You asked me to jump the forty
-five measured feet into the water
But I'm no folly built for your lazy pleasure
If only it were so
Your hands were fairly stone -cold
as you placed them on my neck
We climbed on the train at
Burnham
We anchored our city loving
to our oral past
High above the fields of
Killar
Cranky
We made up rhymes and names
for passing polite strangers
You dared me out of earshot,
faces beamed behind backs
McGregor pulling on his lead to
climb more snowed -up steps
My winter jacket cast me out as
a well -dressed loon
Existing on the margins,
exciting to be sharing
Christmas with you all
I thought I'd see you up the
Berks of
Aberfeldy as if some common thoughts
would bring us together ten
years later for nothing really
just to look, just to drink you in
i carry a memory like a bag full of feathers
once stuck in the back of my
throat but now a warm and dream
and i'm more concerned about keeping the
neighbor's cat out of my garden than
who you may be or you may not be
fucking and who may be
dancing a jig in the middle
as stupid as I was believing
in fate and fairness
and all the big questions I could not answer
so I busied myself with the flippancy
of art
The genius is the subtlety
of the waves
Lapping on the shore,
slowly taking over the
dry shell
With its salty tongue, like a lounge singer
An up per -tier nonchalance,
I'm caring for the land it's reclaiming I'm caring for the crowds it's destroying
The next day I shall walk in its wake
Discovering the bones in the pottery,
once it made it above the shoreline
Penguin visits the coast,
hoping to be recognized by
Descendants of descendants,
and taken and unloved
Discovering the bones and the pottery,
once a native of this shoreline
Penguin visits the coast,
hoping to be recognized by
Descendants of descendants,
and taken and unloved
Baltimore, sailed, hoping to escape my temper I put you in a song,
I wrapped you up with
cotton wool
Cast here as an angel,
battling the demons
Cold -bloodedly,
you took your opportunity
North
London,
Hogmanay, the year my faith
The was shattered,
a sunken city came alive with fireworks
Eager to please, I sang like a stranger
And me and my tape friends,
we drank you under the table
And the music you swore by was nothing,
it was terrible
Scared with a noise, if you're shrieking
The dog chased ghosts in the kitchen
He tore up the newspapers
and ate all the jam
An d the glassware you collected was smashed and
lilting on the floor.
So
The sadness hoops through me
like a stubborn sea wind
When I'm feeling my worst and
the best news in the world
Fails to move me,
I cannot bear your touch or the share of words
Or gossip or humour,
well that's when I need you most
Just to be here,
to be quiet and warm and free with a drink
Until I forget such moments exist
When the high rolls in,
it's just a question of waiting it out
And that's when the music
I swear gets me through
I close my eyes and everything is okay
When the high rolls in,
it's just a question of waiting things out
And that's when the music,
I swear, gets me through
I close my eyes,
and everything's okay
Baltimore, we sailed,
hoping to escape my temper
I you in a song and wrapped
you up with cotton wool
I cast you as an angel,
battling my demons
North
London,
Hogmanay, the air my faith was shattered