you ask me what I do
when the acid rain comes
to leave ulcers on my cheeks
roughens my skin like eczema,  
teases blood from pockmarked flesh

it's simple and pure, like snow
i feel my best stood at the window
tongue melting with ashen flakes
hailing the nuclear fallout

the orange sky is a cigarette from god
we drag on it like starving lions on antelope
there is spice, sunlight in the dust
it'll clot up the throat, but it's worth it for

the guilty pleasure of knowing
everything else is crumbling, more

I made it into Fern Land,
The deepest dark of the wood…
What's there that lies down here
They say we never should

Meddle or interfere with;
The nettle or the grub,
Not trees and not the ivy,
Not tick or grass or shrub.

"If people keep on meddling...!"
Shouted angry Puck,
And stamped his usually cheerful feet
And the mighty oak tree shook.

Puck continued, thunderous loud:
"You wait and see our luck;
Our homes will not long be exchanged
For flats, that them rich *****

"Like to keep all sparkling clean
And empty as a bubble...
For assets, don't you know, not homes!
This, my friends, is the trouble.

"Now, if money didn’t rule their world -
Our crazy human doubles -
They'd appreciate, like we do all,
That they don't need all this hubble.

"What a blindfold are these dollar bills!
That stop them seeing; all they need
To be happy, healthy and prosperous
Comes through strong communities.

"And not just ones of your own kind
Excluding other beings…
We've lived alongside each other
For tens of thousands of years!"


The crows and magpies, foxes, rats
The pigeons too, of course,
All shouted out in dear support
For their human friends and thought:

"Without those messy, greedy ones
Who buy more than they ought,
And throw the bits they cannot eat,
Our food stores would run short!"

"Whose news have you been listening to
My brainwashed forest folk?
You know **** well they tell you that
So that we here don't revolt!

"They treat you with disdain or pity,
Or want to keep you like a colt
Who lives but only half a life -
Unless they dare to bolt.

"Listen to each other now
And take in what you see...
Trust your fellow forest friends,
And you too can be free!

"It's something we must do together:
No man is an island, and nor is a tree.
All creatures here, we must have sign
That on this we agree:

That they must stop their tribal games
And fights for territory -
Terra is not theirs to own;
It belongs to every being.

They can't divide and conquer us
And if they try, they'll see -
The only option left to us;
Our wrath, on them, unleashed!"


Well I was in a sticky patch.
Oh, what was it to be?!
I did agree with Puck alright -
But what would become of me...

If I betrayed my human friends
For these ones to go free,
Would their blood then be on my hands?
What would become of me?

There was only one option left -
An obvious one really....
What if I could unite my people
Like these people in the trees?

What if they all thought,
And could picture perfectly,
That it was really possible
To have love and joy and peace?

And to have all that above without
The thing that we call money...
That there's more power in something else:
It's called community.

Let's stop those corporations,
With too much cheese already,
And distribute their gains
Amongst the poor and needy.

Let's think about our values
And not our property,
Let's take charge and make our own rules
Not live by others' shoddy,

Grim idea of what life's worth
Without having lived at all -
Or only a very privileged life,
So big that others seem small

As small they treat us, don't you see?
They WANT us all to fall,
So that they can pick us up again
And make four feet feel tall

Let's band together, all of us
United, organised,
To march on them and let them know
We're no longer satisfied.

Nor will it ever be enough
To eat the crumbs of their pie;
Not even a big fat slice
If it's not a fair divide

The energy of Puck
Ignited my insides;
For my efforts, courage
And certainty inspired:

The truth I must go out and spread
And nevermore shall I hide
Behind my privilege,
That sees the facts denied,

That forgets about so many,
Not noticing the lies;
Those convenient untruths
That turn our blind eyes.

And if the truth is difficult
And my humans, they deny,
And say they rather like
Eating the crumbs of that big pie…

That crumbs are the best part!
And if we beg we might get more.
Why cause trouble, rock the boat -
What you're saying is war!

War is not an option,
And that we'll see first-hand:
The wave that takes us there will melt
Their castles made of sand.

I'll say not war, but peace
Is what we will demand.
And if you doubt our human strength
Then with the forest we'll band:

I ventured into fern land…
And at that I'll hear them gasp!
The lure of the forest
Is something some can't grasp.

But if they went, they'd understand,
When the woods take off their mask;
The leaves, they whisper in the wind
And the magic, it would last.

I'll tell them how the forest
Is angry and upset
That those who go to visit there
Rarely show respect.

They worry for our humankind
That we're too easily led,
And silenced into endorsement
Of all sorts of crazy ****.

Their homes are due to be destroyed -
Imagine if that was you?
And not to house the needy, no!
But to keep governments blue,

So their rich friends can own yet
Another piece of cheese.
They don’t care about us, no!
They'd rather see us freeze.

We suffer here with no safe homes
while they live a life of ease,
And the forest creatures, just like us,
Will have to scavenge on the streets.

Their trouble is the same as ours -
We all want the same things!
So why not join with them
And see what change it brings?

Let's trust each other, take a chance...
It has to be better than this!
And if not for you, then think of another
Who's suffering you missed

One who suffered prejudice,
Whose hand at the deal was worse;
Let's join all as family
And together lift this curse

We can write a new story
Where life and soul come first;
The soul is always equal,
No matter how big your purse.

Let's put our heads together
And try some different things
We'll get it wrong, sure! Once or twice,
But our aim is to have wings…

Let's keep that always in our sights -
Freedom to dance and sing,
And be ourselves in harmony -
Back to life us we will bring!

Mothers
Beings we inherited without will
A law of nature that cannot be broken
We didn't choose
It's inherited

Lucky
The ones who are proud of them
Without ever desiring an anarchy

I imagine a world without laws
And it draws me
A world where I had the freedom  
And you weren't the one

You carried me for months
Now I carry you
For years
Or for life

A weight that crushes every day
Because it's impossible to forget
If I went back, everything would be different
A please forgive me you wouldn't listen
But swallow instead of telling you to let me go

It revolts me
Knowing that you're not coming back
And that you're out there
I feel like you're still mine

Mom is too strong
But I can’t also call you by your name
Lets keep it like this
Undefined

You can’t make me be who I’m not
I will rebel from your demands
I can’t go along with your manipulation
I’ll chew it up and spit it back in your face
Please don’t force me
You’re setting me up to fail… again

The man to my right was more than eight feet away. I was going to have to move closer to him to catch my limit of four trout. I halved the distance between the two of us and noted the sideways glance he shot me. I apologized immediately and asked if I was crowding him.
     “No, you fine,” he replied within a thick Serbian accent.
     “You’re with them?” I asked, pointing to the crowd of people on the bridge some 30 feet upstream from us. I had heard the crowd of eastern Europeans talking earlier, and their accents were unmistakable to me. He nodded and we continued fishing.
     With my new angle I was better able to pick my fish in the water, so that’s what I did. I spied one and tossed my jig toward him. It took five casts but eventually, he took the bait. As I netted it in the swift, ice-cold spring water the man beside me congratulated me on the catch. I thanked him and added it to my stringer. This made three, and I only needed one more.
     “What’s your name?” I asked him.
     “Ivan”.
     “Have you been in the states long?” I asked, after the pause following his short reply seemed to invite more questions.
     “Since ‘96, my family live here. It is good.”
     “You like living here?” I wondered aloud.
     “Yes, the fishing is good. It is like back home in Serbia, or in Germany. We have this fishing there.”
     “You mean trout?”
     “Yes, trout...and some other fish like these, in water like this, but I can’t go home now.” He looked away momentarily. His lips pursed, and his brow furrowed. I pulled my line in, wanting to ask him more and not wanting to be distracted.
     “Were you in the war?”
     “Yes, I was in the Serbian police force.” My heart pounded. “When I was in the Serbian police force, we did what you see on the news. We went into villages and we killed them. We killed them all.”
     I cast my line back into the water, spying another trout. Ivan shrugged and cast his own line. I couldn’t tell what he was using but it looked like cheese of some kind. “I was drafted in Serb police when I was 15. I had no choice. If I refuse, they **** me. I did what I had to do.” I nodded, and ****** my line, missing a fish. “Before the war, I fished. After the war, there were not so many people, so fishing was very good.”
     The air around me was alive. The trees were greener, the water was colder and clearer, the sun was brighter, and the sky was bluer.
     “I’ve been fishing for a long time as well,” I responded. My father used to bring me here as a child. He nodded and continued.
     “After the war, all the fish come back, no one fished during the war, so there were many of them. You just had to be careful of the mines.” He grunted and gazed skyward.
     “The mines?”
     “Yes, during the war they mined the water.”
     I watched trout number four take my jig and I carefully reeled him in. Ivan congratulated me a second time, and I thanked him in return.
“You’re a good fisherman,” he said turning back to his own pursuit of the four-trout limit, as I left the water to clean my catch.

He lay there in a *****, unkept ball,
Having surrendered to the pavement.
Wisps of stringy brown hair
Covered the lines on his sunken in face,
His yellow smoked eyes, rheumy and blurred,
His vision hazy, like a punch-drunk boxer.

Kathleen Harmon sashayed by
With nary a glace downward.
Once they were equals,
When they sat together
During high school Chemistry.

Time slowed from a Tango to a Waltz,
As a drop of saliva
Kissed the pavement.
Stringing there from his cracked, parted lips.

His tangled brown whiskers,
Patchy on his cheeks,
Had lengthened with the passing days
Since their last meeting with a razor.

Nikes, Prada, and Gucci
Ignore him in passing
All sports, fashion, and business meetings;
On the clock, and self-absorbed.

Dusk marked the sky
With a violet crayon
Worn to a nub,
Then worn to nothing.

A sudden thud startled him awake!
Then blackened hardwood stunned him as it bit into his ribs!
A caustic voice berated his slumber,
A navy blue reminder that even surrender was no escape.