The Cave

Goodbye, sweet cave, my black-walled, slanted-ceilinged
cubist teenage refuge,
old dartboard ringed with misfired aims.
Sweet shelter from the deluge
of corporate greed, the blizzards of unfeeling,
those blustering, windy moral claims!

Goodbye, my cherished lair where beer-soaked evenings
fell flat in snoring darkness.
“Stop that, you noisy git!” yelled Dave
and poked my lifeless carcass.
I punched and kicked his head in without leaving
my drink-swathed dreams, beloved cave!

I’d huddle by your roaring paraffin flame
with ham and mushroom pizza
drowned in ketchup on my lap.
The phone chimed Für Elise
when I pressed on ‘hold’. Then mobiles came.
I scoffed, “What is this yuppie crap?”

Then came the king of terror from the sky
and Mars, all reigning happily.
Falling towers, crumbling meanings.
I gazed in sighing apathy
out your window, as the world steamed by,
at all the peacocks’ pointless preenings.

And then I’d stare mind-paintings on the wall
of aura-glowing gods
with pear-shaped heads and bulging eyes.
With subtle, knowing nods
I prayed they’d rescue me and show me all
the universe’s highest highs.