Winter trees

Tree in winter
To the eye, you stand
Dead to the world

Your lush facade
Long yellowed
You are revealed

Rough and ill-grown
I stare as you sigh
Waiting in mist

For new days
Spring and fresh
Buds promising life

High cocoons

Itemised for expedition and
Packed with precision we
Encapsulate our lives in
Tiny gallery exhibitions

For fear of attention we
Focus on division and
Blanket our resentment of
Our graceless condition

Jetlag

Like silt on a river bed
Minutes gather, drift.
Carried lightly above
I dream of my sleep;
Ache through the hours
That wash around, past

Fragments of reflection
Smashed, set spinning.
Caught and lost, again
Caught... Unrecognised.
I surrender and roll
Overboard to drown

Towers at dusk

With the cold, black eyes
Of ten thousand trophy sharks
The city's towers stand, watching
Beneath grey, asthmatic skies

We called them to attention
Sifted sand, smelted steel; we
Brought the mountains down
In this great, dark intervention

And now, painted pastel-pink
By the ailing brush of winter sun
They crowd lost and lonely
Too long left to stand and think

You

Addicted to you
Golden skin delicate
Silk spun to life

You with a book
Head on my chest
Away in your world

Eyes endless with
All my dreams, you
Tip my heart over

For you I wake
The best version of
Myself, every day

Indifferent life

Black hills tumble down
Rocky road back to town
Eagle cycles long loops
Sun passes unseen

Sky stands defiant
Stark blue cold giant
Eagle tips darkly, falls
Sun finds clouds

Green river rolls over
Banks hold their lover
Eagle breaks small life
Sun drifts guilty, cries

Faith

In the end
When the final steps fell
Cracking grit, spitting dust
And we ripped our fingers
Through barren hills

We stood as men
Eyes burning in cold light
Dawn licking around us
A faithful lover after
A faithless night

And where then?
Teased by lustful wind
Atop that single-faced peak
We could only fall
Ashes from fire

The Cleaning Song

I'm just a doin' my chores
So I won't get beaten by her indoors
She likes to punch me in the face
And finish me off with cans of Mace

So I'm just a doin' my chores
Washin' dishes and scrubbin' floors
P'rhaps if I behave meself
She won't damage my mental health
Or iron flat my tes-ti-cles
Then nail my willy to the wall
Knock me out and shave my head
Run me over and leave me dead

So I keep on doin' all the chores
So I don't get maimed by her indoors
I s'pose I'm scrubbin' for me life
To keep me safe from my lovely wife

Oh, just a doin' my chores... (repeat & ad-lib ad infinitum)

On ice

Bubble's burst
Thought I'd quenched my thirst
But I'm parched

Poured out flat
Pointless life as diplomat
Negotiate this

Rocks no ice
Cut myself an ugly slice
Twisted me bad

Hollered 'wagon'
Wished my doubtful demons gone
The mirror stared

Breakfast

And now for something completely different...

Come along now, my bready friend
It's time to meet your toasty end
Buttered, jammed and sliced in two
It's a delicious fate that awaits you

I'll wash you down with juice and tea
And banana chunks munched with glee
Then crunchy cereal with creamy milk
And pancakes in a tower built

Oh perhaps I'll have a boiled egg
To dribble yolk on my pyjama leg
But you're the one I love the most
My jammy, buttered mister toast

Pellet

Owl on my rung
Twitching sharp in the wind
Distracted by red embers
Blowing through dust below
Twisting in crowds

I am mute
Two bright eyes glinting
Knives sharpened to strike
I breeze through the door
Falling silently to one

Out into the night
Ruffled and ready on wing
One thousand senses alive
Every moment in a flash
Captured, torn, discarded

My path flayed in fire
No turning back now
No turning at all
I am coming
You won't hear

Set fire

Took it up, put it up
Folded left over right
Made it simple
Made you cry

Picked it up, shook it up
Broke life open wide
Found the answers
Found your sigh

Touched you up, got you up
Tore your heart on mine
Felt you dreaming
Felt you right

Built it up, lit it up
Smoked in desert eyes
Watched all tender
Watched the night

Journey

Cannot paint
Sunlight through trees
Gold in the gutter
Desert patterned black
Pacing tiger
Caught in wind
Beat on my eye

Cannot find
Countless road faces
Quick as dreams
Forever watching
Dark sparks blind
Patient life
All here now

Cannot be
Everywhere but I am
Mountains levelled
Tumbled into one
Clean timeless vision
Travelled long
Still moving on

Long distance love song

Two lovers I know just had to spend a long time apart, and it was tough. I should know - I was one of them.

But two other lovers I know also had to do the same thing. Unlike me, they both can sing. So with that in mind I thought I'd write a song.

Spent five thousand miles sweet dreaming of you
Burning hot jet engines but still I’m feeling blue
Wishing I was home with your subtle charms
Wrapped up from the world in your loving arms

‘Cos it’s a long road home
When your heart cries out for love
But you’re all alone
Yeah baby, it’s a long road home

I flipped a silver dollar but caught a golden pound
Without you everything’s the wrong way 'round
Turned the corner from Times to Leicester Square
Caught my breath sharp when I saw you standing there

‘Cos it’s a long road home
Saw you smiling in the mirror but
When I turned you’d gone
Oh darling, it’s a long road home

Sitting drinking coffee when all I want is tea
And to fold the Atlantic, to bring you to close me
Life can be electric when you’re on your own
And it’s hard to be a lover at the end of a phone

‘Cos it’s a long road home
You’re the sunshine in my soul
And the tears in my eyes
Dammit baby, it’s such a long road home

Reaction

Imagine if it was you with the
Wire around my heart
Twisted turning blue beside
Prowling, ugly lungs

Imagine if it was you whom I
Could no longer hold
Burnt cold crimson desperate
In touching our desire

Imagine if it was you in mono
Artistically cut to size
Stood stark gold and only
Forcibly retired

Imagine if it was me rushed
Backwards knuckles white
Split apart twice over by
Love and soul denied

Arrival

Long keel hauled over the blue bow of the globe
Queued, bruised, handled, stamped and checked
In line, jammed between exhaustion and exhilaration
My mind crackles wickedly with one thought: I am here

Old friends

Turned from familiarity to malcontent
Inconsequentially passing out of
Notoriety and rare sobriety
To find myself again

Everything is new and old

Long short time till gone

Surrounded by quick things I cannot escape the compulsion to stamp
Wishing I could instead start the days I have no obligation to begin
Scrambling from white list black lines that march toward me every day
Holding out for the moment when I can touch down unload walk free