River Queens

I wandered as pale as a sheep

Afraid of sleep

Of death

As a nettle amongst sick roses

Falling over myself in unspoken morose(s)

Witching the ‘you’ tree beside the Yang river

Which sang Ying as a shiver on a ghost

It began to believe in the God seed

But Jack high on speed ran it up the post

I wandered, a grief I knew not where from

Betrayed me like a mirror to a shadow

Respected no ill spectre of unforgiven love

Inspected all god pieces as if gold in a glove

She salmon pinked my insides

Yet stones I threw from the bridge

And watched the black water flow through

As if the stars had born you

And I had been waiting

All of my years

To catch a petal and let a stone go

So what ‘s the matter Queen Jane

The look of mercy is plain again

Ann of neck and sleeves is worn,

Her cares have Jasmine vipers bitten

And shy is smitten and sworn

Neptune's Circus

An Egyptologist came by camel to Camelot

Came to Neptune’s circus

Rode in there with green apparel

Climbed down the cliff side staircase

Left the land of sand and stone

Exchanged it in for sea and cross bone

Saw clown fish laugh

And clams applause

As the long decked raft

Broke in the shark’s jaws

Watched booming white comets of surf

Shoot up and spray

Like Pennies dropped down to earth

And fireman octopi with their long hoses

Bedraggle the Angel fish who stride with Moses

And see the sea part then like curtains

Closes

After the Israelites depart

From under Egyptian noses

And he came to Neptune’s circus

It was worse now that he had purpose

And the thoughts and the thrills

That burbled in the rills

On the outskirts

Of circus Marquee

Like the frills of lady jelly fish

Who came to dance the dark Fandango

In the light fantastic of the underwater

Universe

Or the solemn hermit crab

Who crept with all his red fingers drab

In the cuticle of minutiae of telescopic beetle burrs

The Egyptologist stopped

Mouth agape at the dead Sea

Staggered like a sand dune to Galilee

Those place of the hieroglyphs

Were seemingly these gyro cliffs

That turned around a merry go-round

Or carousel

And in the fairground grinding organ music

Spoke of oysters, barnacles and other molluscs

As he stared at the starry night above

All the Hebrew Tribes

All the Hebrew tribes walk out

 Slowly in the morning

 Waiting for the birthing trout

In the river spawning

And as the shingle rolls about

The tide it goes on yawning

Sharing a bed with the sprat and sprout

The tiddlers go on pawning

Prawns come marching in their leg lace style

Cycling like a ghost army each ephemeral mile

As the sea bed listens

To the love locked isle

The trees were like mighty antelopes

Appraising a far off hill

Thinking it may be their last hope

To avoid the lions kill

The trees were like a shadow

Moving upon the wall

Where one looks like another

A  sparrow

A wolf in the garden

A face ready to fall

The trees were like a shaman

Who changes shape and size

One minute they are an eagle

The next a bear with brown eyes

We were walking in the shade of the leaves

That cut up the sunlight

So that shadows were like paper chain men

Dancing their marching jig on the ground

We were walking beneath when the heavens opened

When the droplets fell like boulders

When the caterpillar crawled on the mud around

And the mosquitoes alit on our shoulders

We were walking between our youth

And times past, one a bit older

But shared in this vision of childhood rare

Looking down from a bridge in to the water

Linking to a time that now seems much colder

A future of our bodies in a state of decay

When we went out walking the other day

We ate our lunch in the hidden enclave of the land rover

Rolling the same script that’s been turned over and over

His children, the family, poor sleep

Domestics, cries for attention

Keeping a relationship going

When we went out again the rain had stopped raining

He stopped complaining, I enjoyed the job more

Scrambled down the slopes

Held onto trunks, swung on others like lamp posts

Almost singing in the rain, when it came down again

We weaved between the Holly, made no great folly

Needed no brolly, gone far from melancholy

In fact felt quite jolly

Fruit Yesterday

Fruit yesterday

Fruit today

All of it rotten in some decay

Flashing crossing lights

Blink and speak

Panic stricken on a losing streak

Hope wrestles infirmity

Dope kestrels of eternity

Hover cope, like a kite on a rope

Cutting the sky in two

Minstrel speaking crows in rhyme

One caw, two caw, three in time

Flat line oblivion

A breast sheltered Powers

Reign down on me gently

Soothing rain showers

Allow me to cry

For God’s sake forgive me

For all and every crime

I ever did not believe in thee

I need your help now Jesus

I need what you bring

Guide me up gentle

Like a kite on a string 

The Christmas Turkey

The Christmas Turkey’s wrapped

All manner of beans and flying machines

In the tumble weed dawn

When the white horse rides

And the red nose glows

And all the selfless little elves

Take a good look at their selves

When sacrament of love is given

And the holy foundation of earth is riven

From the ground in its pillars of might

By the snows,

        By the wind that blows

By the sickle cutting corn in rows

        From the hands of Avenging Angels

When dawn breaks chorus

As the Greeks

Their furious selves hide from the weak

And salty earth is in the mouth

Because food grows plenty down south

And certain tribes are tucked away

Unbeknownst to the new light of day

Unless a word or two to say

Inside the ring of the horizon

Oh Powers mighty flighty staff

Come turn the road in range,  less  ways

To mock an Eden burning, yearning

For a false dawn’s door handle’s turning

Open up a witch craft’s furnishing

All bodies in blood and yellow

In blood and yellow

      They write themselves

Into the walls or hells

And out of holes or into wells

While the church bell’s chiming

And Tachygraphs of photographs

   That keep the heart in fits of laughs

Or sit like bulls upon their loves

And doze inside fresh meadows

And sallow tainted, scented dreams

Of things unbidden, ghosts unseen

The blood and yellow most obscene

Is washed from the windows of the soul

When tears come tumbling down

Like an ocean kingdom, when falls the crest like crown

To drown in air, the watermen stare

Up at the clouds of skies

Beyond the ring of the horizon

I don't think of you that much anymore

I don’t think of you that much anymore

I am in the merry-go-round world of rich and poor

Some folks find happiness, like an open door

But me, it’s like when I hear “such and such”

No I don’t think of you much anymore

I see the painted skies turn black

Then turn back into day

I see the crowded subway trains,

Change passengers then drift away

I see the birds flock in the sky

I wish I were a bird so I could fly

But why, oh why? I don’t need to cry

As I don’t think of you much anymore

I don’t think that much about you anymore

I don’t think that love will come knocking on my door

Now when I see you it’s to say

Hello, good bye, then I walk away

There’s someone somewhere waiting for me I’m sure

I don’t think of you much anymore

I know scientists have discovered new cures for diseases

But love sickness and the blues

Just leave me with blackened bruises

And if you say it’ll work today

I’ll jump out of bed and cry hooray!

Because it’s not broken bones they need to cure

But love’s cool words that cut and tore

But I don’t think of you that much anymore

The fire flies of night are bold

They fly their tales like in stories told

Of knights in colours defeating the black

Well I can still believe you might be coming back

But I don’t need to go and do that chore

As I don’t think that much about you anymore 

It's more than I can do

It’s more than I can do

Not to fall in love with you

It’s all my hopes comes true

All my horizons turned clear blue

It’s more than I can do

In the course of a true love’s affection

I have pursed my lips and followed your direction

But to keep on after you

Well it’s more than I can do

Beyond the night time’s steep tower

Where the moon rules its awesome power

I have freed the caged bird, off it flew

To keep him locked up, well

It’s more than I can do

The diamonds in the rock face sparkle

All the tin faced soldiers darkle

To see them march beneath starry banner

And know I once marched there too

Well it’s more than I can do

I must meet the world’s demands

Must do and follow its commands

But if I can or will it’s true

It’s more than I can do

The steeple chase, the wild goose

I caught him once but turned him loose

To keep a thing so long, belonging

Beyond some right curfew

It’s more than I can do

I saw you once in the hall of mirrors

Dancing like a phantom nearer

Until you caught my eye, your beauty beholden

With your fish hooks gleaming golden

But I had to let you fall right through

It was more than I could do

The colours of the rainbow glimmer

As on the sea, the Sun’s golds shimmer

A fishing boat trawls the lost ocean

To catch a fish like you

Yet it’s more than I can do

I hold my hands, my heart stops beating

The furnaces turn iron cast sheeting

That slips between the hammers

And the fire’s heating

The old below us the other we create a new

But it’s more than I can do