only when i laugh

and swish through pavement leaf-piles as
cold rain lashes the stones of dudley castle
kick slippery echoes of spring and summer
washed-out ghosts of bud-time
bared branches stripped by october winds
california dreamin in the headphones

and the sky is grey and the sky is grey
a good road song in sunshine
but melancholic on a day like this
i will slip into bed warm
with robin hood of merrie england
lie on the sward with birdsong

and wait for warm rain in a country
that spits on neo-nazis and their ilk
revel in my language and hard cheeses
let slip two bitter years in sunlit darkness
far to the south where lips ghost smiles
but eyes bleed emptiness

URL: www.mourne.org/onlywhen.htm