It started in a teacup (as storms are wont to do)

Flew out around the house, and as it moved it grew,

feeding on shame

and the things you’d have to change to be the same

as everyone, the same

as anyone

This happened once before in a house that was too small.

When last I passed it by I stole a look over the wall,

and now wild flowers line the drive

(but they too will die in time)

and the cracks across the glass remind us of how hard we tried

to be a family; believing ever after could end happily

But now

the house stands empty

and the dream has left me

and I could concede to be angry but I

don’t

want to lose more love.

No I don’t want to lose more love.

There’s thunderbolts and lightning now just as far as you can see.

Shoot your bullets to the sky but don’t you point that thing at me, I’m not

the woman

who you lost

or the money that it costs to be the same as everyone,

the same as anyone

There’s a light beneath my skin – it was not you who stitched it in, but – you saw me coming

long before I saw your shaking pen

as you wrote down the name: Ancient Tree, Sacred Chain

It’s just a name.

Like everyone.

The same as anyone

so don’t

tie it to your wrist, or tattoo it on your fist;

you can’t possess all that you say,

or make it true by power of faith.

Just like water touching water, just like rain on a lake,

I don’t

want a kneeling man.

The first time I tried, think I made someone cry

picking apples on the way home from school.

We all lied to be cool, but that was just cruel.

Still, it makes more sense to me now.

And the secret we kept – from that day

when we wept throughout the night, so sorry

for ourselves –

it hangs round my neck, so I can’t forget.

At least it makes more sense to me now.

I was taught to be good by The Book and The Wood,

I believe that there’s right and there’s wrong.

Still, I long for a life where I laugh before I cry,

can you find that by singing a song?

Oh, just to know there isn’t much further to go.

Now the house is all empty, the troubles are plenty,

my friends are all out in the sun.

They tell me ‘You’ve become but a memory…’

sounds to me like ‘Run!’

Leaving’s all I know how to do now.

Old Man London breathing down my neck

Old Man London never pays his check

Living in this city ain’t no living at all

My back got broke and my heart went ugly small

I hear piano when there ain’t no piano

Hear somebody singing when there ain’t no song

And I know I’ve been living in this city too long

My soul got eat up and my mind went crazy wrong

Old Man London, spitting in The River,

leaking stinking water into every street

I take my whiskey neat and my coffee dark and think – don’t nobody drink the water,

it’s gonna make you awful sick

Old Man London breathing down my neck

Old Man London never pays his check

Living in this city ain’t no living at all

My back got broke and my heart went ugly small

No, living in this city, it ain’t no living at all

You are golden

You are holy

and your miracle eyes, turn the tarnished inside

holy white like the hue of my love

– You give just enough.

A stone’s throw; a stone

so heavy I can’t take it home,

so leave it where it lies

and lie

and listen to the rain all night, with open eyes

In the morning we’ll take it to a place where no-one knows,

pick aralia and rose to weave a wreath around its head

to kill it dead before it grows.

Come on down from the mountain and know you’re wrong;

so long solemn can’t change you so pick up your stone –

the face that you gave it was so like your own…

Oh no! No-one can tell us no nothing, so leave us alone!

And at night we run rings around our right and reverent friends

Our broken hearts that don’tcare mends,

our open arms that lust – and burn with carelessly danced cigarette ends.

But in the morning such childish contrivances are ink against the rain,

your purist poem won’t remain

your truest word is just a stain on

a summer dress; on a

bare and brave young breast; on a loveless bed;

in a thoughtless head

You were golden

You were holy

but your miracle eyes leave me hollow inside

pride has swallowed the best of

my love, you were golden

you were holy but I

will turn you to dust, from which you came

and from which you were raised in the gaze of my love, darling, don’t

be afraid of the dust, from which you were made

like the rest

of us.

Outside your window I can see

a single leaf atop a solitary tree

Your parents never let us play piano on a Sunday

Outside your window I can see

an empty house, a shrinking patch of stricken street

I wish that you were closer to me

The valley is a sinking wreck,

the town hides down beneath its dank decaying deck

No fire above, no lamps below

for the bullying hills said so

It was for love we left I know

And love that took us where we did not wish to go

And love that led you to the door

And love that let us down once more

Build high the cards! Cast out the line!

Our luck will change – just give it time.

What monstrous beasts did bring you here?

And beasts be they that though you plead they do not hear.

But, if to you these beasts they be,

then we are too, as such, you see

Unfaithful daughters all are we! to call by name what you can’t see

The danger of this kind of love, it holds too tight to let in light,

and life, it starts to fray around the edge

a single thread

pulled right until there’s nothing left.

You may feel safe inside a cage, but there’s nothing here to eat my dear.

Let fall the cards…let go the line,

you lost you hope, I’ll bury mine.

Too many sunsets lost waiting for you to come home

it’s not beautiful when you’re alone and wondering why

Too many too long nights asking the same old thing

over again to just to hear the same old lie

They say that love is blind, but I can see

you losing sight of me

Well I’m not sad to say goodbye, I’m not going to sit and cry

my mamma always told me, ‘Whatever will be will be…’

And I’m not going to dream of you, to see other lovers together and rue

the day you said that you were leaving me

I have already forgotten the colour of your eyes

the way it felt each time your kisses caught me by surprise

I do not remember how it sounds when you call my name

all those fights I swore you started, well, who knows now who’s to blame

And I forget where I left that letter you sent, that said you’d love me til you die

well I’m not sad at all. No I’m not sad at all

I’m not sad at all, to say goodbye.

Well, I can’t keep wandering around

with a bloodhound

at my heels… I wonder

how it feels, to kill

a

dog

I left the house

again last night

without

my clothes on

and I forgot to tell

the doctor I was doing well;

tell the nurse that she

could stop

drugging my tea

and although there are a millions songs

when someone sings

I hear

but one:

I see no reason not to walk into the sea

I thought I saw a rope keeping me from the wall

and a black

whole as the night

every star looks just as bright – from far away

I saw a thousand stairs

ceaselessly spiralling they led

to the foot

of the bed

where the two of you with me lay

laughing

dreaming, sleeplessly

the world beneath our feet

as when every night we’d see the moonlight

strike

the silent sea

in a coastal town in Italy

and I knew that all we three could walk on water if we pleased

and I’ll live to see a million suns if in each one I hear that song

I see no reason

now to walk

into

the

sea