The coffee cup

It arrived beside me
Warm and delighting
The lips and tongue approached
As sneaky as a poacher

The steam rose up as the mouth bore down
The cup was empty before the sugar could drown
Caffeine hand patting me on the back
The remains were sweet and black

One degree more awake
One more sip for coffee bean sake
Another line of Simon Elliott's poetry
Another cup of expresso coffee.

Michael King(Back home)

Mike there you were in germany
The cheese and the fields
The pines and the pasture
The boutique architecture

Out there in a curiosity
One that took you far beyond our oceanic bounds
A curiosity that spun just enough for you
Satisfaction and your wife Nina

Now our hair is thinning my friend
Art has combed your hair
With one tine in your brain
One tolerance for a friend like me

Mike far afield a little town
that's roads could have been cut
And the people would slowly turn into syrup
You being the grain of southern tussock stuck there

And back to the thin strip of Aotearoa
Where cousins and old friends still call you
Where your father worships you
And where your mother longs for you

For this big wide world
With all it's decoration
With all it's novelties
Charges it's own fee

These foreign lands
that have colored our eyes
These cultures and languages
That have shaped our lives

It must be good to be home Mike King
To the cool extension of the islands
To the humble rugby loving villages
To the surroundings that raised us

Wild dogs of the Tijuca

Near the ridge where the lizards bask
And the sun eats away at the hole in the forest
Lies the track to the high hill
Where the wild dogs kill

In the undergrowth the pack lies low
Monkeys and parrots passing overhead
And in the distance a deer forages
Springing up like a thunderstorm above the ridge

Leaping and barking
Stalking the terrified deer
Sprinting and slamming
The hand of a tropical war god

"Crash" the deer is trapped in a patch of wild bamboo
Nashing teeth dig down, shock will touch death soon
Bloodstained insects and geckos fly out like balls in snooker
To make way for the grievous foray those wild dogs of Tijuca

A card of a class

Teach the universe
Piece by piece
Rivers of paper and faces pour down
Into the desks

Each a puzzle each a mirror
Each a mystery
The mind is a furnace
Ash memory accumulating

On each card there are names
And in each classroom a group
The cities eyes and ears being processed
A card of a class where I've no excuse or fancy mask

Words and sentences tickle the senses
Rules and patterns and the exceptions on which they depend
Inserting it into their brains
A card of a class on each there are names

Heal them

Take them and drain the poison
Replenish them from what the sun and smoke stole
Give them back whole
Bless them oh heal them bless them, yes

Paint them back to vitality
Throw a sort of luck upon them to make them the same
Protect them so that they may kiss one day again
Brush them with hope brewed deep in your heart

Let the worried mind be calm now woman
Let there be a comfort held by faith through and through
For at the end of the day if you've done all you can do
It's in his hands now, heal them, bless them, yes

Rich kids cry

Rich kids cry like gulls and normal kids taunt like crows
Rich kids clasp their parents hands desperately
The fourty degree heat bearing down on poor kids
Across the sizzling streets they´re dragged uncaringly

Rich kids burst into tears near the gutters
Normal kids talk back through jibes and mutters
Rich kids plead for their mother´s comforting
Normal kids don´t stop conning and fronting

Rich kids cry and they cry hard
Spoilt kids awry soft wills and hearts
The heat and luxury, blind to the poor´s suffering
Sheltered from their very own farts

Sensato

Bochechas de Tio sensato
 A lua brilha menos

As bochechas de tio sensato
São como maçãs polidas com graxa

Morros de alegria que se destaque
no rosto sem vergonha de Tio sensato

O encrenqueiro de idade
Que fica dominado pelo garrafa

Pingo depois pingo
as bochechas de tio sensato
Se tornam rosadas e brilhantes
Ora alto tio totalmente desequilibrado!

Risada depois risada
O tio não consegue esconder as piadas
Que caem da boca dele para mesa de jantar
Como um dragão assoprando fogo

Tio sensato com bochechas mais brilhante que a lua
Fica causando em cada festa que há!
podemos confiar em tio em cada trote que faça
podemos confiar sim ele sempre é uma graça!