#2135 - though there are no lions here

2135

6.307

4.xi.25

though there are no lions here

 

so much fur

a forest of a man

and marries a witch

learns later

 

hide in the forest

father is coming

 

meanwhile

lost in the salt sea as sometimes we are

chased by pirates

then becalmed, a watch for rocks

 

paddle till the cock crows

so know there must be breakfast

then buffet

 

thus fortified

it’s hike uphill to meet the king

his mountains a redoubt

 

what if we did that with the sea?

 

king after empire after another

and trade one in for far away

 

see farmer and fisher just getting by

feeding the ones loved best as can

honouring the land, the sea

 

it’s all of this a dizzy blur

lost in the re-telling

 

ask – who is it hews and carts, lays stone?

 

why would we say ‘the Portuguese’?

why would we say ‘the Dutch’?  the ‘Brits’?

 

who will finish my ramparts?

how are they holding up?

 

and here comes a great big wave to prove them

 

must be the heat does it

plastic bags and nets and who knows what

brave least of all turtles take to the sea  

 

the world turns slowly round the middle

 

it’s where the rooster reigns

#2134 - the sea

 

2134

6.306

3.xi.25

the sea

 

the sea is always coming

from farther than you can ever imagine

brings a wind brings it

 

lovely this ocean of it all

like a sky laid under

salt

and a rough rolling thing

 

the sea

and one of seven they say

but you know they’re all connected

 

one end ice

and somewhere seas boil

or else a fire of oil

who lit?

 

once were fish

now nets have had all

 

there is a hook in the sea

we dredge it

 

if there’s a plug

it would take some heave

 

a wave is hidden in there

another comes along

 

it’s breathless

it’s rising

there’s drowning under

 

if I face it – inexhaustible

the all day sea

a late opener

 

a plank and float

that’s the idea

 

oars, a galley

sails and blow away

 

but the sea rolls back

a tempest too

 

unfathomable

and those are pearls

eyes of a sea once said

 

it washes off

as it washes up

 

the moon is involved in this

dry bone

 

a puddle writ large

 

it’s far inland

one wishes the sea

on an ancient now dusty desert bed

 

though more is sunk below

 

must have rained a lot somewhere once

 

there’s a Monday morning of it now

the sea and guess again 

#2133 - elephant poems

 

2133

6.305

2.xi.25

elephant poems

 

bumpily bumpily

 

to the place of the elephants

we, in our hats, sunglasses, hang on

 

in diesel whiff cooee

bright birds dot the way

 

forget their names

still call

 

here at last they come

push pull graze bathe

splash it on

there’s nothing like mud on such a day!

 

with metronome tail

bronze about ears

the fly flap swagger

appendage everywhere animate

still always seem to be yawning

 

 

here’s a little dance

 

with twirling action                                  

paw forth

shake sand from

 

a fling and grass whimsy

 

skin for a map

so many seasons inscribed there

 

 

 

some get up sit down

 

whiskery round jowl

nipple tug too

 

some hide in the thorns for shade

 

watch the young learn twirl!

 

see a baby sucks its trunk!

 

later in life a trunk to tail tickle

and nuzzle up

sly sidle

 

 

 

the elephant sex show is now offstage

 

boys are beaten out of the herd for lewd thoughts

they still will do what an elephant must

 

it can be a hard grind

 

and it’s true there are lesbian elephant loves!

Dr Google tells me so

Tilly and Mae Khan Puan for example

and you can look them up

 

Queen Victoria never noticed

she had a fixation on Albert’s fine trunk

though she had terrible period pain

for which she smoked dope

to limit the funk

 

 

the slow stampede of the baby orphans

 

mini-tuskers on parade

legs crossed coyly

knot together

 

trunk to tail and trumpet too

as if they had to go

 

they cast aside container

when have at

 

hari hari

 

the least the fluffiest

and see the ribs

 

some spray the grain

and some are known to dribble

 

will leaf through cornpile

 

consider the beautiful tails of the young

yet innocent of tussle

 

they are all old grumpy men

 

are bums to us

and gone

you can do a lot with a trunk

 

breakfast lunch dinner – meaningless terms

there’s no separation

 

trunk to maw is their superpower

the lift and curl Olympic

call it ‘the elevator’

 

they scrape the bare earth almost clean

cannot know their strength

 

would strip the willow half a chance

make short work of a forest

 

it was cruel

 

to make them torture and kill

to take the kiddies for a ride

 

the ivory trade

those piano keys

dominoes, false teeth, the blessed virgin

the bull leaper from the palace of Knossos

 

have we yet made amends?

 

elephants follow me into my dream

 

there are some elephants upstairs here

 

you can hear them thump about

they in the humorous undersize garments

cartoon kind

 

in elephant dresses and elephant pants

 

a certain flamboyance can’t be learned

 

elephants must one day conquer the world

 

an insect cloud and they bequeath

a stink you’ll take with you

 

and here comes the elephant farrier

tuk tuk sized clippers

slow of lope

 

all appendage mobile

with grace …

 

tip of the tail ornamental

or lose it in a scrap

 

Ganesh for luck

 

mammoth and mastodon elsewhere we were

time was

 

the charge and caution to the wind

 

you must never never forget –

do not disturb my bath! 

#2132 - the terrible tale of how we are here

 

2132

6.304

1.xi.25

the terrible tale of how we are here

 

these ones were taken, these ones let fall

 

I like the sweetness of it

rot of the flesh of the fruit

 

protect and venerate

sing, salute

king after another and drunk

 

a dominion too late

too much tea

for opium too

 

sing all night for a fire

slash, burn

 

go on with the ancient rivalry

 

and the lies

how they pass

through the mouth

through the ear

no need to mind at all

if you’ll just not swallow them

#2131 - Sigiriya

 

2131

6.303

31.x.25

Sigiriya

 

the red rock looming

the dogs that think they are lions

 

the climbing

 

moats, drawbridges, rubble restored

 

breeze and shade my friends today

 

mortarless stones

someone must have climbed with them, laid them  

for some old legend

 

what hands were worn to bone?

 

the son who thinks himself a king

and kills the king to be one

slits his own throat in the end

sees it coming after the elephant hi-jinx

 

today a maverick monsoon shower

puddle blow more likely

 

monkeys are all tail

here’s a treefull

 

see the traces of devotion

iconoclast

 

monks won’t respect a topless lady

 

touts give a hand-up

 

here’s bird of a voice never heard before

and then another – that’s someone else

 

there’s a useless ladder in the rock

 

the summit recedes as the tourists approach

 

a stone is full of years

#2130 - the road

 

2130

6.302

30.x.25

the road

 

all feet, all wheels

dust when unmud

or the grass grows over

 

signs along

and the central ellipsis

leading along, showing apart

 

the friendly road

all waves and waving back

 

straw wove

 

so many dogs

and a dead one too

 

how lines meet where they shouldn’t

often the whole structure leans

 

a coconut pluck and sway

 

a motorbike high up in the tree

 

does this tin ever die

 

goes humbler and humbler

 

here are the ruins of what’s yet to be

 

lower to the ground here

never quite

but always with

 

some wind will one day

as for now

we fossil on

 

the all horn road

and out of my way

but with a kind of courtesy

everyone takes their time

takes yours

 

imagine them all cheering us

and the flags to wave

 

the road because of them

because of them the road

#2129 - bright out there

 

2129

6.301

29.x.25

bright out there

jetlag series – possible prolegomenon

 

to shutter up

some cloudbright

 

then all the screens ahead more glow      

each with its own story

advertising too

 

what has it taken me

to rise so high above myself?

 

the west is out beyond us there

is that a destination?

 

the day of smoke is ending

 

day, too, goes down

 

now beyond that

dark to all embrace

 

we have escaped from where we are

                  from time

and won’t remember

 

there must be a lesson though

and doze, shoes off

 

step lightly on these clouds, we must

 

to wonder where the stars will come

it’s where we’re nowhere now

 

sit very still for this

 

be grateful for what sleep