Background Music

BACKGROUND MUSIC

sharing breakfast
with my son
in the grease-spot
I rock my feet
to the sounds
of a 30-year old
top ten;
Dylan, the Beatles,
Elvis, the Rolling Stones,
Tell Laura I Love Her.
My son eats his beans
tucks into his toast
smiles at his dad
knowing he’s happy
if he’s happy.
We drink up
rush away
to catch a train
leaving the 60s
a memory
still ringing
in our ears.

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 27th September 1997

Publications

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)
1999 Pennine Ink (UK)

Changing

CHANGING

He jumps and listens
 then he doesn't
  though he jumps
 down
  falling slowly
until the insides of his ears
 burn

hot tea
 without milk
  tastes good
 no need
for sweeteners after sex

in the cold night outside
 a cat is heard to scream
   as grief-riders
  race
 trying vainly
to escape
  from the flying pigs

   in the morning
all will be accounted for

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 14th March 1995

Publication

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)

Putting the Horror Movie in Context

PUTTING THE HORROR MOVIE IN CONTEXT

tensions of the night
preventing sleep
we go downstairs
disturb the dog
share tea and cake
with the "Vampire of Venice"
gape as his victim
throws herself from a pinnacle
then wakes up
not with broken back
but naked in his chamber
blood dribbling from mouth

as the television breaks
to a commercial
for washing-up liquid
we laugh - return to bed
equipped to deal
with our own demons

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 17th November 1993

Publications

1994 Weyfarers (UK)
1994 Mobius (USA)
1996 The Affiliate (Canada)
1997 Gallery Zandstraat (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

Lucky Pierre

LUCKY PIERRE

Earth, the bird, the vine and advance notification of smoke blown horizontally from rolling whirlpools.
Then he was quiet, cramped, then whoosh, beneath one -
where it departed into each other -
a girl with white on their shattering windshields, sending heads, gripping two, three, barren,
Undeterred by a department of vegetation, side-stepping the suicides,
Opening his fishy-smelling sealskin mitts, hobbling to the man on black slush:
Lucky Pierre. He is drawn into the echo of transgressions;
The doors were by his hands seized on his open grave!
But this wild terrain cleft violently to an end of pale expanse for muffins, what worked him.
He screams with tenebrous absences behind the blood,
The world; the eye that can see the dying city streets.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th November 1993

Publications

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)
2002 Fire (UK)

October Night

OCTOBER NIGHT

the thunder-storm reaches at last ,
after hours of stillness
and seeing distant sheets
of lightning lighting up the streets

by three in the morning
a quarter-moon and sundry stars
stare from a silent sky
pierced only by a whippet's cry

too hot to sleep,
we quietly drink tea;
dip our bourbon creams
to soften shattered dreams

dawn comes with the magpie's song,
the clink of milk bottles
and the postman's knock
delivering an awakening shock

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1993

Publications

1994 Rustic Rub (UK)
1997 Gallery Zandstraat (Internet)

Mrs. Green

The fox comes nightly to her garden;
Soft-nosed neighbours would not comprehend,
They say she should leave her hedge untrimmed:
She nods but knows she has to feed him.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 8th August 1993

Publications

1997 Gallery Zandstraat (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)