Of times up

 How come I only feel happy when I'm sad?

Who or what is the false narrative of my dreams?

When it seems as if nothing is what it seems

And the dog in the chocolate cart has cut up all the beans

And lent me his kidney saying some goats have these

And shallow sharks that bite at bait and need the dough

Of my mistakes until the bread rises and snow 

falls onto the hot oven

Aw mum the witches coven 

have coveted my TV

And they are performing soliloquys on day time shows for me

And finally the darkness in my soul has robbed me of my bee

She flew off to sting her last, her very own

Virgin suicide vest inside the nest of vipers who controlled her buzzing mind

Oh hive, hive, behave beehive

I wish my bonnet to stay on my car while Jane Austen drives it

And for leprous dogs to shake their tales at Shakespeare’s sonnets

Who drives the wild geese of foment and town turmoil

Into a frenzy of unaccustomed peace

So this say last, the day is done when Virgins may bomb my dinner party

I wish for no more terrorist virgins to be invited to my party

And when they die as surely they must

I wonder if they will go up to heaven and meet 20 terrorists

Or perhaps forty down in hell

For tea is what one needs these days

Tea and a grumbling that life is urgent and must be spoken about and told

And lived and never sniffed at or denied

Or envied although that is hard granted but lived oh lived 

And danced and slanted hats at parties of vats and tax collectors

Whose shirts are all ironed is boring and superman even

Was invited but threw up when he drank the Kryptonite punch

I told him it was strong but would he listen to poor old Green Lantern

No he would not and that is what you get when you date

Some one named Jade or was it louis,

Well none's the difference she was Chinese and I'm sure she had a thing or two to tell me

But I've run out of chalk in this mill of words and the board clerk is filling his next bill

So be quick don't squark for there is more time to kill,

No let's never kill time, only live it

And let it breath life into us

We must be brave 

We must be strong and positive

For there are some who aren't and some who were but never got the chance

To live and experience this time we may waste

But instead let's hold it precious

And live it in haste

Lucy in the Skype with dial up

 Sorry I lost you

The connections bad today

I'm sorry I thought we

Would have more time to say

What we really needed

To come out with 

but I'm

Sorry I lost you

I can't hear what you say

Out break

 Although you could say that I asked for this

The advance warning of your kiss

The night was young

I didn't know who is

Friend or enemy

Jerrymander or carpet bagger

Of the socio-political scene

Who am I kidding there was no Queen

The scene was a bar just after dark

The comedians on stage giving it their all

Being brave the crowd enthralled

Or not so be the case

It was a usual night of comedy

And the old hats brought out their new acts

And the fact checkers were counting their money

The fried dinners kept running in

Delivered by skinny bunnies

In Alcapone costumes

And I knew that something was up but I couldn't

Quite sniff it

So I kept my nose clean and my eyes down listening

Like in a Bingo ring

And yet again I listened

Envious of the cheers

The actors on stage were receiving,

Sneers or sniffles at first

kerfuffles in which coughs fought with emergent laughs

In the throats of the nervous crowd

Who hadn't yet drowned out their

Nerves in beer or other beverage

Like myself

Though slowly the beer I had ordered and begun to drink

Started to take effect

And I took off my scarf

I relaxed from the cold

And began to chat to the woman with the dog

My companion for the evening

As if by magic,

By chance

She knew Dave the host

And my landlord

And I who had previously been half willing to accept his invitation of a spot

Was now getting cold feet

In fact the whole night hadn't given rise to anymore willingness on my part to perform

The larger numbers in the crowd than usual, their young age, all of this put me off

I wondered what true confidence was

To just get up on stage and act regardless

Perhaps my second beer had killed any false bravery or suicidal instinct I had to go up on stage

But the result was the same, since

When Dave came around and asked if I was going to perform

I declined.

My beer rested on the plastic wallet that contain my printed off poem

Printed from the afternoon,

That I had neglected and even the very sight of,

The very process of sorting or choosing a reading had

filled

my gut with nerves

I wondered what mental resources was needed for this kind of work.

I used to be a good little performer in school

But I do not think I ever really wanted to be

It was always what my dad wanted of me, for some reason

I suppose to break out of my shyness

It was a good idea,

Make friends

Make a statement

But it wasn't me

Perhaps this neurotic fool is what I am

destined to be forever

Without any formal recognition of the fact

Who cares

What does it matter?

Knock me down with a zoo loo telegraph

 Well it's been a night and a day

of delight

It's been a grey sky rising

But the sway and the way of

The newly threshed hay,

I feel my spirit's horizon

I suckered the punch

I learned to eat lunch

Without much food nor much money

But no lunch is free

And a supper's not a tea

Not unless 

Your thieves are inviting 

COME TAKE ME TO DINNER

i am a winner

I beg and I steal and hob nob

And the cheek of the butter

Is in the pudding you nutter

Don't go off before you finish the job

Of salient cheese

All down on my knees

Begging for a piece of mind

Well you can give me a jerk

Or a forty dollar shirt

But it won't ease the trouble I find

I'm back on the farm

But they sold the estate

No you can make hay or you can placate

The love of a hansom mare or jump gate

 Just let her run wild

Until it's too late

THEn CLOSE THE STABLE DOOR

And watch her escape 

for time is a post-modern construct of late

And women need boundaries

just as men do

You would hear me say such diplomatic make-do

Such poppy-cock of reason

OR WHAT A TREASON

 But brother no woman is blameless

And I am capricious

When they are delicious

But it's just a season of mind

I only knew one saint in my life

And I tried to marry her

But she wouldn't be my wife

She would never stab me in the back it was

true

So I had to do it

And passover to you

We all survived the ghettoization

Of souls

But glass houses couldn't stem

Our migration

And now it is gone there is more to go wrong

Than a bottle of bud and a barrel of rum

You must be Jo King

 Oh the clowns lined up

Two or three deep rows

Like an army of Edom

All marching from Rome

The clowns are freed from their slavery

In bondage to the King of the laughing gnomes

He lays them out upon his lawn

And sprinkles them about

With wild corn

They must laugh now

They mustn't cry

For the first clown to do so

Will surely die

Oh what became of those

Laughing slaves?

Who marched across

The sea of waves

They left him laughing in his throne

Belly aching tongue lolling

Beads of sweat on his brow

And shaking violently

Epileptic King

Whose madness was

The lust of laughing

The joke it seemed was at last on him

And all his castle walls so thin

For the laughing wolf pack

They soon got in

The howling hyenas of Jo King

His soul was buried in the rubble

When the clowns

exploded their laughter bomb

The joke went off, but was a dud

The real punch line came from God

Who let lightning fall and strike

The spire that conducted down into

The choir

And the singers burned as they were singing

For the king

His praises learned practicing

The joke which taught the king to kneel

The Clowns left off, high tailed across the field

Brush the cobwebs away

 All the spices

Of taste

And colours in the spotless mind

That sweep away the day

And in the corners

Cobwebs find

And pine needles

Of the Christmas Spruce

She used to sew

Her fine cloth through

All abandoned now lays

On the slate of the window sil

I used to climb through

On summer days

Now I dare not touch the handle

Even in my dreams

For the spiders there

Are multiplying

And the cloth unravels

At the seams

Oh to keep

This love alive

But in the end the body dies

And all that once

Was love and roses

Now wilts down

To tears and blown noses

Keep me with you when you go

But in the end

I let you go

For this world

Can't keep us both

And life has its way to show us

Take out again the Christmas wreath

And hang it on the door beneath

The mantle and the step

That guards the house

of no regret

Let the bunting splay

And the holly shine on the holiday

All these images of my youth

And whole childhood is proof

Of love once had

Must be removed

But recreated again under new roof

Sometime near dark

 Some time near dark

When you walk away

I understand you you couldn't stay

But the darkness falls

And the sky turns grey

And blue light walls

They fill my day

Some time near to dark

It's not easy to see

The line that marks you from me

You hold my hand but you do not say

There's a silence there just like falling rain

And I need no words to show I care

For when it's near dark I know you'll be there

Some time near dark

In a twilight hour 

When the gloming starts

And a glowing fire

I warm my heart on your embrace

Somewhere near dark I can see your face

So hold me close

Don't let me fall

When the night comes down

And the curtain calls

We step out, out of the place

We each have our roles on the stage

But now near dark

You leave me here

To watch the stars

In the night so clear