Sometimes we see what we haven’t and not what we’ve got,
Then we ask ourselves:
“ are we too much for each other?
...or not enough?”
THE MENAGERIE
In our conduct an’ our prowess with our true lover:
we will and will always be The ONE an’ The OTHER,
but this high priestess an’ her beast: they got in a spot of bother,
got in a fuckin’ mess, my brother.
Let me explain...
There was one in the bed and the White Rabbit D.J. said...
TAKEINYOURRABBITS!
When I first saw you I saw a questing, strong woman who knew who she was,
Who knew what she wanted, could see where she was going, both eyes wide open.
You saw an enquiring and dynamic thinker and creative.
When the spell wore off the masks came down, the beautiful beasts appeared as they truly were:
Rabbits, baby bunnies, scared & lost, wedded in adversity, lost in a maze of their own making.
The little white rabbit and the little green rabbit scampered away together to the love and warmth and shelter and kindness of home and its comforts,
Waiting for the day when, through uncareful attention and angelic intervention, the meek would wrest back control of their lives.
YM
There were two in the bed and the little one said:
TAKEINYOURDOG!
When I wed you I did not realise that your dog would share our bed and sleep on our heads,
If you were my other half that Steppenwolf was yours.
The Dog: Jewel of Canopus, the faithful one, both guard-dog and predator, Dulux-white and proud:
Whether rounding up lost sheep or dig-dig-digging for lost bones
You can always be relied on to give so much of yourself there’s nothing left for you.
There were three in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told her to let out her dog,
She went the whole hog and let our her dog!
A little voice told her to let out her djinn,
She let out her wolf and I let him in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURSHEEP!
When we exchanged our Grandmother’s rings I did not realise that your inheritance also included a farm.
Well, one night I got talking to The Sheep and things just went from there,
When you walked in we were in a somewhat compromising position.
I thought this only happened in porn films:
You asked if you could join in! And things just went from there.
There were four in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told her to let her sheep shag,
A sheep in wolf’s clothing, a devil in drag!
A little voice told her to let out her djinn,
So she let out her sheep and I let her in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURGOAT!
Someone ill-versed in country matters left the gate open again:
I awoke one morning to find a little goat grazing merrily on my pubic hair.
It paused and looked into my eyes as if to say “are you my mother?”
I silently concurred, “yes”.
There were five in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told her to let out her goat,
To fill up his bottomless belly with oats!
A little voice told her to let out her djinn,
She let out her goat and I let him in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURCOW!
Our giant pill-bag half consumed,
Seeing what we wanted and never what we had,
Our bed still seemed half empty.
Stopping traffic,
sacred, the idol ‘nature-who-provides’, worshipped before God, toppled by Moses: The Cow.
I worshipped The Cow from afar, then in our bed,
Revered her for her endless, unknowing giving, a river of cream, both burger and boots,
So quiet and proud, she sleeps when she’s tired, when hungry she eats,
She’s always lightly hungry for love, I ask myself:
“Did I feed her on cheap feed, keep her away from the fields?
Could I ever love her the ways she needs?”
I invited The Cow into our bed for the comfort of fresh milk and its sustenance.
There were six in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told me to let in The Cow,
I don’t know how we let in The Cow!
A little voice told her to let in my djinn,
So she let it out and I let it in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURPIG!
When we crowned you The Pig Princess we decided to have everything we thought we wanted
Only to discover what we really need.
When we crowned you The Pig Princess the Master Magician made pains to change you back into a little white rabbit,
Have I only made pain?
Can The Apprentice call himself a master only when the little white rabbit scampers away?
Or is there a deeper magick?
There were seven in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told her to let out her pig,
She went the whole hog and let our her dog!
A little voice told her to let out her djinn,
So she let out her pig and I let her in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURBIRDS!
Open the window, let in the air, let in the wind and breathe!
Let in the birds!
Free to fly where they will, to soar,
While the world moves round them,
One with the wind.
Teety and Woo, step out of the page and see:
You can read the book of your life, understand it and untangle it,
You can rewrite the book of your life – literally!
Manuscripts cannot be burned,
Books cannot be unwritten, -
But they can be reread, proof-read,
And learned from,
Used to inform the next edition,
The director’s cut,
Or the sequel.
The birds have returned!
They have found land,
Woo with a leaf from a mulberry tree in his beak, plucked at midnight on a full moon,Teety with a sprig from a yew tree.
Together we have found our different paths,
Together we will continue, but we will never be apart,
For we were each others’ architects, magicians and alchemists
Transforming base metal into gold.
There were ten in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told us to let in The Birds,
How absurd, to let in The Birds!
A little voice told her to let out our djinn,
So we let them out and we let them in.”
YM
TAKEINYOURCAT!
A gift from nature and from our friends: The Cats.
The Nation of Cats, thank you, thank you Asrael, thank you Gabriel.
The Family of Cats,
thank you Nim, Luna and Minx and the one that got away.
When you thrum it is like the piano tuner has come – at last!
Tuning our minds and our spirits to a more natural key,
You seem to breathe in the worst of me as if it was air to you,
And the CO2 you breathe out seems like air to me.
There were eleven in the bed and the little one said:
“A little voice told us to take in your cat,
Fancy that! To take in a cat!
A little voice told us to take in your djinn,
So you let him out and we let him in.”
YM
TAKEINYOUR
LIONESSANDDRAGON!
LIONESSANDDRAGON!
The Lioness and The Dragon returned home to find some doubtful guests, some strangers,
Some Goldilocks looking for a manger,
Had put on some kind of three day sex party in their absence and trashed the place.
There were eleven in the bed when the lioness and the dragon returned home.
The Lioness and the Dragon rolled their eyes, their noses quivered, their ears twitched and they opened their mouths
And they ate them all up, every last one!
Take in your rabbits, your sheep, your pigs,
Take in your goats, your dogs and your birds!
And they all went into the Ark, two by two.
There were twelve in the bed when The Lioness and The Dragon returned home,
And consumed their own contents with love
And put them in their proper place within.
The lioness and the dragon: each one become one.
There were two in the bed:
Kevin and Butterfly.
Oh, and their cat.
