Mango Walk

 in deepest silence thunder is most loud

so long to wait as sun falls into night

so many hope that all will turn out right

each of us hopes the world will make us proud

for far too long  heads bent beneath the cloud

we've let the fools define honest delight

and only said what they let us recite

it was so easy to stay in the crowd

now it is hard to be so cool and calm

as any pebble in a winter stream

when worlds depend upon more than just art

but tired bodies ache for some soft balm

it is not easy to blank out each dream

for joy insists on filling each sore heart

 there is no question that the night is long

with clouds unbroken in the sky above

we want to give slow-moving time a shove

with urgent purpose we await new song

this calendar that warns of winter's wrong

our hearts demand the springtime morning dove

return of flowers reawoken love

days may be cold but hope is very strong

all that we know is how much each must rue

those painful stories of a different map

on which new facts and new lines would be writ

but now we find that not a thing was true

each noble tale  has turned out to be crap

and we need help to get out of the shit

 this permitted we have grace to caper

from dusk to dawn as the leaves redly fall

marking the season with a noble ball

each bright dancer bearing amber taper

notes now shining on the golden paper

make our demands seem piteously small

as watchers wonder why we had the gall

to think our hottest wishes more than vapour

now time must move in tandem with the sun

our hearts obey an older slower law

while in their nests the summer birds still wait

far to the south where warmth is never done

but nature rules with equally harsh claw

a younger person wonders at his fate

to fear the mountains that you have not seen

strikes me as beyond odd as plain bizarre

there is no horror that could strike so far

nor any danger that might come between

that place and this you need to find the mean

of calm and order not to let things mar

the proper temper so that at the bar

to make all sober we might intervene

each new adventure has a painful price

in time and effort and we can't recall

the life so spent back to a happy place

but you don't ever want to hear advice

and are too eager to run out and fall

and then return with fresh tears on your face 

 if you have measured breath in weight of gold

no one has spoken of the need for haste

nor of the reasons why the flock were chased

out of safe shelter back into the cold

such a short time ago now just enrolled

in this man's army and out on the waste

not one of us but knows we are disgraced

by this sad service and now you are told

say this when time returns you to your place

in the long record of the failing years

that we have done our task and gone our way

said our defiant words right to your face

cast off our clothes and let loose our tears

but never once have we refused our pay

 where passion and desire blend into sense

of who each is and how each came to be

not just alone but cast out on that sea

where navigation is without pretense

of other purpose where the smooth immense

circle of waters is the referee

and gives hard answer to each hopeful plea

since when it strikes there can be no defence

those who now smile have not the least good thought

in what might pass to others for a mind

to let you know the harshness of this scrape

nor in what trammels you might soon be caught

since they prefer that you advance so blind

as to be swiftly where you can't escape

 this is where meaning yields to hard desire

for more of what nobody truly needs

the shady outcomes of unwanted deeds

drugs bought from the old street-corner supplier

swift-acting poison for this case is dire

and no good remedy ever succeeds

instead we turn to all the aging creeds

and preach old words to the devoted choir

in places where they sing all has turned mute

on days like this we face a deeper rage

than any seen by you there is no balm

that soothes us now the pain is absolute

and letters burn in anger on the page

it is too late to ask the folk for calm

 where all our silences have come to fail

your senses give us what we do not need

another set of messages to heed

some more false elements for the old tale

those integrators which we would assail

but dare not indicate this is just greed

for simple life of which we own the seed

and the plain clothes to hang upon a nail

who reads the sigil has seen all the rot

of centuries fall off from eyes turned cold

not through hard pain but from exploded rage

at all the sordid horrors of our lot

these terrors that besiege our growing old

and the sad beasts that lie within each cage

 truth cuts like a dull knife and we are found

out of our proper spaces and not sure

of how to get safe back or what the cure

of this ill time will be the harsh compound

of present agony and glory drowned

with all our magic proved sick and impure

not much of what we are can still endure

but for the present we are all unbound

not what you are but how you may perplex

those who would harm your hopes and lay you low

is all the matter this is the true sign

that must the mean and hostile ever vex

leaving behind a steady even glow

as we pass on along the ancient line

right there on edge on mountain lip see cloud

swift move through sky through steady clearest blue

with every second become something new

voices within declare you have been cowed

not knowing yet the force that is allowed

nor proper motion ready for its cue

on neither side is the eternal view

but every sound right here is sharp and loud

so you were eager then to find a space

just for yourself and had so much to prove

and so much time or so it was you thought

being a fool now there is little grace

for you to get into the rightful groove

and the robed judge has come into the court