I found her weeping
Near the Inn of the Marshes
Amongst the miserable springtime flowers
Code Name
I invited her to share a meal
Menu
Above the wetlands
With its ditches dug deep
The Rice Butterflies
Sing on the spring-wing-king
Of the seasons ring
My lady was ambushed
All stars are black
But none as dark as hers
I often consider the marshlands and wonder if they were really reclaimed from the sea as there is a permanence about them
As the sun dipped low over the pearl horizon
I thought of frail cupboards
Full of flowers
Each woman spoke of their despair
Of blackmail
Of an unhappy settlement
As the night drew close they exchanged recipes of jam
Sample
Two pounds of hulled fresh strawberries
Four cups of white sugar
One quarter of a cup of lemon juice
add The Great Tulips of Holland
and prepare with love in willow jars
You are still in the construct of my thoughts
sleep tenderly on the goosedowndew until morning
we will then explore the wilderness of amberward
From The Gazette
The body of a headless man was found on Tuesday morning near the semi-channel. The man who is yet to be identified was aged about forty five and had been seen making enquiries about beautiful boys in the days before his death. The victims head has not yet been found.
They exchanged gender
The enchanted gender
Sisters step tenderly on the divided ground
The bracelet still lies in the bloody waters
It will not be hidden again
Posters Found
Invasion Alert
The scars of landscape are seldom noticed
We foolishly mistake deformity for beauty
Obituary
In the August of the season the seventeen mortal years of Sharing Ralph came to an end
He had outlived all of his contemporaries
His passing was hardly noticed by the resting Minotaurs as they danced with the acquaintances of his middle years
In their imaginations the beautiful boys saw the unfortunates head floating above the floodline. Often it lapsed into hiding but the glow from its eyes illuminated the low mists that had lingered that morning
Let us explore this parish dressed as boys as far as the estuary takes us and beyond
Invasion was Imminent
Trees had been cleared and parts of the marsh had been drained. The fertility of the soil was the cause of great celebration
In their travels
hidden in the amberward
they collected illusions
by the dozen
soon their pockets were full
and they abandoned their dreams
reality was about to be faced
They exchanged gender once more and wore marsh clothes of great beauty woven from the finest reed silks
This counted for little as the invasion had commenced and although lost they were the first condemned
Their capture was premature and took place on five occasions. In all ten prisoners were taken in the first hour
Their lives were suspended
They exchanged gender once more as were recruited as the pilots of the wide marsh. Each had a uniform made from rose petals and rag red felt.
Although often betrayed they felt love for their clothing and exchanged their duties without cloy
Release was pending
They secured their release and pleaded to remain pilots with uniforms of rose petals and rag red felt.
Permission denied go unclothed into the shallow water my special boys
Code Name – Bracelet Found
The invasion was complete
Huntershomerest
It was the bracelet
that made her unfit
for the convent
not her fathers ban
or the oppressed frigidity
of her name
she craved decoration
A king passed separated from his residue. The women invited him to rest in the huntershomerest.
Draped in deep silks they destroyed the maps of his exploration
and let the ashes of their discoveries drift into the early evening sky
By morning the king was gone
in his place he had left his regent
not yet born
Thomas Oliver
The gestation period of a regent is only six months in opposition to the normal nine
Regents have a tendency to fall in love whilst in the womb
Although in love they never gift flowers to their loved one
All regents are named Thomas Oliver
lettertomymother
purpleandgreenshouldneverbeseen
Entertainment Notice
Dance to the Three Winged Sound
to be held on the next day to this
at seven in the evening
Admission Free – Invaders Free
No collections will be taken
In the gap between the soft stone steps and the holy fence there lays the grave of Sharing Ralph
on brittle days they lay together in the grey green middlegrass that hides his sleep
no words are broken
Doubtful Passages
In the minds of complexity
simplicity is not found
you are more imaginative
than your sweetness
for the present
our harmonies are together
but the enthusiasms of history
will separate us
I will marry the kings daughter
After my birth you will cherish me as a mother thereafter I will choose my age as I want it to be. I will marry your sweetness on day five. I will be nineteen and she twenty three. You will gift us your bracelet and after the ceremony you will retire to the place of rest where you will speak no more
I shall send you flowers when the moon vanishes and I will summon your days by thought. The waters you stand by will be putrid to the touch and will extinguish all life
I will choose my food
I will choose my travel
I will choose my lovers
Invasion is never witnessed only sensed. You have always known that
First Edition
You have no codename, history has forgotten your elegant name, I am aware of your birth name. Take a leaking boat to the middle of the marsh and cast the bracelet into the mire. If you do not drown, return to me and lay on my grave for a night.
I have beheaded your assassin he will haunt you in your dreams but these will fade. During the night we spend together I will exchange with the regent. He will spend the rest of his unborn days here under the grey green middle grass but not before he casts the invaders out in his anger. You and your sweetness will sleep during this violence and will only learn the facts from the commentators should you care to read them You will not retire to a silent cell.
Eat now this fruit and begin the journey
Rid your self of your decoration fair one, cast it aside
There is no history, only theatre