FOUR OF SPADES

Lost in a labyrinth
How I got here I don't know
An enormous palatial garden
Bordered by high walls of mossy weathered brick
Dense hedges of dark foliage interrupt the views
Impenetrable
Gravel paths crunch through this maze
Meandering this way and that
Turning abrupt corners
At first glance the paths appear regular and grid-like
But they deceive
They lead to dead-ends
Cul-de-sacs
Their herrings are red
And their goose chases are wild
Just when I seem to be getting somewhere
I arrive back where I started many years ago
The hedges open out into a clearing
In its centre an octagonal fountain
Water spouting from a large Greek urn
Two heavy stone benches face each other across the clearing
Leaves have fallen on the seats
Leaving a design
At each corner of the clearing stands an identical rounded fir
Pointing at the sky
Four points on the compass
But which is north, south, east or west?
The sky is sullen, leaden, useless
There are no stars at night
Condemned I am to wander alone through this web
Trapped like a buzzing wasp
Behind a pane of glass

QUEEN OF CLUBS

Proudly she stands in all her glory
Framed by palm fronds
A golden crown upon her head
She is the queen of the night
Transposed to the harsh light of day
Her long dark mane sits heavy on her shoulders
She wears only a necklace of red and sky blue beads
Dangling casually across her chest
Amused
She throws back her head and laughs
A deep throaty laugh
A roar that lasts a thousand years
Beside her the sacrificial sheep
Calm and oblivious to its fate

TWO OF DIAMONDS

The postman knocks
A parcel labelled fragile
Dirty brown paper tied up with white string
Postmark Papua New Guinea
Date smudged
Bird of paradise stamps in an unknown currency
Twin seals of red wax
Addressed in flowery black handwriting
This way up
Inside
A container
Small brown seeds like rice grains
No instructions
I plant the seeds in pots on the windowsill
Sunshine and water go to work
The strangest flowers bloom
Long stems
Delicate petals of fiery orange
Blood-red stamens
Their scent is dark earthy intoxicating
Humid forest and ripening fruit tree
Purplish red berries form
Eat me they whisper
The taste is at once sour and sweet
The room rushes away
A thousand years ago
Ten thousand miles away
I stand alone in an impenetrable forest
Chattering monkeys leap high above in the dense canopy
Jaguars prowl
Water drips from the mouths of broad leaves
Sap oozes from the bark of colossal trunks
The insects play a symphony
Led by an invisible conductor

NINE OF SPADES

We little fish swim in turbulent waters
Our black bodies pulverised and hammered
By brown and turquoise fists
We are eager to make history
Even as it passes us by
But the circumstances are not of our choosing
The armed prophets have unleashed their ideological storms
The schizophrenic madmen in authority
Pluck their voices out of the ether
Rivers of dogma course the channels
A litter of corpses navigates the rapids
Freshly felled timber speeding downstream
Rings countless and uncountable

KING OF HEARTS

Recalling the old times
Lost in memory
I rise up from all fours to my full height
Reaching up
Reaching out to touch a single red rose
Almost lost among the dense foliage
Among the overgrown leaves of this jungle hinterland
I am safe here inside my cool elliptical forcefield
For a moment I can forget
That out there the fires burn
That the red sky mourns
For the sad tree stumps that dot the ground
As far as the eye can see
Forget that my people are forsaken
Diminished and suffering
Remember that I am noble
And not born to hang my head

STATUES

Blessed Mary's looking good in alabaster
As she prays to a Chinese bodhisattva
His face is serene, he radiates compassion
He meditates on beauty like it's going out of fashion

Donatella's little angel composes a tune
He's fanning his wings on this hot afternoon
The graceful arms of Shiva weave a mystical dance
He beats time on his hourglass as if he's in a trance

The old Tuscan lion has fallen from grace
It's in the tangle of his mane, it's in the scowl on his face
The young French warrior clasps his head in anguish
He's fallen on his sword, his army has been vanquished

The face of the Pharaoh wears no trace of a smile
He's an awful long way from the banks of the Nile
The Madonna and the Child appear at the window
They nod to the Pharaoh but they can't speak his lingo

Now the lady in the skeleton shoes flexes her toes
Where she found her feet nobody knows
She takes it in her stride as she polishes the marble
She makes a lot of sense but her message is garbled

Poor Aphrodite has really lost her head
Without her modesty she's one hell of a mess
Madame Juliette evades the clutches of Napoleon
Though she's aged pretty well, she really should have kept her clothes on

The proud Roman emperor, his nose is out of joint
He could go and get a facelift but he can't see the point
He sits on his pedestal looking resplendent
Trying to ignore the sleeping attendant

These busts and these figures
From kingdoms East and West
Telling a story that can only be guessed

THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION

The doors of perception
The staircases of experience
The labyrinth of memory
The hall of mirrors
Gateway to a secret passage
The antenna of the mind
The triage of the sense organs
The cut of the scalpel
The stroke of the paintbrush
The encryption of language
The cloak of metaphor
The arc light of consciousness
The murky sediment of the unconscious
The hazy fuzz of dream
The bold wonder of magic
The bright spark of the imagination
The dark womb of myth

OMNISCIENCE

As I slip through the hourglass
I know I can't take it with me
I feel like Great Alexander
At his funeral parade

I want to take it to the nth degree
I clutched at immortality
My hands are dangling from the hearse
For omniscience

The cards arrive every Christmas
But it's a dwindling collection
My friends are becoming forgetful
They've lost my latest address

All my books and my diaries
My encyclopaedic libraries
Are stacked up somewhere in a crate
For omniscience

Up in the attic
Down in the vaults
Muffled voices
Stifled words
What do you think you heard?

Now as history unravels
With a gathering momentum
I've forgotten what I came for
Can't remember why I'm here

I'm drowning in information
I'm starving for inspiration
Wisdom is elusive as the clouds

I'm jostling for position
I'm screaming out for recognition
That brush with stardom gave me a taste
For omniscience