The Cult Of Country

Is your country just a concept
Something you play with
Have you grown up
Or are you still being a d***
Coz I cannot stand in silence
As the pillars burn
Wait for someone else
To steady the axis turn
And storms are breaking out
Like they said they would
I read between the lines
Of a Book that is Good
But you seek to condemn
What is merely knowing
I look out the window
It’s April and it’s snowing
As the ice melts
And the Gulf Stream redirects
I listen to Greta
And I wonder what’s next
In this reverberate
That is slowly brewing
The people in charge
Don’t know what they’re doing
Or maybe they do
(In that case it’s worse)
You order a Starbucks
But I sense a hearse
Somewhere on the horizon
For the human race
There’s no telling the atrocities
That maybe we will face
If something doesn’t change
On the political scene
I woke up from my nightmare
And it was just a dream

Somewhere In The Multiverse

Is everyone trying to escape
That vast, empty space
And I hold her at a distance
Arms length, or resistance
Coz she can't know
How I let you go
And the awning abyss
Is the only man I kiss
In the winter of my life
When I'm trying to survive the strife
Under the cover building turf
Could you tell me which is worse
Indifference or indecision
And I know you were subject of derision
But I shared 
In every vessel that cared
How the ship would float
And that boat 
Still sails a sea
Somewhere in the multiverse with me

The Terrifying Moment Of Us

Photo by Chermiti Mohamed on Pexels.com
The loss means taking a hit
You think it means nothing but I feel every bit
Of pain you inflict
And I can call you a dick
But it doesn’t change the feeling inside
All I do is hide
It from prying eyes
But there’s a time when the disguise
Is a weight to bear 
And I tie up my hair
Because it’s too long
And your song
Still rings in my ears
Throughout the years
Of uncried tears
And I’m just sitting in my car at the Mall
Thinking of the time you called me pal
And I can’t get back that day
And it’s in everything you Say
That we can’t hold ourselves back from the bridge
That holds us over the river 
Do I forgive her
For the darkness that she opened
Like a Pandora’s box
But something undid the locks
And I can credit her with something she did not
Know she was doing
And all these dreams I’m pursuing 
Are just ways I escape 
From Superman’s red cape
As it tries to cover me 
And tell me I’m free
But I’m sad and I’m weak
I remember days I couldn’t speak
For want of crying 
Why is everyone dying
Slowly, then all at once
Kinda like how you fall in love

Death And The End Of Things

Death and the end of things
Did it clip my broken wings
Coz I saw it in every facet
Of a diamond hue
And counted down the days
Until it would take you
And now I’m thirty three
One day it’ll take me 
Away from the world of form
The world into which 
I was born 
And it was midnight when I realised
That everything I loved died
On the street that day
And it’s not okay
To just say
That all things end
And love’s around the riverbend
Coz they never seem to care
About what isn’t there
Where it once was 
And I got angry just because
I couldn’t change it
Couldn’t change anything 
So I find the lungs to sing
The song you taught me all those years ago
And it doesn’t take snow
To preserve a body cold
What happens to us when we get old
Do we live in regret
Replacing what hasn’t happened yet 
Coz the time has piled
And all the miles 
We go from the place where we were
And nothing can replace her
Not as hard as it tried
The world is full of lies
But there is a truth that just fails
To catch the wind that set my sails
Upon a foreign sea
Are you still watching over me
Or is it just rueful fate
I love and It forgets the hate

The Monument

Fighting the monument to the era gone by
I dunno, I just had to try
But throwing stones at the wall
Is not the way to get over it all
And they had me medicated to the hilt
I couldn't stop crying til the flower wilt
And the flow of the years pass through
As I stare through the window at you
Hoping you might turn your head
But I better watch my mouth or I'll end up dead
Coz there's traps for every sound
And they're scattered all around
In the avenues that people walk 
And the professionals are all talk
Coz it's a road less traveled by
And it's a witch hunt if you claim to fly
When you are an earth bound creature
But I thought this deserved a feature 
In the newspaper of us
It's crumpled like our broken trust

No Deal

They talk about taking a cut
I don’t wish to intrude but
Isn’t that selling out on your dreams
The tailor rips all the seams
On a mighty dress
And I confess
That I never really knew what this life thing was
I just keep holding on because
It seems to be the only thing to do
Hold my breath and set the queue
And everything will be alright
There is no way to fight the night
Only accept its lapping waves
And the superhero who saves
Is your own deepest core
Pushing you til you know there’s more
Than surface appearance
In the woods and there’s been a clearance
Into some sort of scene
Everything is hazy as a dream
As I take what they offer me
But I would rather be free
Of the chains that bind
They run rings around my mind
But suffice to say
It doesn’t go away
It only suppress
It’s there to be addressed
And I hold my hand out to the dark
It dances me around in the park
With the grass under my feet
How was it that we never meet
In all the years we’ve been together
Just me, you and the weather
And it’s a lavender suite
I let it go and defeat
Is the sweetest thing I know
It just took Him time to show
The underneath that silences doubt
Now forever is what I’m all about
And death is the mask that God wears
You don’t realise it til the illusion tears
And you’re left with a landscape in your lap
Did the Universe take a nap
On overseeing the score
Coz I’m not sure who I am anymore
But You assure
That this road is pure
As midnight snow
The moon kissing the white below

Winter Weather And Summertime Seasons

Leaving Easter Eggs all over town
So someone might find them when they take it down
And I may be colossus but summer’s in my veins
Though I’ve got to say I’m open to rains
As they pour down from the sky
There’s something within me that’s not gonna die
No matter the seasons or passing of time
It is a wondrous crime
To look Death in the face
And tell him it’s not the time and place
To go standing around stores
And I’ve always wanted more
Than just the simple life I live
Why is it so hard to forgive
Coz she crushed the flower I held out
Now I second guess my own doubt
When I’m relying on love
To heal all ills
But I’m lost in the woods
Now I’m taking pills
Just to make the trees have leaves
And it’s not everything that Truth believes
Only solid ground on a pine cone floor
Oh, this Earth and all I adore

Lightly Sedated

They paved a path and told me to walk
I tried to speak up, they said it’s all talk
As I contradict
The line they’re running with
Could you spare a minute doctor dear
I wanna make something clear
I am moved by the immutable force
Like a river by nature just follows the course
That sends it from spring to the sea
Well, so it is with me
As I feel the flow
You tell me not to let go
But I’m not holding on
The thing you look for is long gone
And the clambering rock on the cliff that I scale
Is not enough to make my courage fail
Because I’m brilliant red and Griffindor
You’re looking for less but I’ve got more
Than you ever could contain
Within the concept of rain
Must I say it to you again
As I slouch around the hall
I’m fuckin’ bored, will you pass me the ball
So I can shoot it in the net
Remind you that I don’t forget
The lines you litter with your feet
I never spoke about the monumental meet
I had with a guy so sweet
It’s cooking time and the heat
Is too much for me to stand
I look at him and he takes my hand
And holds it close to his face
A beauty that I can’t erase
As he’s speaking to my doubt
Don’t need to have to do without
But within is where I rule domain
And I know we’ll meet again
Somewhere in between
There is a crack in the dream
That’s how the light gets in
For a moment there it was with him

Seasons And Elemental Forces

Running like a river
But I can’t get away
What if I let it catch me
And I agree to stay
In the forest of my dreams
In the midnight of my tome
I’m away from you
Or the place that I call home
In the winter, in the summer
In spring, come what may
In autumn the leaves change colour
Because they cannot stay
The same as they’ve been
And life moves on
There’s no need to mourn
What is already gone

Diesel Is Desire

Diesel is desire
And if there’s a spark it’ll catch fire
And explode
I didn’t know the less travelled road
Was a trail to blaze
Oh, all the cities I raze
To the ground
Just to hear the sound
Of tomorrow’s bells
Will we all burn in hell
As we make hell on earth
Poison the soil we call dirt
Then throw it at each other
Coz we can’t grow from it, brother

Love And Oceans Apart

Photo by Rodolfo Quiru00f3s on Pexels.com
We are love and oceans apart
But that is nothing when it comes to the heart
As I struggle to get by as we 
File it away like destiny
Knows nothing about the something we are
I see you reflected in the great star
That shines down on us from its place on high
I don't know why but I'm not afraid to die
Yet I see these children suffer in pain
And I want to run rings around the world again
Clean up every mess and lift every smile
Make sure no man walks the green mile
Coz we're peace at our core, we're peace in our soul
And it's gotta be together if we wanna make it whole
And they say zero hunger by 2030
But I think we can speed it up coz it's worth it
And there are so many lives to touch
I look in their faces and I love them so much 
Enough to put myself on the line
Say there's a wasting and there isn't time
Enough to just kick the can
Further on down the road like a real hard man
I gotta be stellar in my interpretation
Make sure all these girls get an education
So they can rise and be equal to
Anything anyone else can do
And there's mass emigration and there's starving to death
I don't think that I could ever forget 
The faces that I see on a tv screen
There's no use in saying it's only a dream
Coz what could consciousness do but respond
Now's not the time to kick back and abscond
And I keep worrying about how I look
And if I'll be killed if I don't do it by the book
But I gotta be honest and I gotta be real
There's a mountain of trouble we all have to heal 
And if we can then maybe we'll feel
Something akin to cutting a deal 

Starships

What is a starship when it's at home
And must a tomcat always roam
Or be swan faithful by the sea
Like the Children of Lír that wait for me 
And was there some kind of ancient fable
That monumental on the table 
Made enough bread for us all to eat
But there's millions in the bank and death on the street
How can we let this continue 
As if loss is on the menu
And the rolling hills of vagabonds
Play the fool like two dumb blondes
And I know this is not the female's fault 
But we go along with the lie we've bought
As a child not of our womb
Starves to death in an empty room 
Full of faces who just placade
And there are millions in that state
As we deny, deny
We just simply shouldn't try
To bring this to fruition
Just spending more on ammunution
Seems to relieve a conscience broke
From all the words we have not spoke 
And I cannot speak for myself
Because I have my own story of wealth
And how I try to keep it from my door
But if I had it I could give more
And make a change on that plain
But what if I could not contain
The contempt and the corruption 
Like Vesuvius and eruption
Like lava and all it encases
The modern history and what it erases
Or geography to keep us asleep 
To the promise that together would keep 
And am I just out on the run
Or do I speak to some 
Who feel the same way I do 
The conundrum and me and you 

Makeshift Home

Do you live in a makeshift home
A cardboard box you live in alone
And are there decorations on the wall
Or do you bother with all that at all
Coz I've watched lives burned down to dust
Watched the vagaries and the absent trust
As everything turned out naught
Like you're a fisherman and your net was caught

But I've also seen sunrise break up the day
Tell the night that it will be okay
And the fading of twilight come the dawn
Is like Easter when the winter is gone
And I've lived both sides of the conunderum
I been so sure that I left them wondering 
If it's just a delusion I've held onto
But the truth is fire and it's burning you

And there are eaves that run with the power of rain
A summer solstice I wouldn't do again
To feel the pummeling water down 
Like my feet are puddles in the air that drown
Out the noise of unimpeded consequence
People will tell you that you're due for rent
When all you've done is breathe in the air
And enjoy the facilities that are left there

So, what is the future likely to be
Will we bury the ocean under the sea
Will we poison the atmosphere and heat the air
Til the people in Africa know we don't care
Coz their land is arid and often dry
The rivers run cold and the children cry
Out for a piece of food to eat
While we make war under our own feet

And will I just be a paragon in the future looking back
I'm not setting myself up to be a life hack
I wanna make a difference and I'll make it now
If the Universe conspires with me somehow
To release the pain like I'm lancing a boil
So the robots do the work and the people toil 
In sweatshops in Asia and all of our shoes
Coz less than the amount we use to pay our dues 

The World As We Know It

The world as we know it
Is in rapid decline
I'd love to say something
Like it's all just fine
And it would be true
To a degree
But there's something that's calling
Of the ocean to me
And we're building cities 
Up from the ground
But there are people crying 
Because of the sound
Of war drums that beat
To the rhythm of people's feet
As they march across the sand 
While economists talk of 
The invisible hand 
But we gotta make a move
To make a change
As the atoms stratify 
And rearrange
Into a new form
And is the sun warm
What a question to ask!
Are we able
Or up to the task? 
And we've got this spirit
Running our veins
And I can't tolerate
All the pain 
That the interpretation creates 
I see us all in better states
Where we make a duty more than law
But the reason why the ice thaw
As my compassion heats the storm
Is there a world that could be too warm? 

Changing Times

What if there is no right or wrong
And the tree of life is just a song
And the music plays to keep us secure
Not waving oceans to endure
As it all just comes apart
We’re floating back to the start
Where it all comes together
And there’s no sign of Noah’s weather
As we meet the end of days
It’s just the start in many ways

Life In Eden

There’s no way back now
We’ve got to find a new way somehow
To cut a swathe through the tide
Really breathe while we’re alive
And we may have realized
That we’re all living under blue skies
But we hide behind each tree we find
Conceptualize it with the power of mind
And search for a way to be secure
But don’t you know we’re all born pure
And I’m not trying to catch you out
But don’t you think it’s good to doubt
And question what you don’t understand
The life of the free is never planned
But an unfoldment in Universal degree
I may be wrong but hey, that’s just me!

A Tentative Flowering

I was the white girl in the room
The first time the end came too soon
And I made tea for Nina and Kamile
And you wouldn’t think it but this shit’s real
As I learn things I didn’t know
About how corporate America go
And tear down the African soul
We’re still the colour the waves roll
And I stood out coz of my skin
I was in the lift just silent with him
And he’s got dreads and is so cool
I tell him about DJ in school
But am I just being tone deaf
To walk the way, well what the eff
And what the hell do I know
The privilege of my skin to show
Why is the world this way
And it’s not just what the country say
It’s continental persecution
You have those lives that are so brutal
Just a struggle to survive
So I can find appliances with which to vibe
And do I just become organic
Does that mitigate the titanic
Task of hunger facing us
Why can’t we just learn to trust
And share like children do
But we grasp onto what we think is true
And defend our own positions
That turn into ammunition
With which we can stare the enemy down
But I’m turning tables as we turn around
To a sudden kind of consciousness
It’s a shift in our distress
Away from the heavy handed tide
I care that every child survives
And has a place to call home
More than adequate and all alone
More than just the mute discard
I acknowledge they have it hard
And there is more that I can do
Just tell me what you
Need from me at any time
I don’t want to hoard what is mine
But open arms and let it be
It’s time to wake up and see
And know and sudden realise
That we are one under the skies
So blue and heavenly open free
You call out and destiny
Will shake and break this whole thing up
There’s got to be more to Love
Than just watching your own back
Or finding somewhere to attack
There is a season true
It’s one for all and all for you

Balance

I find love in your sad eyes and you don’t know I see it there
As you pierce through to me it makes me start to care
And it helps that you’re good looking with the linings of a beard
But even if you weren’t your soul is why I’m here
To capitalise as you put it on who just sat beside
And I know that we just met but I’m glad that you’re alive
To pour your peculiar poetry into my brain
I don’t know if you think about the clouds behind the rain
As you try to understand what you fail to see
I didn’t admit you got it right when you pinpointed me
But I had to smile through the unsettling of being called out
Because I trust your innocence and I love what you’re about
And I’m loath to leave as I’m sure you can tell
As I fail to turn away from you when you ask me to aswell
Because you’re just too interesting and this moment is holy
And I can’t involve myself with them when I’m looking for you only
As you spread out on the seat with the lines that you attach
I thought I had lost my love but it always comes back
And I’m focused with intent on knowing who you are
As you dance around the riverbed you do not see the star
That is shining on your head and guiding me to you
You saw that I’m alone but I think you are too
Though you’re so extravagant, you’re sincerely warm
And I would like to hold your hand sailing through this storm
Of life as it moves, the continuum you say
And I would like to be with you if that is okay
And I know that you are younger and friends with recompense
But I don’t see why I should walk away from the things you meant
As you do not hide it well and I don’t think you intend
By your side I thought you could do with a friend
To stand by your soul and I guess I could be her
I would have come sooner but I didn’t know where you were
Or the name of someone who vehemently existed
I’ve spent too long along the lines of the hearts I have resisted
And so, no more, no more, I will reach my hand to you
I’ll take you from this place if you want me to
With the noise and the exploding of the people who do not mean
Half of what they say they do and change who they have been
So hold my eyes my friend because I am missing you
And feeling your absence in the place the wind blows through
And I think of how funny and how awesome it is
To find your compatible to be the same as his
As you’re sitting over chairs and tobacco in a room
I thought the night was over but I thought it too soon
So ever present angel as you effervesce the sky
Please come back into my arms so that I know why
I need so very badly something I cannot have
I lost it all when I lost him and that’s why I’m feeling bad

 

 

Man in Black

Depression takes everything you have, it’s a lot like death
And when it hits you you do not forget
Are forever changed, forever moved
And, dare I may say it, greatly improved
So can I be a spokesperson for the darkness within
It’s not all bad though I didn’t tell him
And I am sunlit because I know
night
Even more so than that, I know something is right
Cause they are both just opposing sides of a coin
Lesser and greater eventually join
Into one river that leads to the sea
I am so proud of who I’ve come to be
I feel mountainous when speaking to you
When you try to help me to talk it through
I just smile at your innocentness
To think you could undo the cause of my distress
Like you could unmake the blue of the sky
Like you could raise eyes and make them un-die
But what is seen can never be taken back
So for now, I’ll be the man in black
Til all of the colours bleed into the sink
I will be the absence that makes you think
And skip a beat when you see my peace
Fearless in the face of what will decease
Because this world is just building on snow
I am of another and that’s where I go
So don’t pity the rook that sits in the tree
Wild things have wings and know how to be free
Accepting their fate on the breeze as it comes
It called for me and I have succumbed
Don’t worry your mind into the grey
I was born to be this way
No, there’s nothing wrong as far as I can see
So thank you but I’ll pass on what you offer me
And you may never understand
But there’s a design consciousness has planned
I have grown to compassionately embrace
The canvas collection fear will deface
But love will multiply whatever you give her
You can’t blame the rocks for shaping the river

Vision

I felt I was always waiting for my big break
And the world would discover me and you’d see your mistake
But it’s been over twenty years since I started writing songs
And novels in my bedroom willing them to play along
Cause I swore that I would captivate all of life from a stage
And I could mould a beginning from the ashes of my rage
And that band we never quite managed to get together
Before you left me on the sidelines for what you can’t remember
But I still swear I will make everybody so proud
And be the rebel who stands out from the crowd
The golden girl they always said would go far
But the darkness broke my spirit and you broke my heart
And I am just a shell of who I used to be
Or the ambition that I held and what was in store for me
Now it feels like I’m swimming underwater
And I have been reduced to just somebody’s daughter
Though I feel know musicians who have made it big
Or the idols of my writing and I visualise a gig
That brings us altogether and finally reveals
The depth inside of me that nobody steals
In passion and in presence to step inside my own
The fire and the promise I have always known
The inspiration deck from my observatory
I was not born to hide away so listen to me
And the aching wisdom that just came with this body
The omnipotent surrender, I’ll leave you thinking of me

At His Feet

I don’t want help, I just want to express
The feelings inside, my perennial distress
And I don’t want sad looks from any of you
Not doing this for pity, that’s not what I would do
It’s just that I’m proud of the strongest of me
That came from the darkness of what I came to be
And the night closed in on me with a march from the source
It was rough and unkind, the epitome of course
And I found silvered light or maybe you could say gold
And a kind of immortal that will never grow old
And it lit up my life and shone so very bright
That I knew in that moment that I would be alright
And I just want to share the vestiges of pain
And that there is sunlight under the rain
And that there is earth under pavements complete
That there is a God and I fall at his feet

Born and Raised

imageWhen words are just not enough to explain the hurt you feel
And you try to cope, as the saying goes, but you just cannot deal
When spider legs entwine and trap you in their cages
You spew it out on paper, on magnificent pages
Cause expression is the key to understand your mind
And when you have stopped the noise you can leave it all behind
Cause forever’s in a moment that never will defer
There will finally come a time
when you realise what it all was for
And the revolution will be complete as all the lies dawn Truth
It would be an understatement to say I had a tumultuous youth
But all the beauty and the conflagration is a white fire blaze
I guess that you could say I took all these years to raise

Photo Credit: The Work of Byron Katie – Facebook

Burning Strong

I’ve held it back for so long you see
From loving you and my destiny
It almost feels strange to breathe in the air
Feel the wind rustle calmness through my hair

I was born for this, I know I was
I was holding myself back because
Of all of my doubts, of all of my fears
All of this shaking has taken my years

But you knew that day, I saw it in your eyes
Knew my path and saw through my lies
You didn’t say a thing, didn’t judge me or hate
For living untruths and turning from fate

You didn’t hit me or call cynical tones
You listened to me with no throwing stones
You bowed your head and leaned in to my face
As I spoke my soul into that space

Your instinct was right, I saw it in your mind
As I begged you not to be cruel or unkind
But you knew better and I knew that you did
And still in my weakness I ran and hid

I just want to thank you for being so wise
And for knowing me better than I did at that time
I’ll never forget what you gave me for free
Trusted what you could not see

You trusted me to hold your hand
Though betrayal was my only plan
You stood beside me in my loss
You didn’t run or pay the cost

Sat side by side though I was wrong
Gave me somewhere to belong
Our secrets stories are coming true
I share it with the world and you

I feel somehow you understand
How I have changed my marching band
You were spot on when you predicted
I was a tenant soon to be evicted

I was confused and in delirium wandered
Into a forest where my wealth was squandered
But I found my way out eventually
Back to the place fitting for me

Skylight

I can’t take it when the weather changes
And the landscape rearranges
And the daylight that you thought you knew
Has been replaced by nighttime blue
When you have come to love the warm days
And the good times of relaxing laze
A change comes expected and forecast
But still sudden and meant to last
You miss the old but get on and make do
Spend all my time wishing and hoping for you