Castle clock

 The castle walls of Bishop's rock

That tick away with tidal clock

And listen on a body engraved by time

Listen to the water clock,

Time it rolls on

Ever the peaks and troughs ensue

Lapping at the laces

sapping at the shoe

Clapping hands in races

Of the egg and spoon

Holding up your swimming aces

Letting flags of colour croon

Body mark of the waves

The Bishop's hats, the white slaves

Driven by relentless whip

Driven kind or thirsty at the water's lip

I'm a high tide, and then a low

Pulled by the moon in tow

None can escape its sway

I'm waist deep in time

The further out I wade

Time's ocean laps the shore

And ripples underwater tones

If this air we breath is living

Then underwater is the sinking stone

Forever marking river bone

Ever reaching for the sunset

Scrambling an infinite egg

The gold we tried to gather

The rainbows loot we never get

Sun brows knitted, finally release

And time like a knife cuts us loose 

Into a land of blessed peace

Can we ever touch the sun

Or find the horizon

Some time when I am neck deep

I will look to you

To hold the tides of time back

Oh just before we both shall sleep

Where has the morning gone?

 Oh where has the morning gone

I have slept my whole life long

And into the cartoon world

Of Miss Saigon, the planets re-align

Yet I sleep on

Oh tell me where has the morning gone?

Moons in shape like chariots

Spin out from my eye's gaze

The fruits which bough the tree

As a fountain, hang low

In the Sun's high rays

Where now do the shoots of new growth spread?

Oh nowhere except to tie me

Down into my bed

Oh sleep you great invader

You harbinger of death

Crawl back under your rock

Let me raise my head

The day is bright and I might

Make of it what I may

Where has the morning gone

Now the night has gone away?

Almost wanted man

 Almost wanted man

It's hard to see where you stand

Whether in the window

Or the bus station queue

Almost wanted man it is sad but it's true

I've really almost never really wanted to be you

It's not like being invisible because at least that's risible

And you can have a laugh over a can or two

But when nobody wants you

Well they might as well affront you

And tell you straight get out of town

You've never done any harm

Never looked the wrong way at a bandit with no arm

Never even argued for your due

It should not come as a shock

But I'm sure you've checked your stock

And noticed that you've run out of

Pencils to chew

Almost wanted man

Boom and Bust

 Boom and bust

Doom and dust

Loom and lust

Just fit us as you cussed

And call the dancers in 

Come and pour some more gin

The Poor are eating out the bin

The thin are fat, the fat get thin

Oh who's to lose and who's to win?

I cannot tell if it's her or him

Is it all going down the pan

The stags are fighting in Japan

The Bears are raging at the Inn

The flat landers deflating in Holland

Oh force the curse

Or course the sin

The river rages far within

The castle walls of Bishop's rock

And the Scilly isles are in some shock

At Brazilian worms

And Eels slither

Up the Thames where they deliver

Rumours of

A rabies itch

Inch by stagnating inch

Animus

 We live in the age of the dog

We own them, Not to talk

To each other but to say

Keep your distance

they bark for us, they are our voices

That we cannot express ourselves

God soon it will be the age of the wolf

Howling at the moon light

Of unrequited love and dreams

In the past it was the age of the Mammoth

We would walk them, Walk with them side by side

They were silent

But knee and kept our secrets

We were the howling men and women

They the serene beings

The elephants of our collective memories

We killed

They had no voice, and no choice

But when we killed all the silent singing beings

We too lost our voices

We lost our ability to communicate through

The silent thread of mutual understanding

Like the whales in song

We bred dogs,

Tamed wolves to be dogs,

Tamed dogs to be humans

And in doing so forgot our animal selves

But also gave our souls to the dogs

Becoming dogmatic

And no longer Mammotic

Rapunzel and Todd

 He worked at Rapunzel Hair and Beauty Salon

They did the longest braids and hair extensions

That were ever known

The hairdressers Salon was at the very top

Of a tall tower in the middle of a forest

An unusual place for a hairdressers you may ask,

But as for that I cannot say

Only that a gentleman barber was passing that way

A travelling barber they say from Seville

Sweeney Todd, Michael Wood or it could have been Brazil

But either way he saw his chance and went in for the kill

May I present to you myself

A barber of exceptional skill

Just off the shelf, the shampooed elf

Cut a striking figure of thrill

Rapunzel said how could you dare

To cut off my locks

There's more locked up in your hair

Though it may come as quite a shock

Like Samson, that is where your strength

Lies in strands as long as wise

And I'd offer them as extensions

To those dim witted or passing ill

I think your locks would make a fool wise

Make a weak woman strong

In your strands so to speak

Is the strength of old Babylon

Discombobulated

 Disco Bob was on the job

But he left his work the dirty slob

To dance in discos

In San Francisco

Oh the life of disco Bob

He'd work too hard would disco bob

He treated life like it was corn on the cob

He had a lot to chew over 

During the war with the snob

But he wouldn't mind he was always

Holding the door knob

On his way out to the disco 

Oh disco Bob

Now I'm not saying his life was a sunbeam

Not saying it was a walk in the park

But surely you've got to have some dream

Unless you're forever to walk in the dark