Wind is shaking the trees Clouds are splitting the light Outside making me freeze New World into my life Unfamiliar Breeze Into my lungs and into my life So after all that, I guess I can say we are free now from lockdown, the stasis has stopped now and we can somehow, rush out and force all our own cherries to pop now and get back to our normal lives. Side salad or fries? We're like two virgins on their wedding night, Pulling her frock down so frantically, let's roll and rock now, so eager to please We'll learn to not crown ourselves by decree. I was the master of my own world but the world's taught me now. What have we just been ....living through? We thought it was a temporary pause But it seems more ...pivotal This is not like Lehman's or JFK man. This is ....Biblical. And that's not just my tendency to be so cynical This Virus. This Ritual. These vitamins and minerals. They're searching for a vaccine and it seems so pitiful. A Vaccine for what? Greed, hubris and indifference? No medicine to cure that one Jack. This is a whole new experience. Trouble I can't foresee, I close my eyes to blind myself, I need to get more sleep, Cause I've been reading those think pieces thinking thoughful. About carnal rage and ways unlawful I believe we're in the larval phase of something awful. We were waiting for this new world to come and now its here. God forgive us all. CHORUS I'm your father and your my child. One, two and three. For guidance I know you look unto me We'll travel well together out there on the salt salt sea. You'll have to be my guide though. Your guide, I can't be. I'm Job from the Book of Job. In Tom Thumb's Blues I'm Mr. Jones. Lent out my throat. Tough task to take. I'm Tom Cruise in a mask and cape. Fidelio. Fidelio. I thought I knew the secret word, but now I know I'll never know. Now I'll never know. Paleolithic. It goes back that far, back through mathematics and physics, Human understanding can't comprehend, our knowledge has limits, But every day we Grow But Every day we grow... The small moments will bring together they said it on the Radio Gingo Gingo, bring me back an Eggio We sang that every day as we were walking the kids. Thank you Disney Plus you helped us all through this. So Fa La Ti Do So Fa La Ti Do It'll bring out the best in us. Or So they say so. Or so they say so Corn fields with pestilence on every row Mere Anarchy, from Peru to Mexico, Dead bodies dumped down the bottom of buried holes, Joshua blow down them walls of Jericho Cause its a New World.

Pulling up my mask... to take a swig of my drink. For now at least mouth and mind are in sync Three more of these though and I'll be speaking nonsense as usual, I love everybody and the feeling is mutual, Today all day has been beautiful, Sunny, cooking ribs with the kids, and paddling pool full, Two months cooped up, few drinks are excusable Those screws on the news talking like its a funeral, Ahhh fuck it. Us gentle rebels should be given medals never punished and with a bit of luck, it got round people are gathering late, In this commuter-belt felt-green leafy estate And that sneaky drink at 4.30 Is now a full blown 9.30, Street Party! Polish guy from the family on the corner Pass him in the mornings, but never even spoken before Want to show that we're in the same knot, Nothing too involved, just a raised bottle and a knowing nod. I turn back to a group of ten men, who drink and then vent, bout stress and torment, And paying their rent, with government help, I've still got my job, I'm lucky I guess, When Kevin got the news it didn't shock him. Martin never heard the word furlough till he got one, So we're all taking the pain in our own little ways, abiding by nights, surviving by days, All staying 6 feet apart, we let off steam at tonight's, Street Party! Abiding by Nights. Surviving by Days. Just a few when we started, Just a few hundred now at this Street Party! 12 now, and the festival's getting messy, And is that some young kid setting up decks? He keeps playing that same song 'She was a sexy lady, she had to get her thrill". Ugh, Depressing. Still dancing though. Lobotomized drunk, and I'm not alone, 100's here now, see how well the night's progressing, with more face masks on the floor collecting Shoulder tapped. 'Did you check on the kids?' I thought it was your turn? Christ we haven't checked since 6. We'll be arrested. Relax, I'll go check on them. Pandemic going on - there's not gonna be a Madeline. Last two months have been hard, we deserve some fun at this, Street Party! Abiding by Nights. Surviving by Days. Last two months have been hard, we deserve some fun at this, Street Party! Oh no, they called the Guards, Everybody line up and wave greet the cars, While we stay 8 feet apart, Palms face the stars, We're innocent here, we're not breaking any rules Guard, Then something came and just possessed me. I shouted fuck Covid, threw my bottle like a frisbee. Came down smash glass shattered the gard door windscreen. Silence first, then a siren and big scream, Slink back in crowd me so they don't find me. So i run home, Slam the door shut behind me. Slump back, safe in my fortress finally Panting quietly and Laughing silently. The hall mirror there and what do i see? A middle-aged coward and a father of three, who should know better. Hands hugging my sides, Then my breathing calms down and the laughing subsides, And I'm lost now. Staring up at the wall, Maybe this Covid's affecting me more than I thought.

I've got the quarantine blues. Don't you? Crawling Walls. Deja Vu. I've got the quarantine blues don't you? Don't you too? Don't you too? Hey. Look what opportunity brings. A world crisis. A new page of history begins. Could be a few months long. I've had this longing within, Gonna take this opportunity to reassess things. Been thinking that I needed a break. Write a novel maybe. Lose some middleage weight. Been hitting bottom lately. Dread filling my days. Take some time, find myself, then come out of the gates. Used to rail against the man firing all those people. Now I'm the man firing all those people. Day 12 and the fear's setting in. I'm now my own less successful identical twin, I got this bad habit, its beginning to sting, Always starting new things But never finishing anything. Ugh. The time's slipping away. Its been 17 days and I cannot create. I have failed to erase my old habits and ways. There's no new nothing. Just a blank page. I've got the quarantine blues. Don't you? Walks on stalks, Sticks like glue I've got the quarantine blues don't you? Don't you too? Don't you too? Day 23 and I'm holding my breath Cause it annoys you so much, you're wishing me death, And you recoil from my touch, roll over in bed, Lets sleep on it. Better in the morning I guess. But I can't sleep. What if it never gets better? Making sense of it all is a senseless endeavour An endless forever where nothing's staying the same. Not my job. Not my house. Not my family name. I was banking on a steady on progression of history, Not back to world wars, fascists and TB, Rations to feed me, my friends and family, Our grandaddy's bad stories back so callously Block it out, but know your not alone in your feelings, Cause there's plenty of us, all staring up at the ceiling And here's how I've been dealing: Find a moment you can be wholly and totally in, Draw a circle round your family, let nobody in, Try to focus on the robot-dancing disco at bathtime, The kids-down, half-bottle helpings of red wine, The walks round the block in the primitive sunshine, And carrying ice-creams under quarantine skylines, Back to the garden, kids heads on your thighs, Lying back on the grass looking up at the sky. I've got these quarantine blues but they're gone for a while They're gone for a while

April Sixth. All had our wings clipped. Dreamed stripped. 5 strict covid convicts on a mission for ice-cream on our one trip out of the house. Elementary. Things were going well until 2020. Had a place in life Not too much, just plenty Sliding gently into middle-age While my fickle ways paved the way to lazy pay days. That's probably all over now. Thanks to this Covid now. The dream's burst. Now its all blurred First World, Third World What's the difference cursed girl? My consumption thirst is cured Couldn't spend a penny even if I wanted to, And these four walls would all look the same. We and the kids march for Ice-Cream. Act the Clown. Get our crazy pavement dances down. Flowers picked and branches found. They're closing those bank branches down. Uh Oh. Other family approaching now. We cross the road, cast glances down. I shout 'We're all friends out here in Blanchardstown' Met with scowls and hard frowns. I just shrug. The tension is getting to all of us a little I guess. Kids are finding funny faces. But my minds in other places. The laptop sends it's non-stop messages Today's lesson is, passive aggressiveness Business balancing on the precipice of collapse. And I'm trying hard not to let it. Work pressure Looms tall. Back track from the snack shop. Onto a zoom call. Must be Coffee number 4. Kids in bed. Then work some more. 1 hour TV, bed late, then up again. April 6. April 7. April 8. April 9. April 10. And so on. And so on. And so on again.

I watch the news at nine now. I rush in after dinner. The last 3 years I've stayed away, deleted all my twitter, I'm off the grid here. Try to stay present in the moment, but let's be honest I am present in this moment I just fucking wish I wasn't. Who is this lady with her blonde hair and her jacket, Why is she dressed in leather, I'm altogether distracted, Confused and attracted, virus is rampaging the Spanish 10,000 dead she says, now I'm getting panicked I'm holding up! No I'm freaking out! I'm counting down, All the days till we're getting out I'm holding up! No I'm freaking out! I want to scream, I'm stuck in front of the TV screen and the News at Nine. I've been thinking bout those rare souls abandoned in those care homes, They sent the Spanish army in, rooms looted down to the bare bones, Imagine no companion there to whisper and to hand-hold No witness to their low moans As Elohim called them home. Some thoughts are better in the world, not my imaginings, I've got my own 3 children. I can't think about these things. Park it down inside you. What's that. Are you coughing? Stop it. Turn the TV up, I think they're saying Boris Johnson's got it.. I'm holding up! No I'm freaking out! I'm counting down, All the days till we're getting out I'm holding up! No I'm freaking out! I want to scream, I'm stuck in front of the TV screen and the News at Nine.

Vision 1 I miss the long commutes, the morning workers shooting past me through limbo and pain as they huff and strain I used to stare out the windows of trains and watch them drift away My imagination sailing to another place. It crawls out the back of my head. Birthed like a newborn. Immediately grows some wings and then its airborne Flies out of the window, into traffic, screeching car horns, Then up into the skies and its free-now and its reborn, Through west Dublin heading onto the south Across the Liffey black as Guinness in a dissident's mouth My mind's eye keeps witness, floats on through clouds, Over the holy house of parliament And looks down on the proud men and women they're trying their best, god bless, their best guess as good as the rest, or maybe worse, Every good intention's spun around and reversed in that game, This intervention from the universe was needed, Can't stay the same forever, and still together they'll proclaim They overcame the odds of the human frame, ...while the flames rage on for days But I'm away, I'm away, Over the Irish sea now, Europe waits for me now. The wealthy north ignoring Mediterranean needs now, I take a detour onto modern Berlin and walk the ruins of the wall like a tightrope And then let my mind go to war-torn streets and their sidewalks, Like every angel witnessed In that black and white highfalutin movie with Columbo in it Don't you remember the bombs? Issue your fucking bonds, We're in this shit together forever remember? Vision 2 Commutings long gone its a distant picture Haven't showered, haven't left the house in days, you miss your routine. Crowded carriages my morning fixture. Muffled train announcer sounds are my holy scripture. My quiet place. My little pious place. My sanctuary from the factually science based, The doomed news in my room now 'bout climate change, pandemics, race riots, I need to close my eyes and wait for peace to descend again. and to reappear. I drift back to my minds eye so free and clear, Landing first at the African coastline. Then heading west to scenes of my high crimes. Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bisseau Burkina Faso, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, I've been reading bout those slave-traders, mooring their boats But in this vision, I can touch them, I can smell them I'm up so close. Nose to nose. Looking one straight in the eye. It's like looking in a mirror this time, Christ alive I see nothing but myself in this guy Dead on his feet, He's browbeat. He's not built for the African heat. He's just Like me. Out of his depth, his complexion is reddish, he's Jealous and Restless, just like me. A heart filled with ambition just like me. A competition within him and It's just like me. Eyes like me. Hair like me. Walks and talks like me and has thoughts like me, probably. Vision 3 Vision three, please rescue me I can't take another Zoom call I wanna leave Or another news report from the BBC or RTE Reality's oppressing me, Sanity second guessing me I want to go back again No, further back again, Right back to the earliest hominims. Their ancient graves and the white bandits robbing them, Centuries of timeless skies passing over them, Gotta make it, gotta make it across, From the Middle Passage to the Middle Awash through, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Chad. Eritrea, Ethiopia and Southern Sudan I'm looking for the very first beginnings of man Wading for miles till I'm knee deep stuck in the sand And now I can't move. I'm frozen. Eyes can't blink. When the body of a lion and the head of a sphinx Appears before me. And its wearing a facemask. And black crows race past in crowds that block out the sun. Frightening images. Burnt out villages. lights out and our universe finishes. with a nightmare troubling my fears and doubts, We've opened up a hole and what the fuck's just come out That knowing knock at the door awakes me Visions big and visions small gone away now safely How long you standing there. Couple minutes maybe. Watching you stare into space pretty vacantly, Lunch tray in your hand and you offer it, What's the occasion? No occasion, I just thought you'd want it. I stand up, take the tray away from your grip. I put it down, and I thank you, put a kiss on your lips.