Kilometers from nowhere on a scented avenue
- Lined with poppy girls I didn't stop, stop to say hello Curious vendors
- waving bric-a-brac - Looked me over - Thought it best, best that I should
go
Don't wake me: I'm falling Slow spiral into morning Who's out
there? Can't hear you Ears covered - Early warning
Alarm bells ringing Time to make my peace with the dreary
day
I waited tables - I was tipped in roubles
Wine to water was the best that I could do
Wild office parties split the silence Loaves and fishes at an
empty table laid for two
Down the spiral, spinning
madly Gathering momentum
On a Disneyesque adventure ride I fly in colours from
richer palettes Famous artists running scared as worlds
collide
Dot Com
It's a wide world
out there So much wider than imagined
I can't quite put my finger on the pulse Of your heart
softly beating Just beneath the raw silk sheen
That reflects the tints of Autumn from the hills
So
punch my name And in case you wonder -
I'll be yours: yours, dot com
Executive
accommodation Bland but nonetheless appealing
Waiters discretely at your beck and call Place the tall
sun-down potion Lightly by your velvet elbow
While you compose a message on the wall
So
punch my name And in case you wonder -
I'll be yours: yours, dot com
With your handmade
leather valise Packed and ready, ready waiting
Showered and dressed down lightly for the heat Give a
clue; leave a kind word Hint as to a destination
A domain where our cyber-souls might meet
So
punch my name And in case you wonder -
I'll be yours: yours, dot com
AWOL
Stormy-eyed on the edge of dawn: nose pressed
against the triple glaze Floor to ceiling, wall to wall,
silent traffic streams both ways Along the fussy freeway
drivers dream of Sunday barbecues
Of a sudden, seems I can barely face my self: no face to
lose Call the bosses Call supervisors
Won't be in today to work for you
E-mail that girl
who's working nights She can dress down for this wind and
rain Leave her new Korean compact:
let some cabbie take the strain Take a shower Take big
espresso Take to the hills, and take a view
Little black dress stretching over hard crystal peaks; soft
valleys too Call the bosses Call for nurses
Unfit today to work for you
No wet excuses Absent
without leave I'll be her dayshift driver: exotic
engineer
Stormy-eyed on the edge of night:
(December, Eastern time: late afternoon ) Atlantic City
tight behind Trump Casino calls pontoon
Gristle-burger, frazzled fries end this romantic
interlude Tomorrow morning's sweet awakening
could hardly prove to be as rude Make the journey Make
amends Work some hasty overtime in lieu
No wet excuses Absent With-Out Leave I was her dayshift
driver: exotic engineer
Wicked
Windows
I review my past through wicked windows framed in
silver and hung in toughened glass, upon my face, around and
over Now and then: memories of men who loved me
No stolen kiss - could match their march on hot coals for me
I have walked a line both faint and narrow, hard to follow Caught
up in circumstance Harsh truth for history to mellow
Through my eyes: loyalties and obligation magnified
Obedience: the better fellow
Better not remember me
Don't miss my passing Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy
sleep We never quite vanish No wet soft surrender
Still waiting: bad blood running in close families I laughed like
any child - although you might find that strange and
Christmas was my favourite holiday
Christmas was
my favourite holiday
I am not alone in seeing the world
through wicked windows while others hide likewise behind this
vulnerable squinting It's in the stare: it's in the silent
scrutinizing Strip you bare: I offer you no more
disguising
Better not remember me Don't miss my
passing Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy sleep
We never quite vanish No wet soft surrender Same bad
blood running in new families
Hunt By
Numbers
Hey little buddies: soft and
silky night walkers Dangerous species -
Tiptoe menace long grass stalkers on my bed:
no butter melting in your jaws Bonding monster -
Lethal weapon wearing claws
Let's go out to hunt by
numbers
Tabby, spotted, black as coal -
Serval, Margay, Caracal Moggie in the moonlight
listens: whiskered sensory miracle
Felis, befriend us - Egyptian Mau - Freya's familiar
Long in the future - Cloned disciples, the castle
guard
Now, let's go out and hunt by
numbers
Hot Mango Flush
Hot
mango flush Ladies with ice cream hair -
Gyroscopic pink neon beams - Everybody's happy 'bout
something The crowd moves like a flock of starlings: they
switch direction as one Jive on
the jukebox - Jack and Joker split the night air with whoop
and holler Faint aroma - wood smoke, old fish,
diesel harbour, roadside mongrel, painted man with buttons
barely holding, bursting belly bulging
Doe-eyed ragamuffin mumbling - Scolded for some vague
infraction Stole a penny candy-coloured
sweetheart kiss down at the market Down at the market all
the world seems to simmer:
Hot mango flush
El Nino
As one,
wet merchants turn their eyes towards the west Trade winds
falter as if in dire consequence Freezing fish to fry, fail to
materialise Christ-child, blood-warm current sends to touch the
skies
El Nino
Bathing in uncertainty, another age seems to wing from T V
screens in weather rage Savage retribution makes for a
headline feast Planet-warming, opinion-forming headless
beast
El Nino
Cold
thrust tongue extends its dark and watery touch Forces
gather, martial stand against the rush Wily child in mischief
here to make his play Leaves toys for little sister on another
day
El Nino
Black Mamba
Hand in the snake pit - black mamba
chase Head through the lion's cage - head on a plate
Two feet on the hot coals - last dance at the ball Blindfold on
the tightrope - whenever you call Be my slippery slider Black
Mamba crawl over me
Dark thoughts of the sleepless -
hung out to dry Slip through the bedclothes - unblinking
eye Long tongue flickering -fixed stare grip
Sweet venomous potion, held to my lip Be my slippery slider
Black Mamba crawl over me
A tropical whisper A
sibilant kiss Soft strike teasing Dangerous
bliss
Bends Like A Willow
She's
catching the wind: the gentlest of breezes It's a sensitive
passage she's sailing--- Through stormy straits, navigates my
unfathomable failings
She rises before me, reading me
clearly Empty nest left pressed in the pillow
She can shift, she can sway and bend like a
willow
I'm swept in the riptide Caught in a fish
trap Gift-wrapped in my soft self centre
Summer sun leaves me as one who can only taste winter She's a
good, a good God-send: she can bend like a willow
With
a fully armed angel to cover me quickly, I'm cool under
enemy fire If I fall, she can crawl right under the
wire
When I'm caustic and cold, she might dare to be bold
- ease me round to her warm way of thinking:
fill me up from the cup of love that she's drinking And I find,
given time, I can bend like a willow She bends like a
willow
Far Alaska
Placing
people in their dreamscape with fantasies of foreign
fields Lofty spires all well appointed
In off-season special deals
To far Alaska: down to Rio in
the Carnival Norwegian fjords in the ever-light of Solstice
call
A part of me might travel with you
in a freebie bucket seat for one Business First - at last,
forever Hopeless thoughts of flying fun
Now get me out of here I cry in air rage psycho-doom I'm only
dream-arranging from the safety of my room
Pick a
place or stick a pin in any corner of the sphere
Post me cards and tell me nicely Say you wish that I was
here
To far Alaska: down to Rio in the carnival
Norwegian fjords in the ever-light of Solstice call
The
Dog Ear Years
Rusted and ropy
Dog-eared old copy Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic: all words to describe me
Relaxed in the knowledge that happily present
are all things to sustain me, nurture and claim me;
roll back the mileage
You have settled beside
me To the far and the wide of me
A matter of choosing, of finding and losing
on the rough ride with me
Take whisky with water,
kick stones down the gutter
Think back to long days with stale breath recycled in my
face Rattling through airways -
plastic on cold trays Watching through windows,
deep landscapes below await another time and space
There must come some time
to walk through the night line Hands tight: heads
high These are the dog-ear years
Don't turn back Don't linger For God's sake keep
moving Primitive shadows sidle beside
A Gift Of Roses
I count the hours: you count the
days Together, we count the minutes in this Passion Play
Walk dusty miles And I ride that train on a first class ticket,
just to be with you again
Picking up tired feet Back
from a far horizon Cleaned up and brushed down Dressed to
look the part Fresh from God's garden, I bring a gift of
roses: To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your
heart
Like the Kipling cat, I walk alone -
Never inviting trouble, never casting the stone But this
badge of honour is of tarnished tin Light your guiding beacon
to bring this fisher in