Savages

“And I don’t have wings,” she said, “And I don’t have

A halo round my head neither, and neither for that matter

Would my hauling myself, out of our bed any earlier

Make me any healthier, wealthier or wiser..” She has

A lazy eye, sure as she says herself, she simply cannot be

Bothered. Oh! but I love that, I love changing her mind.

And if it was once it was a thousand times, time and time

Over, I find I have lost count of the times I have told her,

To just count her blessings and cultivate a little gratitude.

“Oh if you had gone through what I have gone through..”

And there again, I would have been, beside myself and

Still insisting, “If you had suffered as I have suffered

And so on and so forth, preaching and preaching at her

Knowing she wasn’t listening, throwing in old adages,

Spoiling the broth, while she would be plaiting her hair

Or painting the face of the splendid savage of her sloth.

What did I say? “you’re for the birds is what you are..”

I told no lies. Had I but called you names you would not

Have come striding, out of our blue sky, out of our blue

Blinding wideyed innocence of words, bearing in mind,

So to speak, the same glass beads, I had in the beginning

Bartered. Flush I was on first setting foot amongst your

Kind, before I had asked my crew for that which at

The start they had been chartered, before I found out

What she meant to me, this girl, this girl, she meant

The world to me and there was just no getting round it.

I have seen how memory has yielded, there are mornings

When I can feel sand grate against the keel again and I

Recall how I had to act all in accordance with the dictates

Of my conscience, how I had to see for myself, what

Sordid mischief the mirror makes of nonsense.