<When The Rains Come>

Virus Meadow
Rattled chime slow ringing echo
Roll around in virus meadow
Suck enchanted nightshade twine
Hear the bells beneath us chime.

Sinking sermon Priest head murmurs
Holy words across the meadows
Kissed the plague's black rolling hand
And through his lips the virus sang.

And the rooks seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Flapping in the flat sky
Shrieking in the spire
Hanging from the lead sky
Dangling from the sun
The rooks they seem to follow him
Wherever he goes.

Nodding thistle English sun dew
Swansneck woman child bed meadow
Aching shoulders sink and glow
As the bells from ditches toll.

And the smeared skin wrapped limbs
Of the night brothers
Struggling and crawling
Through the empty crack of morning.


Dialogue
Doves circuit the sky
In the room where I woke
I heard them fly
like a rush of blood
Into the endless blue
Out into the blue
Reflected light trembles on the wall
Where Hannah lies.

I thought of you
And all the things I'd say
All the things I'd say to you
Out into the blue
All the things I'd say
All the things I'd say to you.

She thought of a time
Saw herself by the lake
The house behind
Ringng with a tune
Of glass and chandeliers
Her loneliness grew
The evening brushed
Through her auburn hair
And closed her eyes.


Fighting In A Lighthouse
Through the curtains that blew apart
Drifted a strange old tune
And the sunlight with its dying rays
Floods the room with another day.

On the surface, cool neon danced
Swam with a day old moon
And when I touched your fine boned shoulder
On the strand walking next to you

The senile sea numbers each single
Slime silvered stone.

Through the curtains that blew apart
Drifted a strange old tune
And the lighthouse with its slender beam
Crossed the room where a woman leaned.

The senile sea numbers each single
Slime silvered stone.


Mary of the Woods
In the vale there's a meadow
Where a rare flower grows
Oh Mary won't you be my girl.

When the land falls away
And the sea there lies rolling
Oh Mary-it's a simple world.

When your headscarf falls like this
And the sunlight's on you lips
Oh Mary won't be my girl.

I took a walk down to the parson's house
Met the cooper and the priest on the way there
They pointed up to the woods for you
Oh Mary I'll find you somewhere.


Jacob Fleet
My name is Jacob Fleet
I feel the solid world
Revolve beneath my feet
I stride over plains
Through the copse
And through the glade
I pace through the day.

I scale the steeple streets
All empty but for song
Woodsmoke and Sabbath meat
I pace down the lanes
If I stop my shadow fades
I walk and I pray

And the wind tells me
'Oh come back home again'
And the hedges began to hum
'Never stop never stay
Don't let your shadow fade.'

My name is Jacob Fleet
I walk the golden mist
Of Alabaster street
My scant figure strays
Through the lost white lilac lanes
Where heavens angels prey
But I will not stop or stay
I rage into the day

And a voice tells me
'Oh come back home again'
And the hedges began to hum
'Never stop never stay
Don't let your shadow fade.'

I saw a girl standing by a pail
I heard the tell-tale wind
In the windmill sails.


Candace
I was watching my sister tying
back her hair
She kicked off her shoes and left
them there
Beneath the slender trees
In the dry heart-shaped yellow leaves

And Caddy Says-
Don't touch me don't touch me

But not to me as she's lying
With her head on my knees
The sound of the roof then suddenly she's
Not with me anymore
And the shapes slide brighter than before

And Caddy says
Don't touch me don't touch me

As she stands with her back
Pressed up to the wall
She pushes him away and the honeysuckle falls
And rises over him
In the gray light movement of her skin.

And Caddy says
Goddamn you Goddamn you.

I was watching my sister
Closing her eyes
As the firelight turns and the firelight dies
But Caddy smells of trees
As she lies sleeping next to me.

And Caddy says


Mermen of the Lea
An owl hoots, the moon
Searches from the sky
Pierced with its sister stars
And the mermen of the lea
Sing their silken song to me
Curling down the dark wind
In Green lane.

Calling me back
To the blissed black lonely field seas
On let me swim with you this night alone
The mermen of the lea
Oh sing your silken song to me.

Far from the lantern swaying
Summer dusk your seaweed breath
Screams brine out of the bay,
Your reaching arms and eyes
Caress and leave the sleeping
Like horses leap the narrow thistled fields.

Oh mermen of the lea
Sing your silken song to me
As your far off seas careen the ships
Oh mermen of the lea
Curling the black winds through the trees.


The Dust Sailor
I am the dust sailor
Drifting deep on the southern breeze
I smell the cold Welsh sinking sea
Float down through the mirage heat
Of the south with me
I comb my way down beaches
To the jetsom dry towns.

In the grease dens
Through the reefer haze you call
With the smoke that pirouettes
Down harbour streets
To the dust track dawn.

I am the dust sailor
Drifting down through the south of you
I wander through the shuttered rooms
Down every ravine street of the south for you
I sail the singing silence
Of the desert simoons.

I cannot hold you
In my mermaid painted arms
You are the smell of oranges
And distant bells
In the dust track morn.

I am the dust sailor
Lying deep in the mirage view
I sleep with you
I wake with you
Down neath the golden skull
Of the southern moon
I see a day that stretches
Like a secret unknown.

From the bulls blood
On the hot afternoon sand
To the cockerels crowing us
From high blue dreams
To the dust track dawn.


The Street Organ
The street organ plays its blithe tune
through the town
Winding down the alleys with the
yellow leaves
It meanders down bleak avenues where
The copper green monuments stare at nothing
It passes them by unheard
Waltzes with the ribbons of distant winter air
The messengers of snow
Moonstruck and gold.

It croons with the lullabies that lull
The babies back to wombs
Confuses time with its merry sombre chiming
Calling back the old
Conjures daughters lovers sons
Fears mothers seasons minutes
Lost and found lost love spring and nothing
She sings like a bird that wakes up warm and
thinks the winter's over.

The street organ's music is heard
For the first time here and the last time there
and not at all.

Cathedral quiet and narcotic seas
In a mind of tide mark memories....
The strand of hair that falls in front of her face
....He woke up and called out her name
But only the street organ answers

The street organ plays down every road
Moon struck and gold.


Vincent Craine
It was late afternoon
She sat watching never come to Vincent Craine
Under the wet weather swollen door
Never came.
She pressed her knee up
Underneath the wooden table
As in her midriff
Dread fluttered like the threat of love or pain.

There was a bowl of fruit
Shrinking on the table by a rusting spoon
And over the mist weary distant hills
Never came
Through piles of wrecked cars
From the stagnant pools of water
From the abattoir flies
That swarm leach and crawl in Clamour Lane.

She walked towards the door
Pushed it open and stood
Behind Vincent Craine
He leaned back and locked his arms around her
Her thin awkward legs
They watched the sunlight
Slide in cold squares across the walls.


Stay Away From The Accordion Girl
If you see the accordion girl
Better walk the other way
Underneath the viaduct
Might be where you'll hear her play
If you see the accordion girl
I'll give youo some advice
Avoid her eyes and walk away

And I lie in the night and I listen
And I want to hear her play.

If you see the accordion girl
Walking by the perfumed river
Tell me is she on her own
Tell me is there someone with her
Where the grapes hang thick on the vine
And far behind the faint stars shine
And fall like pearls of alien corn
That break in waves against my door

If you see the accordion girl...

And I lie in the night and I listen
And I want to hear her play.


There Was A Man of Double Deed
There was a man of double deed,
Who sowed his garden full of seed;
When the seed began to grow,
T'was like a garden full of snow;
When the snow began to melt,
Twas like a ship without a bell;
When the ship began to sail,
Twas like a bird without a tail;
When the bird began to fly,
Twas like an eagle in the sky;
When the sky began to roar,
Twas like a lion at my door,
When my door began to crack,
Twas like a stick across my back;
When my back began to smart,
Twas like a penknife in my heart;
When my heart began to bleed,
Twas death, and death, and death indeed.


A Room Lives In Lucy
I hear voices from another morning
And in the sunlight I feel the room grow
Windows white curtained and the
smooth walls
But the night leaves her on the floor
Of a mansion hall
With the feet on the floors....I must get up off the
floor....off the floor

In Lucy lives a room-inside.

I feel someone's waking in my room again
She says she's leaving but she will never go
Oh she will never go
Wilting while waiting in the dark leaves
She's stretching but she cannot reach
For the pale flowers...watch their petals fall
Like the rain....how it rains

In Lucy lives a room-inside.

There are such a lot of nice places where we could go
There are so many beautiful places
I've seen them somewhere, oh where is it we go

With the crumbled statues in the dappled wood
And the gentle laughter swirls round the room
She's not gone
How it rains.....we could go....she's not gone

In Lucy lives a room-inside.


When The Rains Come
Where did you come from boy
Don't want you here at my bend in the river
Swimming against the tide
Twisting down where the houndfish hide
Where did you come from boy.

Look into the sky you'll see the storms are coming
And the grass moves like this when the rains come
And the birds move like this when the rains come.

Oh my boy where've you gone
Out into the rivers arms
Sitting here by my side
Floating out in the coloured night
Where did you come from boy.

Look into the sky you'll
see the clouds are coming
And the days pass like
this when the rains come
And the earth turns like
this when the rains come.



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