for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 275 (D)

ENCHANTING ESMERALDA
Notre Dame,
you may know,
was the home
of Quasimodo.

Hunchbacked
was Quasimodo,
bell-ringer created
by Victor Hugo.

Esmeralda's
very-gracious tone
straightened-up
a man's backbone.

WRITING-ON-FIGHTING-ON
Find I'm no pen-pacifist,
yet call me no damn-warlord.
Just cut right through
to the Truth, I aim to do
with a double-edged-sword.

TWO CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERFLIES
Reborn as a butterfly
caterpillars touch the sky.
On this cabbage of a world
fly you, my love, and I !

A CITY GREY GUY
A woolly white -
like a passing sheep -
onto that cloud
sure tried to leap
the guy atop
a high-rise block.

Missed the cloud
grey city man.
Ride to countryside
was his plan.
All fell black
with a hefty-crack.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 275 (C)

ALIENATION
She came with a purpose
on the back of a porpoise
torpedo-like through the sea.
She came on a mission,
was met with derision,
what an odd fish she
from the waist down,
with a seaweed crown.
Yes what a strange Miss.
"Of the ocean or the stars
stay out our affairs.
What damn message a kiss ?"

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 275 (B)

FIND-LIFE-IS-JUST-A-JOKE-WE-DO
Find the belly laughs of the Buddha
ended here on earth. Try not let humour.

BOTH-REARED-IN-DARKNESS-
ONE-SAW-THE-BRIGHT-LIGHT
His sister became a bat.
Her brother became a bird;
one of the hawk family,
an owl I had heard.

His sister winged-on blind.
Her brother winged on wise.
She lived in dark-shadows,
he lived for starry skies.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 275 (A)

NOT THE ELEPHANT-HEADED GOD
YOU WILL FIND
Unlike the god Ganesh
made of mortal flesh
was the Elephant Man.
A cruel enormity
was his deformity
but not his life-span.
Heavy the load -
upon life's-road -
for this Victorian.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (G)

IT'S THE PITS !
I see the rusty river snake
where Saltburn had a boating lake.
I hear the rusty river flows
due to old mines not closed.
Mad as Skelton's 'Crazy Castle' -
justly named by John Hall, the rascal,
who formed The Demoniacs -
I turn and make town-ward tracks.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (F)

NEW PORTS OF CALL
It is raise anchor and away
when the wind of change is blowing.
It knows how to get me where
I don't know where I'm going.
The wind of change lands me there,
that place I go unknowing.

Here on life's sea-journey
I am just passing through.
Many cruel storms I brave
and maybe even do you.
Up and down with the waves,
heading for destinations new.

A DOG-SHED MAN
Black dog, black dog,
in the doghouse again.
She gets you down,
you're on her chain.

Black dog, black dog,
you see only black.
She's got you shackled
inside the dog-shack.

Black dog, black dog,
in mind, in brain.
She gets you down,
you're on her chain.

A-SPIRITED-AWAY-SISTER-GYPSY-GIRL-DUO
The horse from the wagon unhitched,
there the midnight moon bewitched
the gypsy-men by the camp fire
as the girls danced in Romany attire.
These were the gypsies true.
One surely could the future view
when the spirit had so allowed,
before her vision it'd then cloud.
The other was a beautiful rose,
same flower 'tween teeth, rings on toes
and fingers. Yes she wore no shoes.
Barefoot the girls danced. The two
were sisters. Yet beauty was to pass
and visions fade as to the glass.
No more the Romany-rose nor the seer
who saw into her crystal ball so clear.
No more the gypsy-men fiddles play
while the girls, like fairies, dance away.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (E)

DELIGHTFUL DEM
Red and orangey leaves
as well as green -
just like the skies
are sometimes seen -
and a turquoise sea
through these trees
from my condo's balcony
in a Pattaya breeze
can I get to view,
when my eyes - dear Dem -
aren't fixed on you.

A VERNACULAR VERSE
Sing, sung, sang.
Swim, swum and swam.
Then cling, clung, clang ?
Swing, swung, swang ?
Surely not, say you -
of the latter two -
no Yorkshire man !

BARED AND SQUARED
His love-life was triangular,
the husband was having an affair.
From wife to lover he circled,
but the wife got square
taking for herself a lover,
laying it before him bare.

CORRECTION:

AT-A-GIANT-HEAD below

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (D)

A RAM STEW
Gordon Ramsay or Ramsey?
The name was a what-a-to-do
when served up on television.
It sure has some in a stew !

DON'T WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK ?
A whistle-blower did his duty.
The tune he whistled was a beauty.
He blew on his corrupt-company so
now on the dole this hero.

A VICIOUS SHOVER VULTURE
Find a deadly-drug culture,
the pusher a damn vulture.
Don't the vultures fly
and swoop low down ?
Don't druggies get high
then hit the ground ?
Yes a deadly-drug culture,
and victims of a vulture.

A MOLDY AND DUSTY TOWN
A mushroom cloud went up
after The Bomb came down,
that is how it sure seems
to the folk of Toadstool Town.
They smell no more the mold
growing from the ground,
they've got so used to it
and are fairyland bound
on a kind of magic dust
the furtive pass around.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (C)

OH-JUST-GAZING-AT-GIANT-HEAD-
GAZING-BLANKLY
I see the cliff's brown face
and its blades of green hair,
and down by its chin
the tide washing rocks there.
Yes the tide rushes in
down by the giant's chin,
the head with a blank stare.

YELLOWY LOVE LETTERS YES
What she wrote in the sand
is no longer there,
her writings were subject
to wear and tear
and to the washing sea.
To the Sands of Time, you see.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (B)

THE SAD OLD HIPPY PAIR
He used to be a beatnik
beating his bongo drums.
He met a happy hippy girl
and he too became one.
Not a hippy girl, ha ha,
but a hippy guy.
Grew his hair as long as hers.
Together they would lie
kooky though carefree
beneath the summer sun,
both hearts beating fast
as he on his bongo-drums.
So many summers ago,
not that they were job-shy.
But life's just hard-work
since kissing youth goodbye.

IMPOSE WILL
I taught in Thailand.
Over there I met
a fine young guy
who came from Tibet.

To his very homeland
he couldn't go back,
the way of life
was under attack.

There are those
who will impose,
even march up mountains
to tread down on toes.

FIND SOON A WELL-FED WORM
Now under the ground
the guy's dead and gone,
but to the hungry-worm
life does go on.

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 274 (A)

DON'T LOSE YOUR OWN HEAD
JUST YET
The French Revolution
gave way to The Terror
and she, Madame Guillotine,
and her very cruel horror.
Do try keep your head on,
find yet an Emperor Napoleon !