25th Song
Someone’s throwing poppies at me
Like they’re trying to wake the dead
Stinging barbs which soothe you mind
And try to make your carpet red,
Makes me float away with a gaping smile
Out of ear and out of eye
But I want to go down on a bended knee
And feel the rain, tear inside, low.
Someone’s forcing liquorice on me
And I don’t like it in my mouth,
Spitting, flailing, elbows flying,
Take my nose to the deep deep South,
I want to walk away on a dusty road,
And feel the insects with my toes,
I want to be racked in the hot hot sun
Until the knots inside, simply fall undone.
Someone’s building buildings for me
And I’m just timing their collapse
Taking charges and the plunger
To the world I’m looking at
Red bricks, blue bricks, all the same,
The green pops out of every grain
And sometimes even people breathe again
So let’s breathe again.
Someone showed the papers to me
Cut out paper Christmas trees
Bored I burned them, flame disasters
Politics and chemistry made me
Mooch away to the clear blue sky
And blow my nose and wonder why
We all have a finger on the pen
And we could start again.
Someone’s doused the sun for me
Although I’m only 25
I have seen the dead men walk
Or I have seen the living die
People places, years and candles
Nothing much that we can’t cope with
Living, losing, loving all the while,
But it takes a while.