It's a wrap

 The thing about presents is

The only worthwhile thing in them

Is their wrapping, because that's

The only part the giver has actually taken the trouble 

to do themselves

That's why dogs, cats and toddlers play mainly with

The wrapping, it is the best bit

A book, someone else wrote it,

a toy, somebody else thinks that's fun

paper though, wrapping paper

That was touched by the hands of someone who cares

Or feels obliged to give you something

Even if they don't really care and are giving you

The present out of duty, then they at least

wrapped it, put it in a box, maybe wrote a card

That's why it's fun to tear those things up

Because it just shows what a fun waste of time it all is

giving or receiving is really bollocks, but we do it

because it's something to do

And if we didn't it would be boring, and it would probably just be raining

and grey

But you see building things up and destroying them

Is really all life is about

And it is most fun to destroy things someone else has made

or valued

And it is even fun to see them being destroyed 

To an extent

Of course it's easier to understand when it's a cat, a dog or a toddler doing it

But deep down, that's all we really want to do anyway

They just have an excuse, infancy or they're animals

So it's pretty much the same.

Second chances

 Immigration, immigration

Getting like it's hard to mention

You ask somebody where they're from

It's like they've been hit with stun gun

I'm not trying to exclude you from my world view

I'm not trying to categorize you

But I like to know just who I'm speaking to

So don't get offended if I ask you to answer true

What's the problem? What are you hiding from?

Is it the dreaded word immigration?

I can say where I was born, that means I know where

I'm from

Though it sounds absurd

It matters if you're an Afghan, Somalian or Kurd

Sunni, Czech, Lithuanian, Polish or Bulgarian 

But only because it's culture is different

Isn't it worse to pretend we're all the same

And lie about where we're born

So we can get given the password

To enter a city, a country of gold,

But you know it's only this way

Because we haven't entirely sold

Our souls

Of course the massive corporations have though

They've been buying up

Our rights to life

They control our old age accommodation

Market forces

Forced Grandma into a home

Capitalism made your parents divorce

Getting rich, and being well

Became the only Christmas to sell

And such things as faith and honesty

Got thrown out with the dishwater

Into the frozen sea of commerciality

Some place, perhaps there's a place

Where being a family means

Being loved, its rules

Are above the government's laws

Regardless of citizenship

Which is just a passport key

It's just a way of saving a life

From poverty into prosperity

Prosperity, but no family

Just a waltz with the dollar

Just a Sterling march

A glide around the ballroom

of Second chances

Taking a spin

On the wheel of life and love

But you must forget

First what you used to have

Get into Christmas

 Get off my lanterns

And start running the show

Christmas is coming

So don't be slow

Get off my lanterns and get into

winter glow

My head was doing a performance on the chopping block

I walked around the corner and found quite a shock

That the French revolution was an exhibition on shutterstock

And the photographers were the only ones keeping their heads

The rest of them were hopeless lifers and may as well been dead

but no don't talk like that

Get off my lantern

the bare trees are blowing in the wind

Falling

 My eyes fell, fell a sleep

My eyes are falling, falling into the deep

I fell out of bed

I fell down the stairs

I fell off the log pile of all my burning cares

I fell, I fell for you

Falling, falling waterfall dew

My eyes are falling

Falling water too

My eyes aren't falling

It's just the morning dew

When I rise the sun in my eyes does too

But now I must be falling

Falling in love with you

Island sliding

 D7The problem is C you're attached to someone G else

D7 If we lived on an island C nothing would matter

To G ourselves

D7           Am          Em

Ebdim      

D7 But we live in a world G where we see other people D everyday

D7 And you know what they say about C other people?

G What do they say?

D7 Well they will C say whatever they G say

D7 Let's live in a world C by ourselves, G Just for today

D7 I think we can do it, C Now what do you G say?

D7 If I knew you and C you, you knew G me

D7 Well I know you, and C you, you know G me

Am Em

D7We can do this thing and C make it work out G today

So come with me now, now what do you say?

Brexmas

 I saw Jesus coming on a donkey

I saw a little boy and a monkey

I saw a felicitous cat

But I'm keeping that under my hat

I saw a fat man wearing red

He had a big hat on his head

And it was just like the Sermon said

But I'm keeping it under wraps

Don't leave it out in plain view

For you know they're dwindling few

To hold the Christmas vigil

For Santa and his jezebel

Have clubbed the real message to death

Still we're all about restraint

And don't do that it's not safe

That's the British society we breed

And why we're losing our creed

But also we've made laws to stifle

Our own cultural traditions are trifles

And tea with the Vicar, 

hardly happens or it's quicker

Than it ever used to be

Not that I'm C of E

I was brought up a Catholic, that's me

But put me in a box

Or tell me to stop

Well then this isn't the country for me 

The longest day

 Why does the shortest day seem like the longest day?

It just seems so long to me

I don't mean the sunlight

That doesn't matter

I'm talking psychologically

Why when it feels so hard to be

Without light

But we put on light displays

Candles and plays

And laugh and talk with our friends

There's a feeling I don't 

Want it to end

Maybe it's the start of something

so new

Maybe it's the end of the year

Maybe it's the Christmas period becoming

A place of bickering or cheer

Maybe it's an idea

That these false circles

And machinery

Of community

engagements

And structures of

Certainty

Of people you who hate you

In their eyes

Of clique connections

Which are founded on

self lies

And lonely women

Who bully and cajole

Simply because

They lack any control

Over their own lives

So they stare like cats with knives

Over and beyond you

Because they don't respond to you

Because really they are jealous

And your single fate offends them

Or reminds them

Of their own emptiness and hate

But love is the only answer

To their sparse disaster

of a life