Stormwatch

As the dawn sun breaks over sleepy gardens
I'll be here to do all things to comfort you.
And though i've been away
Left you alone this way
Why don't you come awake
And let your first smile take me home.
The shadows in the park were longer yesterday
And lady luck stood still, waiting for the kill.
And on a jumbo ride
Over seas grey, deep and wide
I flew for heaven's sake
And let the angels take me home.
Down steep and narrow lanes i see the chimneys smoking
Above the golden fields ... know what the robin feels
In his summer jamboree.
All elements agree
In sweet and stormy blend ---
Midwife to winds that send me home.

Orion, won't you give me your star sign
Orion, get up on the sky-line
I'm high on my hill and i feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine
Orion, light your lights:
Come guard the open spaces
From the black horizon to the pillow where i lie.
Your faithful dog shines brighter than its lord and master
Your jewelled sword twinkles as the world rolls by.
So come up singing above the cloudy cover
Stare through at people who toss fitful in their sleep.
I know you're watching as the old gent by the station
Scuffs his toes on old fag packets lying in the street
And silver shadows flick across the closing bistro.
Sweet waiters link their arms and patter down the street,
Their words lost blowing on cold winds in darkest chelsea.
Prime years fly fading with each young heart's beat

Orion, won't you make me a star sign
Orion, get up on the sky-line
I'm high on your love and i feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine

And young girls shiver as they wait by lonely bus-stops
After sad parties: no-one to take them home
To greasy bed-sitters and make a late-night play
For lost virginity a thousand miles away.

Darlings are you ready for the long winter's fall?
Said the lady in her parlor
Said the butler in the hall.
Is there time for another?
Cried the drunkard in his sleep.
Not likely
Said the little child. what's done
The lord can keep.
And the vicar stands a-praying.
And the television dies
As the white dot flickers and is gone
And no-one stops to cry.
The big jet rumbles over runway miles
That scar the patchwork green
Where slick tycoons and rich buffoons
Have opened up the seam
Of golden nights and champagne flights
Ad-man overkill
And in the haze
Consumer crazed
We take the sugar pill.
Jagged fires mark the picket lines
The politicians weep
And mealy-mouthed
Through corridors of power on tip-toe creep.
Come and see bureaucracy
Make its final heave
And let the new disorder through
While senses take their leave.
Families screaming line the streets
And put the windows through
In corner shops
Where keepers kept
The country's life-blood blue.
Take their pick
And try the trick
With loaves and fishes shared
And the vicar shouts
As the lights go out,
And no-one really cares.
Dark ages
Shaking the dead
Closed pages
Better not read
Cold rages
Burn in your head.

Hair stands high on the cat's back like
A ridge of threatening hills.
Sheepdogs howl, make tracks and growl ---
Their tails hanging low.
And young children falter in their games
At the altar of life's hide-and-seek
Between tall pillars, where sunday-night killers
In grey raincoats peek.
Misty colours unfold a backcloth cold ---
Fine tapestry of silk
I draw around me like a cloak
And soundless glide a-drifting
On eddies whirled in beech leaves furled ---
Brown and gold they fly
In the warm mesh of sunlight
Sifting now from a cloudless sky.

I'll be coming again like an old dog in pain
Blown through the eye of the hurricane
Down to the stones where old ghosts play.

Old lady with a barrow; life near ending
Standing by the harbour wall; warm wishes sending
Children on the cold sea swell ---
Not fishers of men ---
Gone to chase away the last herring:
Come empty home again.
So come all you lovers of the good life
On your supermarket run ---
Set a sail of your own devising
And be there when the dutchman comes.
Wee girl in a straw hat: from far east warring
Sad cargo of an old ship: young bodies whoring
Slow ocean hobo --- ports closed to her crew
No hope of immigration --- keep on passing through.
So come all you lovers of the good life
Your children playing in the sun ---
Set a sympathetic flag a-flying
And be there when the dutchman comes.
Death grinning like a scarecrow --- flying dutchman
Seagull pilots flown from nowhere --- try and touch one
As she slips in on the full tide
And the harbour-master yells
All hands vanished with the captain ---
No one left, the tale to tell.

So come all you lovers of the good life
Look around you, can you see?
Staring ghostly in the mirror ---
It's the dutchman you will be
..floating slowly out to sea
In a misty misery.