his presence like a fire

He said walk up the road a while with me

And said we shall see what we shall see

But nobody sings the folk songs anymore

We walked upon the clouds that were lit

By the sun's rolling chariot

And we saw the world before us born

A new like on every corner

An old strife to every donor

And I know nobody sings the folk songs anymore

Well poverty it rings its bell

But nobody answers that knell

No nobody comes to wake the dying poor

They work for hours in their fields

For to scrap up a meal

And nobody sings their folk songs anymore

There are two faiths to guide you by

One is your heart and the other's the sky

And if you follow one you can't ignore

The place that we all come from

The one road to Babylon

But nobody sings the folk songs anymore

---------

I tell you that you are like me

And I am like the apple tree

That grows, grows its rosy green fruit

And nothing more can answer it

Than an apple that has dropped and split

And nobody sings the folksongs anymore

And now as I'm leaving by

I kiss the sun, and I kiss the sky

For they were the subject of what I adore

And the birds were talking in their praise

Of a world they've known in better days

And nobody sings the folk songs anymore

Without a shadow of a doubt

 Without a shadow of a doubt

I knew, there and then

That you had me,

Like a rabbit in your head lights I was trapped

And as you came down upon me

Well I thought now this film is wrapped

When I saw you baby

With the blue light in your hair

And the moon dust, which you had brought for me

To touch but I didn't dare

Well then yes I saw your statue, And I lay down

In your shade

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That for your love was I made

I knew in the evening of torment

And in the final bow of violins

That my love for you was gurgling up

Like a fresh water from a spring

And I had you in my picture frame

I had you in the hall

Where all those brave, burley men with names

That in the night you like to call

And I was afraid

Of losing this one jewel, I had stole

But I knew without a shadow of a doubt

It was you who touched my soul

If you talk to me baby of suits

And cards that shout

Oh I will break them in two baby

For you knew

Without a shadow of a doubt

That love like a king, came in and ruled the game

And we were all looking to him

When we forgot even our own names

And it could have been Lord Jim, or Tim,

Or even James

But All those saints they sang their hymns

While love shouldered the blame

But, no I knew you baby

I knew within, this feeling

Like the time when the table shook

And I remember the face of the thief

In the mugshot, and the picture of all that he took

And I would chase him for you honey

Across the states, or the whole universe

But he'd just escape again my clutches

Like he did at first

And was it not you who said to me

That I was worse, but take back

All those things you said and write them in reverse

Because what I meant I gave you already,

Now you want to give them back it hurts

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That this love will be my curse 

Time is short

 As I sit down to write

This my last report

Not much has changed

the war is still raging

And the soldiers continue to fight 

Supplies are running low in the fort

I see without a doubt

That our time is short

And if I look out

My window

I see the ship has already left the port

And if there is something

you need to say to me 

You better make it quick

For the candle is burning in a frenzy

And there is little left of its wick

So what I am is saying is

Our time is short

The man who loved you yesterday

Today he has gone to court

The judge in hob nail boots went crazy

He said lock him up and throw away the key

He murdered love in the first degree

Never can he be allowed to go free

So I'm sitting here on death row

Writing this letter before the final blow

And as God is my witness I loved you true

But I played love's game like a sport

I thought life was just a joke, but now I have been caught

And now I see after all our time is short

There is something wrong.

 There is something wrong here

The tides don't work so well

They rose up but they never fell

There is something wrong with the sun

It seems to burn all day long

It has burnt the sun dial away

And now time lies melted, like a flipflop

There is something wrong with this beach

The way the sand has turned to glass

And I can see through to the rocks below

And I can tell now

There is something wrong with this snow

It blows too hard, like little pebbles

It is like being stoned

And the crows are lying dead on their sides

There is something wrong with the rain, 

The way is floods the weather vein

Is squealing like a pig

The cockrel is crowing on the oil rig

And the waves are crashing like tsunamis

There is something wrong with these

Reindeer armies

That march in herds across melting ice

As sheets break up

Before their eyes

And icebergs melt outside your kitchen

There is something wrong with this pleasant scene

But what is wrong I cannot tell

It is just that I don't feel so well

As I used to

In the good old days

When the sea was sea

And clouds knew how to snow

Soft like a film reel from my childhood

But now there is something wrong

And it don't feel so good

Pipe song

 I sat down to light a pipe

Struck a match for to get my light

looked to my left and I looked to my right

Saw a man sitting there as still as the night

I said hey there who are you?

Are you a ferret or are you a shrew

Hey now who are you?

Are you a stork or a cork screw?

And I lit my pipe, I lit a match

I smoked the leaf and there was the catch

The smoke swirled around, around my head

And I saw this man and I thought he was dead

He leant so still against the wood

The panel outside I knew that he should

Hide away from the world, dressed up there like a bird

Well I lit my pipe and I thought how absurd

Hey now who can you be? Are you a shrew or are you a tree?

Hey now who can you be? I thought he was a stork stalking me

I stood up quick and looked around

The lake was slick like a grey hound

And the oily waters did surround

But he was hunched on low quarters to the ground

I said hey now who can you be? 

Are you a man or are you a tree

Hey now who can you be? The man in the moon

looking down on me

Well the birds lay around in the pond

And in the fields lay the pearly swans

Just swaning around singing their song

Doing what they do all day long

They said hey now who can you be

Are you a man or are you a tree

Sitting on the ground acting so free

While the Earth turns on regardless of thee

I stood up to look around

The boiling waters stood their ground

I said oh now who's that man

Lookin on me from the ground

Hey now who can that be standing in the moon

lookin at me?

Hey it is a plane or tree who's that man lookin at me

Hey now who can that be

Lookin in the tree lookin in the sea

Hey there who can that be standing there waiting

Lookin at me?