Hurricane Mountain

Turning away

rushing away from the storms that never leave

heaving dark like a blanket

all day

all night

dizzying

The mountain is a soup of bad spells

and swarming storming swirls

I want to see a stream with bubbles and a trout

I want to be bright 

warm

without skirmishing, 

settled, full fed, content.

Puzzled

don't be afraid
the pieces are waiting
 justice is coming
the maps are downloading
the facts are uniting
the first name is changing
the faces are blurring
the box is opening
the undead are waking
the screaming is ending
evidence is fitting
tombs resurrecting
proof is uplifting
don't be afraid
the pieces are working
justice is coming

In Between

I am alive
I am in between the floorboards
I am something extra
I am in  between the floorboards
I am scratching  underneath
I am staring at candle
willing it to fall
to burn the wooden cage alive
because
I am alive

Time Wrinkles

Something slipped in between the sheets
that could not be ironed out
not even a falling teardrop
could bring it back
not even a backward glance
could keep it from slipping
away

The Sad Little Monster and the Jelly Bean Queen

An island filled with sunshine and sweets
little girlgolden
laugh
 nothing to fright
 right

She was contagious
to believe
to save
the monster who ate sea weed, all alone

Can I have
your smile?
I have salt water and a house in the storming seas
please


Can you take my sadness
my dark address
helped, robbed of the jelly beans
the rainbow crossed over to the gold
shined out,
salt watered down
the primary warning colours

The Voyage of the Teapot

The purple plastic teapot
has set sail across the bath
rigged out as a ship
waiting to see a great new land
tossed, swayed in the bubble bath
steered, helped along
by two friendly giants
who are these two?
they are you, my little ones

Second Chance

Floating away
sixteen years old
we are not the ones
that bad things will happen to
we have a universe
that no one can touch
we play the piano
we hold hands
we compare boyfriends

We hold out mother's hand
we build a ship in a bottle
let it sail into the future

We are the lucky ones
nothing bad will ever happen to us
I am sixteen
you are thirteen
nothing bad will ever happen to us.

Physical Memory Bank

There once was a special cabin
in the middle of the forest
Where a family hid
away from the world

Daily,
the encryption tends to disappear
But in a deep memory bank
the interference is less adapted
it can be accessed
it can be relied upon


The genetic mark of the cabin in the woods.

Jousting for the Moon

It's my moon
No it's mine
I can understand the need
It is a beautiful full moon


Maybe
On another planet
Or an in between
Personal world

You can both have a moon to keep
Even when you sleep

Because every child
Should be able to claim the pearl in the evening sky.

A Little Dream

I may seem uncomplicated to you
I am only four, I like to blow bubbles in the bath
But at night
My dreams are reels and realms
Of the spectacular

I see mice racing cars down the passage
I see orchestra's in my attic
I fight lions beneath my bed
And most of the time
I win

I read newspapers with trolls and goblins
I go fishing with a mermaid in the bathroom
The stairs become a mountain of diamond hiding caves

But in the morning
I eat my breakfast
I don't tell anyone
I let them think
I dream of counting sheep.

Fairy Tale Files

pull out
the top secret evidence
the villain is a tough act
disclosed
unknown


pull out
the magnifying glass
Sherlock
the facts speak out
find it
the room will reveal itself
where was the princess really
hiding
who is an ugly sister?
cross examine
 rethink

reopen the box
was Snow White really choking?
how lost
were Hansel and Gretel
really?
the frog?
may not be as trapped as he says


re exhibit
take the stand

rework the ponds
the forests
the castles
do it.

promise,
make the stand
stand real
stand up to them

take the magic
make it realized
put the stand out
it speaks

in the best interests
of the idealised ones
stop them
from stepping off the cliff

Do it.

Tumbledown Town

There is a place
in your  body
because you took the fall
where everything
is almost falling down

In your heart
the grass is brown
the earth is green
the houses are round
and the towers are square

It is a strange place
pulled from a upside down core
quiet, deserted streets
sleeping, until the day
when the heart can set the shapes
the colours, right.

The Kind Hearted House

It was a happy place
in a matchbox
the clocks reminded the kettles
there was never a burning pan
or a trapped spider

there was never a battle
or a broken child
or a call for help
or a smashing glass
or a smashing head
or an unkind word
there were no power struggles
or a goodbye

Scarecrow's Party

Listen,
there was once a lonely scarecrow
who planted an acorn
the tree grew
 filled with magic
birthday treats grew from the branches
magicians danced
gnomes and moles and ladybirds pranced
between hundreds of burning candles

Listen,
my heartbeat is in those lights
can you hear?
it is calling you through the candles
right up to the stars map
calling you
come back, come back.

Lemon People Two

Where once I looked up at the tree fulll to capacity
with the yellow balls
changelings, they become the family
I once knew
my mirror image
same intense blue eyed stare
same guarded glare
looking at me
through the branches of the tree

But this time
the lemon people are laughing
flying, holding each other
free

A Miniature Life

Our dollhouse in a cupboard
a story of a perfect placed
constructed, position fairy tale life

Do you want to stay?
where the pieces match
the tiny china cup and saucer
the carrots next to the peas
stuck permanently to the plate

Maybe you know
that your fingers won't burn
when you hold this little family
playing life
in their house.

Fire

Strike
and struck
the proof of our pain
has been caught
coddled
corrupted
corroded
castrated in the subtlest form
claimed

Claimed, by those who seemed capable
crossed across too many times
the match is probably too comfortable
you and I are going to climb
until the fallacy
crashes, burnt by ether
confounded
possibility un  confused
we will not
cry

Let's Pretend

Let's make a wish
that the Barbie house
becomes our house
let's imagine
that their clothes in the cupboard
are ones we fit into

Let's pretend
that the tennis court is Noddy's town
happy, full of primary colours
let's allow
for the bike to be a red car
in the happy town

Let's make believe
that the Christmas lights are for every Monday
the decorations
are real, for an eternity, let's try
and also
that the waves in the ocean
are warm,
we can float for an afternoon without goosebumps

Let's construct
that all the terror, and hitchhiking horror
never happened, and it was proportioned all right

Let's believe
no grief, belief chorused in the speed, sectioned

a new hymn of life
sung risen.

Liberation

Some days
I don't remember the way you ran

Sometimes
I can't remember how much you cried

I hardly ever recall
the quantifiable amounts
measured out and labelled
by the staff in white coats


the clock continuing the hours
of the toxic voice inside you
again
and again

Perhaps you dreamed of a garden
as you ran and ran away
from the four walls of raw wrists
the isolated marked not fit for life
 they designated
again
and again.

Farm Picnic

Explorers marching
one, two, three
destination undisclosed
little arms moving even more than little legs
march two three four
suspicious, they are
an adult may be peering through a window
tracking the serious travelers
to find the perfect
picnic
place.

Change

they have blossomed here
like two roots in the right rich soil
the tea in a long overdue cup
an accomplishment.

Evening

A disappearance of sun behind the mountain
a small space of light
between the drawn curtains
and instantly
the story is no longer mine

It is the icy wind's comfort story
the birds of the poplar forest
the buildings of red clay

It is a protective story
being born into a place
part of the soil
a story lost
a story of being.