Jupiter underground

 Caves barred off

In the past from Neanderthals

Humans had to earn enough

From their payrolls

In order to afford the leisure time

Once again

To live like troglodytes in holes

Though I think our ancient ancestors would

grin

Their ancient wizened hairy grins

If they knew we had gone out

And back again to our beginnings

And you see we left the trees too

To go down into our houses

And visit animals in the zoo

Or pay exorbitant amounts

To have oak wooden panels

To make our floorboards and walls

And rocks that look like frozen jupiters

Giants stuck there underground

Titans of the rock face

Garden

Stare at Prometheus unbound

What has nature done to Kinship

What scars have her talons torn?

Sacred marks on flesh adorned

Like a crown of holy thorns

Sits the Kingship of man

While nature with her beaks surround

And peck his liver out each morning

Fresh another Eagle screeching

Flesh his breakfast on man will dine

Yet for stealing secret knowledge of fire

He has to this rock been chained

By Jupiter Titan king who reigned

Down his unjust treatment meted

Upon poor Prometheus

Until a Hero did free him

Hercules with Apollo's bow and arrow

Sheared the chain which kept him stowed

And tied to a rocky eerie

How the men and women did query

Who is he and what labours has he lost

or gained?

As it was while he was chained

But breaking free

Hercules and he

Went on down the road

Persephone

 She walked in fields picking flowers

She was picked by heavenly powers

And by the plains down in hell below

Where flowers wilt and will not grow

But love there was too strong to show

That of Hades for Persephone

That he stole her and her beauty

Down to chasms and caverns he took her

Her mother walking up above

Called where is the heart string of my love

Where is my one and only daughter

I left her only a while by the water

Demeter the Goddess of the harvest

Became so fraught and restless

She sought answers from Zeus, her brother

But he told her not to bother

"She will return, she is young and free

Free to wander and love, be who she will be

But Demeter was not to be calmed

By such words when she feared her harmed

"Find her now or I shall strike the world a mighty blow!

Put down my plough, neither shall I gather nor sow"

So under pressure Zeus searched high and low

And found her locked in Hades below

But Hades would not fully relinquish his prize

Not one so beautiful, it would be too great a sacrifice

So, though he knew he was commanded by his brother

He gave food to Persephone so as to trick her mother

She was starving in the underground prison

And so she ate the food of poison

She ate six pomegranate seeds 

And for each seed came a punishment for her greed

For each seed represented a month not free on Earth

In the arms of her mother from whose flower she was given birth

Instead she had to return to hell below

And live with Hades her captor in tow

For these dark months her mother would not work

Demeter went into mourning, crops died the harvesters shirked

Nothing went on growing above ground on Earth

While Hades imprisoned her daughter denying her worth

When finally the months of waiting were over

And Winter had followed Autumn, Persephone broke cover

And unbound she walked again through spring meadows

Her Mother overjoyed began to emerge from the shadows

But each year ever since, Demeter ceases to reap or sow

As her daughter in the ball and chain goes down to hell below

The darkness must answer light, the freedom by degrees

Is qualified by the quality and value we put on being free

The Other side

 The otherside, the otherside

There is always another side

You can hit or miss the mark

Or you can shoot in the dark

But I'll see you on the other side

She left for New Orleans, 

She left for New England

And roved around the countryside

(She said) See you on the other side

The otherside, the otherside

I'll see you on the other side

There are always two sides

 You don't have to ask

I will see you on the other side

When the light is low

And you cannot find your home

You can look for me from far away

I'll see you on another day

I will see you on the other side

The other side, the otherside

I'll see you on the other side

You can turn on the light

Don't get lost in the night

I will see you on the other side

Icarus

 Oh you had your wings of wax and feathers

And you were stuck up there like honey

let loose your tethers, out of the tree of money

You jumped from the cliff, or were you pushed?

I saw you gliding up over the horizon

You've been flying too close to the sun

Oh you wanted to be a God, didn't you

You wanted to steal the secret of fire

You wanted the best of both worlds

Didn't you?

Now you can see pride comes before a fall

As you tried to fly higher and higher

All your plans have come undone

You've been flying too close to the sun

Oh well the time will come when you will learn

But not until your wings will burn

And you'll fall back down to Earth

What goes up must come down

Don't you know there are many more like you

And you're not the only one

You've been flying too close to the sun

Stars and Bucks

 It takes a lot of bucks

To get to the stars

To the black espresso coffee

Of space

Where God is a barista

And stirs in the galaxies

And he sprinkles stars like sugar

All the way

Oh it takes a lot of stars to make a universe

It takes

A lot of Bucks they're far away

And if you could take a single shot of rocket fuel

Would you reach for the stars today?

Who thinks

Who thinks we can get there?

Who thinks we can get there today?

I'm just sitting down here on a bar stool

Drinking a coffee to the milky way

The star-bucked Martyr

 Oh how the stars bucked me

They threw me off indeed

I thought I was dying for a cause

Or a need

In fact I died for my own greed

Selfish as a human will

The stars they taught me a lesson still

Do not follow or ride our train

Around and round the earth again

You'll get dizzy

It's all in vain

The Star-bucked Martyr cried again

If I should go down in flames

Let the stars spell out my name

But they ignored her single claim

For stars are no man's fool

And no woman's gain

They follow their own rules

So don't get cross

If you find your stars are lost

The banner still shall be held high

On the spot you came to die

Armistice

 I've seen this world go up in flames

Then down again soon fall the rains

And ashes burnt, but memory remains

It's all just a part of the game

And I create while you destroy

You treat this world like it's your little toy

But can you claim you don't enjoy

The lives you squander, girl or boy

I should have thought you'd have had enough

What's life worth and at what cost?

Will death come cruising for your ghost

In hidden halls of your war post

Write a letter home won't you

Tell of the murder that you do

Explain to your mother and your father

How you rape, pillage and torture 

If this crime belies your heart

What a black place it is to start

Make a new world instead your art

Paint with brushes not with darts

Cut the cloth to fit the mode

The time of living in this abode

Is over so soon before it begins

All babies surely are born without sins

No child deserves such a death

Wrenched from life at their first breath

For the sake of lives much farther along

Despite the heartache, despite the wrong

What justice is there in killing the young

In defence, or to prove that you're strong

It is weaker still to aim your big guns

At innocents who've done you no wrong

So put away your guns of shame

And let peace reign again

It matters not what hot words have flown

Let sleeping dogs lie

Return to your home

All flags of nations should have one hue

The white flag of truce

To show their fighting is through

And if Armistice means any kind of gain

Let us speak true and end the war games