The red rubber ball came bouncing down the stairs
I picked it up which you’re not supposed to do
I spoke and said to me
There’s no love in my world

The little girl in a red dress came skipping into view
I asked for her name which you’re not supposed to do
She spoke and said to me
There’s no love in my world

The carrion crow landed on the windowsill
I asked it why it came here which you’re not supposed to do
It spoke and said to me
There’s no love in my world

I looked at the clock
It had no numbers
I looked at the thermometer
It had no measure
I looked at the book
It had no words
I looked at you
You had no telling

I looked at the trees
They had no leaves
I looked at the sky
It had no sun
I looked at the moon
It wasn’t shining
I looked at you
You had no telling

I looked at the gravestone
It had no name
I looked at the epitaph
It said nothing
I looked at religion
All was scrambled
I looked at you
You had no telling

Two mirrors sat down to talk
Like two lions mouths that needed deeding
A blacksmith stood nearby with a sledgehammer
He had a writ for seven years bad luck in his pocket

The priest had asked him along
To break up any fight that might ensue

The clock ticked on the wall wouldn’t stop ticking
A stranger erupted in on the proceedings
Let me look at myself he said with a narcisstic sear
As soon as he sat between the mirrors
The scene erupted into a frenzy

A little mud lark started laughing crazily
And in his best cockney dialect said
Get a load of this you suckers
And tipped his barrow of mud onto the floor

As the priest in his mud stained frock ran out
The mirrors became calm and they stopped wrestling with the clock
It rolled away on the floor and came to a stop
It was precisely 12 o’clock at midnight

She had a leather sofa
Sitting by the wall
It still had eye sockets
And it answered when she called

I was afraid that I would ruin it
Scratch and cut and bruise it
Attack it and confuse it
As it prowled around the room

Like a lion in a café
That roamed around cage
And jumped out of the window
In a kind of rage

this leather sofa blues confused me
I’m sensitive to things like that
and I don’t think anyone should sit there
If they’re easily scratched by a cat

the dynasty grew fat
full fruited
and fell with a splash
and its blood covered
Egypt

The dynasty
Kept climbing
Until their shoulders
Were bruised and bleeding

The dynasty
Defied gravity
And thought it could
Land a man upon the clouds

Where the birds of prey
Flew,
waiting

the rejection of women
is death
the ill treatment of women
is destruction

fields do not produce wheat
rivers do not fill with fish

you wear a lock and chain
around your neck
and yet you say you are free

The conquest of space
Could get ugly

You can get there
In your sleep
You can follow the rivers
Of bright stars
Sleepwalking

You pack up your bags
And go to the moon
Your footprints
Are like a sign of ownership

You plant the flag
Of your nation
Yet you cannot say
Where you’ll be
In twenty years time

Children
See the dust of stars
You
leave pile ups of debris

the bird of paradise
sings to the earth
you
desire the gold
of far away planets

and God finished his work
and look it was good

Women
Heart of our hearts
Women
Souls of our souls

They lie down dead
Like sleepers
Through histories landscape

Women
Are our lamb chops
Women
Are our gifts

They
Flourish like meadows
Replenished
By their womanhood

Women
Are where we sleep at night
Women
Are where we eat in the morning

They are the moons of our bodies
They shine,
they control the tides
We do not and cannot follow

Now look back and see
How their broken hearts
Are blown in gusts of autumn wind
As cheap and as beautiful as autumn leaves