Sunset Over Lupset (August 1968)

Lupset sunsets smelled of bonfires,

undercut with new mown grass,

wild mint by the kitchen window,

treasures in the strawberry patch.

Father sat with pint of shandy,

The mower cooling in the shade,

the rake stowed by the garden shed,

the kids with sparkling lemonade.

Sunset over Lupset

August nineteen sixty eight

Sunset ov...

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Inhaled, indelible  

40-a-day road-trips,  

in a 3-door lagoon-blue 

Mark II Hillman Imp. 

Backseat passive passengers 

tapped and shuffle packed.  

Oblivious to the slow burn, 

no open windows, not even a crack. 

Upfront, ritual smokes, 

their bond of small pleasure. 

Love over Embassy Gold 

compact and ash-covered. 

Dad’s heart said give up. 

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Cuttings

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,

The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,

On a cold and frosty morning morning.

They took a sprig from Hatfeild Hall

And planted it in Wakefield Gaol

A Mulberry bush grew on the spot

Its humble origins forgot

And there female prisoners exercised at night

Beneath the pale Yorkshire...

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In a Spinney dark and cool

three pallets made a hide,

the pain endured at home & school

could never reach inside.

A buckled form bent and broke

grey face toward damp earth,

betrayed a tongue that rarely spoke

bitten hard since birth.

Of love there was no knowing

just thoughts of what might be,

within a hatred growing

as if a raging sea.

Becal...

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we were close when i was little

you called me your sugar plum fairy

sat by my bed when my dreams were too scary

I didn't know then that our relationship was so brittle

you have mixed feelings about your own mother

maybe that's why you act the way you do

you rip me apart and then try to patch me up with glue

we both know you wouldn't ever do that to my brother

you ...

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