The Tiger is Dead

Sorry,
Did I not tell you that the Tiger is dead?
Some greedy fucker shot him in the head,
Gutted him clean and took his heart
Gleaned the skin to sit before the hearth.

Sorry,
Did you not know that the Tiger is dead?
From whence he walked, things changed, he fled,
Morsels appealed, but only for a while
His coat fell foul, you know, went out of style
Some wondered if, by the grace of want,
He would recover, again shadow the font
But alas, this poor beast's path was fixed
His habitat, unbeknown, decaying, diseased.

Sorry,
Had you missed the news that the Tiger is dead?
Were you under a rock when his eyes they said,
"I had hoped for longer, to see this out,
I'm sorry guys, we've lost this bout."
He meant well, no, he really did
But foresight wasn't to lift the lid
And so, though blind, he ambled on
Lost and starving, seen by no one.

Sorry,
It seems to me you are oblivious,
To the Tiger's death, his parting breath,
Take a seat, be still, I'll refresh
The faculties that often test
Our capacity for remembering, hope
The one so often, a noose, can't cope,
You see, the prowl is over, the prey is gone
There is no king, when one rules alone
The territory is barren, a desert, cursed
The lining bought for dignity's purse
Which strings up citizens, united, worse
Off than they ever have been,
The Tiger is dead,
Have you not seen?

And go

Upon these shoulders
Upon these words
Upon the lives
And advice absurd,
Upon the ignorant
Who beneath the pale
Doctor futures
With oppressive scales.
Within the whisper
Without the mouths
Of muffled heroes
Too proud to shout,
In pursuit of favour
Purpose and life
I sink still rising
In and out
of strife.
Their purpose secret
Incognito
Fools
Born of affluence
Product of tools,
Engineered to defeat
Control, explode
Taken on lorries
Bearing a load,

Too burdened to maintain
To sustain
And know
That there is anything other
Than to come
And go
And go.

a pity, a self

in your face
and in your place
a negative embossed
thinks its winning a race
winning a place
in hearts and minds
testing the hardship
in order to find
a pity, a self
a dust on the shelf
that gathers and harbors
the testimony of time
the carpet universal
that covers your prime
and the vantage you seek
from high horses that buck
throws dreams into dust
and say an almighty fuck
you
for your ignorance is violence
lack of hospitality a disgrace
and its all I can do
to walk away
in your face
in your place
to walk away
in your face
run your race.

Blown

I wheeled my mind through sandy streets
envisaged the scene, the multiple beats
of heart and mind and duties bound
sacrifice, service, all that’s wound
in the wire and dust, chemical equations
the call to commit, religious persuasions
that evoke a fight beyond tangible means
the encompassing essence to which one leans
blinding emotion, of birth and death
leaves a heart, no solace, bereft
searching reason, no reason I find
only the cobbles that bump the ride
the delicate, intricate, hidden and sealed
awaiting a trigger, a figure, a yield
the corpses of war, the ghosts of peace
dance together upon tarmacadam streets
that lead and function, guide and save
the sons of material, daughters deprave
that serve a purpose unto themselves
secure a voice, mute, that tells
of nihilistic virtue, dressed in ink
a tick, tick, boom, incapacity to think
for distance silences realities unknown
sweaty thumb, depression,
sanctity
blown.

A tack you will not know

I sailed with a conviction
Into waters strange to me
Alien navigation
Another world breaking,
Over stern words,
Worlds we flee.

Nights were warm
Blew over me
Balmy till the dawn
My purpose bound in hope
No vision of horrors unborn.

Then from the tannoy, blistering
The dream into array
Words of warning
'Heed me,
About turn,
Or come what may.'

From the skies an evil spin
Thundered upon our deck
Before events unfolded
Our vessel now a wreck,

Masks began their revealing
Nothing to the death
Deep waters began rising
We drowned
Out of breath,

Defence became a suicide
As friends left to the unknown
Paradise lost, defeated
Prophecy sinking, blown,

Our cargo, dead weight,
Tainted
Sustenance, disdained,
Stretchers saturated
Filled canvasses, blood stained.

My heart dies, has departed
For hate has ripped it clean
From the cavity of hope
Is captured, ransomed, weaned,
Upon the breast of despair
Suckled, broken, bereft
I sail on, homeless
To those for whom we left.

Their arms now my only longing
Their embrace the only thought
Itinerant collective
Rivering tears, embodied, distraught,

Amassed in the struggle,
A tack you will not know
As we search the winds eternal
A fortune for the under tow.
We go.

Furled (11.7.09)

Furled

I woke up this morning

Chimed into the day

Went through my ablutions

Wash, dress and pray.

I left my room

Through the corridor swept

Creaking doors led to others

They slept, I crept.

I called to the beds

‘Wake and be ready,

Say your prayers, make haste,

Breakfast, we’ve made ye.’

There was one girl weeping

As often she did

At her bedside, kneeling

I approached, she hid.

‘What is it child?’

I was of course in a rush

‘My bed sheets’ she wept

‘They’re, ruined, they’re wet.’

The tirade through my brain,

‘Get up child, at once,

Pull your skirt to your shoulder,

This is a bed, not a font.’

From the fold of my dress

I pawed til I found

The double strapped leather

That the cobbler had bound

Her bare cheeks waited tense

‘Relax, or you’ll get more’

She let them fall down

Into her I tore.

I think she was screaming

But I couldn’t hear

As the lash passed my head

Deafened mine ear.

She fell, ‘On your feet,

Gain some control,

Why every night?

Do you enjoy such a toll?’

Eventually I stopped

Washing was to be done

Girls to re-order

Evil to shun.

Breakfast was in silence

Save for that sound

Of obedience, adherents

Trustfully bound.

The day passed by

Without major event

The Priest paid a visit

Had confessions, then left.

Some girls looked distraught

As they left his room

Finally, they’ve confessed,

And not a bit too soon.

Once all were asleep

I retired back to here

De-robed and prayed

Made sure my mind was clear.

I fell asleep in a moment

Not a problem in the world

Save for the children

Their sin sadly furled.

Shadows cast (26.6.09)

Shadows cast

Source, sensitivity, exposure

Objects cast, disclosure

Patterns noir

that shift and shape

Shadows eternal

distort, create

distance, presence,

hidden and known

kinetic darkness

on the breeze, is blown -

futures from present past

fleeting, greeting

shadows cast,

light is born

illuminates

shadows its task,

it's mandate,

create.

Yours, and you mine (7.6.09)

Yours, and you mine

He is my heart beat

And I am his

A father to his son

A son to his kiss

The raison d'être

The being alive

The unconditional love

The bond that thrives

And tells of a tale

That bewitches and moves

Through souls that run

Through transcendent grooves

The pulse beats eternal

The rhythm a rhyme

That joins us son

Yours, and you mine.

Breeze - (1.6.09)

To Doc ~ We love you

Breeze

Breeze of life so transient

Sweeps swift

Sweeps through the soul

The eternal, momentary

re-unified, re-told

is the story, unique

unfolding

swims deep,

surfaces in hope

the heavenly finally

realised

reclaimed what 

once eloped.

Away and stray from me (13.5.09)

Away and stray from me

Away and stray from me

Take your leave,

Take your power,

Delay no longer here

I want space

I hold no fear.

Walk silent, walk alone

Reflect

The sun it shone

A light into your mind

Take heed

New sight

You're blind.

The track will guide you

on

I've known, some time, the one

That winds and offers little

Much

In the ways, the brittle

Definition

That changes with the wind

Signs appear conclusive

Turned around

Pure

Elusive,

Destined beyond favour

Drawn, incomplete

Nurtured by those chosen

Hand picked

Intent, frozen.

Never, as though written,

Freed and free to roam

You will know a torment

Dark shadows, voices

Set the tone,

Play out your days in ignorance

Fear your nights, ney drink

For sights too bleak for recognition

Sand in which you sink.

I will forget about you

And no doubt recall again

Intention will not suspend you

A bridge, a dying flame

That flickers in the half light

Sickens in the day

For you are set

Are solid

In the void

Away and stray

Me,

avoid,

Away and stray

(obey).

Sanctity of purpose (10.5.09)

Sanctity of purpose

Sanctity of purpose

Scarcity of rhyme

Mixed up notions amble

On in spite of time

Keep the truth handy

Glove compartment, insecure

A revolver in the digits

Carousels we all procure

In the name of seeking thrills

Coconut and shy

Bowled over for a coin

The gamble is a lie

In which hope discloses promise

But promise is away

Dancing on the syntax

Dancing the words away

And yet the rabbit bounces

From the top hat every night

It's ears getting longer

Retires a hare, a deformed sight

Smoking clowns skulk in shadows

Masked, invisible

Craving the gallows

Drenched sponges shed their fill

Til the ground becomes a river

Swollen, running on

The tears a tributary

Emotion flows, is gone

And purpose is a felled tree

Rolling toward the drop

As the waterfall gathers momentum

To lead to go, lead to stop

(rot).

Hands (6.5.09)

Hands

Hands move slowly

Consistent, smooth

A tantric, elegant

Cog centered groove

Greased in teeth

That mould and meld

The every moment

The seconds felled

Rings exposed

Harnessed by chimes

That always, every

Climax rhyme

To crescendos kind

Crescendos cruel

The 'I am god'

'I am a fool'

The split is taken

Memory committed

Then the next

Nothing omitted

That offers extension

Chronological miles

High and mighty

That all the while

Move away

From lives that were

Gathers the present

Seldom confers

The voice of reason

Echoes of past

That drag the screaming

On top, on task

For futures only

Unfold, evolve

From hands that nurture

Caress, connect and solve

Revolve.

Answer-phone (5.5.09)

Answer-phone

I left a message on the phone

Left him there and there alone

To keep and speak on my behalf

To communicate because I can't

Wait to try, wait to see, 

again

Realise existence, existence 

lame

An ever shifting, evolution

Natural perfection, injected, looming

Creeping through the wrinkle lines

Tall, obscuring, making blind,

And so I wait, count and shiver

For cold is the wait

For you to deliver

quiver.

Reach / out of reach (4.5.09)

Reach / out of reach

Why is my faith not enough

A fumbling, mumbling, feeble bluff

That comes to the rescue,

Comes to the fore

Presents itself a candidate

When more is prompting more.

It is a voice muffled

Gainst the reverberating din

Modernity's race of progress

The distance from our sin,

Science offers adverts

Join and never again

See the sand transparent

Glass shatters when in pain.

Prayer is but a soliloquy

A speech put out to tender

Take me up I dare you

Odds go good, good to slender.

Maintaining the simple

Walking while one talks

Is a leap beyond me

Is a shadow that stalks,

Restrain is but an order

And distance beckons close

The door behind you

A jar

Draft through it blows,

An air of drifting permanence

Hangs, gallows wait to beseech

This is the will, a freebie

Given freely, given to each,

Now reach

Distraction (4.5.09)

Distraction

I am about distraction

And it is about me

Constant, ever changing

Fickle as the breeze.

I breathe the sights before me

Inhale, consume, eject

A process of self-destruction

Building mirrors to reflect

The burgeoning reality laid bare

Run ragged, raw and ruined

Outlets clogged, congestion

No one in, no one out, indeed

This is a confinement solitary

A jacket straight and true

The liminal thread securely

Holds in the material blue.

And what honesty can save

What honestly is out there

A pipe dream and salvation

Too spoilt now to care

For this is evidence revealing

A chest, contents enhanced,

A fakeness and a longing

Distracted now I dance

(strong stance).

Sense Making (9.8.01)

Sense Making

Last night,

I might,

Have done

What was

needed.

Last night,

I might,

not have

done what

was needed.

This morning 

I woke up,

did I do

what was

needed?

This morning

I woke up,

did what

was needed.

Of tonight

And tomorrow,

I could do 

what is 

needed.

Of tonight 

And tomorrow,

I'll do what 

is needed.

Yesterday

I knew

Something,

Today

I know

more,

But today

Is soon

Yesterday,

And tomorrow

I'll know

more...

Ranking (30.3.99)

Ranking

I want lolly-pops and 

buckets and spades,

jelly and ice-cream,

plastic cups of lemonade.

I want a need to do today

and never worry about tomorrow

I want a need to do today

and not to think of yesterday.

I want to laugh ‘till it hurts,

then sleep in the car,

I want to go to the park

and for the journey to seem far.

I want to look in the skies

on a snowy Christmas Eve

and know that he’s coming,

to get excited and believe.

I want to stay up late,

get tired watching T.V

and look forward to the weekend,

when I’d see my Daddy.

I need to see an existence,

when nothing else matters,

except doing today

and going to bed shattered.

Puppet (2.2.07)

Puppet

You say I expect a puppet

Someone to dance for me on a string

Controlled and dependent

But this to me means not a thing.

I am confused to hear I don’t listen

When the words I hear resound

With heart-felt replies, emotion

As always abound, are found.

To be denied blood in the name of the stubborn

To be turned down and round and out

To be shut out and rejected

Causes pain, anger, the desire to shout.

And it takes all within me

Takes that which I cannot claim to be my own,

A resistance necessary and impossible

possible to prevent

To see this overthrown,

And past the current funk

That hangs and suffocates

I look to the horizon,

Commit to memory and take

solace from the truth,

From the perspective we’ll soon possess,

Looking back

Moving on,

Back to all that matters,

Everything more

And nothing less,

Everything

     and still 

      stringless –

                puppet.

Always present (6.2.07)

Always Present

Well, just like your older brother,

I told your Dad and mother,

that at one the thought does count

As presents before you mount,

Things you don’t see

Don’t know what to do with,

Things lost in time

So no gift my dear from me;

Except that which lasts

Beyond stages of development

You’ll always have my love

And that, this day, is sent,

        present.

Petals of perfection (12.2.99)

Petals of perfection

There is a rose

A perfect rose

As sweet as the morning dew

A scent to die for

The rose around which I revolve

The rose that makes my heart sink

The flower that opens with glory

And sleeps so delicate and pink

Picked out like a blessing

And this rose, the rose I hold

Is a perfect rose

As sweet as the morning dew

A scent to die for

Evergreen, ever seen

Darling, precious…..rose.