Sugar For Salt

SUGAR FOR SALT

May you ever travel peacefully
And with worthy companions
Be sure never to let your fear
Seed hatred toward others
May you ever travel peacefully
And with worthy companions

May you ever travel peacefully
And with worthy companions
If you’re not part of the solution
Then you’re part of the problem
May you ever travel peacefully
And with worthy companions

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)

Crash on the levee, mama
Water’s gonna overflow
Swamp’s gonna rise
No boat’s gonna row
Now, you can train on down
To Williams Point
You can bust your feet
You can rock this joint
But oh mama, ain’t you gonna miss your best friend now?
You’re gonna have to find yourself
Another best friend, somehow

Now, don’t you try an’ move me
You’re just gonna lose
There’s a crash on the levee
And, mama, you’ve been refused
Well, it’s sugar for sugar
And salt for salt
If you go down in the flood
It’s gonna be your own fault
Oh mama, ain’t you gonna miss your best friend now?
You’re gonna have to find yourself
Another best friend, somehow

Well, that high tide’s risin’
Mama, don’t you let me down
Pack up your suitcase
Mama, don’t you make a sound
Now, it’s king for king
Queen for queen
It’s gonna be the meanest flood
That anybody’s seen
Oh mama, ain’t you gonna miss your best friend now?
Yes, you’re gonna have to find yourself
Another best friend, somehow

 

(Copyright © 1967 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1995 by Dwarf Music)

USA USA USA You Were Saying?

USA USA USA YOU WERE SAYING?

These self-appointed slick lords
Never as cool as they’d like
Foreverly seeking applause

In the forever even dragons
Left entertaining archons
Have demons of their own

Riding the American nightmare
Jet and ivory – non consensual
The wizard is behind your eyes

In the absence of actual presence
The child imagines companions
Drums up sugar plum fairies or …

Pays for encore after encore
Ends up head in a basket
Soul sold to the soulless

Carries on, on and on resonating
Aleatorically, unapologetically
Their cross to bear

Oh Media Mania’s Puny Hum

OH MEDIA MANIA’S PUNY HUM

Illusion within
Illusion masquerading
As reality
I interrupt this broadcast
With breaking news of silence

Lessons From George Orwell’s ‘1984’

This article is a companion to my recent post The Daily Grind.

Lessons from George Orwell’s ‘1984’

(For Beth, with love.)
 

 

The Daily Grind (Reposted)

THE DAILY GRIND

morning well wicked early still
when alarm bell rings

unglue gummy eyes
peer through foetid gloom
grope around to kill it
sniff up last night’s stale breath
puke worthy – and you expected?

quick shower, squirt and spray
baited hooks set – and dreams
“I swear (s)he fancies me”
a hopeful phone trills – eyes gleam
and stick it in your ear – “hi”

now on your mark, get set
and go, raging or else uncomplaining
by crammed tube or heaving bus
or through poison-pumping gridlock
noxious hell whichever option

a compliant commuter – a clone – a costumed clown
stuck up the back end of a pantomime horse
blindly galloping into thunderous oblivion
holding your snotty nose to the grindstone
scrounging shekels to fuel your shakey schemes

yes, here’s the life you were schooled for
to be laid on the butcher’s chopping block
to hang ripe for the black reaper’s picking
next to our attempts to heal our broken hearts
keeping food on the table is their sharpest weapon

but pity the overseers in their turn
the restless scuttling tinker men
well heeled tepid heartless overlords
with their eternal fear of the rank and vile
whose oversensitivity is such a bore

do they lie in the dark wakeful
awaiting the day their own alarm bells ring?

Mother Of Horus

MOTHER OF HORUS*

While it is still them v. us
There remains further to go
And we shall remain wary
If not to say untrusting
Observing, observing
Hoping, while working quietly
Stolid and sturdy, deep rooted
In the fecund underground

——————————————————————

* Isis was worshipped as the patroness of nature and is often depicted as the mother of Horus. She was the friend of the downtrodden.

May Revolution (¡barco a la vista!)

MAY REVOLUTION (¡barco a la vista!)

Oh such a permissive month May
Fresh blossom novelties bursting forth
Every which way and where and willy-nilly
Without any “May I”s, or “By-your-leave”s
No, no so bothersome “Riddle-me-why”s

“Just Say No” gone so out of vogue now
Tie-dyed t(r)ees are springing back to life
In a collective shouting of “Just Say Yes”
Or else, more coyly “Just Say Maybe”
“Oh may I, may I, may I please?”

Another Red Shower

ANOTHER RED SHOWER

The red shower, replete with fire and acid,
Flings shouts re-echoing ivy-spun corridors;
Here and there the hint of a word, a name,
Merges into intricate interlacing brickwork,

All and every day sauntering on in guessment;
Fearful since weaned on uninvited comeuppances.
Apothegm then: to overcome or else be overcome,
So prefers the verges, avoids the meanstream.

A captious catch-as-catch-can exploration;
Sifts the process, pauses, rescinds, deletes.
Hesitant to join the game even at novice level
Yet caught out red handed peeking nonetheless.

Creation II

CREATION II

Even when we let go
It happens by itself
For we are all one

Seems easy

But as you know
We all like to play
At being the saboteur

Just Say No

JUST SAY NO

That which will not bend
Is in danger of breaking
Or else of being broken

Then again there are times
When it is time not to bend
Lest one’s soul be broken