Sniffing sponges

 You said to me this what you are

Don't be a shrew when you're a shining star

You need not fear for where you are

You are in Shepton Mallet

Don't sniff my sponge or make my clunge 

Oh so final in accounting

There are no puns, to rhyme with guns

Or even out of banking

Do not make use of goats or sheep

Don't sniff around the border

There no ships that sail beneath

The out of way recorders

Don't sniff my sponge you say to me

Don't sniff my colour on TV

You can taste salt or umami

But don't you sniff the sponge of me

I care not for your crowing tongue

You lisp like Mister slow income

You hear me go, but you don't know bum

I fear you sniff my sponges

Don't clean up so you can see glowing

surfaces and hunches

Oh windy-winding hingey-grinding

Out of all expenses

I see you go down on the snow

And leave your foot print in clunches

You make such fantastic curries

That you eat as your lunches

When we are there the snow does fall

And under foot it crunches

But there are so few rhymes to rhyme

With you and sniffing sponges

I should go back, I should not stay

I should get flak, but not I'm gay

For being what I am and say

You keep on sniffing sponges

So be a good boy now and go

Out on your own in bunches

Oh follow your nose, just like god knows

But don't go sniffing sponges

There are so many words to rhyme

With house and horse and lunches

But so few now we must admit

Which rhyme with sniffing sponges

The Plastic surgeon's BBQ

 At the plastic surgeon's barbeque

On the 19th of November

I had to attend the bash

There were supermodels and women who waddled

Because their pockets were so filled with cash

There were hips which lied

And lips which never told the truth

Because they hid under the botox lid

And fake booby traps were the proof

As I wandered around the congregation

Who had gathered round the grill

The band were playing Radio head

And sounding kind of shrill

And the heat of the coals was scolding

And the sausages sizzled and fried

And the fat burnt down into the fire

Like from a burnt sacrifice

Who are the Gods you worship?

I asked after a while

But they turned to me and pointed to false idols

Standing in a magazine Style

Kournety Love, and Kurt Cobain,

And garage and of grunge

And all those Pops stars who made their names

After taking somekind of plunge

But they were never fake I said

Never plastic, though man made

They were the real thing like a choir that sings

Carols on Christmas Day

But in their expression I could see no understanding there

Their faces were taut like tennis rackets brought

Down on the ball to bear

Hard and like a lion

Rearranged like a puzzle

Lumps that began to shift

As a harness around a dog's muzzle

You see the plastic surgeon's bbq had begun

To destroy his own wax works,

And slowly they were all melting

As a candle does in a church

And the next time I turned they had become

Just pools of melting silcone

With some bones, that shone alone

Which attracted the dog's attention

And the plastic surgeon was on his knees

Thinking of his own destruction

And how would his customers ever pay the bills

On their own reconstruction

Never speak of this he said

For this is a tale of the living dead

Who wished for correction on what was fed them

Through false images on internet or television

That pool there was an instagram influencer

And her over there was a lottery winner

And he was a fat cat who wanted to be thinner

But it was all to no avail

For this is living dead told in a moral tale

Don't get too close to the flame

For like the moth you will

Burn

See their ashes and you'll learn

The true price of celebrity's fame

I asked him if the sausages were burnt

He put them in a bap and I said haven't you learnt

You need health and safety at an event like this

He said his fire officer had fallen off a cliff

I said what a faux par, no he was driving a car

And he was a crash test dummy

I said is everyone around you fake today?

Well I thought it couldn't hurt it was my own birthday

I invited them here and now here they'll stay

Buried under the patio

Well at that I decided to take my leave

He told me not to wear my heart on my sleeve

I said it was in the right place and he

Offered me some plastic surgery

Down at St Aldhelm's well

 And if you want a land of peace then you can tell

I will meet you down at St Aldhelm's well

If you have forgotten Forget-me-nots or the chimes of Bluebells

Then come meet me down at St Aldhelm's well

If you want the sound of choirs or the toll of church bells

Then you'll find them down at St Aldhelm's well

And the inhabitants of the village there happily they dwell

For they built their homes by St Aldhelm's well

And they sow the fields, gather yields and peas they shell

As they live their lives out by St Aldhelm's well

And the trees bear fruit and the livestock they can sell

All because of the waters at St Aldhelm's well

And it springs up from the hill and runs down in the dell

As the trees take their fill from St Aldhelm's well

They lack not for lumber for trees grow in great number

And their strong trunks they can fell

As they grow thick and fast, just like ships' masts

And you can find them down at St Aldhelm's well

None are diminished after the day's toils are finished

None feel oppressed by evil or fear hell

For they pour water from their jugs and they fill their cups and mugs

And all drink deep down at St Aldhelm's well

Around St Aldhelm's well

 The creatures on the church tower

Running round and round

Protecting the inside from the powers that surround

No evil shall not step inside and all shall beware

To fear God in his house, to come with mortal care

The arrogant shall not be given passage there

Or the wicked or conceited done down by their own care

Only the humble shall have their pass

And all this will not be a grumble of the past

Oh the gargoyle and the dragon in the mouth of the lion

As they reach up out of pits where the fires are besieged

And the unbaptized child who is dragged down into hell

Oh be fearful of the priors around St Aldhelm's well

Come stake your claim in leaves and fallen human souls

And don't take what you don't believe or what you can't control

You shall know the fires if you can't make it whole

Oh come see the priors around St Aldhelm's well

He walked for many hours trying to find his chair

A throne of all God's powers, a throne that is just there

And this is how it came about, it came about in prayer

Never waking time, but in seasons of care

And they all want a water wheel out of their care

Cos it springs up for the villagers, it springs up out there

And yes they brought it to our place, they brought it to our home

When the water came face to face with the enemies of Rome

And they brought it from the land unto the ferned hill

And it sprung up out of hand into St Aldhelm's well

Oh how can you see this place of fettered times

You walk inside the ancient hills and under the sweet sunshine

In the shadows of the ancient ones, by the shadow of the church

Overgrown by many trees and plants that holds its perch

Hold me in your arms St Aldhelm's well

And bring me water charms and quench the fires of hell

Will you drink? Will you come to me? And fetch me sweet liberty

And falling from heaven like rain into the sea

Lucy

I said to Lucy -"Can you make it clear?"

Cos I don't understand quite what I hear

Tell me straight was I early or late?

Lucy said "Let me elucidate"

"You were late, you were late, late as hate

Late as love at love's gate

You were late, you were late!

No need to contemplate

You were late in your love for this

Lucy date

I said to Lucy, I'm just so wrong,

I'm so sorry that I wrote this song

"You should have come to me before

You shouldn't have waited outside my door"

Oh Elucidate, a Lucy date, e Lucy date to me

Lucy make it clear, Lucy make me see

That it was just a loose date for me

There were wrongs and there were rights

And there were songs and there were fights

And Lucy and I, we couldn't get on

So we went our separate ways, on 

a long cold Wednesday

Long ago

The very next day we got back together

I wrote her a song and she wrote me a letter

She said to me why do you want to be free

 when you could be with me?

I said Lucy, oh Lucy can't you see oh Lucy

It was all just too late, now Lucy let me elucidate

Lucy yes or Lucy no, oh Lucy come and Lucy go

Lucy's loose as a free bird crow 

That's flying across the sky I know

Oh Lucy, why don't you come to me,

And we'll be 

so damn good ,well just like Robin Hood

When there is nothing to fear or to hate

Oh Lucy just elucidate

Ghost Train

 Ghost train, ghost train

rumbling down the tracks

On the old green ivy way

And the tunnel that was closed

and now is so black

I saw the ghost train

Ghost riding all the way

I will ride on that ghost train

From the past

I will ride on that ghost train

The very, very last

I will ride on the ghost train

Going to the future

I will ride through the valley

following the suture

Ghost train, ghost train

Coming down the tracks

There hasn't been a train down here

For so many years back

Oh abandoned and forgotten

The roads where summer lacks

Ghost train, ghost train coming out the black

Coming out from death, rising up like Laszarus

Opening out his breath and having one last look

Here we are coming whistling down the line

Ghost train's a humming, rumbling so fine

Ghost train, ghost train coming down the tracks

Anywhere you see it, it is out the black

Looking out for life, second one after death

There must be life after closure, we must breathe another breath

Ghost train, ghost train coming up for me

Riding on the ghost train number 1963

Anyone you ask, remembers much the past

They were wearing their mask, shovelling the coal

Burning up the fires, make those boilers hum

Come open up the furnace see the embers tongue

Steam through the tunnel,whistle out your fame

Ghost train coming, ghost train remember your name

1963 boys, 1963 the year they closed the tunnel down

The last year we were free

But we the railway workers are coming back to tea

Ghost train, is coming, coming back to me

Ghost train, ghost train coming down the line

Ghost train, ghost train is it your track or mine?

I'm going to jump out of your way

I'm gonna jump on board, we're waiting for the

Great Concorde

while you were working

 While you were working 

I have been dancing

I have been twirling and prancing around

While your focus has been

On lines that are strained

While your eyes have been drained of tears

And rhymes

And peering through legal loop holes

I have been pirouetting in the chaos of sound

I have been trying to 

create order 

I have been forming my body a new

In lines and in sinews

As strong as the law

The body of the law

The law of the body

I've been following it to the letter

Breaking no bone

Offending no tendon

Standing on my toe

To attention

All of this while you've been lugging chimney flumes

And stoves and heavy logs

slogging

I have been in a magical realm

of Princesses, swans and unicorns