bugs have done for us this liberty

bu akşam evde kal

Venus rides alone

through a murky sky she owns

cold indifferent light

people go unmasked

driving cars too goddam fast

tearing up the streets

now the müezzins

start to weave their prayers in twins

piercing & bright

chilled I turn for home

Venus stays behind her gleam

narrows on the beat

still the calls ring out

urging folk to have no doubt

stay at home tonight

*    *    *    *    *    *

don't cry for us karantina

I

my illicit pony GiddyApp

asks me if I'd care to go pot luck

starting out from Spain or Castlereagh

where it'll end

makes no difference how I goad the nag

up the aery waterfall at night

down Old Faithful’s gizzard by the day

where it'll end

stirrup cups for singing as ye go

birds & bees & rubber geese join in

road is long but folk may never know

where it'll end

useless whistling in the dark eyes closed

better open all them curtains wide

sun or cloud the heating system stays

where it'll end

shall I gallop off & back again

bringing viruses in saddle bag

loads or wait & spend the day in bed

where it'll end

II

Covid couldna struck a nicer guy

Hanksy made the virus seem benign

Tom how many times did you survive

saving that Ryan

gumption gets our hero off his cloud

atlas with the flu Apollo too

Elvis meets Vinci Dan Caprio

under the Louvre

never saw you as an astronaut

Google saved the day I own but still

if you'd played some less practical cat

done it with tact

dubious but followed up on tweets

all the highs & lows of quarantine

sampled so we’re stoically briefed

tearful at times

uncles Sam & Tom rolled into one

not an ounce of side or carry-on

just your all American has been

seen but not gone

III

Mum's in Liverpool she's all alone

so is Deniz Lee our eldest son

we're in Turkey same as everyone

else getting on

carbon fumes have lifted streets are plain

empty buses here & there some rain

birds are singing spring is here again

peace to all men

women get remote asylum too

children sit & wonder but it's no

time for homework fix that broken loo

seat in the gloom

blossom frosted up the other night

doggies bark at passersby in fright

slealthy creeps the virus to the fight

who knows what's right

still believe in something can't say no

meaning less from sure to nothing's sure

thing's empire never set us back home

to the future

*    *    *    *    *    *

it's not the leaving of Liverpool

I

Turkey is no bird of paradise

but for pride of place it's hard to beat

Orientals meet The Occident

most of us who've had the luck to waltz

in as political exiles or

like me economic refugees

landed on our feet not so in Greece

birthplace of democracy lately

there the welcome ain’t been all that neat

beaches not so chock-a-block as here

praising Allah migrants land with cries

but a squalid camp is all they find

saw them wade ashore surreal as we

foreign tourists looked at olive groves

land was cheap the views of Turkey great

II

first we saw were figures on the quay

twenty-twelve before the Arab spring

tide washed up on sunny afternoons

childish features burnt & wiry-haired

stared like lawless wanderers no tents

kids on piles of blankets babes in arms

worried for the car I blush to say

shooed them off afraid they’d take our stuff

but the locals had a heart one said

never mind they’re harmless pity them

Christian values I had plain forgot

should have wondered who they were & not

cast them as vagabonds out to fleece

holidaymakers of souvenirs

why was I so thick & plain unkind

III

guy we know a Greek's had enough

says they’re selling sex & spreading AIDS

wonder what he knows his wife shuts up

people soon forget how their folks came

seeking work & housing in the towns

passing through or settling down for good

my colleague a Bulgarian Turk

lost his sister on a protest strapped

to her mother’s back a sniper’s round

grazed its mark & struck the baby’s head

even though a refugee himself

thirty years ago he’s moved to state

overwhelmed by teaching Syrians

it’s a job he has to do the kids

must speak Turkish for their parents’ sake

IV

it’s Ne Mutlu Türk’üm diyene

meaning Happy are those who can say

How they’re Turks the last word DNA

meantime Liverpool got beat again

after many battles won no sweat

neither bangs nor whimpers spoilt the past

such a multinational team so cool

fifteen years of exile took their toll

banned from playing in the Euro League

now no matter where you're from to go

praising God or Mammon is your choice

all you gotta do is win & lose

pointless crying if your side can’t play

dazzling games each time they hit the pitch

children have died tryna reach a beach

V

years ago the former Lesbos port

had a market place where refugees

flogged their bits & pieces as they fled

Anatolia’s Independence War

Greeks Armenians & anyone

fearful what the vengeful Turk might do

people can be monsters take their cut

maybe it’s banned in scripture but friends

bash each others’ heads for plots of land

brothers if the bible were believed

couldn’t solve their differences till one

stabbed another or left them for dead

when the technicolour coat is pawned

rainbows point to crocks of jealous gold

who respects the pots their neighbours owned

VI

Alchaeus & Sappho writing while

Hebrews wandered in the wilderness

sang the ups & downs of Lesbos folk

knew its stony hills & valleys shore

lines with massive hidden gulfs the cliffs

forests vineyards groves & even trees

turned to stone when Vulcan’s ashes rained

making deserts of the northern fells

early Christians tore their poems up

now we scratch through ancient rubbish heaps

steam papyrus scraps from mummy’s masks

piece together jigsaw dithyrambs

not to be outdone by ancient Greece

strewn along the Sikamenas strand

lie the shreds of refugees' IDs

VII

who we talking 'bout you may accuse

Africans & Afghans some Burmese

scores of Pakistanis few Chinese

why leave Turkey as their stepping stone

that’s a million dollar question one

reason’s never can sufficient young

people get to live out their dreams but

weary oldsters know the western world's

streets ain't paved with gold that's Neverland

something desperate drives the man to hold

up a child & cry give me your towel

plastic bags & tape protect his phone

took our kids on boats though not CharÓn's

Lord knows what they’re flying from no wings

birds of paradise in human skins

*    *    *    *    *    *

deus nobis haec otia fecit

as there’s nowhere left on earth to fly

airlines going bankrupt anyway

all we have’s ourselves & breathing time

here’s what I say

never will we get a better chance

when the wheels are rolling once again

must it be the same old song & dance

odds out of ten

bugs have done for us this liberty

we should sit & listen while the birds

sing & bees repollinate the world

pointless to cry

right enough the docs & nurses won’t

get a moment’s peace nor those who serve

patients’ meals & marshal our reserves

they have my vote

some of us will die the dice is cast

paradise won’t wait on Pentecost

now’s the time to face Apocalypse

heads up or bust

Wot, no crowd?