Unchanging

The masks come off at midnight.
I am revealed,
“braw in cramassy”,
a scarlet sentinel'
my pen an unsheathed sword,
weaving a basket of light around us,
protecting you from all comers.

Where are your ass’s ears now, my heart?
The light from the street stripes me like a tiger.
The roar of a car echoes the image.

The night passes slowly.
There is truce in the war between us,
between the mannish woman and the womanly man.
My balls are scrotum-tight in flight-or-fight mode.
I shall be who I am.

This shape is my only shape.
The sexual warrior, peacemaker, lover.
Three-in-one.
Shapeshift me how you may,
this is an eternal truth.

I see a rainbow in your eyes.

July 30, 2008, 1.15pm

“Braw in cramassy,” brave in scarlet, a description of Mars in Hugh McDiarmid’s Bonnie Broukit Bairn:

Mars is braw in crammasy,
Venus in a green silk goun,
The auld mune shaks her gowden feathers,
Their starry talk's a wheen o blethers,
Nane for thee a thochtie sparin'
Earth thou bonnie broukit bairn!
- But greet, an in your tears ye'll droun
- The hail clanjamfrie!

“Broukit” means heartbroken – appropriate in this context.

A sad song for Rosebud

Click HERE to hear Abdullah Ibrahim.

Song: No Other Time

This is the only moment,
Time to find what each high and low meant.
Go well!
There can be no other time.

There have been vows unspoken.
Now when our hearts are still unbroken
Go well!
There can be no other time.

Just when we thought we'd never
Find a way to love for ever
Suddenly we are fancy free, and now . . .

There's no more time for waiting
We've spent too much time hesitating
Go well!
There can be no other time.
Stay well!
For this is the only time.
New words to Some Other Time, tune by Leonard Bernstein, original
words by Arthur Freed (from the film musical, On the Town.)

For tune, go to http://www.karldallas.com/someothertime.htm

27/07/08, 6.12pm
This is not a song of parting. Go well (Hamba Khalie in Zulu) and the
response, Stay well (Sala Khalie) suggest "until we meet again".

Alternate words for the bridge:

Time is a mighty river.
Drink from it now or never.
Suddenly it's time to see . . .

Link to a song, Some other time

A song that sums up my present mood

Song: Love don't die easy

There's a flower I've found in my garden.
It's been planted there under the trees.
You may call it Love in Idleness or Wild Pansy
But I give it the name Heart's Ease.
Now summer's passing and its colours are fading
As a cold autumn wind blows the leaves to the ground.
Love don't die easy though the earth may be freezing
As bitter the world it turns round.

chorus:
Love don't die easy, she don't die easy
Though flowers fade in the morning dew.
The seeds she planted in my heart's garden
Lie quiet in the earth below,
Love don't die easy love, for me and you.

Don't take the nectar from my eyelids
I want to love everything I see.
This magic potion breaks down barriers
Between us and them, between you and me.
I want to live the eternal truth
That life is lived within this Dream.
Our shapes may shift, our names may change.
Still things can't just be what they seem.

chorus:
Love don't die easy (etc)

I'd rather have flowers that fade in my garden
Than have no flowers at all.
The dew that waters the blossoming roses
Turns to frost in the fall.
Time doesn't heal, it festers,
Unless we betray not our heart.
Love's not bounded by anything
However long we're apart.

chorus:
Love don't die easy (etc)

Seasons that change come round again
Summer and autumn, winter and spring.
Moons wax and wane, day turns to night,
And flowers in my garden blossoming.
All life is in motion,
A dance of the hours.
Forward and back,
The fading of flowers.

chorus:
Love don't die easy (etc)

21/07/08, 7.16am

Note: This is a work in progress.

No tune has been composed as yet and when it has,

the words will probably change as they are fitted to the melody.

The sentiments are unlikely to change (though never say never).