for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 291 (B)

THE GNOME NEIGHBOURHOOD
"My parents are plastic,"
the girl pens in a poem,
"plastic as the garden pond
and the beastly garden gnome.
Here in this suburb
it is the same each day,
when will the fairy
come fly me away ?"
My parents are plastic
just like our home,
plastic as the Joneses
and their garden gnome."

A MAGIC MORN LEAVE
The girl is sound asleep,
but here I am awake.
Morn just leave the magic
should the rest you take.

My hand in her hair
while her head is on my breast,
morn just leave the magic
but you can take the rest.

Here I am awake,
she sound asleep,
morn just leave the magic,
let me this golden moment keep.

BLEED BEAUTY
A tar-feathered swan
that looked regal in the reeds
now swims like a beggar
… beauty bleeds.

A roadside poppy
drops many pointless seeds,
we race to nowhere
… beauty bleeds.

Here are the signs,
but who is it heeds ?
Nature's surely wounded
… beauty bleeds.


CRY SHARK
All tell your sons
and warn your daughters,
shark-infested
are these cruel waters.

The lifeguard goes
without his shotgun,
while the whole beach
lacks a golden sun.

Up to the knees
in a bloody slaughter,
shark-infested
is this cruel water.