I know you’re in pain and you’re probably drinking,
but my heart’s in a hole and you stop me sinking,
so I’m calling you up because I’ve been thinking again.
This shirt is the one I want:
the being I am going to haunt today,
in the rattle can chattering
monkey brain battering
rain of the epochs passing me
still not ready to cry
with the birds that are worrying me,
fly with the people hurrying me
just to make up the bed I’ve been laying in,
rehearsing the speeches, been saying them,
over and over re-playing them,
chewing the same old poem.
I know you’re in pain and you’re probably drinking,
but my heart’s in a hole and you stop me sinking,
so I’m calling you up because I’ve been thinking again.
Do the trees make any sense
stamping repeating patterns on the clouds?
Like Aztecs sitting on a fence:
all there ever is, is now.
When I tell the story we call When,
it happened once – and well? Again.
A moment on the surface
before the violet beyond
rivers of frightening
swans inviting me in for a swim.
Dive right through the surface bluster
the banter, the bong
to the boy beyond
the brief forever that’s all we ever have left.
I know you’re in pain and you’re probably drinking,
but my heart’s in a hole and you stop me sinking,
so I’m calling you up because I’ve been thinking again.
I make models, ships in bottles,
foam on the ocean, frozen motion a long way from home.
Thread the rigging, tiny eyes,
a tired disguise, misreading meaning in the skies,
sawllowing mermaid lies
on swollen roads’ commotion.
I know what it is to be different.
I know what it is to be wrong.
I know what it is to be right here and feel I belong.
And I guess the fight is forever,
and I even think I know why.
But if I tell you I’ve been in the battle:
I know you’re in pain and you’re probably drinking
but my heart’s in a hole and you stop me sinking
so I’m calling you up because I’ve been thinking again.
George Roberts
September 2023
Look here: https://outsideleft.com/main.php?updateID=2955
Listen here, https://soundcloud.com/thelastpoet/i-know-youre-in-pain
recorded with Powpig’s beautiful “Intellectual”, in the background. An accidental serendipity, I found, so I looped the song a bit messily to stretch. An experiment seeking forgiveness – I have asked, if not yet received permission – and am acknowledging the source of the acoustic background:
https://soundcloud.com/ooal/powpig-intellectual listen to Powpig. They’re great.
rWorld2 