"Education for Leisure"
Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God.
- These few lines made her extremely famous...
Nobody hurt you. Nobody turned off the light and argued
with somebody else all night. The bad man on the moors
was only a movie you saw. Nobody locked the door.
Your questions were answered fully. No. That didn´t occur.
You couldn´t sing anyway, cared less. The moment´s a blur, a
Film Fun
laughing itself to death in the coal fire. Anyone´s guess.
Nobody forced you. You wanted to do that day. Begged. You
chose
the dress. Here are the pictures, look at you. Look at us all,
smiling and waving, younger. The whole thing is inside your
head.
What you recall are impressions; we have the facts. We called
the tune.
The secret police of your childhoor were older and wiser than
you, bigger
thank you. Call back the sound of thier voices. Boom. Boom.
Boom.
Nobody sent you away. That was an extra holiday, with people
you seemed to like. They were firm, there was nothing to fear.
There was none but yourself to blame if it ended in tears.
What does it matter now? No, no, nobody left the skidmarks
of sin
on your sould and laid you wide open for Hell. You were loved.
Always. We did what was best. We remember your childhood
well.
- The Other Country, 24
"The Act of Imagination"
...glow-in-the-dark Durex...
...the sweet smell of success...
- The Other Country, 25
"Boy"
I liked being small. WHen I´n on my own
I´m small. I put my pyjamas on
and hum to myself. I like doing that....
- The Other Country, 29
"A Shilling for the Sea"
You get a shilling if you see it first.
You take your lover to a bar neaby, late evening,
spend it all night and still have change. If,
if it were me, if it were you, we´d drink up
and leave; screw on the beach, with my bare arse
soaked by the night-tide´s waves, your face moving
between mine and that gambler´s throw of stars.
Then we´d dress and go back to the bar, order
the same again, and who´s this whispering filthy suggestions
into my ear? My tongue in the sea slow salt wet...
Yes. All for a shilling, if you play that game.
- The Other Country, 44
"Hard to Say"
I asked him to give me an image for Love, something I could see,
or imagine seeing, or something that, because of the word
for its smell, would make me remember, something possible
to hear. Don´t just say love, I said, love, love, I love you.
On the way home, I thought of our love and how, lately,
I too have grown lazy in expressing it, snuggling up to you
in bed, idly murmuring those tired cliches without even thinking.
My words have been grubby confetti, faded, tacky blown far
from the wedding feast. And so it was, with a sudden shock of
love,
like a peacock flashing wide its hundred eyes, or a boy´s voice
flinging top G to the roof of an empty church, or a bottle
of French perfume knocked off the shelf, spilling into the steamy
bath,
I wanted you. After the wine, the flowers I brought you drowned
in the darkening light. As we slept, we breathed their scent all
night.
- The Other Country, 45
"Rings"
for both to say
I might have raised your hand to the sky
to give you the ring surrounding the moon
or looked to twin the rings of your eyes
with mine
or added a ring to the rings of a tree
by forming a handheld circle with you, thee,
or walked with you
where a ring of church-bells,
looped the fields,
or kissed a lipstick ring on your cheek,
a pressed flower,
or met with you
in the ring of an hour,
and another hour...
I might
have opened your palm to the weather, turned, turned,
till your fingers were ringer in rain
or held you close,
they were playing our song,
in the ring of a slow dance
or carved our names
in the rough ring of a heart
or heard the ring of an owl´s hoot
as we headed home in the dark
or the ring, first thing,
of chorussing birds
waking the house
or given the ring of a boat, rowing the lake,
or the ring of swans, monogamous, two,
or the watery rings made by the fisg
as they leaped and splashed
or the ring of the sun´s reflection there...
I might have tied
a blade of grass,
a green ring for your finger,
or told you the ring of a sonnet by heart
or brought you a lichen ring,
found on a warm wall,
or given a ring of ice in winter
or in the snow
sung with you the five gold rings of a carol
or stolen a ring of your hair
or whispered the word in your ear
that brought us here,
where nothing and no one is wrong,
and therefore I give you this ring.
- Rings
A limited edition for the occassion of William and Kate´s Wedding
