Little One

 You said I could be anything

As long as the words you wrote were the words I'd sing.

You said I could be anyone

If I'd do exactly what you'd want.

They said "You could be a star

If you lose ten pounds and change who you are".

They said "You could have this part. 

Come sit on this couch, you know where to start".

Oh my little one, you're prettier

In ribbons, dresses, ruby slippers,

Glossy pout and frilly knickers.

Oh my little one, your innocence 

Now bought and sold, preserved pretence

With pain and pills you're recompensed.

You said I shouldn't use my mind;

Smart women aren't hired and the world is unkind.

You said that I shouldn't frown;

Because wrinkles are ugly, ageing's not allowed.

They said someone should shut me down.

So they gave me more pep pills, trapped inside their playground.

They said I was a doped up mess;

NDA silenced, I could not confess.

Not so little one, the time has come

To climb the beanstalk, get the gold,

Write off all of the lies they've sold.

Not so little one, no one's gonna come to rescue you 

No woodsman, fairy, crystal shoe.

No no no no no no no no.

You said you'd cut another deal,

But your Faustian pact just does not appeal.

You said I'd never work again,

That I'd stumble through life and end up round the bend.

They said I would change my mind,

Come crawling back, leave my freedom behind.

They said they would write me off,

Slander my name, tell the world I'm insane.

La, la la la la la la la.

You're the little one, you come to me

On bended knee with palms outstretched 

As if I'd forgive, as if I'd forget.

You're the little one.

You cast me as your princess,

 I became the femme fatale.

I say you shouldn't follow me,

For I am the giant, this beanstalk belongs to me.

I say you couldn't take control 

Of my future. I've paid with the years that you stole. 

I say mutual exploitation

Cuts both ways. I'm banking those days.

I say "You avaricious fool,

You were just a tool now I make all the rules."

No more little one, you can't climb trees in ruby slippers.

You'll get a slap in the face from the hand that feeds. 

You're the little one

I've been where you'll never go;

Behind the curtain, beyond the rainbow.

No more little one, the time has come

To take the less well travelled road 

And follow it, wherever it goes.

Listen/Download Little One on BandCamp

https://empireof.bandcamp.com/track/little-one-original

Witch's Garden

 Green grow the shoots here in my witch's garden.

Tiny green tendrils that reach to the light.

The fox wears the bells here in my witch's garden;

Atropa bells nod. Keep watch in the night. 

My heart is purple as hellebore

that blooms in cold and rain.

My colours warm with pleasure

to thaw your frozen pain.

Tall grow the trees here in my witch's garden.

Higher than headheight, verbena in your eye.

Short grow the shrubs here in my witch's garden.

All thyme is creeping, at least in your eyes.

My heart is purple as hellebore 

that blooms in cold and rain.

My colours warm with pleasure

to thaw your frozen pain.

Perfume hangs heavy in my witch's garden;

Lilac that lingers long after the sun.

Firebird foxgloves in my witch's garden,

mend broken hearts but could break them for fun!

My heart is purple as hellebore

that blooms in cold and rain. 

My colours warm with pleasure 

to thaw your frozen pain.

Pity invaders in my witch's garden;

unwittingly playing with death at each touch.

They nourish the ground here in my witch's garden.

Of blood meal and bone meal there's never enough! 

My heart is purple as hellebore 

that blooms in cold and rain.

My colours warm with pleasure 

to thaw your frozen pain. 

Listen to the song here; 

https://on.soundcloud.com/JyyjV

A New Direction

 

https://on.soundcloud.com/LR83k

Some of you may have been wondering why I have been quiet recently. 

I have been busily working on a new project, which is starting to come to fruition. 

Above is a link to the first track of my forthcoming album. Check it out and let me know what you think. 

Love always. Xx

Anti-Shanty

We all sing the songs of souls lost at sea

and preserve in musical amber memories.

But what of the land-bound in fishermen’s towns,

Now the fish are all dead and the industry’s down?

These boatmen more solid on liquid than land

on coal-littered beach front at sunset they stand.

Watch while their mistress is tossing her waves.

Greying and gloomy. She resents what she gave.

Now she casts off the covenant and keeps all the catch

and the sails in the harbour are folded or slack.

Lobster pots line up, empty in the sun,

while their salted-faced owner silently burn.

For it’s pints they are downing

to tribute the drowning

of another in whiskey not sea.

For they know where they’re going,

it’s their own path he’s showing

a way out of their own misery.

The swallows that flit through the cherry blossom trees

know the sea demands her tithe ev’ry fifteen years.

She lowers the pressure and hitches her skirt.

Swishing them wildly unbuttons her shirt,

booming with laughter she rolls on the shore

and demands that more businesses pay her, and more.

Her revenge for her rape is undeniable and savage

for hell hath no fury like an ecosystem ravaged

The touch of the hull on her skin is well met

but behind these caresses is an anchor of debt.

She gives life and takes life; some later, some soon

changeable as wind direction, reliable as moon.

People flocked to pay homage in sunny days gone by

but they’ve mostly stopped coming since the monkeys learned to fly

and now the town relies on hand outs and the landing stage is closed

and they’ve paved over history with a red brick road.

The people left land locked pay their dues in installments

of barometric infirmity and camphor-based liniment.

Crippled by ozone and scattered by squall.

They yearn when they hear the Wind Maidens call.

It’s a lifetime of hardship and internal fights

when the wind’s from the West and the bells ring at night.

But the Goddess takes all, every bit in the end.

Either swallows with love, or starves and contends.

And if

you ask if in this contract they willingly took part

They’d say

They’d give it all again. Body, soul and heart.