Herod 2014

She's hidden her babies away
Their soft, gummy smiles
Won't be gilding the menu
The deer fly, the sand fly
The tsetse can't find them
The goon from the Stasi
Is left far behind them

Their delicate derma
Won't witness a ray
She's hidden her babies away
She's hidden her babies away
No "Raindrops on roses"
"Whiskers on kittens"

They refuse to be blinded
By Rubens or Poussin
They'll hardly be boarding
The 12:10 to Tucson
Is she shaking them hard
In dry run cabaret?
She's hidden her babies away

Ho, Ho, watenay
Ho, Ho, watenay
Ho, Ho, watenay
I'm closing in
I'm closing in

She's hidden her babies away
And why bring them out
With no shelter on offer
The nurseries and creches
Are heaving with lush lice
Bubonic, blue-blankets,
Run ragged with church mice

The Havana has died
In the clam-shell ashtray
She's hidden her babies away
She's hidden her babies away
From posed, high,
Pelvic bridges
Pearly bone
Mountain ridges

No hiccupy silence
To finger their traces
No colicky moon
Shines bright pain
On their faces

She has slipped
Through the dark
like a mother moray
She's hidden her babies away

Ho, Ho, watenay
Ho, Ho, watenay
Ho, Ho, watenay
I'm closing in
I'm closing in

I've come searching,
From far and away
A r-e-a-c-h-i-n-g, L-o-n-g-A-r-m-e-d
Vet ape
Feeling hard
For a breech birth

I gaze up at the night
At the asterisk's blazing,
Till they straighten,
And like tiny spines,
Fall to earth
I bite down on this,
As I dance
And I pray
She's hidden her babies away