Tuesday 9 July 2013

The Only Fruit

The Only Fruit

I

When we were young we looked to you
For pleasure and for pride
We tried to climb your blackened limbs
But your thorns stabbed our sides

Older then, we looked again
But now for fuel and frame
And so we thought to cut your trunk
Yet axes bounced back lame

We left without a meaning clear
For we will ever fail
And the dire wind that drove us home
Filled your autumnal sails

The only fruit, those dried up leaves
Blown from your dreary tree
We catch between a string of sighs
And crumbling ennui

II

The village spat until you moved 
To dribble on the town
The mangle of the city clamped shut
Your jaw and you drowned

Friend, you could have been the darling
Light of every shore
But you were chained up on the rocks
Before the sea's cold roar

Yet I'll drink until a mirage
Smiling comes to me
And I'm caught between a string of sighs
And crumbling ennui


The only fruit comes in a glass

That's swallowed with a grin
And the dire gale that drove us here
Blew from within.