Blackbird Singing Pt 2

[pennylane]

Chasing the cherry

Fragile fragments
Chattering down
The lavish marble staircase
Tinkling smithereens
Smashing, grabbing
At china stars
Bursting in clusters,
Scattering E-side cats
Credit cards dropping
From rain-clouds
Pour down on the well-polished floor
Tortoiseshell hair-combs
And black tape cassettes
Rattle the cages of
Knife-wielding grand dames

And say, are you chasing the cherry?
The merry-go-round of the roses
If so, you must know
That the downside
Is to sink like a ferry

Ascending the slope
In herring-bone fashion
Holding on chromium steel
Lifting the bar bells
With candlestick motion
Side-stepping hot wax,
And wheel

Flying with lizards
All blown in a gust
Through staining glass
Windows and covered with dust blood,
To keep out the rain

And say, are you chasing the cherry?
The merry-go-round of the roses
If so, you must know
That the downside
Is to sink like a ferry

A weapon is not
Worth a button,
When anti-world
Matters explode
And chandeliers
Drop from the ceiling
With sharp-shooters’ skill

Exhausted collapse
In the playground
Apeak epileptic remains
And forth at the mouth
Like a river, till
Teachers in apple-pie beds
Reach out
Chalk filled hands
And lift
Lift

And say, are you chasing the cherry?
The singular red one on top
It gleams with particular pleasure
That may never stop
If so, you must know
That the high tide
Has sunk like a ferry.

[pennylane]

Was it really twenty years ago?

What’s changed?
Issues still the same

Then we wanted

END APARTHEID
PEACE ON EARTH
LOVE & UNDERSTANDING

Now
What have we learned?

CHANGE COMES SLOWLY
But it is
CHANGING!!

KEEP PUSHING

KEEP THE FAITH
AND PRAY
THAT WE HAVE BETTER NEWS TO REPORT

TWENTY YEARS FROM TODAY

[pennylane]

City Park

Twenty-seven press-ups
At black park bench altar.
Eight warm even notes
From tall church cool bell.
High staccato twittering of small birds
Against throbbing pigeons
‘Oh how do you do?
Oh how do you coo?’

World’s long low surface
Tickles to life with strangers,
Sniffling collie couple,
Speed-walking high-armed
Brisk little sergeant major woman.
Bouncing peke in tow.

Moorhen flutters squawking
Cross crowded city pond top,
All sorts of ducks,
Mill slowly round white swans.
Stately black swans
Snow tipped nipple red beaks.

A crow cackles
With thumb on black comb rasp.
Winter-bare rose bushes
Line asphalt path,
Old yellow scotch,
Pink posy, pour toi,
Polar star, mood music
And Yesterday.
Where silent gardeners dig.

Eighteen press-ups
Facing my lover’s home
Grins to the sky.
Nine nods this way
Nine nods that.
And I pray
To the spirit of goodness
To open a page of a fine, fine day
For ever, and ever,
And EVER
And EVER!

[pennylane]

Moon’s a mandarin

Moon’s a mandarin
Orange segment.
Stars as clear as you like.
Smelling of pines
And eucalyptus.

Quite a night.

[pennylane]

Trouble is

Rabbit running in circles
Chasing his tail because
It looks like candy floss
Trouble is – rabbits don’t eat candy floss

Black Labrador barking at the antics
Of his shadow on the wall.
Trouble is – shadows don’t fight back.

A pair of gloves hanging from
A back pocket argue about
Which hand will hold the rake.
Trouble is – gloves don’t give a shit.

[pennylane]

A billion bees in the borage

And if, instead of passing,
You stop,
You can hear the hum.
Billions of them
Bobbing from star to star.
Through flowers
Are sky blue, from a
Distance the field looks purple.
Each bee is different
And as they roam
The borage field
They hum.

[pennylane]

Give the man a break

Workers on the picket line
Picking up the trash
Executive negotiators
Shout about the cash

Workers on the inside
Whipping up the dough
While the old man’s country
Gets to go too slow

Go-go-go

Give the man a break
Give the guy a chance
Ain’t no law say a man can’t dance

Doctors gonna operate
Wants to know if you’d
Like to but a kidney
Mustn’t eat the food

Later in the hospital
While he’s on the job
Poisoned in the kitchen
By a dirty slob

Give the man a break
Give the guy a chance
Ain’t no law say a man can’t dance…

[pennylane]

Not on

Take your hand off my knee, young man,
Said the lady in green
I don’t care to come between
You and your young woman

It’s just not done!

Couldn’t we pass up?
Couldn’t we fold?
Aren’t certain stories
Best left untold?
Some things like
Buttons
Are best left undone

-It’s not on!

Arnie Pipe was a normal type
With an average job
Though his prospects will never be great
His bosses underestimate
His value
(Arnie says).

Irene’s his fiancée
And would hate to disagree
But the company she thinks is fair
Arnie never does get anywhere
The company owns his underwear
(Clean and well paid for).

Take your feet off my desk, young man,
Said the chauffeur in grey
My green woman had been to see me
She’s returning from your advance –

It just isn’t done!

Couldn’t you join us?
When can you start
Up as a driver
Looking the part?

Hang on says Arnie –

Couldn’t we pass up?
Couldn’t we fold?
Aren’t certain stories
Best left untold?
Some things like
Buttons
Are best left undone

-It’s not on!

[pennylane]

Tchaico

I knew Tchaikovsky
He lived round our way
He was dead good at music
They used to say
I called him
Tchaico the Psycho

[pennylane]

full moon's eve

On a full moon's eve
A tiger sprang
And gnawed on
Who I used to be

A pale haze lights
The fox's eye
And . . .
Checking once
He leaves by a hole in the hedge

Old loves return
To kiss the lips
In case the empty gallery
Should fill with whispering strangers
Like a flood

[pennylane]

blessed

I would come back from a run
With lines of poetry to tell
And having listened, she would say
"What a mind."

She'd fold my words inside her head
And though the lines may not have been
Supreme, she wasn't merely being kind
She meant it, what she said

And I am blessed
For she said, "What a mind."

[pennylane]

black jacket

Sadness isn't sadness
in a black jacket

Death isn't death
it's life
that's jumped off a tall cliff

Tears are not tears
They're balls
of laughter
dipped in salt

[pennylane]

Her spirit

Her spirit moves wind chimes
When air is still
And fills the rooms
With fragrance of lily

Her eyes blue green
Still seen
Perfectly happy
With nothing

Her spirit sets
The water pipes a humming
Fat lektronic force be with ya sound

Her spirit talks to me
Through animals
Beautiful creature
Lay with me

Bird that calls my name
Insists that she is here
And nothing
Left to fear

Bright white squirrel
Foot of tree
Fixes me
With innocent gaze

Her spirit talks to me

[pennylane]

Steel

Steel yourself against the rapid fire
Confusion of events that masquerade as life
Bullet holes in time's demented curtain

[pennylane]

to be said

There's a lot to be said
There's nothing to be said

My love is alive
My love is dead

I hear her voice
Inside my head

There's a lot to be said
There's nothing to be said

There's a lot to remember
A lot to forget

My love is hot
My love is wet
As if it was
The night we met


There's a lot to remember
A lot to forget

There's a lot to be said
There's nothing to be said

[pennylane]

Wedding Invitation

I was told by an American woman
Who was busy fixing me a drink
That the children in the building drove her crazy
She may leaving sooner than you think

Well I said that that was pretty high and mighty
She showed a devastating sense of style
When she replied, ‘it was the fault of automation
That I forgot to have a child.’

Waiting for a wedding invitation
Thinking one was going to come along
What you don’t know won’t hurt you…

The bride was looking bitter in a white dress.
The wedding guests had started to arrive.
She said, ‘My future husband doesn’t understand me
But he’s glad to be alive.’

The groom had been a scientific genius
He invented something falling out of bed
But the whole thing nearly turned into a nightmare
When a dirty-looking priest pronounced him dead.

He said I’m waiting for a wedding invitation
Thinking one was going to come along
What you don’t know won’t hurt you

I’m not putting you down
I will walk with you anywhere you want to go
I’m not putting you down
I will help you with anything you want to know

While working on a piece of apparatus
He discovered that the world was in a mess
So she made him up a sandwich in the kitchen
And let good old Mother Nature do the rest…

It’s handed-down American tradition
A prejudice that still exists today
If it wasn’t for their openness of spirit
They might have long ago been spirited away.

They’re waiting for a wedding invitation
Thinking one was going to come along
What they don’t know won’t hurt them

I’m not putting you down
I will walk with you anywhere you want to go
I’m not putting you down
I will help you with anything you want to know

I’m waiting for a wedding invitation
Thinking one was going to come along
What I don’t know won’t hurt me…

[pennylane]

A Man with Children

I am a man with children
Namely, Heather, Mary, Stella, Sid and James
Well Sid’s a lie
But who are you to know
About a fool such as I?

Winds hop and bump
Along the corrugated roof
But here inside
A man of pride
In children

A winter wind was one to blame
For lying us so close
To make each child
And I was told
For each that growed
Their personality would stay
And I’m well proud

[pennylane]

The Blue Shines Through

You’re responsible
For the hole in my soul
The hole in my tablecloth
The hole in my jacket top
But the hole shines blue
The hole shines blue

I’m responsible
For the bolt in your neck
The bolt from the blue
The bolt on the door
But the blue shines through
The hole in my soul
The blue shines through
The hole shines blue