The Importance of Music

It takes you down by the sea
When all you find washes wet and windy,
Untimely, tearfully on your sunny face;
And hearts, like rocks, were meant for beating
With waves pure as the briny liquor
That drives fishes to delight in their own music.
The scales these delicacies care to wear
Dash out like scarecrows to defend the crop:
There is no action, the mind is moved
To distraction.

It takes you to the countryside
When all you lose bathes sun and sunny,
Reflected, cheerfully in your sunny face;
And if hearts are rocks meant for breaking,
To found a railway firm as an alien personality
That cuts through green pastures and steams blue skies
With hissed up tears, pure in their frightful fear
Of being alone on a one-line track
Taking some to the sea, and others
To destruction.



       London, 1985