You are allowed to enjoy this…

Houston ’77

I remember 1977
When I first touched down
In Houston, Texas
I thought I’d landed in heaven
Proud boy with his dad
Transatlantic trip
Smartly dressed as was the fashion
Six year old little man
About to indulge his passion

Everything seemed so big
TV in the morning
Piggies in the blanket
For breakfast
Getting lost
In the King Size bed
Red Apples in the barrel
In the Hotel foyer
Were the size of your head

I was so happy
Even the tumble
Didn’t break me down
The escalator fall
Because I was scared
Mum pushed me forward
And I tripped
Dragging her with me
Landing in the US awkward

Swimming in the pool
Blue skies water cool
And then the trip
Of which memories are made
To the Space Centre
Kennedy bound
My rocket man dream come true
And dad I owed it to you

Houston we have a problem
Daddy’s going away
To start anew
Never coming back again
Despite all that he has to say
A fresh start, new family
Hard time ahead for you
And no-one can dine on memories
Even if a dream comes true

Americana

Looking out my hotel window
The sun rises over the mountains
And I can see the freeway
Spread out before me in seemingly infinite splendour
The muscle cars and gas guzzlers move on with no respite
Carrying their cargo downtown to their daily work

America home of the brave
Though the braves and the redskins are long gone
Driven to extinction by the white colonial settlers
Fleeing religious persecution in the old country
Go on to persecute those who don’t follow their false idols
No lessons learned
Put your hand against the screen
And pay the electric preacher man

Puritanical and conservative
Hiding skeletons and themselves in closets
And in the valley a procession of flesh
Is exhausted in commercial carnality
But even their time will come to pass
With the Internet and the camera in your phone
Turning every John and Jane Doe
Into pornographers in their own home

America land of the free
Where everything has its price
Including liberty and the guns that slaughter
Kids in schools or families in malls
Are held up with pride by those misguided
In distrust of their own countrymen
Mistakenly citing ancient constitutional treatise
That mean nothing in the modern world
But give them meaning
And the ability
To murder their own.

Self-appointed sheriff
With stetson pulled low and boots
Ready to ride roughshod
Over any foreign territory
That is deemed to be a threat
Whether real or perceived
You arm the enemies of your enemies
And then recoil in horror when
The enemies of your enemies
Use their weapons against you.

America in god you trust
Though trust has long deserted
Replaced by paranoia and fear
And you attempt to control your borders
But forget that your nation
Was built by the immigrants
For the immigrants
A mongrel race
The statue of Liberty watch over you
And remembers the hopes and dreams
Of the shuffling masses moving through
Under the gaze of the mother of exiles
Through Ellis island and out into the Big Country

Looking out my hotel window
The sun sets behind the mountains
And I can see the freeway
Spread out before me in an array of twinkling tiny lights
As the motor vehicles snake out into the suburbs
To rest for another day.

So sleep America and arise renewed…

Eddie Pilgrim awoke from a dream with a start; a dream of heat and brightness and dust and places unknown, to find himself not lying in his comfortable bed next to his wife of fourteen years, in the house he shared with his children. Neither was it the usual Monday morning of waking to work and counting down the hours until he could be free to concentrate on the real passions of his life.

Instead, Eddie Pilgrim sat bolt upright and spat out a mouthful of dust and bleary-eyed tried to make sense of what happened to his wife, his kids, his house and his mundane Monday. For it had been replaced by the heat of the desert, the dirty dryness, the cacti and cicada and the middle of nowhere. Thousands of miles lay between him and his previous life.

Scrambling to right himself, he cupped his hands over his eyes and tried to figure out exactly where he was. Overhead circled vultures, hungry, waiting in anticipation of their next meal, their next fallen buffet of dead meat. The one thing that Eddie Pilgrim was sure of was that he was lost. Taking in the wide expanse of the environment, the wide blue empty skies and the various flora and fauna that surrounded him, he deduced that he was lost somewhere in America.

“It’s like I’m in a bleeding Western!” he exclaimed, exasperated by this strange change of events.

Noticing the spiraling attention of the turkey vultures above him, Eddie decided that it was not safe to stay in the same spot and that he should find away back to civilisation. Looking down, he noticed that he was wearing his favourite snake skin boots, the ones that his wife Margaret had imported all the way from America for his birthday.

In fact, Eddie noticed that he wasn’t wearing his blue and white striped flannel pyjamas, but he was fully dressed in his favourite clothes, the clothes he liked to wear on a Friday night when he sang karaoke at the local club.

“I’m not going to be your ready meal today, cathartes aura,” he said looking around for a recognisable geographical feature before deciding to head straight onwards, “I know what you are, Mr Turkey Vulture. I’ve seen enough westerns and wildlife programmes to know that you are just waiting for me to expire. Well not today, not Eddie Pilgrim!”

After a while, walking in the heat and dust began to take its toll and Eddie began to slow his pace. He was grateful that he had awoken with his favourite fur felt black stetson screwed upon his head as it was doing its job well keeping the sun from his eyes and the heat from his already confused brain.

“I can’t believe I’m lost in the Big Country!” he exclaimed, “How did this happen? Why am I here? I should be at home. Not here, not lost, not here…”

Eddie, without noticing, had left the dirt and dust of the desert and found himself walking parallel to a tarmac road, a highway that stretched into the distance for what seemed like an eternity. When Eddie Pilgrim had realised his good fortune and that he had discovered the first evidence of actual civilisation, he felt his heart fill with hope and love.

Instinctively, he stuck up his thumb and put out his hand and waited for something to happen.

Well it took a while, but here I am on a new webhost. Hopefully, everything works out OK.