Mango Walk

what happens when you fall inside the whale
is not a secret hidden cities there
filled with the sorts of beings you'd beware
if met with in the normal kind of tale
angels and demons jointly will assail
your tender hide but soon you will not care
but be brought into a much stranger air
safe and secure from any rain or gale
beyond this place no man has dared to go
so there is no report that i could bring
of wonders of of blandness to assuage
your rising fears there still is much to know
of all the magics that the heathen sing
and certainties that come from distant age

 we leave the conflict of monkey and cat
to wiser folks who know how to describe
the interplay of thievery and bribe
combined with fear of how things become flat
the signs of sacrifice left on the mat
are those the simian would most proscribe
and thus most subject to the feline gibe
and we know just what happens in combat
so thinking of the night and what we need
such as good rest and dreams of summer shores
we do not set out any tricks or traps
but propaganda lies more in the deed
than in the execution of our chores
and others wake more swiftly from their naps

all that we see resolves itself as gold
what has been asked is never quite enough
to give as good an answer off the cuff
as that superb one which we had been told
by wiser sorts in the high ranks enrolled
more than this word we count as a rebuff
the manner sordid and the method gruff
this is mind's winter all the hearts are cold
i can't forget that will not be allowed
so few the memories distant the place
and now we listen for another chime
with hearts so heavy and with heads all bowed
not caring any more about disgrace
but feeling all the weight of passing time

what comes down from the sky is white and plain
a lazy saturday is what we've got
not much to be recalled or else forgot
we do the job and do it once again
there's nothing complex here nothing arcane
we bind and unbind knot and then unknot
earn our small fees or learn to pay our scot
and contemplate the falling crystal rain
cascades of music set the changing scene
all of our eyes are focused on the sky
but we can rest there's nowhere yet to go
we add up all the things we find they mean
not very much say otherwise you lie
just sit and look at the large flakes of snow

nowhere in the dark a hopeful sound
the cadences of night are never kind
no signals and no meanings are defined
\cold and delusion complete the surround
while our best wishes in silence are drowned
to quiet hopes there speaks an empty mind
of hearts and forces that have been confined
by more than nature in this horrid pound
let us not mention just what words were said
by those too eager to demand a trust
not easy given by the ones who know
loathsome creatures soaring overhead
with fiercest breath turn swiftly into rust
those things we least would want to see let go

behind these houses a small stand of pine
we fake the wilderness that we destroy
there are so many tricks that we employ
to make our false depictions really shine
others might see these marks as of decline
but we believe that naught we do will cloy
the normal heart what we produce is joy
and nothing you say can that undermine
elsewhere mosaics of dead golden leaves
mark out the winter the world does not ail
as long as nature plays out her old rôle
but calm's a means by which the false deceives
and we cannot know what it might entail
since none of us can truly read the scroll

a single element such as a nose
alters perceptions it is quite a shock
to learn that others know to break the lock
their innocence had been a sort of pose
to keep all present from coming to blows
but now the ship was safely back in dock
had come the time to take due proper stock
and give the winners each a simple rose
there are no visions left that are not sharp
no moments of delight left for the folk
whose urgent need is just to sing and shout
we do not cavil we let others carp
about what presence the great truth awoke
since when it happens there will be no doubt