WE USED TO RHYME / RUBY ASHES AND THE WONDERMINDS

we lay like lushingtons

beneath rubys crown of splinters

& roses from summer slumber

turned her lips to frozen winters

the summer & its rain

combined her cool choices

& sang sweet sad disdain

on the earths breath & voices

despite the fire & the air

her body holds only water

we are landmass lost in mist

with autumns only daughter

the white peaks of winter

mock summers muggy troughs

one is in the others hand

promising spring & loss

in the day & the night

the wonderminds call it out

louder than the fifth angel

in the sunshine & the dark

~

theres burning & a glow

the fickle flicker of flame

theres two faces on fire

ruby ashes is her name

the only difference

between the love & the pain

is one is the other

& the other is the same

in the first taste & the last

bump bump hearts beat the same

mouths dry with nervous ashes

as our wonderminds go insane

the only difference

between her land & our sea

is our air & her water

are where each other should be

our handling of the meat

& our touching of the soul

will live forever together

if ruby ashes forgets her role

~

the only difference

between our love & our pain

is it hurts to be in love

& love loves to breed in pain

the last stab & first loss

bump bump hearts still pump the same

tears wet on rubys lashes

yes our wonderminds gone insane

ruby claims perfection

so we prove her perversion

& if we knew her soul & shoes

we would treat her with aversion

slowed & agitated

needing ruby to come to us

& with doubt but in memory

ruby comes without much fuss

she invades to surrender

red carpet of red ashes

a surprise night for our shoes

before bloody dawn crashes

~

close rubys heavy calm

is an eye away like anger

seems to be soothing our pain

but she moves like stranger

the wonderminds are looming

over ruby whos believing

in myxomatosis & acid rain

& the lives no ones leading

unaware of our power

smiles sabotage success

its mean & its tolerant

to dance with worry in our breast

so the blood & the sun

ruby ashes tastes them both

we stumble & fall on feet of brass

fathers undead son is the heavenly ghost

sounding to the depths of hell

rubys music rises to deaf gods

mans neat & portable ideas

are written with flame in the floods

~

ruby ashes has the keys

to both our life & our death

'i am the first & the last'

ruby ashes smiling said

ruby is the people

& her wisdom dies with her

upright man laughs in scorn

at the east wind blows inside her

ruby ashes gone now

& we take a long lone walk
down the empty corridor

time used to fill with talk

the skirting & a plug

mock wonderminds from below

for ruby has gone out now

leaving us stranger & low

pressure of modern life

& the fiction of abstention

is power to rubys teaching

then theres the bromide connection

~

& demon bromide comes

angry when we drink the coin

our laughter & our screaming

demon bromide binds into one

& if she takes our arm

her fingers sound the alarm

because ours is the danger

& ruby has bromide calm

& her hands & her hair

tangle up wonderminds in fear

for ruby is with bromide

& they know that we are here

& monsters from the sea

count their horns in disbelief

take bromide to the blue depths

leaving ruby free to speak

but wonderminds are insane
rubys lost the angles

& touches our naked brains instead

with cancer & sweet angels

photo Tech & Trees #4 from the Dagenham Archive