It’s abnormal

No-one thought this would happen to me
Independent and successful
I asked my friends and they said they agreed
That you were nothing special

I was playing the field, fêted and free
You were well connected
I was waiting for Christ’s star over my head
Your power was unexpected

I got on my knees
I cried like an animal
I begged like a dog
Your power is terrible
Cause and effect
I can’t understand
What am I waiting for?
Only more pain

It’s abnormal

My liberal days were never the same
I did all the asking
Now my will is surrendered to you
Your attentions are arresting

Buyer beware
Karma chameleon
You add to the game
With your broader experience
Humiliate/isolate
My hand in your glove
You burned all my clothes
And you call it love

It’s abnormal


© Dancing Mice 2008

Cindy does it better

Things sound better louder; in the south
Bad news travels faster; play it down
Lives don’t all make stories; have your say
Grief comes up like thunder; start the day

Play the gentle flower; stainless steel
Pale skin lights you up and; what you feel
Language smashes walls and takes you back
Recognition closes, make-up cracks

Scream not sing the changes; never doubt
There’s a secret drawer; slide it out
Leave behind the songs and; make the freeze
Start another project; fail to please

On the road to nowhere; change the scene
Sample other culture; get the feel
Watch the years exchange and; keep the faith
Product does not matter; what you say

Play the gentle flower, stainless steel…


© Dancing Mice 2008

Tamagotchi girl

Paint the canvas, prepare the scene
Face the day from behind the screen
What’s out there to go wrong: everything

Make an entrance and sit right down
Eyes fixed on and the necks turn round
Many people, one mind: worshipping

Nobody knows your name, girl
It’s big and it’s cold out there
Everyone’s in the same world
It’s hard to control the whole world
Pretend that you just don’t care
Stay in and wash your hair, girl

Lives piano and labours long
Plays the radio, sings the songs
Manages life on her own: withering

Likes the others but gets too close
Won’t respond to who likes her most
Doesn’t want life on her own: withering

Nobody knows your name, girl…


© Dancing Mice 2008

Pink storm

Write write write, put your life in words
From your room

Sip sip sip, let the tea take you
Back to home

Walk walk walk, one or other way
Weather fine

Pink pink pink, in the trees today
Hawthorn time

From the inside he can see that the writing’s overblown
Capture the thought and the next till the memory is gone
Nothing to do anyway
Just this plenty to say
Passing the day and the next till the memory is gone

Ring ring ring, from the room upstairs
Calling down

Sit sit sit, let the world outside
Turn around

Wait wait wait, for your mother’s lips
Touching yours

Kiss kiss kiss, passing comfort slips
Sleepless hours

From the inside he can see that the writing’s overblown…


© Dancing Mice 2008

Crusader castles

He leaves his world and paints the sky in gold
and cares about it all
He takes a sword and dresses up
and leads the nomads with a call

The stars spell out his names, he clears his eyes
and wonders what is real
His demons gather round and making plans
they strike where he can feel

And in the castles recreate the past,
see ghosts among the stones
Bring back crusaders, stand alone
sketching dead heroes, worship bones

And further east the drowning spires
and minarets wash out the past
White walls and foreign welcomes
make a family home for him at last

The desert sings, the world expects,
he hangs his robes and leaves the scene
The new crusaders uniform
in uniformity convene

Among the rank and file he sheds his skin
and writes his life again
Origins are mystery
and revelation’s mystery again


© Dancing Mice 2008

Wounded woman

And the thought-fox fills a blank space
And the apes yawn in a cold sun
Counting horses as the hawk waits
To achieve its own creation

And the jaw bone at the sea’s edge
And the eel eyes from the water
And the sun’s rays bring a cold red
And you rhyme lambs to the slaughter

Locked inside the girl who loved you
Read the story, count the crimes
Smash the jar and don’t pretend at all

Taking sides the girls can see you
Hide behind the public lines
Life’s a gas the wounded woman calls

And the pig feeds on a dead cat
And the mouse waits under hot sun
When the dog drowns where the crow sat
Under God’s eye in creation

Like the pike kills and the thrush stabs
Drawing green wolves in the dream time
And the asp moves through the ghost crabs
When the rats dance, when the frog springs

Locked inside the girl who loved you…


© Dancing Mice 2008

Chosen hills

Chosen hills breed wonder
Defend against the new
Keeping fresh traditions
Only hear what’s true

And the people listen, hang on every line

River runs its lazy wind
And hangs like time
Borrowed muses sparkle
Singing every line

And the people listen, hang on every line

Happy, airy, English
Pastoral and free
Rhythm beats romantic
Printing nature’s frieze

And the people listen, hang on every line

Changes come like armies
Staying just the same
Planting, writing, playing
Sleeping landscape dream

Chosen hills keep wonder
The slope, the climb, the view
Choirs and country towns
Below them sing what’s true

And the people listen, hang on every line


© Dancing Mice 2008

Madonna
(pour Notre Dame)

I am elevated
By your presence here
I can’t overstate it
You make misfortune disappear
You are incarnated
As a love sublime
A Madonna celebrated
Watching your halo shine

Your love has pierced my skin
And cut my heart in two
I shall love no more
My whole desire is you

The warmth of your heart
The veil of your hair
Golden like the sun
The flame of your light
Cuts through the clouds
And darkness is dawn


© Dancing Mice 2008

Pictures of Biggles

He comes through the door
And he’s all PLO
As long as the metaphor runs
While that is true
Not literal, sure
Committed to what’s to be done

He’s got what it takes
To admit his mistakes
Explains with a glint in his eyes
There’s a gun at his head
He says just go ahead
Protect and select and survive
I never wanted to be this famous

Robots can think
But he feels in the pink
Wild flowers can’t pull him away
He’s captured my heart
And it’s laugh, swoop and dart
Cocky, rebel and gay

When he took off the locks
On his chocolate box
And found that his favourites were gone
The orchestra sits
At the end of its wits
Player, composer and song
I never wanted to be this famous

Delicious surprise
To find everything dies
Master, commander and men
It’s easy to see
That he’s all TCP
Swallows, and never complains

Attached to the girl
At the end of the world
You find that you’re listening to him
It’s hard to go home
When it’s all teenage foam
Lives by the steel in his whim
I never wanted to be this famous

© Dancing Mice 2008


Kelticfunfair

Small steps and look round and
Touch things you cannot see

Face monsters you chained up
Will blows to set them free

Fear rages, damns break and
Gip hard, breathe in the new

Don’t worry, don’t worry
Nothing will happen to you


Here is power, exceeding all others
Hard as granite, heavy as lead

But all this is just an abstraction
Emancipation for the easily led

Your unconscious is nothing but fantasy
Magicians alter it to suit their moods

This is what will, and must be
You’ve been called and you answer to me


© Dancing Mice 2008

Golden girl

No-one home, no living comfort
The man is missing; can you face
Another lifetime in the desert?
Cats and school boards fill your days

Over-cool, demure and lonely
Sober-blooded, fertile, faith
Shapes elected, never warning
Muster them, elect from birth

Ten o’clock on Thursday evening
Boxes, platform, nearly there
Watch the writing on the ceiling
Not like what was there before

Over-cool, demure and lonely…

All the packaging surrounds you
Something in the eyes betrays
Genes or living spoiled the picture
Something smiling can’t replace

Over-cool, demure and lonely…

All the stories come together
Symbolise your winning ways
The old agree you look much better
Shiny, golden girl for us

Over-cool, demure and lonely…


© Dancing Mice 2008