Paper chain men

 I guess you wanted someone different

In that head of eyes

I guess you looked over my shoulder

In the furtive glance you tried to disguise

I guess the boat came out the water

I guess our airship has left these skies

For when I look I can see no quarter

That you have not cut up like a heart of lies

Paper chain men and women go walking

Down the street, down the  rise

Off the railway sidings

From where they lay down in the tracks their lives

Now all is paper thin, you see the skin

Is almost see through

And what they write in front

Can be read just the same from behind

No, we do exist, even if made of paper

Paper town, Japanese disguise

Paper Geishas walking

Wait for the ghost train's returning promise

Paper men and women talking

Break the chain of compromise

Olfactory

 I work in an Owl factory

Where we collect the pellets

We put the pellets on pallets

It can get quite smelly

In the Owl factory

We produce mechanical Owls as well

For looking down wells

We employ plenty of Dental scientists

For looking down their mouths

Counting the teeth in the fish

mouth

Counting the ships in Plymouth

Counting the tombstones

In the graveyard

And generally hooting up in a tree

We tried to replicate it

With a clown's rubber horn

But found the sound too loud

And screeching

And not really eerie at all

Talking of Eerie I met an audiologist there

And an Ornithologist who had caught a hare

In his mouth

She was running across a field

Crying take me to the Olfactory

The audiologist listened

And the owl who went deaf

Had to visit a hospital

But suddenly, suddenly

The owl couldn't hear

He said it feels quite stuffy in here

Quite, stuffy, quite stuffy

And really quite queer

I've lost all hearing in my left ear

So his head turned around

And around did it go

Like a merry-go-round

At a Christmas show

He thought a mouse as big as a house

Is someone I should know

But if he crept up behind me

I couldn't tell the difference

between him and lightest snow

He'd visited the wrong doctor

Oh wouldn't you know

An orthodontist or and orthologist

Who stretched out his wings out

The other his legs they tightened on springs

And his Owl hoot shouted like an awful thing

Oh take me back to the Owl factory

Lads

 Come my lads in the train yard

You're not yet in the graveyard

Come my tame lads 

Who work in the tanyard

Come my lame dads

Who shirk in frame yard

Come free my dray cart

Take my load off homeward

Comfort and mirth lads

Down in the valley with the pub landlord

Carnival

 The carnival came

All flashing light and flame

And burst their firework

Of music into the night

The faux indians gyrated

The proper yokels

Did impressions of Hollywood

It is smart culture

Do not bring in the outside world to view

But bring it in with a distinct hue

One which when titrated through

The stockings of your mother

Or the vicar's pews

One which you see in your

Somerset gown, Somerset eyes

We'll consume it like a local

The carnival leaves town

Their lights are off

Unanimated

Just the skeleton remains

All the entertainment drained

Off to the next town

Like a pig slaughter

Like the prostitutes

These entertainers

Who stand up and are the travelling show

The dazzling glow

In the mid of winter

In the confluence of all their work

Like a theatre troupe

They make an event

A standing show 

In those moments they are famous

They carry the culture of the world in tow

And bring it to the sons and daughter

And for whom these dancing figures

Could be the real McCoy for all they know

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