this is a tale from an unreal time
in the faraway realms of Shey
men and women walked the streets
as if burdened by the liquid and heavy air around them -
in a mist which always hung opaque
a year
of perpetual winter and snow
a light steam rose from the street
twisting between the passing feet
and the sky was black with flecks of scattered steel /

the water from the tap felt like ice
pipes creeping their frozen network across the opaque city

and yet the trees grew tall in untended backyards
leaves white as crumbling snow
flowers a magic pink
the radio played jazz
wine flowed free
in lonely lofts with the city sleeping
blue like the fallen Nile/

and death
lurked in the evening air
with a cosy leather charm
beguiling in its warmth
as evil guitars sang of lost loves and absent friends
with the sun shining pale and sharp
on life chlorophyll and dreams of passing dusk/

the jailhouse sang dank and musty slush
as sleeping pavements saw light
with the crabmeat sweet and dark
marat cleaned the guillotine
sade sharpened his quill
elvis left the building
and eichmann gassed a few more in belsen.krakow.

auschwitz.kashmir.nagasaki.here.now.

commune free! shouted the students
drunk pale unfocussed stark and unclean
soon finding themselves caught
back in their stupor of numb yellow cornflake dread
while the spider moved like Legolas
its web heavy as snow/

mist lingered under sleeping eyes behind curtains
and within the bowl of stale lemon soup
as hansel wooed gretel
ate candy lost his way
the spider moved closer
the fog hung heavier
in a paradise
eternally harmonic in the rampant debauch of an angelic choir alone
in its hauteur and sublime incomprehensible joy
armies frozen in their boots
socks soaked in saline blood
athletes unable to stop
running the last miles to Marathon
while infinite rockets sink into the crimson sun
and planets implode into ashes spun silk and rust/

orange smog clouds the sky
all else pale before its insistent chemical glow
stray bitches howl at the invisible moon
as moonlit tsunamis rage in laser neon blood saltlust
in gardens of delight here and now
cardboard covered windows broken in stealth and blood drenched haste
in a Superman like swish of sky blue cape and embarrassing red underwear
energy cruising the atmosphere
fluid tomahawks of hypersonic grey/

stray farmers heard praying for rain
dead in a deluge
as drought is followed all too soon by six months of unceasing rain
the snake goddess paints herself into the courtyard
her eyes broken like an empty husk of corn
the key is bent into abstraction
sought endlessly but useless if mistakenly found
metal fuses into metal
blood coagulates into rust
the city dreams its unbroken dream
the sun sets
the moon rises
ashes spun silk
yellow flecks of dust