The Dead of the Wars (a song)

HER
On a midsummer's morning
In a warm summer rain
I watched from the sidelines
As you stepped on the train
I had tears in my eyes but
You hadn't a care
You were just one more boy
That your country could spare

HIM
I hadn't a care dear
I was one of the brave
We'd be back home again
In a matter of days
We'd be married by Christmas
And the ghosts that I'd fought
Are only small prices
For the safety we'd bought

Come my brave ones
Come and tell me
Are you happy when you're lying
In the wastelands, in the graveyards
When we've forgotten your names?
All the girls they lie awake at night
Dreaming of their lovers
In their dreams they are walking
With the dead of the wars

HER
In an overgrown corner
Of some foreign land
Lies a forgotten marker
For a forgotten man
Who once walked beside me
Come sun and come rain
In my dreams we'll be walking
Hand in hand once again

HIM
In our dreams we'll walk together dear
We'll be lovers once more
We'll lay flowers at the gravesides
Of the dead of the war
I'll protect you, I will shelter you
From the sound of the guns
Though it's quiet now, on some distant day
The wars will return

Come my brave ones
Come and tell me
Are you happy when you're lying
In the wastelands, in the graveyards
When we've forgotten your names?
All the girls they lie awake at night
Dreaming of their lovers
In their dreams they are walking
With the dead of the wars

Murdered I Am (a song)

Murdered I am as I walk the long road
That leads to the place I called home
A knife in the side my life it does bleed
May the devil look after his own

Mother! Mother
Don't wait for me now
Find a carriage and six and a coffin to fix
And lower me down in the ground

My friends and companions you weep for me now
For ne'er shall I see you again
My lover she comes with a sweet bunch of roses
To place at my head when I lie

Mother! Mother
Don't wait for me now
Find a carriage and six and a coffin to fix
And lower me down in the ground

Hanged will he be from the strong gallows tree
And strung by his neck till he dies
Till men cut him down he'll be talk of the town
And placed beside me where I lie

Mother! Mother
Don't wait for me now
Find a carriage and six and a coffin to fix
And lower me down in the ground
Lower me down in the ground

Rags to Riches (a song)

The first time I saw her was down by the docks
Just herself and a whistle wrapped up in a box
She was begging for pennies as she hid from the wind
And tunes she was playing lingered long in my mind

She played 'The Wild Rover' and 'The Black Velvet Band'
And I placed a new shilling in the palm of her hand
She thanked me by offering my fortune to see
If I would walk with her to Paddy McGee's

Well, the bar it was empty as we walked through the door
As she led me upstairs to the second floor
And she told me to sit on the dusty old bed
She looked in my eyes and these words she said

'Rags to riches for one of us plainly I see
Riches to rags for the other may be'
She kissed me so gently my heart it was won
And we lay together 'til night it was done

When I awoke my head was as sore
As if I’d been drinking for twenty or more
My wallet and clothing I could not find
And of the young woman there wasn’t a sign

I wrapped myself up in an old linen sheet
And by the back alleys I made for the street
I made it back home by the cold morning light
But I could not forget her, try as I might

The next time I saw her was Mulligan's ball
She paraded herself as a lady and all
Dressed in a gown of satins so fine
I swore to myself that her heart would be mine

I took it upon me to ask for a dance
And she did not deny me, nor my bold advance
She looked up and asked me, 'Pray tell me your name'
As I looked in her eyes, these words I did say:

'Rags to riches for one of us plainly I see
Riches to rags for the other may be'
With kissed with a passion, her heart it was won
And we danced together ‘til night it was done

So it’s down to the church as the dawn it did break
In front of our witness our pledge for to take
And the love shared between us will never depart
For when she stole my wallet, she captured my heart

Sugar Thoughts

I

Bus in.
Drink. Corner.
Smoke.
Noise...
White ice gas ‑
(sickening)
‑ Blue light
‑ Dance?
‑ Yellow
‑ Jive.

Corner (Girl, smile)
Dance? some more.
Drink.
Piss.
Dance floor.
‑ Neon.
‑ !Frantic!
Rest.
(Noise...)
‑ !! S t R o B e !! ‑
(Pulse)
‑ Red.
‑ Mellow.
Slow dance.
End.

Fucked up.

Home.


II

This place is alien to me ‑
False.

So my cancerous breath
Will linger in a corner
And I will hang on the wall
A little longer

Until I sift through the neon seas
To a quick exit.

(Don't mind me. I'm only passing through.)

Song

Billy boy, I'm lying
Billy boy I've lied
Led you on to our hearts' contents
But carefully sidestepped the feelings inside

Johnny you're only dreaming
And Johnny, I dreamed your dream for you
See through me, yes;
But see me through

All the times - count them -
I lay by all your sides
All the times taken,
In honeydewed thighs

But look, understand,
I'll never love you
And the only one that loved me
I chucked him, then screwed him
Used him, then threw him
In the gutter; I leave him
For dead

Never hope to understand
The thoughts in my head
But I want you to know
I'll always be alone.

a vote for Grendel

when Grendel left his sorry throne.
and crept unseeing, unknowing,
climbing the mossy banks of his lonely refuge
a pathetic, rambling bastard-child
of Nature's perversion,

nobody thought that he had perhaps come from a one-parent family
they did not see:
no one looked behind his eyes -
it's always the same.

no one even stopped to ask his name.

Iced Poles

We were twins, You and I
Parted at birth,
And frozen in our separate lives.

The ice thaws now, a little
And a hand breaks free,
Or there a foot

And an eye blinks, and sees for the first time
True colours.

But the gaze is distorted through the pale opalescence

And your ice hasn't yet melted

Sonnet I: Faithful Love

And when that winters wrath is dead and gone,
When springtime's laughter echoes once again,
And newly on the hills shall fall the rain,
Then know that only then can we be one;
In vivid celebration of the sun,
To still the shatt'ring shards of your pain,
I hold you close for my own selfish gain;
When winter calls again I'll turn and run.

For only to myself can I be true,
And if you look deep down then you will see
That, though my heart beats, I can't see it through;
To tie me down is not to live life free.
And though there may be some small pain for you,
Know: faithful love is unbeknown to me.

The Quill

Ink-blackened fingers
The price paid
From the quill of the cob
For the letters that flow
Scratching and scraping
Rip lines from the muse
Revisit the well
Of deep inspiration
And return to the page

The Gate

I climbed over the gate
And was shot for trespassing.

I crawled under the gate,
And was arrested for unauthorised access.

I went around the gate,
But found deep trenches and barbed wire fences.

I took the straight and narrow,
But found a gate blocking my path.

The Love of Poets

To love across a crowded room
At first sight, to know.
To witness the love of poets.

To hope and dream as two,
And the meaningless of time.
To understand the love of poets.

To hold. The closeness of silences.
The meeting of minds.
To know the love of poets.

To heartbeat in time to another.
The touching of souls.
To live the love of poets.

Little Girl

Little girl, why do you cry so?

Dear sir, my mammy has left my daddy
Gone to live with another man
There is a stranger in our home.
My sister does not live here any more
And I am alone.

Little girl, why do you cry so?

Dear sir, the lamb that I play with
Is a new one each year.
I call her Rosie. I forever hear
Her mother crying
And I am alone.

Little girl, why do you cry so?

Dear sir, I do not go where the other girls go,
I do not go to school.
I can count no more than ten.
I play with my lamb,
And I am alone.

Little girl, why do you cry so?

Dear sir, the sun rises in the morning
And dies each night.
Every day I wonder, will it rise again?
I have lost my childhood days
And I am alone.

The King in Yellow (image)

Based on a collection of short stories written by Robert W. Chambers

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.

Guard Duty (image)

From the Flames (image)

I Wandered Lonely As A Clod

I wondered lonely as a clod
Along the lakeside I did plod
Sad to raise my weary head
For all the daffodils were dead

'O Daffodil, O Daffodil
How sad to see you lie so still
For I remember flower beds
And fields of nodding, golden heads'

One young flower raised its head
And said, 'Alas! They are all dead!'
I trod on him just like the others
And sent him on to join his brothers

The Lovers

The starlight lit the lover's eye,
As he stooped the pick the midnight rose,
Silver-leafed,
Knowing that she, in harmony, would do the same
At the prescribed time, each night.
And, by this taking of the petal, a connection
Through finger, flower, root and earth
To each other.
This simple act, linked in love,
To place in pocket
And keep part of each other close,
No distance too great to resolve.

Where the Words Fell

This is where the words fell

A tower of thesauri toppled
A deluge of dictionaries dropped
And this is where the words fell

They say write about what you know
But what do I know?
I assassinate old memories
I murder the past
And this is where the words fell

Slowly and in secret
In dreams and waking dreams
The lies leak on to the page
In rage and perfect silence
And this is where the words fell

I can no longer sleep
My mind mutilates sleep
A gun loaded with soliloquy
I pulled the trigger
And this is where the words fell

Going Home

The ancient farmhouse stands lone on the hill
Burnt umber and ochre
Under a windswept slate-grey sky,
High on the moors where, if you listen carefully,
You can still hear Heathcliffe howl his lament
To all and sundry
And anyone who will listen,
His audience today, a scraggly tree,
The rugged sheep, the cold stone wall, and me.
Old boundaries mark the borders of property and field.
But no one cares much now,
The land too barren to support much
Except the sheep, of course, who eye me,
Black-eyed intense curiosity with a permanent
Munching and grinding,
As I approach.

The grey wall almost camouflaged against the sky,
An age-old gate more rust than metal
Whines its disapproval as I enter.
Everything in this dead place is alive.
I can feel the empty windows watching,
The overlong grass whispering,
And the sheep are gathered and gossiping
Behind my back,
As I approach.

The door was once strong, secure,
A barrier against wind and uninvited guest
But longtime rot provides a skeleton key
For me to enter, the handle fallen,
The lock protection now barren,
So I go on in
Tiptoe-caution into pin-drop silence.

It seems an age, or two,
Since I last was here.
The air is old, stale
And a thin veneer of dust would shift
Uneasily, random, if I were to inhale.
The damp has set the walls to peel
But no visitors notice,
And I don't mind much any more.
Treading in noiseless ascent
I gain the upper landing
Searching, remembering; it has been so long.
One picture keeps returning...
We were so young, then, your hair
Was long golden sunbeams flowing behind
As we ran, hands held across the field
I recall,
I tripped,
Fell
Pulling you down on me...


We were young then,
But many the times since I have
Replayed that scene.

I always used to watch from my bedroom window
When I knew you were coming,
With the smell of mother's fresh baked bread
Exhaling from the kitchen
Sweetly contaminating the house.
She always baked two, one large, one small;
The small we picked at hot from the oven,
As she buttered the second into doorsteps
With jam and fresh cream for tea.
Our eyes would meet, sparkle secrets,
And sometime later
You would share the house with me.

I turn right, to the master bedroom
That we shared, that shared our ups and downs.
I don't knock,
But push the door further ajar.
The cloud breaks, momentarily,
And a stray ray of autumn sun
Turns the dust motes to fireflies
And rests on the chestnut face of
The woman that lies there.
You are as beautiful as you ever were,
Though the features more lined,
The hair slightly whiter,
A thin rivulet of silver tear scoring your cheek,
And the hands clasped desperately tight
Around a photograph of two people,
Me when I was old, and a woman
Who was younger than she is now.
As I enter, you turn your head and see me
And a smile breaks your face
Into a thousand happy pieces
And you speak one line
I knew you'd come
Then you close your eyes for the last.

I walk over and place my hands on yours.
Bending close, I kiss your forehead.
Yes, I came.
I came to show you the way.
I came to take you home.

I Did It

I did it, I did.
I didn't wanna,
But I did it,
An' it were fun

He made me do It.
Charley Moynahan said I wouldn't
Not even like the kid on the telly ad
Not even for a cheese slice

But I did.

(charley with his big BIG hobnail boots down on the
old canal bank cos his mamma wont buy him no new
uns an it were a cold october morning)

Jimmy wouldn't.
He's a scaredy scaredycat. But I ain't.

(we got down to the bridge an turned off the towpath
on to the main road charleys boots made a clump
CLUMP on the tarmac cos we weren't on the muddy
towpath no more)

I were late for school, I were.

But I Did It.

Down at the end of the road we always have to turn down
Manning's Lane.

It's a short﷓cut, you see.

Sure 'nough Old Mister Sykes were there as usual, talkin'
wi' Mrs Williams.

(shes a nice old lady but him hes a miserable bugger
we kicked a ball in his garden once and he still
hasnt given it us back)

Then I DID It.

We waited till his back were turned
An' then

I raised the peashooter to my lips
An'...

(i hope mrs williams eye gets better soon)