Crickle crack and crackle snap
Around the old gumtree
Leaves fall down on bones and ground –
The bones that once were me.
In and out and up and down
The brains go in a web,
Try and find their own way out,
But soon they’ll end up dead.
Fall and rot we go our way
Just like the fall before,
Soon to feed another crop
Remembered nevermore.
11.10.22
The songwriter told of a boy in a bubble,
That boy he grew older and wiser each day.
‘Till eventually trauma his bubble had burst,
And reality found a sad place to stay.
Life can get hard and seem to lack meaning
Life pushes in and our comfort destroys.
The boundaries formed, no longer protecting;
The walls that we built are shown to be toys.
The cares of the world held the man in a whirlwind;
Without his protection he felt his soul rust.
As year after year weighed more on his mind
His care to live longer was filed to dust.
In his moment of dying no one was present
To see how he did it or even ask why.
But he has found now his bubble again,
And floats all alone through the dark dreary sky.
11.6.19
When Night upon the grass doth sit and chill
The earth with thoughts of grief and frozen death,
When ghosts come forth to haunt and make to kill
The joy we had with sharp and frozen breath.
All roads run straight before unto the end.
For down the paths below our mortal dust
All hope is torn and none shall mend,
For living, none can come below the crust.
Shall mem’ry pass and love of you forget?
As age and war the Halls of Mandos feed.
Shall time move on as if we’d never met?
As shades, we toss and break as withered reed.
But lo! This fleeting fear of mine is vain!
For sure as spring, the King must come again.
03.23.17
Within my flesh a wire grew,
Around my heart and in my mind.
It pierced my body slowly through,
And wound me with an inward bind.
It creeped along in such a way –
Steel forcing through my sinews taught –
I did not feel the growing pain,
Until my soul was firmly caught.
Too late I tried pull it free,
Enveloped by my flesh it clung,
And movement only tortured me;
My lungs of breath were slowly wrung.
07.24.19
Slowly slipping off to sleep,
Oceans falling, spilling in,
Thoughtless thrashing, stillness then.
Dropping down beneath the deep,
Blackness crushing; flees the light.
Tomb’s mist rising, greeting night.
01.14.19
Billows and waves
Breaking in caves.
Darkening yawn;
No light of dawn.
Lost and alone –
Maddening tone.
Questions then come;
Nowhere to run;
Caught between stone
And death in the foam.
08.05.19
Oil black that runs below,
Blood of hearts when lifeless squeezed,
River night in ceaseless flow:
Souls of men by tyrants seized.
Bridges cross and so do we;
Some shall fall and all shall rot.
None untouched, or living free:
Souls of those in currents caught.
Darkness swells, I swim in vain,
Fighting deep for every breath;
Giving in despite the pain:
Soul of one now doomed to death.
04.16.19
A man lay down to rest one day.
The sun was low and breezes blew.
Across the plain, they took their way;
The grasses stirring as they flew.
They dashed headlong with strength unmatched.
Their breaking waves then fell unseen,
And filled the poor man’s garments, patched,
As though a silent living stream.
The clothing sighed, a ragged lot,
Until the sun in glory died.
They settled still and cracked with rot,
As if the streams within them dried.
The stars look down and slowly pass
Above the man beneath the grass.
12.03.18
Take your pathway, leave my gun.
Now your fate will quickly come.
I will pull my trigger here,
Sending you through smoky fear.
Swiftly, surely, on you go.
Kill my brother, he’s my foe.
You know well what you are for:
Terror, tumult, wreckage, war.
04.26.12
Nathaniel West Clark 