When the morning arrived

And knocked at the window pane

He left his dream

Half cultured, moulding and pliant

He had to leave

To come back and finish

So he left his apron on

Only wiped his hands and stepped out

Behind him, wedged with a promise, he left the door ajar

So the dream, the half cultured thing could breathe

And further in shape while he was away

The day took his hand and advanced

Unawares that the shape still silhouetted,

Corresponded with his fingers.

Through the day he called on other’s dreams,

Touched, admired, braced, and even inspired

But ‘other people’s dreams’,

While his own dream, the half cultured thing,

Still silhouetted, corresponded with his fingers

Till the time the day bid him leave with a bow

He returned to his door

To see it wedged with a thousand promises,

And the room full of dreams

All half cultured, all moulding, still pliant,

With another day soon to knock at the window pane!

My child,

Ever since you are born

I’ve been padding every corner

Keeping all the sharp objects out of your reach.

But things are changing now

You are big enough to reach dangerous objects

Where I kept them

You’ll reach many a sharp edge,

That I can’t cushion anymore

I can’t reach them (you grow smaller with age).

Once I had your eyes to see the world

It was all roses.

But the quiet faces around me

Told me where the line was

I never crossed it

But my heart never died

I know it’s great to brave new grounds

Flying hair off your face,

Filling your lungs with fresh air.

But my love,

The brave new world is not all full of roses

The rejects come back in great pain

Borrow my eyes to see

Receiving young corpses is worse than dying

Or worse still,

Having them with internal injuries.

So my child, ever since you’re born

I’ve not only sung lullabies

But also learnt to make balms

Which heal and safeguard

The injuries that are, and yet to come.

Did I tell you that patience is a virtue?

I’m sure I’ve told you

how to say ‘No’.

Dear child,

I’ve tried to capture the suns

Whose beams are going to reach you

And joined hands with the maker of the suns

To warm the new world

That’s rising from your shoulders.

I know you are a river

Whose course is through gold mines.

I’ve tried to build dams

So that when your waves rise as high as you like

It’s not wasted in floods.

I’ve kissed your hands strong;

I’ve kissed your eyes see far;

I’ve kissed your head proud;

I’ve kissed your feet stand tall;

So that when I hand over to you

Your bit of the sky

You hold it even higher.

When I get home late at night

I don’t expect to have to fight

With the man upstairs who’s beating up his wife

When I’m heading for my bed

I don’t need to have to tread

In a pool of piss to get to my front door

High Rise you get on my nerves

High Rise you’re bringing me down

I got rain through the roof

I got damp way down in the floor

A room with a view and fungus on the walls

Downstairs they’re dying of cold

And getting choked with the mould

There’s no way out ‘cept in a six-foot box

High Rise you get on my nerves

High Rise you’re bringing me down

If Dan the Man had to live in his master plan

He’d be manic-depressive in a Lithium haze

Homes fit for heroes and for villains and kings

Promises broken by money and power

If pigs could fly we’d all be sprouting wings

High Rise you get on my nerves

High Rise you’re bringing me down

To the ground!

Image by Julian Lee 1999

The scourge of workers down the age

Our blind allegiance fills me with rage

Out to battle waving it the rulers entice

Our obedience to the ultimate sacrifice

The flag the foil of scoundrels dictators and crooks

The flag the folly of people who mistook

It’s scream of ‘nation’ as a guiding light

As giving us a home to defend and fight

But the flag divides the human family

Fills us with envy and hatred a bigoted calumny

It drives a wedge and creates an enemy

Where none existed now there’s mutual enmity

So Jack George Sam you ain’t the man

I look up to when the chips are down

I won’t be waving you and cheering Hurrah

I’ve got you sussed just who you are

You’re there to fool me sell me the lie

That you are the reason I should die

If some nasty foreigner should make me their prey

My life for you I must down lay

I’ll have no truck with waving flags of state

But there’s one exception I’m prepared to make

I’ll hold the scarlet standard high

That’s for one I’d be prepared to die