Robert Fripp

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door.
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Polititians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.
I TALK TO THE WIND
Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between.

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.

You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.

If I only could deceive you
Forgetting the game
Every time I try to leave you
You laugh just the same
'Cause my wheels never touch the road
And the jumble of lies we told
Just returns to my back to weigh me down
We lay cards upon the table
The backs of our hands
And I swear I like your people
The boys in the band
Reminiscences gone astray
Coming back to enjoy the fray
In a tangle of night and daylight sounds

All completeness in the morning
Asleep on your side
I'll be waking up the crewmen
Banana-boat ride
She responds like a limousine
Brought alive on the silent screen
To the shuddering breath of yesterday
There's the succour of the needy
Incredible scenes
I'll believe you in the future
Your life and death dreams
As the cavalry of despair
Takes a stand in the lady's hair
For the favour of making sweet sixteen
You make my life and times
A book of bluesy Saturdays
And I have to chose

If I only could deceive you
Forgetting the game
Every time I try to leave you
You laugh just the same

'Cause my wheels never touch the road
And the jumble of lies we told
Just returns to my back to weigh me down...

We lay cards upon the table
The backs of our hands
And I swear I like your people
The boys in the band

Reminiscences gone astray
Coming back to enjoy the fray
In a tangle of night and daylight sounds...

All completeness in the morning
Asleep on your side
I'll be waking up the crewmen
Banana-boat ride

She responds like a limousine
Brought alive on the silent screen
To the shuddering breath of yesterday...

There's the succour of the needy
Incredible scenes
I'll believe you in the future
Your life and death dreams

As the cavalry of despair
Takes a stand in the lady's hair
For the favour of making sweet sixteen...

You make my life and times
A book of bluesy Saturdays
And I have to chose...

Cadence and Cascade
Kept a man named Jade
Cool in the shade
While his audience played.
Purred, whispered, Spend us too
We only serve for you
Sliding mystified
On the wine of the tide
Stared pale-eyed
As his veil fell aside.
Sad paper courtesan
They found him just a man.
Caravan hotel
Where the sequin spell fell
Custom of the game.
Cadence oiled in love
Licked his velvet gloved hand
Cascade kissed his name.

Sad paper courtesan
They knew him just a man.
Fripp, Sinfield

Walking down the street, do you stare at your feet
and never do you let your eyes meet the freaks,
the deadbeat addicts, social fanatics,
they're a dime a dozen and they carry guns

Halloween, every other day of the week
Living in a cage in the USA
Living in a cage in the USA
Holy smoke! Somebody blew up the Pope
Living in a cage in the USA

All around us the rules are changing
Taller walls and stronger cages
Nothing is sacred or too outrageous
Taller walls and stronger cages
What in the world has happened to the world?
What in the world...

Driving your Mercedes you think you're safe
but there is no escape in a world of hateful
criminal minds with guns and knives
who say "give me a ride or give me your live"

Halloween, every other day of the week
Living in a cage in the USA
Living in a cage in the USA
Holy smoke! Somebody blew up the Pope
Living in a cage in the USA

All around us the rules are changing
Taller walls and stronger cages
Nothing is sacred or too outrageous
Taller walls and stronger cages
What in the world has happened to the world?
What in the world...

Lady Supermarket with an apple in her basket
Knocks in the manager's door
Grooning to the muzak from a speaker in shoe rack
Lays out her goods on the floor
Everything she's chosen is conveniently frozen.
Eat it and come back for more
Lady Window Shopper with a new one in the hopper
Whips up a chemical brew
Croaking to a neighbour while she polishes a sabre
Knows how to flavour a stew.
Never need to worry with a tin of Hurri Curri
Poisoned especially for you
No use to complain
If you're caught out in the rain
Your mother's quite insane.
Cat food cat food cat food again.

No use to complain
If you're caught out in the rain
Your mother's quite insane.
Cat food cat food cat food again.
Lady Yellow Stamper with a fillet in a hamper
Dying to finish the course
Goodies for the table with a fable on the label
Drowning in miracle sauce.
Don't think I am that rude if I tell you that it's cat food,
Not even fit for a horse!

Night: her sable dome scattered with diamonds,
Fused my dust from a light year,
Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon,
Strung my warp across time.
Gave me each horse, sunrise and graveyard,
Told me only I was her;
Bid ne face the east closed me in questions
Built the sky for my dawn ...

Cleaned my feet of mud, followed the empty
Zebra ride to the Cirkus,
Past a painted cage, spoke to the paybox
Glove which wrote on my tonque -
Pushed me down a slide to the arena,
Megaphonium fanfare
In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster
Bid me join the parade ...

"Worship!" - cried the clown. "I'm a T.V.
Making bandsmen go clockwork,
See the slinky seal Cirkus policeman,
Bareback ladies have fish."
Strongmen by his feet, plate-spinning statesman,
Accrobatically juggling -
Bids his tamers go quiet the tumblers
Lest the mirror stop turning ...

Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages.
Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and
Lions sharpened their teeth.
Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded
Pandemonium seesaw ...
I ran for the door, ringmaster shouted,
"All the fun of the Cirkus!"

Tragedys of Kennedys, refugees, AIDS disease
photos of Hiroshima, the Holocaust, and Kosovo
Tim McVeigh, Saddam Hussein, the bombing of the World Trade
hostages in Bosnia, atrocities, South Africa,
abortion and Kevorkian, Vietnam, napalm,
Lady Di, and Lennon died a violent crime, Columbine,
"I have a dream that one day..." Rodney King, O.J.,
symbols of our life and times, "One giant leap for mankind"

Marine 475
410
400
062
1009
1097
65
Non-Marine
10
190
510
1148
Motor
254
Aviation
545

Its here I sit and rust amid this ruin and rancor like tire irons
toothy grills and car parts before me... the acid rain floods my
floorboard, burns my pores and rots my upholstery... once I was
worshipped, polished magnificently, now I lay in decay by the dirty
angry bay...

I'm ready to leave
I wanna get out of here
I'm ready to ride away
I don't wanna die in here
I'm ready to ride...

My skin is metallic now, no longer and elegant powder blue... my body
unhinged and sleeping in the jungle of motor block manifolds and metal
relics... what was deluxe becomes debris, I never questioned loyalty,
but this dead end demolishes the dream of an open highway.

Dig me... but don't... bury me

long ago and far away in a different age
when i was a dumb young guy
fossilized photos of my life then
illustrate what an easy prey i must have been
standing in the sun, idiot savant
something like a monument
i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

ignorance has alway been something i excel in
followed by naivete and pride
doesn't take a scientist to see how
any clever predator could have a piece of me
standing in the sun, idiot savant
something like a monument
i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

when i look back on the past
it's a wonder i'm not yet extinct
all the mistakes and bad judgements i made
nearly pushed me to the brink
it doesn't pay to be too nice
it's the one thing i have learned
still, i made my fossil bed
now i toss and turn

i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

Your admirers on the street
Gotta hoot and stamp their feet
In the heat from your physique
As you twinkle by in moccasin sneakers

And I thought my heart would break
When you doubled up at the stake
With your fingers all a-shake
You could never tell a winner from a snake
but you always make money

Easy money

With your figure and your face
Strutting out at every race
Throw a glass around the place
Show the colour of your crimson suspenders

We would take the money home
Sit around the family throne
My old dog could chew his bone
For two weeks we could appease the Almighty

Easy money

Got no truck with the la-di-da
Keep my bread in an old fruit jar
Drive you out in a motor-car
Getting fat on your lucky star just making

Easy money.

Your admirers in the street
Got to hoot and stamp their feet
In the heat from your physique
As you twinkle by in moccasin sneakers

And I thought my heart would break
When you doubled up the stake
With your fingers all a-shake
You could never tell a winner from a snake

Easy money

With your figure and your face
Strutting out at every race
Throw a glass around the place
Show the colour of your crimson suspenders

We could take the money home
Sit around the family throne
My old dog could chew his bone
For two weeks we could appease the Almighty

Easy money

Your admirers in the street
Got to hoot and stamp their feet
In the heat from your physique
As you twinkle by in moccasin sneakers

Got no truck with the la-di-da
Keep my bread in an old fruit jar
Drive you out in a motor-car
Getting fat on your lucky star

Just making easy money

Your admirers on the street
Gotta hoot and stamp their feet
In the heat from your physique
As you twinkle by
in moccasin sneakers

And I thought my heart would break
When you doubled up at the stake
With your fingers all a-shake
You could never tell a winner
from a snake
but you always make money

Easy money

With your figure and your face
Strutting out at every race
Throw a glass around the place
Show the colour of your crimson
suspenders

We would take the money home
Sit around the family throne
My old dog could chew his bone
For two weeks we could appease
the Almighty

Easy money

Got no truck with the la-di-da
Keep my bread in an old fruit jar
Drive you out in a motor-car
Getting fat on your lucky star
just making

Easy money.

Talk, it's only talk
Arguments, agreements, advice, answers,
Articulate announcements
It's only talk

Talk, it's only talk
Babble, burble, banter, bicker bicker bicker
Brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo
It's only talk
Back talk

Talk talk talk, it's only talk
Comments, cliches, commentary, controversy
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat,
Conversation, contradiction, criticism
It's only talk
Cheap talk

Talk, talk, it's only talk
Debates, discussions
These are words with a D this time
Dialog, duologue, diatribe,
Dissention, declamation
Double talk, double talk

Talk, talk, it's all talk
Too much talk
Small talk
Talk that trash
Expressions, editorials, explanations, exclamations, exaggerations
It's all talk
Elephant talk? Elephant talk? Elephant talk!

Talk, it's only talk
Arguments, agreements, advice, answers,
Articulate announcements
It's only talk

Talk, it's only talk
Babble, burble, banter, bicker bicker bicker
Brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo
It's only talk
Back talk

Talk talk talk, it's only talk
Comments, cliches, commentary, controversy
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat,
Conversation, contradiction, criticism
It's only talk
Cheap talk

Talk, talk, it's only talk
Debates, discussions
These are words with a D this time
Dialog, duologue, diatribe,
Dissention, declamation
Double talk, double talk

Talk, talk, it's all talk
Too much talk
Small talk
Talk that trash
Expressions, editorials, explanations, exclamations, exaggerations
It's all talk
Elephant talk? Elephant talk? Elephant talk!

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments if death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
when silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it
we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying

Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it
we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
crying
crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
crying

Now...in this faraway land
Strange...that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy

Spring...and the air's turning mild
City lights...and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry

Friends...do they know what I mean
Rain...and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out-of-town

But Lord I had to go
My trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this other life
Has brought a different understanding
And from these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury...

My home...was a place near the sand
Cliffs...and a military band
Blew and air of normality

Now in this faraway land
Strange that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy

Spring, and the air's turning mild
City lights and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry

Friends ? do they know what I mean?
Rain and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out of town

But lord I had to go
The trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this better life
Has brought a different understanding
And from these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury

My home was a place by the sand
Cliffs and a military band
Blew an air of normality

Now...in this faraway land
Strange...that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy

Spring...and the air's turning mild
City lights...and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry

Friends...do they know what I mean
Rain...and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out-of-town

But Lord I had to go
My trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this other life
Has brought a different understanding
And from these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury...

My home...was a place near the sand
Cliffs...and a military band
Blew and air of normality

Here it comes, here comes another day
Another decision on the way
Well here it comes, here comes a covered display
Of preferences to make
Here comes a knock on the door
Open it for an opportunity
Well here it comes, here comes a physical rain
Of memories to be made

Eyes wide open
Eyes wide open all the time

'N there it was, it was the perfect take
And were you asleep or awake?
There it was, it was a perfect time
To speak your mind
'N there it was, it was the chance of a lifetime
It flew right by and what did you do?
Well there it was, it was another day
For memories to be made

Eyes wide open
Eyes wide open all the time
I've got my eyes wide open all the time
Eyes wide open
Because you never know
What you might see

Memories to be made

Eyes wide open
Eyes wide open all the time
I've got my eyes wide open
Eyes wide open
Because you never know
What you might see

Six billion ants crawling on a plate
Six billion ants crawling on a plate
None of them give back as much as they take
Six billion ants crawling on a plate

Doesn't mean you should just because you can
It doesn't mean you should just because you can
Like Abraham and Ishmael fighting over sand
It doesn't mean you should just because you can

That is a fact of life
That is a fact of life

Now some of us build and some of us teach
Some of us build, some of us teach
And some of us kill what some of us eat

That is a fact of life
That is a fact of life

Nobody knows what happens when you die
Nobody knows what happens when you die
Believe what you want, it doesn't mean you're right

That is a fact of life
That is a fact of life

Tears of joy at the birth of a brother
Never alone from that time
Sixteen Years through knife fights and danger
Strangely why his life not mine
West side skyline crying
Fallen angel dying
Risk a life to make a dime
Lifetimes spent on the streets of a city
Make us the people we are
Switchblade stings in one tenth of a moment
Better get back to the car
Fallen angel

Fallen angel

West side skyline
Crying for an angel dying
Life expiring in the city
Snow white side streets of cold New York City
Stained with his blood it all went wrong
Sick and tired blue wicked and wild
God only knows for how long
Fallen angel

Houses iced in whitewash guard a pale shore-line
Cornered by the cactus and the pine.
Here I wander where sweet sage and strange herbs grow
Down a sun-baked crumpled stony road.
Dusty wheels leaning rusting in the sun
Snuff brown walls where Spanish lizards run.
Here I'm shadowed by a dragon fig tree's fan
Ringed by ants and musing over man.
I'll unwind my old strings while the sun shine down
Won't climb any high thing while the sun shine.
Formentera Lady sing your song for me
Formentera Lady sweet lover.
Lamplights glows on old guitars the travellers strum
Insence children dance to an Indian drum.
Here Odysseus charmed for dark Circe fell,
Still her perfume lingers still her spell.
Time's grey hand won't catch me while the sun shine down
Untie and unlatch me while the stars shine.
Formentera Lady dance your dance for me
Formentera Lady dark lover.

Frame by frame (Suddenly)
Death by drowning (from within)
In your, in your analysis.

Step by step (Suddenly)
Doubt by numbers (from within)
In your, in your analysis.

Frame by frame (Suddenly)
Death by drowning (from within)
In your, in your analysis.

Step by step (Suddenly)
Doubt by numbers (from within)
In your, in your analysis.

Happy family, one hand clap, four went
by and none came back.
Brother Judas, ash and sack, swallowed
aphrodiciac
Rufus, Silas, Jonah too sang, "We'll blow
our own canoes,"
Poked a finger in the zoo, punctured
all the ballyhoo.

Whipped the world and beat the clock,
wound up with their share of stock.
Silver Rolls from golden rock,
shaken by a knock, knock, knock.
Happy family, wave that grin,
what goes round must surely spin;
Cheescake, mousetrap, Grip-Pipe-Thynne
cried out, "We're not Rin-Tin-Tin."

Uncle Rufus grew his nose,
threw away his cirkus clothes
Cousin Silas grew a beard,
drew another flask of weird
Nasty Jonah grew a wife,
Judas grew his pruning knife.
Happy family, one hand clap,
four went on but none came back.

Happy family, pale applause,
each to his revolving doors.
Silas searching, Rufus neat,
Jonah caustic, Jude so sweet.
Let their sergeant mirror spin
if we lose the barbers win;
Happy family, one hand clap,
four went on but none came back.

And when I have some words
This is the way I'll sing
Through a distortion box
To make them menacing

Yeah, then I'm gonna have to write a chorus
We're gonna need to have a chorus
And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face
Yes, I'm gonna have to write a chorus
I’m gonna need to have a chorus
And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face

Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
You have to be happy with what you have to happy with

And for a second verse
Of terse economy
I'll brew another pot
Of ambiguity

Then I'm gonna have to write a chorus
We're gonna need to have a chorus
And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face
Yes, we're gonna need to have a chorus
I'm gonna have to write a chorus
And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face

Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
You have to be happy with what you have to happy with

Then I guess I'll repeat the chorus
We're gonna repeat the chorus
I guess I'll repeat the chorus
We're gonna repeat the chorus
Then I guess I'll repeat the chorus
We're gonna repeat the chorus
I guess I'll repeat the chorus
We're gonna repeat the chorus

Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
Happy with what you have to be happy with
You have to be happy with what you have
To be happy with what you have
You have to be happy with what you have to happy with

I need to feel your heartbeat heartbeat
so close, feels like mine all mine
I need to feel your heartbeat heartbeat
so close it feels like mine all mine...
I remember the feeling my hands in your hair
hands in your hair
I remember the feeling
of the rhythm we made
the rhythm we made
I need to land sometime
feel your heartbeat heartbeat
right next to me.....

Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between.

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.

You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

Plato's spawn cold ivyed eyes
Snare truth in bone and globe.
Harlequins coin pointless games
Sneer jokes in parrot's robe.
Two women weep, Dame Scarlet Screen
Sheds sudden theatre rain,
Whilst dark in dream the Midnight Queen
Knows every human pain.

In air, fire, earth and water
World on the scales.
Air, fire, earth and water
Balance of change
World on the scales
On the scales.

Bishop's kings spin judgement's blade
Scratch "Faith" on nameless graves.
Harvest hags Hoard ash and sand
Rack rope and chain for slaves
Who fireside fear fermented words
Then rear to spoil the feast;
Whilst in the aisle the mad man smiles
To him it matters least.

Heroes hands drain stones for blood
To whet the scaling knife.
Magi blind with visions light
Net death in dread of life.
Their children kneel in Jesus till
They learn the price of nail;
Whilst all around our mother earth
Waits balanced on the scales.
Fripp, Sinfield

I do remember one thing.
It took hours and hours but..
by the time I was done with it,
I was so involved, I didn't know what to think.
I carried it around with me for days and days..
playing little games
like not looking at it for a whole day
and then.. looking at it.
to see if I still liked it.
I did.

I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat..
The more I look at it,
the more I like it.
I do think it's good.
The fact is..
no matter how closely I study it,
no matter how I take it apart,
no matter how I break it down,
It remains consistent.
I wish you were here to see it.

I like it.

I do remember one thing.
It took hours and hours but..
by the time I was done with it,
I was so involved, I didn't know what to think.
I carried it around with me for days and days..
playing little games
like not looking at it for a whole day
and then.. looking at it.
to see if I still liked it.
I did.

I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat..
The more I look at it,
the more I like it.
I do think it's good.
The fact is..
no matter how closely I study it,
no matter how I take it apart,
no matter how I break it down,
It remains consistent.
I wish you were here to see it.

I like it.

Indoor fireworks amuse your kitchen staff
Dusting plastic garlic plants
They snigger in the draught
When you ride throw the parlour
Wearing nothing but your armour -
Playing Indoor Games.

One string puppet shows amuse
Your sycophantic friends
Who cheer your rancid recipes
In fear they might offend,
Whilst you loaf on your sofa
Sporting falsies and a toga -
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.

Your mean teetotum spins arouse your seventh wife
Who pats her sixty little skins
And reinsures your life,
Whilst you sulk in your sauna
'Cos you lost your jig-saw corner -
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.

Each afternoon you train baboons to sing
Or swim in purple perspex water wings.
Come Saturday jump chopper, chelsea brigade.
High bender-trender it's all Indoor Games.

No ball bagatelle incites
Your children to corspire.
They slide across your frying pan
And fertilise your fire;
Still you and Jones go madder
Broken bones - broken ladder -
Hey Ho ...

autumn has come to rest
in her garden
come to paint the trees with emptiness
and no pardon
so many things have come undone
like the leaves on the ground
and suddenly she begins to cry
but she doesn't know why
heavy are the words that fall through the air
to burden her shoulders
caught up in the trees
her soliloguy,
"don't leave me alone"

Rome now comes to sit
in her garden
mingling the breeze with memories
of a time when
there was a room in pale yellow hues
her room with a view
where love made a bed of happiness
in muslin and lace
sweet is the voice from far away
that speaks sotto voce and
is lingering there in the golden air
to quiet the day.

I was just now thinking about the Jaws Of Life
how they chew you up and spit you right
back into the frying pan

And how life unwinds around and around
up and down, you think you're fine
but then you're back in the frying pan

And how life unwinds
you think you're fine
but then...

Earth, stream and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island.
My sunsets fade.
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind
to my island.
Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Mournfully glide o'er my island.
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale,
Dissolves in the sun.
Love's web is spun - cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briars where owls know my eyes
Violet skies
Touch my island,
Touch me.


Dark harbour quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island.
Clutch sailor's words - pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore.
Equal in love, bound in circles.
Earth, stream and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep sand from my island,
from me.

A flower lady's daughter
As sweet as holy water
Said: "I'm the school reporter
Please teach me", well I taught her.
Two fingered levi'd sister
Said, "Peace", I stopped I kissed her.
Said, "I'm a male resister",
I smiled and just unzipped her.
High diving chinese trender
Black hair and black suspender
Said, "Please me no surrender
Just love to feel your Fender".
All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.
Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour
"Like marron-glaced fish bones
Oh lady hit the road!"
All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.