The Endless Bar

All those before who fled,
What did they do to me?
They poured their troubles onward,
Red blood could part a sea;
Still, you’re in untended plots
In a quiet corner of Cheam.

How far I looked up to you,
A child at the endless bar,
We’d walk across midwinter tracks
When you couldn’t drive a car.
You tended donkeys with more care
Than family bruised and scarred.

Adults sometimes shed the skin
Their parents dressed them in,
But you glued your self to mine,
Inheriting your chin-chin.
Each evening when I’m drunk
With words, I think of you,

Hoping this is not the last drink;
Without words what can I do.

Maneki-neko No.2

My journey is only beginning,
Slowly with songs we are winning.

He told me I was broken,
And truth was simply a token

He stored beneath my tongue.
Truth received a bung

In case I could be opened
Without him here to co-depend.

Self-kindness looked away,
A village willow with dismay

Silenced Spring with all the same
Fragile leaves of falling blame.

He made a ladder with no rungs,
Butterflies flourished in his lungs.

A cat unpicked my mouth devout,
And now the coins are falling out.