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 on 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 reaching, long armed 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