‘Fire for You’ is a song by The Eden House which is currently stuck in my head.
The Eden House is a collaborative musical project, initiated by Stephen Carey and Tony Pettitt. This track is taken from their debut album Smoke & Mirrors. Vocals were provided by Monica Richards, Evi Vine, Amandine Ferrari and Julianne Regan.
The video has nothing to do with me, but it was the best that I could find!
A short piece taken from the collection of poetry, prose and lyrics entitled ‘Another Tease’ (links at the end of the post. Enjoy!
I sat on the bus, watching the night-lit streets as they passed by like frozen, shrouded memories. The juddering, stop-start motion seemed to bring an uneasy comfort to my body, detached as it was from my consciousness. Other vehicles, heading in the opposite direction, appeared and then disappeared as if they were on some mythic quest, their headlights dull and dim below my position on the top deck of the bus, illuminating nothing but the first few steps on a journey without end. For a moment it seemed as if only they knew the direction in which to move in order to find some salvation, some respite from the pain, and yet I knew, contained within each metal box, was nothing more than one more lonely figure hoping beyond all hope that something, some miracle, would appear to snap them out of their coma.
Buildings rose up on either side of me now; giant monoliths, some pale and dark, devoid of life, tired and waiting for release, others still humming under the electric glow which gave them purpose. Their eyes stared out without seeing through the dark, and were gone again, lost to me as I moved steadily on. Their facades hung momentarily in my mind like all the faces of people I had met in my life, before fading into a sea of ashen memories. The night around me seemed to tighten its grip as, like an abandoned vessel, we sailed on.
To both the right and to the left of me roads sprouted off from the main artery down which I was travelling. They sparkled and twinkled with the hope of the newborn before even their lights were swallowed by the darkness into which, it seemed, the whole world had fallen. I shuddered as the bus lurched around a corner: not from the cold – I had long since become immune to that – but from the impending realisation that we were, at last, nearing my stop, my final destination.
And then everything was quiet, but for the pounding in my chest and the pulsing in my head. What if I were to remain on the bus? Would it eject me when it reached its destination, its point of termination, or would it show a glimmer of empathy, offer up a hand and cradle me to its heart? After all, my brain reminded me, what point was there to alighting, to leaving the bus to continue without me, if you were no longer there to welcome me home?
A very short story today taken from the collection of poetry, prose and lyrics: ‘Another Tease’availablevia the links below.
Hope you enjoy this.
I thought of you then, on the day that I left, knowing, despite the words, that we would never meet again. I thought of you as I sat in the darkness, as the Sun dipped like a dying friend beyond the horizon for what might as well have been the last time. I knew that I, like the errant Sun, would rise again, but that neither of us would ever be quite the same: the Sun would burn fractionally less brightly, its gaseous source ever so slightly diminished, and I, with less reason to rise than before, would begin to become a shadow of myself. I thought of you and the words that we had shared wondering if you had ever truly understood my meaning. Had you thought of me as a friend or merely an acquaintance, and had I ever truly understood what lay behind your eyes? I thought of how close I felt that we had become, our shoulders brushing against one another as we shared a joke, our laughter spreading its roots between us connecting us forever, or so I had imagined. But did you leave me behind along with all the other artefacts of work when you closed the door behind you and returned to your home?
I thought of you and wondered whether I had been too obscure, too subtle in my words and looks, for you to see me. And what exactly had I felt? Was this a connection that I felt that I had needed or something that had burst upon me unexpectedly and had opened a new door which whispered quietly for me to go through? Perhaps the moment had come for me, after a life of living at a comfortable distance from the edge, to finally take a chance, a risk. But, of course, caution is a powerful bedfellow, and, by the time I had recognised the chance, if had closed its eye for ever.
I thought of you then and wondered if you had ever lain alone in the dark beneath the Summer’s heat: I wondered if, like me, you had lost yourself to imagination; and I wondered if you had ever found yourself with your hand between your legs, wishing its fingers were mine.
Another lyric taken from my recently published collection ‘Another Tease’.
Another lyric today. This is called ‘Let You Down’…feel free to create your own melody.
Hope you enjoy.
I’m sorry
I’m so very sorry
I never meant
To let you down
Never meant
For you to drown.
I’m sorry
I’m so very sorry
I never meant
To let you down
Never meant
For you to drown.
On days
On days so much better
So much better
Than these
We watched each other dance
Made promises on stars
I swore I’d never leave
I’d never let you fade
And nights
Nights we shared as one
In brighter dreams
Than we could hold
We watched each other shine
Make circles in the sky
I swore I’d keep forever
And never wish away
I’m sorry
I’m so very sorry
I never meant
To let you down
Never meant
For you to drown.
And how
How did I let it all
Fall away
Fall to shadow
We watched each other go
Leave footprints in our hearts
I swore would never happen
I’d never let you fade
I’m sorry
I’m so very sorry
I never meant
To let you down
Never meant
For you to drown.
‘Another Tease’ is a collection of poetry, short prose fiction and lyrics covering themes as diverse as love & war, faith & loss and hope & depression. The lyrics have no melodies – each one is left open for the reader to create their own interpretation.
Over the next few weeks I am focusing on editing some short stories which I will hopefully be able to publish in the near future.
In the meantime I am going to share a few pieces taken from my recently published collection ‘Another Tease’.
Today’s post is a lyric entitled ‘Tangled’. Hope you like it.
I love you but I’m broken
The words you said to me,
I’d like to hold you baby
But I’m not sure I’m free.
I’m tangled up and twisted
Afraid of what you’ll see,
The loneliness and fear
A darker side of me.
My shredded heart is open
Lays weeping on the ground,
Your words tumble around me
Fall lifeless with no sound.
But I will wait
A thousand years
To hold your heart
Again,
And I would walk
The continents
To bring you back
Your love.
My tears will fall forever
But never set you free,
My heart can offer nothing
There’s little left of me.
I love you but I’m broken
The words you said to me,
I’d like to hold you baby
But I’m not sure I’m free.
But I will wait
A thousand years
To hold your heart
Again,
And I would walk
The continents
To bring you back
Your love.
‘Another Tease’ is a collection of poetry, short prose fiction and lyrics covering themes as diverse as love & war, faith & loss and hope & depression. The lyrics have no melodies – each one is left open for the reader to create their own interpretation.
Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased either Falling Sleet or The Candle Game. I hope that you are enjoying them.
It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of my latest collection of writing Another Tease:
‘Another Tease’ is a collection of poetry, short prose fiction and lyrics covering themes as diverse as love & war, faith & loss and hope & depression. The lyrics have no melodies – each one is left open for the reader to create their own interpretation.
As soon as the book is available on other platforms I will post more!
I hope that you enjoy reading!
And now, a couple of ‘teasers’ –
Watching Dreams
Watching dreams
Evaporate like tears
In the warmth of another,
Sun-bleached streaks
On a bed of sand,
Wanting to reach out
Clutch and grab
At Youth’s fresh resolve,
Mold it to age’s wisdom
And stride once more,
Sight-scarred eyes
Life-bleached and hollow
Stare blind at passing time,
Hands that sweep so quickly
Unforgiving, so cold,
And floating on the wind
Dream’s lost fragments fly
To settle on another,
Sun-bleached streaks
On a bed of sand.
The Interview
When they had asked me what he had been like, the man with the knife, all I could say was that I couldn’t really say. He had been, to my mind’s eye, nothing more, or less, than average.
He had stood at average height; not discernibly taller nor shorter than myself. His hair had been worn short, but neither cropped nor shaven, and his eyes, well I could barely remember the colour of my closest friend’s eyes, so that line of questioning drew a blank.
What of the colour of the man’s skin? I could confidently say that he was white, but boasted a tanned face; or had that been a more olive complexion? It was difficult to say with any degree of certainty.
Distinguishing features? He had a knife: a response that solicited a look which could have been annoyance but equally disdain. No, there were none that my sapless mind could recall.
He had been, the man with the knife, nothing more than average. His accessory had been all that made him stand apart. His unremarkableness reminded me only of myself.
Published in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Near to the Knuckle, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, and Shooter magazine.