Flat Earth
Tea-cosy hat and duffle-clobbered
through gaps in the wind
shoes slip and slide snow
with a munch, swipe and snatch
in the star-dark park
We stagger crowflies, disregarding paths
hidden in the thumf and flumf of white-over
Brass levers and flapping arms
sputter out fate in pints
to stand foaming as we stand foaming
by the sock-dried steaming anoraks of fire
Faces you know. faces you don’t know.
faces that know you know that you know them not
and faces that you know want to know
what you know
So tune the guitars to sea-side
in the buses are off slithering night
Wind the dewy-eyed grandfather
and let social machinations
hum dissonant tunes
Old Father Goose
has hijacked the moon
as she pushed up a flood
and we drowned in the wake
Her yellow blindfold made us gasp
at the helplessness
of the flat earth;
While lost plectrums of the years
wedge beneath
the fitted storytell bench seats
And as dusty, forgotten songs
telling of other times
tangle in oily clock debris
We pause for an absent-minded “aye”