Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Friday, 17 January 2020

under the pictures


[[ "they" is someone undefined, indefinite, unlikely, impossible, discovering the remains of the last of humanity huddled in our tunnels/caves ]] 


if they come for us
they will come for us
down in the tunnels

maybe they'll find us
what is left of us
under the pictures

we drew on the walls
pictures of animals
running for their lives
from us 

if they come on us
bones and dust of us
down in the tunnels

let them laugh at us
all that's left of us
under the pictures

we drew on the walls
pictures of animals
running for their lives
from us 









Friday, 3 May 2019

animal person

I'm an animal person, she said
I'm an animal-person, she said
I'm an animal

Let me take your coat, I said
No one takes my coat, she said
Sorry, my mistake

Don't get your back up
We're animal people
We're all animals here


[[ maybe something to do with feminism and vestigial chivalry, maybe something to do with animal rights and fur coats, maybe just an awkward encounter ]]

Sunday, 23 December 2018

cat and bird and me


bird in a cage
cat on the floor
me in my chair
she's out the door

bird in a cage
cat on the floor
me at the window
still feeling sore

cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)
cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)
but if \ you've got \ the need \ for me and mine... we've got the time

bird in front of me
cat behind
me at the table
papers all signed

cat in the garden
bird in the sky
me with the car keys
going out to die

cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)
cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)

dust off the stereo
turn up the knob
a day like this makes a man glad he doesn't have a job

dust off my daydreams
well what about that?
plan a vacation for a man and a bird and a cat

bird back in his cage
cat on the floor
I'll eat this apple
down to the core

bird in his cage (I think I'll teach him a song)
cat on the floor (I'll take him out for a walk)
me in my chair (yeah, I'm a rocker)
she's out the door (oughta change that lock)

cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)
cat and bird and me are doing fine (we don't need your company, we're doing just fine)
but if \ you've got \ the need \ for me and mine... we've got the time

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

xmas 2: home at midnight



Home at midnight, 
Christmas Eve,
just in time to
wipe my sleeve 

across my nose 
and stumble in
from staying out
and pouring gin

for folk like me
who congregate
in other places 
on this date,

just in time to
kiss the cats
and wish them
lots of chubby rats.




xmas 1: some other creature

Down in the stables,
animal talk
is an everyday thing,
and animals walk

still wet and finding
the length of their limbs
as the day softens
and the light dims,

opening night
to that star overhead,
and some other creature
in a straw bed.


Saturday, 7 July 2018

the lifting night


The lifting night is leaving -
Birds begin.

Before the sun is up,
birds begin the day.
Before the moon is down,
birds begin the day.

= = = = =

This is where we all are
in this air between
our sun and moon and earth.

Inhaling and exhaling,
all exchanging
breath for breath for breath.

= = = = =

From tree to tree
a gathering of bird 
begins to dawn:

how once we preyed
and how we once
were preyed upon.

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

skin me alive

skin me a live animal

what I want is to wear its camouflage
what I want is to wear its fur
what I want is to hear it screaming
while I purr

skin me a live animal

what I want is more juice in the vein
what I want is more smoke in the lung
what I want is to wear the animal
skin and fuck

skin me a live animal

take me to Vienna, you fool, and immediately
take me while a shop girl looks me in the eye
take me to the dead end of some other century
take me exactly to midnight, then leave me to die


[[ 

1. With obvious play on "skin me a live animal" and "skin me alive, animal". 
2. The narrator possibly is not a native speaker and may have fallen out of a time machine. She is louche, one-eyed, absinthed. 
3. I don't know why any of this. I think someone wants back to fin de siècle Vienna. Someone with a lust for blood and a lust for lust. And one clouded eye? 

]]

Friday, 27 April 2018

into the wood

[[ it might be trance, drugs, meditation, dreams ]]

nothing else 
only this horse
only
only the horse
only
nothing but this horse
nothing
nothing but this horse
nothing

so saddle up
put on your hat
your hat
put on your hat
your hat
nothing but this horse
nothing
nothing but this horse
nothing

and then hold on
we are almost gone
into the wood

you feel so good 
you forget 
you feel so good 
you forget 
nothing but this horse
nothing
nothing but this horse
nothing

you forget 
you have ever 
wanted

you forget 
you have ever 
wanted food

you forget 
you have ever 
felt this

you forget 
you have ever 
felt this good

you forget
almost
to breathe

people say 
you're wasting
people say 
you waste away
people waste 
their days
saying things

when they could
go with you
into the wood

Tuesday, 13 March 2018

episodic

at midnight
of midnight
who has the password
to sleep?

boil water
on the fire
make tea
and see it steam.

the animal
awake with you --
eye back
the other eye.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

out of my tree


eve-ry...
sound 
I make 
is shaped 
by this 
simian 
mouth

these lipssss 
and tongue
these bi-
ting teeth
this ach-
ing throat
these luuuuuuuuuungs

ev-er-y 
thought I have 
swings from the 
trees  [[ three waltzing beats? ]] 

swing with me
swing with me
swing with me
please

out of my tree...
I am
out of my tree...
for you

Saturday, 10 February 2018

she dreams

she dreams of science, dreams of progress,
dreams of wolves running over
(wolves coming for her)
wolves running over the field
(wolves coming into the fold)

she dreams of marriage, dreams of babies,
dreams of wolves running over
(wolves coming for her)
wolves running over the field
(wolves coming into the fold)

she dreams of holy orders,
withdrawal from this world,
she dreams of
god the feather,
god the sun and moon,
god the goat, she
dreams of wolves running over
(wolves coming for her)
wolves running over the field
(wolves coming into the fold)

she believes there must be meaning
in these dreams
she would pluck them each apart
at their seams
and feed them to you
and feed them to you

she would watch the birds fly
and wonder what it meant
what message they had sent

Wednesday, 7 February 2018

A spirit coiled (the mocking ghost)

[[ this one began with something real -- Diplacusis dysharmonica, Diplacusis echoica -- and turned into a spirit walking at night in my peripheral hearing and mocking me, and this became a song to be sung with chants and drums and a chorus of mocking spirits]]

[the predicament of the soul]
A spirit coiled
in the curl
of my ear

talks to me
like a lurker
in the other room

I cannot tell
above the wind
that whistles by

Is this the me
who's talking? Whose
tongue is this?

My mind or spi
rit coiled within
my inner ear?

Whose tongue is curled
in my left ear?
Come out now!

[one explanation of the soul's predicament]
They say
the mocking ghost
will walk your words
back home.

They say
the mocking ghost
will turn your tale
around.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost

[wonderment from within]
My mind
or flight of birds?

My mind
or branches aching?

My mind
or not my mind?

[another explanation of the soul's predicament]
They say 
the mocking ghost
will show
another you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will bend the light
round you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

A Christmas Carol

[[ I suppose this is easier to look at as a poem than as a song, but it's a Christmas carol of sorts. In summer a water strider prefigures the birth of Christ. Maybe this is the birth of bug-eating John the Baptist. Then, a half year after, when water turns to stone, Mary the bursting girl says his name. ]]

In liquid summer,
surface tension:
a strider
bending light.  

A silver circle 
under sky:
fish dart at
beating wings.

Round the sun,
water to stone
transfigures
in the change.

At the cleaving
of the year, 
song is sung and
bell is rung

for universe
on either side:
for animal,
for spirit cloud.

Set to burst,
a girl sobs,
then says a name
in rising steam.

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

two by two

[[ I hear this one played by a Big Band, but it could just as easily be a lone acoustic guitar or a piano, just as long as it's a happy dance number for couples. ]]


Chorus:
Two by two came the crocodiles
Two by two, the giraffes
Two by two, the hyenas,
who are always good for laughs.

Two by two ...
- with a snarl
- with a smile
- down the garden path
- down the aisle

Verse 1:
When Noah built the ark and stowed the crocodiles below
He knew he had a place where Mrs Noah wouldn't go
So down he went to smoke his pipe and play his harp at night
To crocodiles with miles of smiles in Noah's candlelight.

Bridge:
And Noah sang a song about the sunshine of his youth
Six hundred years before the rains came down
When he would stroll the countryside with Zipporah or Ruth
And later take her all the way to town

Chorus:
||: Two by two :||  etc.

Verse 2:
When Noah sang his song, he beat the rhythm on the rug,
And sixteen thousand animals, each goat and cat and bug,
Would pair up with its mate and start to dance the dance of life.
Then Noah went upstairs to do some dancing with his wife.

Bridge:
And Noah sang a song ...

Chorus:
||: Two by two :||  etc.

Verse 3:
Now when the rain stopped falling and the clouds began to pass,
The sea spread out for miles and miles, as smooth as any glass.
But that old ark kept rocking on the shiny, briny sea.
Where all us happy creatures danced the dance of eternity

Bridge:
And Noah sang a song ...

Chorus:
||: Two by two :||  etc.

what is it like?

what is it like
to be a bat?

ah.

is it how it is
to be a tiger?

the same surmise
comes into play

how it is to be 
always the question

it is how it is
to be how it is

[[ from the Thomas Nagel essay at first, but it drifts away ]]