school’s out, life commences
the thinker’s gone to pasture
I’m done with facts and fences
those slaves should serve their master

So small I barely knew my street
I tensed at TV tigers
The circus came – I crumbled
I pleaded we go home

I’m just out of school
college will come
but where is the sense
in this race I run?

1.

gazing at wheels in the window
on a cold November morn

I’m working for a holiday
working for the money
I’m working for my kids
working for my honey

If words are just words
why open our mouths?

If Heaven is a lie

in a world of show
with its veils, cults
and rings of small-talk
I look, I look for love

O when shall you leave me
repulsive dark Night –
was I born for the Shadows
or destined for Light?

and in our northern news today
31 lives were taken
as a blast blew the highway away . . .

One must climb the pecking pole
One must know the back-seat code
One must drink to live the life
One must flow with every show

many point the bone at you
for baring all
a drunken dare, they say
eyes blinded to the spark

I see no end
I know no beginning
O, to be stuck in the goddam middle

as I play memories
recalling sorrows
I see that I’ve forgiven much
been sculpted by the letting go . . .

such glow in this oasis!
how does your garden grow?
with nurture, love and patience
I reap the seeds I sow

Shadows, silence, starkness
a life so full of darkness –
why do people lives in caves?

the enemy’s shadow throttles the sky
a look turns me old, I’m too young to die!
I scutter and know the sapping of veins
he swaggers, I stagger, vengeance his aim

seems I don’t need a phone call
a knock upon my door
now you know the water’s clear –
I’ll take you to the core

life in the fast lane
work for the man
see how the mice run
the weekend’s the plan

here and now
same place as it ever was
same time as it ever was
is and ever shall be

smoggy skies, dust and dirt
forests turn to barren earth
clifftops fall into the sea
icebergs melt with each degree

results came out today
an ending or a start perhaps
a chorus before dawn . . .
but it’s starting, it’s starting to feel

searching for some holy grail
the boys inebriate their minds
high on crack, bravado, show
here they’ll leave their dough behind

when I was poor
the rich man walked on by
and when I thirsted
I thirsted for water and justice

I have staggered streets of pain
grace avoiding every lane
just these echoes in my brain
telling me I’m dust and rain . . .

with eyes wide shut, I fell in with
the lord of every alley, street
I saw his yachts and I was sold
I’d get those gators on his feet

she curls up with the love songs
requests and dedications
alone, she chews the what ifs
that led her to this station

kissed the girls
seen the sights
ocean motion
valleys, heights

tonight people beg
for money and smack
I cast you no glance
and here are the facts

looking for love?
there’s terms and conditions
tend to my ego
but don’t make incisions

get with the good times, we’ve company, beer
come on, get wasted, and try out the gear
don’t look so sullen, what’s so overbearing!
the sun’s in the sky – everyone’s staring!

a girl in a field
a bull and a knife
a boy on a fence
love, hate, death, life . . .

the leaving, well I got top rank
by heeling, got the dealer paid
I made my hand no seven two
by sacrificing hearts for spades

you say you wear a mask
since sorrow stole the Light
and blind in your emotion
you tumbled into Night

my bones live in your shadow
your tortures etch my face
my people know no meadows
and feel your bloody race

sacred is this homely ground
for here my seed was planted
but a current’s coming now
to strip my ripened branches –

it’s rule by bomb and bullet
the night air all a jangle
and who can hear the tolling
in all the jingle jangle?

pushing into my September Street
the lauded halls of UCD
I’ve crossed too many rivers
to repeat those shady schooldays

gotta do something – want nothing to do
I wish I weren’t here – but elsewhere won’t do
want someone to call – hate hearing the phone
why don’t you visit? – please leave me alone

for dungeons, seen, unseen
the unseen often in the seen
I’ve moulded keys redundant
once each lock was sprung

observing the bus stop
scattered smiles can’t hide
the barely conscious frowns
that bring my doubts to mind

There once was a barman called Duggan
Who was always afraid of a muggin’
He was so paranoid
About tough lookin’ boys