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.