Mango Walk

have caught the missing moment of each day

taken it prisoner and won't release

a single second of our hope's increase

out of plain fear that golden light could stray

from warming hands that yet know how to play

the human game without harm or caprice

into cold air that would soon end all peace

sending the waiting watchers on their way

have known hard losses and much harder wins

on courses and on surfaces that yield

their gifts to those who have little to tell

though coldest nights save the long count of sins

serving as sustenance across the field

while each survivor wishes they could yell

what we have made is not enough for song

so we are told by critics of the age

who always urge the young to disengage

and tell the old they are no longer strong

the middle-aged must see they can't belong

and therefore are required to quit the stage

it seems there is no text left on this page

that can't be so thus the whole tale is wrong

where we began no hero could pretend

to claim the moment and the victor's crown

but infant struggles of the teller's art

convert each listener into a friend

bring each lost wanderer safe back to town

and know the climax is there from the start

if you mistake plain truth for silly word

your punishment shall not be very light

shall not last merely one short day and night

you'll be cut out forever from the herd

rejected scorned listed with the absurd

treated as source of all disease and blight

you may think this is harsh not just nor right

but you're the loser now the hunted bird

honour was what we asked and what we gave

to reach the place where only angels sleep

to find it empty and the treasure gone

this world is conquered and become a grave

where even maggots nightly fear to creep

and we may wonder what it is we won

move forward and you come back to the past

you give up peace and friendship at the start

but still the monster won't let you depart

anguish alone must hold on to the last

love smiles but all its moments go too fast

and hope is faster here than any dart

anger and rage will rot the normal heart

while hatred journeys before every mast

time is no cure nor change of sun to rain

nor is the amaranth a source of steel

though each magician turns out just a liar

we turn to them to ease the steady pain

produced each day by turning of the wheel

knowing full well we can't avoid the fire

now stars go missing in the summer sky

while stub-tailed comet promises dire days

no cloud will come to temper the hard blaze

of unforgiving sunrise when the eye

notes every droop and watches as the dry

heart of the kingdom stands revealed the praise

goes far from us to those who would amaze

both child and elder with some easy lie

life changes fast and the urgent voices

that might report the meaning of each tale

fall silent as we have to hurry forth

to new devotions to human choices

anger behind us so that we won't fail

and faces set towards a truer north

enough that yesterdays beyond recount

involved the passage of so many turns

nobody listened to a child's concerns

nor waited long for the adult account

since it was plainly duty to surmount

such little things as every child soon learns

it does not matter soon the forest burns

and not so high will any ashes mount

no obligation seemed so very great

that meeting it did not require our hearts

to open out as sigils of this pain

but this is something born purely of fate

which cannot be avoided by our arts

so we stand here and wait as for the rain

this is the kingdom where the true god rules

a horrid realm where every light's a lie

and only pain can fall out of the sky

no gentle beast can rest by shaded pools

instead by harsh noon light predator drools

and angry laughter fills its leering eye

not one of us can choose we must comply

if anyone said otherwise they're fools

you listen and you count each fading beat

of that weak drum you claim to want to hear

there is no other music that is left

nor any other players in this heat

who might give us the music we hold dear

just to remind us that we are bereft

what has been lost in that one languid scene

that moves the western soul so we've been told

as much as oil and far far more than gold

is any sense of what else might have been

before the truth that nothing was serene

what seemed the warmest turned out dull and cold

the wildest moment most tightly controlled

nothing what what we thought it had to mean

the object found was other than the sought

a glimpse of hope en route to where truth fell

before the onslaught of the shining lies

right where the innocent young fools were caught

believing to the last this was not hell

and what they saw were the redeeming skies

there are no boundaries in human time

we may not cross or otherwise respect

unless as you or other fool direct

since we are bound to creep out of the slime

ignore the sweetness of most daring crime

and only take those goods the herds reject

choosing to be in sombre tones bedecked

for only silence tastes of the sublime

gold alone rules whatever may be law

in heavy book that we know to be fact

in this reality we have not made

when what seems best is just another flaw

and no one ever will come through intact

we have no choice except slowly to fade

this is the turning point and luck will burn

whichever way the earnest choice is made

so it won't matter if you seem afraid

both rich and poor must dance round in their turn

laugh for a while look up and hope to earn

what good they can from honest simple trade

before the sparks come down in last cascade

and all goes out that is the truth we learn

now under the same sun we build the fire

for angry hearts that have not felt the sway

of that fine rule we want the world to seek

past the first moment of youthful desire

since we discovered that was not the way

but now are grown too wise simply to speak