Herod 2014

She's hidden her babies away

Their soft, gummy smiles

won't be gilding the menu.

The deer fly, the sand fly,

the tsetse can't find them.

The goon from the Stasi

is left far behind them.

Their delicate derma

won't witness a ray.

She's hidden her babies away

She's hidden her babies away

No 'Raindrops on roses'.

'Whiskers on kittens'.

They refuse to be blinded

by Rubens or Poussin.

They'll hardly be boarding

the 12:10 to Tucson.

Is she shaking them hard

in dry run cabaret?

She's hidden her babies away

Ho, Ho, watenay

Ho, Ho, watenay

Ho, Ho, watenay

I'm closing in.

I'm closing in.

She's hidden her babies away

And why bring them out

with no shelter to offer.

The nurseries and creches

are heavily with lush lice.

Bubonic, blue blankets,

run ragged with church mice.

The Havana has died

in the clam-shell ashtray.

She's hidden her babies away

She's hidden her babies away

From posed, high,

pelvic bridges.

Pearly bone

mountain ridges.

No hiccupy silence

to finger their traces.

No colicky moon

shines bright pain

on their faces.

She has slipped

through the dark

like a mother moray.

She's hidden her babies away

Ho, Ho, watenay

Ho, Ho, watenay

Ho, Ho, watenay

I'm closing in.

I'm closing in.

I've come searching,

from far and away.

A r-e-a-c-h-i-n-g,L-o-n-g-A-r-m-e-d

vet ape

feeling hard

for a breech birth.

I gaze up at the night

at the asterisk's blazing.

Til they straighten,

and like tiny spines,

fall to earth.

I bite down on this

as I dance

and I pray.

She's hidden her babies away