Edge of a Dream

I’m here on the edge of a dream,
in the borders of truth and fantasy,
please won’t you stay here with me,
tomorrow we’ll see what the city brings.

We can fold our thoughts and free a dove, 
we’ll turn this room into old Montmatre,
we can draw a boat and paint a sea,
hold my wrinkling hands, our fears won’t win.

I’m on the edge of a dream, won’t you stay here with me?

Pass me the book about time,
I’ll store it away for a while,
sometimes it's fine for a mind to glide,
we won’t need to pay for the Big Wheel ride.

We can scream a while or whisper lies,
we can free our limbs or stay disguised,
do you like the way the moon is lit,  
let’s dance away til the night sees fit.

I’m on the edge of a dream, won’t you stay here with me?

Perhaps we find a different plot to make our tales more meaningful,
I like the structure of your wings, can I please dissolve into your skin? 

 

I’m on the edge of a dream, won’t you stay here with me?

Lightning Bolt 

 

Some people fall for fireflies, some people fall for rocks
I fell for the ebullience of a lightning bolt.
My sanity was frail, I looked for ways to comprehend the pain, 

depleted from the core, I turn to love to fill my cup 

with shavings of the storm, and now the spiral winds won’t stop, 

oh, I’ve fallen for –

I’ve fallen for a lightning bolt, 

I’ve fallen for a Lightning bolt,

Some people fall for turbulence, some people fall for shores,
I fell for the silver rays which annunciate a fall.
I should have known before, the ancient poets 

had warned me of my course,
depleted from the core, I sought the trick that 

drove the bard to plenitude and loss, 

to plenitude and loss. 

 

I’ve fallen for a lightning bolt, 

I’ve fallen for a Lightning bolt,

Take this wound of mine, may it reach your bones, 

and maybe when we meet, please tell me this will stop, 

‘coz I’ve fallen for, I’ve fallen for a lightning bolt.

 

Bohemia

I am stuck in the belly of Bohemia,
my friends they were gone a long time ago,
I’d speak to my future but the telephone broke,
I guess it all happened to leave space for my songs,
I know that you need to go ‘coz someone has to keep
this boat afloat, can you please hold me some more?  

Leave your bulwarks on the floor,
‘coz my safety net is torn, and I am drowning in your moat.

It’s a muddy thing that holds,

everything I want, every little thing I’ll ever want.

I am stuck in the belly of Bohemia,
the talk it is heavy and I am covered in smoke,
tomorrow the city will open its stores,
and swallow the beauty of our synchronized fall,
I know, you got a full-time job but I live in a full-time storm,  

could you lift your lids some more?
‘Coz my safety net is torn and I am drowning in your moat.

It’s a muddy thing that holds, 

everything I want, every little thing I’ll ever want.

I am stuck in the belly of Bohemia,
my sanity is weary, I hear the albatross call,
tomorrow remind me to stay on the shore
and fight for the remnants of a splendorous dawn.
I know we did not win at all but tonight the winds will blow.
 

For the captains of the soul, don’t say you’re gonna go,
‘coz my safety net is torn, and I am drowning in your moat.

It’s a muddy thing that holds, everything I want, every little thing I will ever want.

​





 

Castles (co-written with Ty Watling)

Forgive me son,

there is no stash under the stairs,

I leave no plot

for you to build an empire there,

I wonder if you’ll care

for what I’ll leave behind,

a will to sing for better times.  

 

Forgive me son,

I leave no watch with golden rims,

the books I own

won’t teach you how to sail or swim,

I have no yacht,

but what I have I give to you,

a will to pine for better news.

 

Take this pen, take this shield,

to slay the beast of stagnation,

I have no castles to defend,

but take the engines

of my imagination.

 

Forgive me son,

I have no house in Hampstead Heath,

the songs I sang

were only made to fuel my wings,  

I own a shore inside

where thoughts would ebb and flow,

I’ll leave you that, it’s all I know.

 

Forgive me son,

I leave no sports cars on the drive,

typewriters, turntables bore truths that once kept me alive,

these old machines may help you

exorcize your mind,

so you can leave your ghosts behind.

 

Take this pen, take this shield

to Slay the beast of stagnation,

I have no castles to defend,

but take the engines

of my imagination.

 

Vertigo 

Vertigo, whenever you are near,
my footsteps question the ground,
and when you go, I can still smell the fear
of a prince who can’t deal with the crown,
bring me another glass of Rose
to see if I can hold to my faith,
years will pass and I still won't have asked 
for a key to the church of your name –
as time fizzles away, oh, time it just fizzles away,

Vertigo, as if we were lying on the tower
of an old Spanish church,
I abandoned my past in the socialist front
for a day in the fields of your head.
But it’s too late to shake like a duck
in the heart of a splendorous wave,
years will pass and I still won't have said
all the things that I wanted to say –
as time fizzles away, oh, time it just fizzles away.

Vertigo, can you tell me the time?
I think I am passed my concerns.
Tomorrow when everyone is gone
will you still think I gave it my best?  

 

Mortified Too

 

Are you mortified too, that this all went to hell?
Do you stay up at night, wondering what move you might have made?
Is it only me, dismembering the tale?
Are you telling our friends our play had to end for you to change?

A bond’s not a wave, which you ride when you fancy the motion of pain,
I’ll tell you again, our plot needs a gem and you blemish the page,
do you think of us in this or in any other way?
Or is it me just slashing the air

with questions, projections, meanderings which matter 

nothing to you, to love,
or to anyone else?

Will the memory hurt or is it just a note
in the nocturne of pain you wrote for yourself in New Mexico?
Did it escalate when the curtains fell?
Or was it always a drag to see me in rags and you wearing stilettos?

A bond’s not a tie you undo in a day when you need a new lie.
I’ll tell you again, you’ve broken my stern and the leakage is bad,
is this something that burdens you, my love?
Or is it me playing with the lights
of a life that was dark before you were near and now that it’s clear
we just have to pack up and sing our goodbyes? 
And sing a goodbye.

Will it hit you one day, while sitting on a bench?
In a park in Madrid where your flesh and my dreams were born again.

A bond’s not a wave, which you ride when you fancy the motion of pain,
I’ll tell you again, the spark lies inside and your blocking the way,
do you see us in this or in any other way? Or is it me just slashing the air again with questions, projections, meanderings that matter nothing to you, to love, to me
or to anyone else?

Half-Way House

I was waiting for a twist of fate so I stayed up late
in case it might be triggered by your face.
You said, ‘please don't waste my time with names,
you can call me ‘they’ and perhaps we might just end up at my place.’
Is it politically correct to be turned on by the dirt?
I know you’re past the hurt but keep your hands below my shirt.

Lovers, in the night, in a liminal space, in a half-way house, in a half-real chase.

You were broken like a plastic spade which tried to penetrate
the molten rock of family and friends,
I was never meant for hackneyed tales, you said our century failed,
yes but why did you just bicker all the way?
Is it so insane to follow wonky trails?
I like it when you stray, it's like the whole of Peckham finally found its way. 

 

Lovers, in the night, in the liminal space, in the half-way light. 

 

 

 

Lovers, Dreamers

Lovers, dreamers, did the wild horses go
when you gave up the blow?
Seekers, sinners, did you give up our flow
for a flat in the posh part of Rome?
They’re selling cakes in Montmartre
which cost more than the art,
did you trade your Bedouin heart
for a hit in the charts, did the muse completely depart?

Dancers, wheelers, did you extinguish the flame
when the little ones came?
Tricksters, seers, do you know of a place
where you’ll rip off the mask from your face?
This borough’s a farce, they’re all posers and tarts,
your colour won’t change the fact that

it’s built for the stars, the bankers having a laugh. 

Lovers, dreamers, where did you go?
Seekers, sinners, come back to me.
 

Sometimes I feel, I need more than the thrill, I need someone to scream, I need Willy De Ville to rise up and wake me.

Smokers, wingers, where did you leave
your cape and your wings?
Healers, wizards, the night is a dream,
we must fall in its rivers and streams,
abandon the grin, your price is your cardinal sin,
there’s only plastic within, put your stance in the bin,
‘cos I want to step in.  

Lovers, dreamers, come back to me, come back to me. 

 

 

When you kill the thing you love

Everyone is hurting, they hide behind their curtains,
they blame you for the cracks inside their hearts. 

I know I was a burden but please tell me for certain
Do you think the wheels of fate had come apart?
You sat on my doves and pondered alone, spitting
on the memories of love, screaming the only way is up,
was it always so bad? We used sabers just for fun,
Were you always on the run?
What do you become when you kill the thing you love?

I put you on an altar to praise a new Gibraltar,
The rock was trembling madly when you laughed.
But now the bond will falter I wonder if they’ll alter,
the mishaps and the mandates from above?
You bulldozed your cart all over my bazar,
Laughing at the lines on my hand, singing we’re convicts of the stars.
Was the cosmos so sad when we fused like molding sand? 
Was the web of life unspun??
What do you become when you kill the thing you love?   
 

Now you hide inside your cabins to camouflage your burdens
and everyone is guilty of this plan. 
I know I was so sullen, we could have had our heaven
If only we were ready for the sun.
And you sat on your fort and closed all your paths,
singing we should let it run, singing, I am sick of your darts,
can you write me a new part, there’s a rupture in my heart,
were you aiming for the charts? 

Is it always a new start when you kill the thing you love?   

 

 
Churn Out Gold

Bring me back my arrows and my bows
I left them in the bonnet of our love Renault
Despite the thrills, I think we should have stopped
Our bodies matched, our spirits fought like Bouhdica and Rome
It’s been like this since tales were told
Some want honey and others want the bees to churn out gold.

DA Da dam dum da da dum dum  dum

I know my dear our synergy was brief

And I’ve got a dog that barks when you stroke it sweetly
With you I counted napkins in my sleep
I was getting ready for the day our love would sink
It’s been like this since hills were hills
Some want homes and others want the thrill

DA Da dam dum da da dum dum  dum

I wish I was the ghost you woke in dreams
Coz sometimes I believe this mess was meant for you and me

And truth will take a toll on human hearts
Please leave me bread before you part
All in all I am glad we went too far
Now I know there are holes inside the stars
It’s been like that since the lizards crawled
Some hunt whales others seek the temperance of the shore