Poetry

Monday, 25 October 2021

Born not made

 You were born not made

Plastic man with a plastic spade digging his very own

Plastic grave

Plastic coffin

On a plastic earth

Lasts forever

But never gives birth

Burn proof bomb proof

Like a shot gun

To the heart

Exploding in the plastic sky

That rains its plastic pellet dearth


Made not born

Plastic babies


For he was born not made

Where is maternity in modernity

Always the instinct but never distinct

Like a Nubulae some way off

In outer space, blowing plastic bubbles


What shall I do?

Live the same life as you

Live out of a shoe

Or draw the same knife as you

Cut the same grass

Bend the same blade

Some people are born while others are made


Plastic birth, and plastic bottle

Plastic message, written while they throttle

The plastic Life that never stayed, life that was torn

Life

Born but not made


Someone is coming

Summon the maid

Turn up the volume

On sister slayed

I hold the perch, like a parrot in a church,

like a symphony played

Somethings are born, while others are made


Tell me the future, the one of the earth

Where some cuts have sutures

Like umbilical births

Sew up the uterus, and make it all cutaneous

Nothing has depth, except the walls of sound

Somewhere underground, subterraneous

Where waste is aloud, and all pollution is bound


I hold my breath, here comes plastic death

Some things are born while others are made 

Plastic womb and plastic babies

crying where they laid

Plastic mothers in plastic pain

Plastic fathers out in the cold dark rain

Some people are born, while others are made

Don't you wax my surf board

 Don't you wax my surf board

You can wax my legs, you can wax my lyric

You can even wax my moon or ear

Just leave my surf board alone


Oh I came home last night and she was waxing my car 

In the drive

I told her to carry on like the doll you are

I said you can wax my turtle, you can wax my shoes

You can wax it purple you can wax them blue

But just before you do

Please be sure

Don't you wax my surf board

Leave it for me


I dropped by the tavern last Thursday night

There was a goat next to a chicken doing the foxtrot on top of the bar

I said I see you waxed the dance floor

She said sure

And you waxed the door

Yep sure I did hun

But look what you've done

In the glint of the last rays of sun

I saw three, two, one, four

You've waxed my surfboard


I told you, you can wax your hair

You can wax my candle

Even wax the waning vandal

But don't you Vidal Sassoon my uncle

Don't you wax my big balloon

Oh wax my knob and wax my Bob, wax my kitchen

And wax my hob, but be sure to leave one job

Just don't you wax my surfboard love 


Saturday, 23 October 2021

This is England

 The sheep are lying down now

Resting under the oak

And it is so English and free

And there is peace on the hillside

And in the valley

And whenever you hear the sally of the guns

It is not for anyone but the nuns

Who are shooting into heaven above

And firing out their eternal love

For this is England in a green, green land

This is England in a blue, blue time

This is England everyday of our lives

It is like folded ecstasy, 

Folding and unfolding in infinity

It is unravelled plentitude

and every kind of habitude


The crows know it's free

and they are so black

And the ravens in the trees

And the buzzards they attack

And the knights round the table

They talk of their king

But that was all such a long time ago

For this is England

This is England

It is so corrupt with corrosion

Finally earning its place

In the world


This is England, this is England

The smell of the cold

And the hawthorn trees

This is England

The collaged beaches

And the brownfields down to the sea


You can see it in the finer details 

of a Turner painting

While it is smeared about like Colman's mustard

Upon the ruins of the grating

This is England in our time

This is England

Thistles and pines

Broken horses and broken cows

Oh they are walking not straight

And all the houses of broken vows

It is there now


This is England following the plough

Making all furrows

All the burrows inside ourselves

This is, this is England in the hillside

Where the rabbits are all mating, none have to decide

This is England and they're all on benefits 

but that is good for the government


This is England in the Spring time

It is England in the Autumn time

This is England every noon and afternoon

And in the morning, and it is when you awake

for the sake of love

This is England and we can't go wrong

As long as we keep on singing our English song

This England I am robbed by you

And all the white van men in the afternoon


This is England and there are no voices

But the black and white choirs

Singing their different tunes.

Friday, 22 October 2021

Take me to the bridge

 Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your dreams

Take me to the bridge of the foregrounding

Take me to the bridge of your streams


Take me to the edge of forever

Take me to the limit of your tether

Take me to the most outfar reaches

Take me to your beaches

I will carry on forever

In the airy bounds above

Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love


There are many rivers beneath us

And so much water has passed between us

There are so many valleys below us

And many mountains above


Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love


I need to find a way to cross

To cross the river between us

There must be more than I can see

There must be more that I can trust

Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love



Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Travelling tears

 Hear that steam whistle blowing

Over the hills and through the wind

Hear it blowing for you and for him

Hear it blowing for you and for him


And it will blow through the leaves and through the trees

And it will blow through the cobweb of the years

And it will shunt up the tracks ever going

And it will be like the travelling tears


It will ever go from midnight til the morning

And blow through the hills and trees

And yes you can hear that steam train blow out its warning

For it's crying those travelling tears


And sometimes joy in the joining of two people

Sometimes force through the course of the years

Sometimes loss in the pain of separation

Oh they're departing with travelling tears


In the heat in the hour of conversation

They can speak on the platform standing near

And if you wait there for me at the station

You'll be crying those travelling tears


Yes you can hear the steam train blow out its warning

It is a hoot, a toot through the years

It says decide on your final destination 

Or you'll feel those travelling tears

Or you'll shed those travelling tears


In the truth of the pale last question

You can ask me about all my fears

Well I'll know when you meet me at the station

You will cry those travelling tears

You will cry those travelling tears

Skin in the game

 Skin in the game,

Oh skin in the game

It's all the same when you've got skin in the game

You've got to admit, you've got to have skin in the game


Drive off a cliff, don't be tight lipped

Let the hips kiss, it's so far from this

You've got to admit

You've got to have skin in the game

Oh the shame


There's no one to blame

None who can name

One single cuplprit who can even claim

They stood on the summit

and sung it

Or from the pulpit they'd plummet

You know it's a shame

But you've got to have skin in the game


Take or leave it, cut it and sleave it,

Come from the fore or the rear,

Cut off a toe or slice off an ear

It is sheer hypocrisy to me

Leave it on the butcher's table

Maybe Cane and Abel,

Leave a trace of blood, 

Like Hansel and Gretel through the mud,

You know it's a shame but you've got to have

Skin in the game, or so they claim


Make the sunrise, wear clothes of disguise

Hide the sun's rays behind rainy days

It shouldn't take long

To sing on your song of praise,

In many ways


Fire engine bell ringing out insane

They're burning down the tower of Babylon's great name

You know I can hear them say

You've got to have skin in the game


Oh it don't mean a thing, if you don't got that ring

You've got to have skin in the game

Squirrel

 Oh Squirrel who cares

If your nuts freeze

If they're frosty cones

And ice-cream pears

Nobody cares, look after number one son


Climb your bat infested tree

And stick it to the woodpecker

Who is drilling in your ear

Like a mad dentist


Slash and burn, slash and burn

The acorn is born

From your forgetfulness

Tree planter, Robin chanter

In the tree top's highest reach

Screech, and chirp, and pepper in wood pecker rhyme

No, screwdriver tongue

But the bells have sung and hung out

To dry in your silver squirrel sky