Serving time

 In a restaurant

I want lip service, I said

And she kissed me

The waitress I mean

It was like she had missed me

"No I mean pay me attention at least"

It is like this fifty-fifty tension

Has ceased

After that she brought steak and peas

I said you have made a mistake and

"what on earth are these?"

"When I asked for peace", I expected your speech

For you look like Miss World to me

She said fella, you've got one hell of a

Lot of nerve

To speak to me in that way

Where is your reserve?

I said I made it already doll

Over the telephone last night

I booked a table for ourselves

Now come and sit with me in candlelight

I don't know, she said, the boss is kind of testy

I said I know he has an extra ball

But that just makes him pesty

No I mean he is the king around here

You gotta perform like some kind of a jester

If you wanna sit in his hall

So I gave her a tip

And she went on her way

Swinging her tush in that playful way

But it was only the iceberg as they say

And the cold ran into her finger bone

I was sitting alone, now alone, quite alone

I thought of my wife whom I'd left at home

My other half, the better part of me

So I invited her out, out of memory

As her ghost walked in, it passed through the wall

And they all turned their heads who were

sittting in the hall

And they said the dead have answered your call

But aren't you afraid of what's out there?

I said oh no not me, it was funny in this

I wanted to be free, but couldn't quite shift

The shadow following me

I couldn't quite lift the chip from my shoulder

The waitress came up and said do you want fish with that?

I said that would be my wish and then she brought a cat

I said I thought I asked you for a dog,

She said but this one had whiskers and it looks like a frog

Well in that case I'll try it I said with a smile

But then it jumped off my plate, down the road a country mile

I guess I'll go hungry, I told her then

She said don't give up, she still had her pen

She said tell me your order and I'll write

It down in my book

When I said sausage and mash

She gave me a quick look

That said don't you know this is a restaurant

I said I know but that's what I want

So when she went away then, I slipped out the door

And I never have been back to that place anymore

Just

 I'm asking you for some news

From the foreign front

Give me the cues that I may use

To decide what I really want

I cannot tell, if this living hell

Is sound or fury or noise

But warning bells, begin their knell

Like psychological joys

When all is drifting down the river

And salmon are leaping free

And carp play harps, in musical

Tarps of mysterious melody

And trout make noise of gurgling boys

And fields of ripe corn

A million miles from where I am

And where I once was born

I run the gauntlet of this life

Up the torrid stream

And every footstep that falls

Is another vaunted dream

But if you call me Noah

Or if call me steam

I will flood you

With a rainbow

Of my vaulted beam

All the rocks are cold

All the trees are dripping

Sometimes the wild seems so bold

While I can feel less gripping

And the battle that must be fought

Is one against ourselves 

But whether it needs fighting

Is a decision made by elves

They are voices calling

Take it easy

Go to sleep

And I am willing to oblige them

As I crawl out of the deep

Life is short

 Life is short

You got to do what you can

Life is short 

Don't follow a plan

Life is short

Stick it to the man

Life is, Life is short

Life is short living in the fast lane

Life is short giving so much pain

Life is short and I say it again

Life is, life is short

Life is short living the dream

Life is short wanna make you scream

Life is short if you know what I mean

Life is, Life is short

Life is short when the shit hits the fan

Life is short when you're kicking the can

Life is short and then you understand

Life is, life is short

Life is short and you gotta speak

Life is short there's no time to be weak

Life is short you've gotta find what you seek

Life is, life is short

Life is short on the road to hell

Life is short looking down the well

Life is short and you gotta ring the bell

Life is, Life is short

Life is short and there's no going back

Life is short after a heart attack

Life is short, but it sure does stack 

Life is, life is short

Life is short, live it on the run

Life is short whether you're a devil or a nun

Life is short and God holds the gun

Life is, life is short

Life is short

And I wanna be free

Life is short and I wanna find the key

Life is short and that's what's bothering me

Life is, life is short

I had to let it go

 Yes you've got to let it go

With the birds

And the rain

And the wind that doesn't blow

I just had to let it go

All those feelings of sorrow

They hinder, impede

Not what you need

You know

I had to let them go

And I fell to my knees

In the deep grass seed

I cry and I bleed in the snow

Well it's not what I need

And funnel web's greed

I just had to let it go

Oh the clocks went back

I had an attack

Of time don't you know

Well too much of it kills

And not enough can stand still

While under your feet the grass grows

Still I just had to let it go

in a perfect world

 In a perfect world

There'd be no faces behind the glass

There'd be no separation

And all would be free to pass

In a perfect world teeth would stay in the mouth

The birds would not fly south

There'd be time enough to listen

And a right time to die

Oh how the leaves would glisten

After the rain clouds cry

In a perfect world

In a perfect world

We'd be young and strong

And each of us run the marathon

And no stumbling blocks

Or hidden traps

Could make us fall between the gaps

In a perfect world

For you and I

In a perfect world the Jade vase

Would sing outloudly of the hands that made

The Empire that was once waylaid

But now climbs up from the ashen grave

In a perfect world the dragons will fly 

Like red kites across the sky

And we will march under one banner

And all the larch will make for good lumber

And I can be in my manner

And no human being will be merely a number

In a perfect world

For you and I

Love and marriage

 The moon is like a penny

Shining in the 

Dark pocket of the sky

Half of what you want

Like a cradled baby

Hanging

The lawn is like your mother frozen in the dew

Half of

What you 

want

Knowing, always knowing

What the

world is coming to

The dog, I had to mention

Because dogs are like our angels

Or like our cousins

They always turn up, and you must expect them

At inconvenient moments

And a marriage gone wrong

Is like a dog that keeps howling

Because you know

That she/he needs feeding

Love or attention

But you can't quite bring yourself

To tear yourself

Away

From what you are doing

To respond

And so it keeps whinning

Until finally

It runs away in the night

and never comes home

Trundle rhyme

 He is the red island recruit

Of stupid sums occurring

Down the parklands ever burring

From the thistle to the fruit

He is common as a tractor

Outside of a reactor

On the farmland of xfactor

Who grows the unknown brute

And out he comes in fields

Along the hedgeline in search of a meal

In the plethora of woodland

Birds of long pursuit

But what covid flame

Has burned his covid name

Into ponies rump and side

By the river where he cried?

I can only guess at what

Was not spoken but was forgot

In the hours of the chimes

Before the ponies joined the rhyme

And all fairground castles

Are turning, turning pastles

About the necks of doves

Who harmless fly above