Rg Gregory

when the dog began to sing
the people ran amok
a man shinned up a flagpole
...

the children played games
getting from here
to where the truth was
...

i want to hold the horse's string
cried the girl (three) stamping her foot
told by adults she was much too young
...

do you think an old heart can't sing
do you think an old heart can't dance
with a love that belongs to spring -
...

we say blame the teachers
don't we send our young to school
to be taught the simple rules
...

(from a painting by hugo simberg)

those who bear the wounded angel
are they honoured or destroyed
far beyond their comprehension
...

yesterday the man was pleased
the sun sat in the tree and all
upon the land held to the harmony
...

snow is a thousand flowers
the chinese probably said
hundreds and thousands this morning
...

schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
had a song
wound up inside her

she'd had it taped
on a silken spool
this was the song
she sang as a rule

o little fly
come be my friend
i have fly's gold
for you to spend

i'll wrap you in silks
to make you pretty
if you refuse
then more's the pity

the silk-voice warbled
through the wood
the best bird-song
didn't seem so good

but no flies came
they were too fly
looking through the song
to the web's black eye

o schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who had a song
wound up inside her

passed through hunger
to the edge of death
the wood stopped growing
and held its breath

one day the silken
web was still
and curious flies
came to find how ill

the spider was â€" but
becoming too daring
many got stuck
in the silken snaring

but schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who had a song
wound up inside her

presented thus
with a feast of flies
cried weakly in anger
i despise i despise

such dull victims
that have no ear
for the silken song
i keep in here

but when in silence
this web is wrapped
stupid and nosey
they all get trapped

and the web grew slack
in the dying wood
the poor flies wriggled
but it did no good

and schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who had a song
wrapped up inside her

spun into herself
to disappear
he was lost to the world
for many a year

but whether she meant it
or it was a fearful tangle
she came out one night
in the african jungle

she was in a tree
quite close to the sun
in the topmost branch
her web was spun

its silken strands
in the sun's gold rays
dazzled her neighbours
into fulsome praise

and soon the jungle
was wrapt in a sound
(as the bouncing spider's
song unwound)

whose piercing beauty
brought dew to the eyes
of every creature
but the jungle flies

no one could tell
what the song might mean
the song and the web
made so rare a screen

and schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who had a song
wound up inside her

wove her sad magic
both day and night
the moon and the sun
never shone so bright

and after the rains
had moistened the jungle
it wore the spider
like a jewelled bangle

the jungle flies though
soon went mad
unable to hear
a song so sad

they buzzed and bashed
uncontrollably
every tree bore signs
of their mortality

it couldn't be guessed
on what the spider fed
no victim was lured
into the sparkling web

yet schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who had a song
wound up inside her

never stopped singing
and the jungle grows
to this very day
in the song's sad throes

but don't go looking
for the bouncing spider
who has a song
wound up inside her

what you can't see
you can always dream
what's song to one
is another's scream

and each one is born
with a touch of fly
that can't tell beauty
from a spit in the eye

and schnyder schnyder
the bouncing spider
who has a song
wound up inside her

with intolerable sheen
puts the price too high
love me or fear me
be enchanted or die
...

i'm going to give up loving you
i'm going to hate you instead
living's so difficult difficult baby
...

when the old man said
i know everything
the young girl replied
...

(to where the ashes of both
my parents are strewn)
...

you have gone away from yourself
you walk in a dead way
...

I like the silence of reading
flat on my stomach on the woollen floor
my legs waving upwards like the fronds of ferns
...

just as the dusk comes hooting
down through the shivering black leaves
of the swinging trees we (the brave ones
...

The red man says hello
the green tree says i'm here
all grown-ups are sleeping
...

when the new year
came out of nowhere
and peeped into rooms
it was so flattered to find
...

prudence my love
each time you invite me to tea
i wonder do i have the appetite
for what i
hope you are requiring of me
...

when you step out of the wood and go first time to school
you have to be so specially careful if you're really a dragon
to put the most innocent expression on your face you can find
and not flip your flappers (unless the others don't mind)
...

be moved by your own time
but move it too
the sun hasn't all the answers
it can be made to listen to you

however adamant the pavement
it's a book of feet
though they need it to take them through town
people control the street

from the irreproachable mountain
wisdom drips down
spray it with your own salt
manacled clown
...