Might

We hold the silver in our teeth
We are lost in the middle
Nothing mighty comes our way
We boil the light and wait
Rumours twist around our ankles
Tight like vines
There is no one left to tell
We tug at the seams of our dress
It is ragged and old
We should ditch the nothingness
But it has us in our grasp
We hold the silver in our teeth
We are lost in the middle
Nothing mighty comes our way.

Stars

The stars release their light
Pin and split in the gutter
We wonder at the line
A sweet release
A light approach
We walk under the moon
Find a wonder
Spare a thought
We look up
The stars release their light.

Noise

We climb the stairs to hear the noise
It's a low din
A constant buzz
Hatter strides down the middle of the street
We say hello and walk on
The noise will not stop
It is like a static coat
Heavy and permanent
At the bottom of the stairs is rest
A gift of light and lightness
We grab it with both hands
Hold our head against the noise.

Mirror

We catch a casting glance in the mirror
Our hair a matted top
The music plays and we dance
The world spins and turns
The cans shout and play
We are out
We are out
We catch a casting glance in the mirror.

Vanity

We scan the aisles looking for powder
The looking glass isn't there any more
Hatter dances and the queen is dead
We look in the mirror
Just a casting glance
All is well
All is well.

Bittersweet

The words won't come
We try to summon them but all that comes is paper cuts and wine
The tissue underneath the pillow is greying
The cans are running low
We dream of snakes and bears
It's a bittersweet symphony that's life
We heard that in a song
The words won't come
We try to summon them but all that comes is paper cuts and wine.

Puzzle

We sleep on a bed of cans
A puzzle still and simple
Our bones ache
Already Spring brings it's gloomy promise
We act the fool
An easy softening
Stolen wishes
A trim stand
Twisting and aching in the night
The prize is sleep
A ring and smell of glue
We sleep on a bed of cans
A puzzle still and simple.

Rose

The cans blow up the night
All is quiet
All is still
A rose by any other name
We breathe a quiet dust
All is quiet
All is still
They come to take away the noise
I scream inside
The cans blow up the night
All is quiet
All is still.

Chop

The air worms its way through the moon
A kiss we relish and chop
We take an iron sword and swing
The neighbours sting
We need to buy food
The cans shimmy and shine
A full moon we relish and chop
We sing our song
The iron clangs
Blows a kind of order
Our skin stings a crime
Two full moons merging and kissing
The air worms its way through the moon
A kiss we relish and chop.

Jangle

The cans jangle in the night
A twisted kind of shrapnel
We should throw them to the dogs but the pull is so strong
We wish for silence
In our soul and in our mind
We drink tea to try and qwell the thirst
Nothing does
Hatter sings and chatters
They take the rubbish away
All is gone
All is fine
The cans jangle in the night
A twisted kind of shrapnel.

Belief

We sleep beneath hoping and powder

A lesson of disbelief 

A test 

Our body waits in fury

Dirty and clear 

Each inhalation a mission 

It seems so clear in the palm of our hand

But it's a lie

Of that we know 

Instead of war we will eat cake and blow up balloons 

The Cheshire Cat taunts us but we shut the door

Keep away the bad men 

Write our own story 

We sleep beneath hoping and powder. 

Silence

Alice shakes the keys
They jangle like bones in the night
All around us is silence
But it is so loud
We cover our ears and tuck under the sheets
A wise soul gave us colour 
But we stick to black and white
We will make our mark
Count out our time 
Click the seconds 
Turn them into minutes and hours
Alice shakes the keys
They jangle like bones in the night.

Blossom

Alice strokes her hair
She is a child blossom
We whisper in the night
Guarded and declining
We take a trip to the bookcase
Twice closet
We drop a smile and bellow
It is hard to deny the slide down
We rent time and stoop to endure it
Alice strokes my hair
She is a child blossom

Moon

The new moon ambles across the page
We are all cans and powder
Hatter takes tea with the Red Queen
He laughs
All the world laughs
Upstairs the floor boards creak
The world a stage we dare not play on
The new moon ambles across the page
We are all cans and powder.

Refuge

We seek refuge in the old moon
Breathing up a storm
Hoping for light
The days are endless
The nights are long
We wish for peace but it is gone
Every breath is like the ocean
Ebbing forward and back
We wish for apple blossom tides
And cinnamon cups
Anything to take away the dark and show us the light
We seek refuge in the old moon.

Perch

You are a funny little owl cries Alice
We are perched in the midnight tree
The birds will sing when the sun comes out to play
We never know which route to take
We could flee but we will always be found
Whatever caused rose to blossom
It was in the night and the moon fell
I am a funny little owl
We will caw and hold tight to each other
Perched upon our midnight tree.

Autumn

Autumn licks at the corner of our existence 
We are all at once ready and able 
Time ticks on 
Hatter sings and Joker dances 
The peppermint clouds and cinnamon dust waft through the window
Another day
Another day 
Crisp leaves and gentle breezes 
We gather them up like treasures 
Keep them in our pocket
Wait for another year
Another year
I am sure that the breeze will come and wash away the darkness
Autumn comes
Winter stays 
Summer lingers in the background 
We will wait and gather stones 
Open the window and let the light prevail.

Fringe

Alice combs her hair
She sweeps the fringe over tired eyes 
We are swirling up a storm
Mixing up dust in the cauldron of hate
The power struggle sighs through the bones of the flat
We miss yesterday
We miss clear
All the world is a mystery
A book we were meant to read
A star we were meant to catch
To live is to endure
We brood over that thought day and night
Alice combs her hair
She sweeps the fringe over tired eyes. 

Sing

The spiders crawl underneath our skin
Two birds and a feather we sing
Autumn falls like leaves
The bed creaks and groans under the weight of the cans
Hatter takes tea with the Red Queen
They laugh and smile
I stay still
Listen to the empty rattle of The Joker
Peppermint clouds and cinnamon dust
We are ready to fly away
The spiders crawl underneath our skin
Two birds and a feather we sing

Secret

Alice twirls the pencil in her hand 
We have a secret garden
A place where we can shine and chime
All the world is tilted
We begin to see carnivals
Lights and rattling silver clouds
I am gasping for air
We cannot see the comfort of night 
The voices pound our thoughts
Like a drum
A parrot on our shoulder
We pick up sticks and sing
Hatter argues in the corner
We have a secret garden
A place where we can shine and chime.

Powder

We pull at the stiches on our neck
Our bed a mess of dreams and wishes
The windows are shut
The doors are gaping
We try to rise above the din
Hatter waves a silent cry
We are all doomed
Never enough cans to drown out the chaos
Never enough cans to
We cannot say the final words
The Red Queen dances her face a powder cake of trials
We wish for more and hope for less
We pull at the stiches on our neck
Our bed a mess of dreams and wishes
We try to rise above the din.

Quake

We cling on to yesterdays dreams
Our mind aflame with tangled salt tears
We undress under moonlight
Our clothes damp
Our skin aflame
We search for prose
Bitter lemons
Sweet candy
A brace of crossroads where our pen quakes and murmurs
We are locked at the bottom
Chasing sleep
Chained to day
Our hair falls out in clumps
Tangled streams
We hit the bottom of the well
All the world a can and a breeze
We cling on to yesterdays dreams
Our mind aflame with tangled salt tears.

Peace

We trip and skip over peach melba skies
The air is cold
A blanket of peace surrounds us
She lifts 10,000 balloons
Floats up into oblivion
All is still in the air
Hatter takes tea elsewhere
I inhale a thousand cans
Hope for something more than this
The air is cold
We huddle under blankets
Open the windows and dream
We trip and skip over peach melba skies
The air is cold
A blanket of peace surrounds us.

Tap

We bang our head electric dreams
Tap the wood
Forget the words
Thump long looks
Draw flat jackets over spindle chairs
We bang our head electric dreams
Forget the plague that sprayed our writing
I wait to see you
Imagine how it might be
Suck in
Draw out
Splash water in the tub
Take this body elsewhere
Tap the wood
Forget the words
There is nowhere left to swing
Look think tell
A spry idea
We tell enormous lies
Bang our head electric dreams.

Reunion

The cans rattle in our bed 
A sad reunion of what was lost
We inhale deep breaths of nothing
Hoping to be found
Trying to be lost
Hatter screams a chaos
Takes tea with another girl
Not me
They hold hands
I cry
Try to summon up a thousand words
When all inside is empty
The cans rattle in our bed
A sad reunion of what was lost.

Shelter

The rain kicks the paper on the desk
We are taking shelter
Pushing the spume of yesterdays stitches to shore
Alice shakes in the cold light of day
Map in hand
We are nothing but vagrants she chatters
It is hard to stay awake
Everything spins and surges
We tread an unsteady path
Clothes dripping
Head spinning
A yarn unspooling
A dream sleep over
There is nothing much to laugh at any more
The ground a sticky feast
Beach waves and asphalt
The power to funnel our way out is long since gone
We sweep the grey mist into our pocket
Sing a song of sixpence
Waiting
Always waiting for the way
The rain kicks the paper on the desk
We are taking shelter.

Memory

We look out the window
The skies hang low like laudanum clouds
They stuck needles in us
Blue and red
We ran away like we always do
Now we are stitched together like rag dolls
Looking to catch Hatter's eye
Desperate to chase that gaseous sleep once more
Time is a beast she whispers
So much is lost in misremembering
I inhale another can
And another
Nothing takes away the pain
We look out the window
The skies hang low like laudanum clouds.

Dazzle

We press our palms into the blue bow
Ravaged like butterflies
Dazzled like songbirds
The spokes of rain trickle through the window
It casts a spell
Plants us in the choppy vibes of now
I don't like this bloody place she moans
We place tomato seeds in a little bowl
Hope the sun will catch them
Farm a little hope
She wipes her nose
In this moment we are lost
Munching mist like foxes on the chase
Time flows in and out
Swallows and dives
We press our palms into the blue bow
Ravaged like butterflies
Dazzled like songbirds.

Respect

There is a quiet harmony in our breathing
A gentle respect for time and space
Alice tidies up the can lids
So many purple ties we can't keep track any more
She laughs
I snuggle under the covers
There is a brilliant shine to the day
A far off wonder
I hope we can dream of moonbeams and liquorice she smiles
I just hope for rest
A small break from light and sound
There is a quiet harmony in our breathing
A gentle respect for time and space.

List

We hammer a list into the wall
All dreams retreating on the road away from here
There is a gust of wind
An epic dump
Thoughts we protect
Keen as cats eyes in the night
Our hair a mess of tangles and dreams
We are waving
And most definitely drowning
Count our pennies one by one
Inner lines stuck to our body like clothes
A one-eyed river frames our room
We drift in and out of consciousness waiting for some relief
A kind hand
A tender touch
All dreams retreating on a road away from here
We hammer a list into the wall
Waiting saber tooth in hand for the mud to dry and fall away
The birch tree sways
Deep breaths and hollow dreams
We are alive
The sound of nails in empty walls echoes all around.

Nature

We eat popcorn under watermelon skies
Running between noon and night we are never quite full
Outside the distant chatter of children keeps us awake
We long for someone to knock on our door
Carry us away
Nature tries
Green trails crawling up our limbs and into our heart
The world is all around us
We feel every second but deaden the pain
The vanilla slithers down our gullet
Melts into a sugar mass we can never digest
We eat popcorn under watermelon skies
Running between noon and night we are never quite full.

Bang

Alice bangs her head

The words simply will not come

We lie still like statues 

A torch the only light 

Wrapped in blankets against the gulping sky

Our afternoons are spent cultivating habits

Habits we should have long since left behind

It’s all so very dull she moans

The march

The melting candy

Sticky on our fingers 

Turning circles across sad orange skies

I pull the hood over my greasy hair

Too tired to wash the knots out

We will wait

Maybe there will be a surprise or two

She chirrups like a little bird on my shoulder

The light melts like a blade through butter

Should we turn left or right or simply lay still

I think we should wait she gurgles

Water dribbles from her lips

It’s an accomplishment just to be

She says this decisively

I bang my head

The words simply will not come.  

Flood

Alice cries in the middle of the night
The salty tears stick to our pillow

The heating clicks on

We are cold even though the summer heat swaddles our limbs
It has been long days since we left the small room
We inhale the powder like magic starts
Nothing can stop us
The rain falls down on the cracked earth
We can taste it on our lips
We ache for relief

Something to stop the pain

It never comes
Perhaps we can sail in our umbrella
Just like we did before
Or take a ship to the moon
I love her fanciful thoughts

They keep me afloat

Like a life raft in the night.

Enough

She pushes her brown hair back
Like a penny dropping
We are enough for ourselves
Time loops back and forth
Between young and old shadows
My teeth are crooked but wise
Hers are milk teeth waiting to play
I smoke stones in the bare light
There is no answer
No agent to call upon
Time is like a band around our waist
Tugging and tight
We try to reach the stars but fail

I keep a few in my bag

Just in case

We reflect in the cool blue light

Laid bare

Empty alone

She pushes her brown hair back

Like a penny dropping
We are enough for ourselves.

Mend

Alice plays with the hem of her skirt
It is far past the need to be mended
We are at home now
Nestled in the red bed
Not sleeping
Creeping to the kettle
Murmuring in the sink
The chains snapped
We almost miss their presence
Like a faithful hound they kept us reined
Now we have freedom and a list of wants and need
All too much when said and done
We woud like to play with moon and sun but are stuck stuck stucky in powder and glue
Alice plays with the hem of her skirt
It is far past the need to be mended.

Rattle

The chains rattle around our throat
We try and punch the labels off
Her voice is on the radio
Do you remember how her eyes rolled as she passed us by
I remember everything little cricket
The water pipe
The padded room
Cold wet hungry
It's as if our head simmered over and burst to the surface
All mixed up like dolly's sweets
Rejection hurts
Belonging is a thought we care not to think of
Blue is my favouirte colour she says

They make you wear red

Like the Queen
More like a clown I chuckle
It doesn't matter any more
Who we are
How we are is tucked in an envelope and waiting
Letters we have owned
Thoughts we would have treasured
Perhaps things will be different this time
You know it won't
In a nutshell we are screwed
She says this with a hint of satisfaction 
Harder to fight our way out
Pointless to even try
Despite our wishes and the desire to win
We are going nowhere soon
The chains rattle around our throat
We try and punch the labels off.

Trafficked

They hustle our body into the bag
It aches in here and our clothes stick to the sweat on our back
It's all so much effort with little reward
No sugar or spice
Still time for powder
We sneak it in
Up and down the hill we travel
Exhausted dirty foul
They may own our body but they cannot dispossess our soul
It waits quietly in the six by six room
We will bide our time with the dignity they removed
Wrap it around our shoulders like a cool blanket on a summers afternoon
Are we still human
Alice croaks
Yes, little cricket
I do believe we are.

Surrender

Alice wipes the hair from her face

The best surprises are yet to come

We miss the joy of thought

The skip and trip of being

When we were left alone to laugh like girls

Side stepping the thorny issue of womanhood

Surrendering to the floor

Laughing and rolling

Sailing in the archaic scent of silver and shine

We miss the sweet deceit of powder

It was the best thing we could do

The only thing

The sweetest thing

Bending spoons in the heat of the afternoon

Following our only path

Being someone and all

We miss the joy of thought

No two alike

You know it's just a different prison

The laughing man said

Scanning our eyes for weakness

Painted nails and dirty shirts

Hmm, can you trust him

Alice fondles the hem of her dress

The stitches are coming loose in slivers

Silly

No one can be trusted in this house of fools.

Sanctuary

She wraps her fingers around my ears

It is too loud here

We have been dragged from our sanctuary once again

Time tick tocks

Watch stopped on the time we were arrested

It's all so very wrong

Alice slouches on the single wooden bed

We will spend endless hours here looking at the walls

We try not to cry

To show weakness is a window to our soul

And that is empty and ruined

We have been dragged from our sanctuary once again

The doors locked

The chains rattle

We crave silence and the soft red bed

She wraps her fingers around my ears

It is too loud here

There's no place like home

To survive here we must forget it exists.

Relapse

We lie together drawing circles in the air

Embracing the rapture of another relapse

We shake not in bliss

Self loathing

Mean thoughts rolling waves

A sea of wishes and hate

The triggers light the ceiling

The broccoli boils over

We are hungry and tired

Still, we carry on

Picking the strings of hope

Trying to cast away the desire to remain still

We should delight in being

Instead each day is a war

We wish we had not been born

She presses her tiny fingers to my lips

Gives me water when there is drought

We lie together drawing circles in the air

Embracing the rapture of another relapse.

Mask

We sit in the room

Always waiting for something or someone to come

You know they won't

Alice giggles

I dust the powder from my sleeves and wait

My hair a mess of swirls and twirls

Dancing and laughing

All the world a stage

We are but players

I sit in the room

Always waiting for something or someone to come

The cars chug and splutter a new song

I sit and wait

Always waiting for something or someone to come.

Bath

We stir the water in the bath tub

Blackbirds slipping off cold grey skin

Behind the storm mask lies a truth

Dirty and hanging 

What we need and what we want collide like galaxies in the night

Should we stir

Paint leafless trees on our horizon

We dig our skin

Scratch at old wounds

Try to see the words

Turn nothing into some poetic dance

As we flee 

A brutal storm mask 

Blackbirds slipping off cold grey skin

The dirt collects under our fingers

Pens and paper ready to explode

Not much more to see

A blank face

An empty page

We dig our skin

Scratch at old wounds

Try to see the words

They say all hangs in the balance

But we are empty as a drum

Sat in a cold tub facing a truth we can no longer bear to hold.

Movement

We walk in circles in the night

Strung out high on jelly bean skies 

Powder dribbles down our chin

No way out

Or in

We sit and listen 

Endless stories

Far removed from us 

The quiet us

Two hands waiting to scribble and scrawl ourselves into being 

Movement for us is constant

Never a time to be quiet and still 

Boredom 

Endless years 

But at least we are together 

We walk in circles in the night

Strung out high on jelly bean skies.

Drunk

We hold hands in a festival of foolish caravans

The walls are splattered and chilled

Stars coat our eyes

If only we could wear our poems

Fruit like wine

Drunk cool on a summer night

We pick out a favorite tune

Dance silently against the sheets

Pick a rhythm

Make a plume

False prophets on a quiet afternoon

We are only together by chance

Craving bitter fruits

Lining the floor with wet paper

Nothing takes the smell away

We are stuck in this chill

The walls splattered

Holding hands in a festival of foolish caravans

We should have listened before the sky fell down

Now we pick a path that aches and swirls

Never ending afternoon

Cash shot down like sheets in the wind

If only we could wear our poems

Fruit like wine

Drunk cool on a summer night.

Independence

We dust the salt from our lips

Another day fades and falls in the shadow of being

There is never enough powder to dull the aches and pains

We walk in circles

Feet adrift on distant shores

Clinging to independence like a raft in the night

Alice spies the light house

I sink

Unable to swim any more

We dust the salt from our lips

Another day fades and falls in the shadow of being

And this is freedom Alice says

I turn on my side

Hear the clunk of cans empty and desolate

If there is land ahead it truly is a dream.

Benediction

Our hips touch in the night

Seldom a wisp

A melody of thought

Benediction and prayer

A wave of tribes

Lips stuck stuck sticky on stones

There are chores to be done

Boxes to be packed

Rooms to be made

Are we willing to change or remain like clerks

Chalking up the damage like spit

Expectations dropping like pips

Strangers walking through a forest of fear

We swallow clumps of hair

No place left to wonder

A smock of cotton covering us in the cold

It's hard to remember what we own

Scrabbling through the rubble

Quaking silently and violently

Our hips touch in the night

Seldom a wisp

A melody of thought

Benediction and prayer.

War

There is a war 

It waves goodbye

We are lying on the bed

All the world a haphazard sign

We could be up or down

It barely matters any more

We memorize lines

Like bullets

Like his belt

Unspent 

Loaded

Ready to explode

If only we could take a picture 

She giggles

I remember everything

There is a war

It waves goodbye

I wish for morning time

And peace. 

Why

We spin tattered dreams around a single moon

Lost in the middle of the night 

Dust drunk and rooted 

The sheer weight of our being 

Waiting and lost

In the nursery Alice cries a single tear

I mop it up gently 

Snatch a hand

Blink and we are gone again 

Spinning tattered dreams around a single moon 

It hardly seems right to question why when we are so lost

Dust drunk and rooted

Weeks tick by into years

Silent tears on broken lashes 

Curves and bones bent over and crooked

The sheer weight of our being 

Waiting and lost.

Veiled

She spins plates in the golden sea

A veiled threat and unruly promise 

Dipping our toes in day and night

Dodging treatment and cure

Knowing there is no promised land

Far off the petals fall

Ushering in a new dream

Metal bending spirits

Mercury calling and crawling

Words we cannot find

Bending our body on a trail 

Each pore aching for reprise 

A veiled threat and unruly promise 

She spins plates in the golden sea

I dream letters 

Dead ends and dusty corridors

Swimming in the night. 

Circle

We are running around in circles again

Legs smiling in the summer sun

The world gnawing at our finger tips

A falling thread of echoes

Filling up our empty soul

Everything fell apart

Broke in the night

Like a wheel on a bicycle spinning dreams away 

Two little girls

Too old to be young

Bending spoons

Looking for father

Jumbled up words

Finger prints and wedding rings

All too much 

Perhaps it is time to stop

To know when and where the world belongs

She whistles a hymn

I douse water on our temples

Send a thank you to our angel

Fall to our knees

Touch our face

We are hot and frayed

Lost our way

Running around in circles again.

Shelf

The voices ring in my ear

The ordinary madness he wrote

Sits on the shelf

Unread for many years now

I cautiously glance in the mirror 

Face pale and pasty

Limbs obscured by knots and maps

Time gone by

She rolls over

The scent of her hair brushes my face

We are one but separate

Revelling in untold dreams

Casting shadows over sleepless nights

Time tick-tocks on Hatter’s pocket watch

We saw him

Chasing powder

Downing Rabbit

Hunting the comfort of night

His belt a ring of unspent bullets

His hat a little askew

Really quite extraordinary she giggles and burps

I count the losses on my fingertips

The voices ring in my ear

The ordinary madness he wrote

Sits on the shelf

Unread for many years now.