A merry cure for mercury

 We banked up the bank

With our wave of flags

Rooted in the sand as secure

As biting crabs

And we grabbed the weighing anchor

And lowered her to ground

And it found the depth we were seeking

It rang the deepest sound

And the ship was lolling on the rolling sea

And our bell it was tolling out for liberty

But cracked, it came a looming

Like a death knell a dooming

And fell right through the deck 

Stopped on the bunk on top of me

Well too much freedom it will kill you

It seemed to be saying to me

As I stared up into its mouth's vast entirety

Like a Whale's and might I Jonah be?

Well the ship it listed and the bell rung on

Clanking its hammer over my head ding-dong

Alarums, alarums the other sailors rushed forth

What is it? This seaman has save us of course

But the bell was lodged firmly into the bunk

And we left it there fearing else we'd be sunk

Oh come you democrats and tell all your cousins

This ship is a republic, we'll hang royals by the dozen

If you call her America she'll sally forth

But leave far behind the land of her berth

You see our Captain was a tyrant a rogue and a gambler

He played with our lives like they were daft shamblers 

And told us to scrub and told us to heave ho

The ropes and the sails and after mad whales row

It shocked me, it shook us to our foundations

That a ship of our size which had lead other nations

Could be steered into waters too treacherous to fathom

And at the helm always was our mad captain 

Mocking bird

 Mockingbird, mockingbird

Cry me a river

I hear you calling

How can you forgive her

For talking to him in that way?

Shy, shy, oh shy away

Denial is the better part of our foreplay

For what is love but a footprint in the clay

Left by a rambler who has walked on their way

Mocking bird of the mountain

Call me back one day

Sing of how the others sing

Sing of what they say

Are you a writer, are you an artist?

Do you show life at its smartest or hardest?

Worst or best news spread around the glade

Mockingbird, mockingbird sing your sweet serenade

Rubba a dub dub three men on a drug

 Heroine is the villain

And Crack is the Kraken

And the Hero is Smith and Wesson

And it's hold up in the guestroom

And Ketamine is the Veteran

Of the Veterinarian

And Cannabis is the Anubis

Of the Egyptian Harum Scarum

The scarab is an arab

With a vix vapour rub

And the cold room of the Hareem

Is the bathtub plug 

So scary a divertimento

Leaving a momento

Of your time in the prison of assassin grins

And wiles

While all the while you try to smile

At the fear factory boredom maker

The boardroom baker

Bake me a file as fast as you can

Can it in the can can

Of a thousand steps to dance

And finally fall asleep

Upon your own sordid lance 

Wassail song

Wassail, wassail bring us a bowl of cider

Delicious and good it churns up inside ya

We go a wassailing, wassailing, wassailing

Fear no more the dark times' assailing

Forces of Winter, nor the evil spirits 

We shall dance merrily around with sprigits

Of your finest branches, blanche not in fright

For the fire is warming and brings a good light

All of us together the darkness cannot turn

For we are apple lovers and to the new spring learn

How to live in light and joy of coming season

So Wassail, wassail for what better reason?

Share in good cheer, and share with the tree

For this year's harvest the best of ever will be

Come gather round all and hear our wassail song

Let the Robins and orchard birds all sing along

We pour cider on your roots so you may grow strong

 We beat our pots and pans and sound our loud drums

And soon we'll be drinking and raising spirits high

As the past year's sad ghosts flee off into the sky

So come with us now and join our merry rabble

With good heart through the year may you now travel 

Prospects for 2026?

 What is this life but a shadow on the wall

A woman is shot in an Immigration hall

It sparks a revolution, an American civil war

The guns are a shooting, and will missiles soar

And heads of state topple, it's all enthrall

The livers of policemen hang like guttural

Cries of religion upon depleted market stalls

Back in England, we are digging up the past

Clans who once were destined, now given a second chance

Lost in insurrection America stumbles and falls

Russia are battering on Europe's backwall

And Suddenly we wake up as if a Carnix cry

The streets are a heaving we realize we don't want to die

And people begin to fight

America shrinks, but so does the world

Because they can't sell Soybeans to China

And So the Chinese stomachs wimper minor

Keys of pity

And though they try to invade Taiwan

Domestic starvation leads to economic wan

The lights go out in the city

Their tech companies cannot save them

For who can buy it but Americans

And the dollar is crumbling

And Russia have hit back,

The US satellites are tumbling

After a Russian missile attack

So then the infrastructure of the world is in collapse

And the world wide web is in shreds

Like the spiders have been given up for dead

And have left the secret skills of weaving under wraps

I'm still holding out for a solution

But Then the nukes start to launch

And what isn't left in dire pollution 

Has suddenly got torched

And not to put too finer point

On the end of 2026

But those of us who do wake up

Need our weetabix

Slowly oh so slowly

We begin to feel and move

And There is food,

But it is local only grown

where there's technology it's only crude

And travel is anathema to any common sense

Because when you leave the confines of your country's fence

You realize everywhere's in ruins

And you might as well build strong your home

And it really did take all those years

To build up the city of Rome

So we talk to our neighbour because

Only half the world survived

And we learn how to treat them better

And how to live better lives

After death

 After a near encounter with death

It felt like slipping into a dark hole

A pit of an endless fall

The fear of losing life,

Losing self-control

I see the sun on the brick wall

And it is beautiful

As I remember when I was a child

In an orchard

Just lying on the grass

Doing nothing at all

We are so lucky to live in this world

The willow grows, reaches to the sun

And I breathe, free air

Where the body is trusted

And I think what sin it's been

That I ever lacked self care

I want the sun forever

And I don't want to lose myself in the moon

I want the sun's goodness to guide me

I want to visit the sea

And ask her to hold me there

I want to stay in bed and admire the sun on the bricks on the wall

Opposite my room on the street of Saint Paul

Broken mass

 King Midas sat on the toilet

Turning his shit into gold

Just gold bricking it, shitting it out

Until that toilet got sold

And you're like some shit alchemist

Who turns my gold into lead

To whom I bring my desire and you insist

That I take it elsewhere instead

And yet you hold up your fire

As if a beacon to guide me home

And I rise ever higher and higher

Only to always come down alone

So what is the point to this dichotomy

One in which you only give out vasectomy

And leave my dead flowers to rot til eternity

Comes round or hell freezes over

I'm cutting off now before I'm run over

I'm already a burn victim in the vice of the system

I'm as undisciplined as my rhyme scheme

I'm holding aloft my flag of surrender

Saying I can't take it anymore

Just leave me alone on my own private shore

This is the end of our un-alchemical amore