Self-Defensive Manoeuvres (An artform, divided)

How can I resist it? when resistance is accepting it.
And how do I take it?
Some people want to change me, shape me
Or is it manipulate me?
Why? What's it to them -
It's not their problem.
And yet I am feeling altered, changed
Rearranged, but...

A shadow of a tanker will never cause me to thank her
And the mile to the tin, will never let me thank him,
For the words and machines
More than the places I've seen
Are therefore serene
In my mind
Where the shelter never falters
And the man will never alter
Or try to change me in any way.

I'm sick of this endless moment.
Take it away, leave it behind, never mind.
When I wake in the morning
It will be different
You'll see.
As normal;
Sun, sky, clouds, sea, sand, cottages in white
Or blue,
Cities silhouetted on the crimson
Of some sunset somewhere near home
Where I long to wet my feet on dewy grass
And smell the rain after a summer storm.
I will be there, whatever.


Birmingham, early 1986 - on a dream of the South Coast