Ice on FireHey Ho the army is coming
People dancing children running
Cardboard boots in the snow
Shirts wide open let it all go
Girls cry - Hello soldier
Come closer – let’s get bolder
I fall like ice on fire
Caught in a spot light
A frozen border
A deadly crossfire
Some refugee
Hey Ho the army s going
Farewell fathers cold winds blowing
Hardened hearts turned away
Burned the place where children play
I die every time
I see the mail man bringing news
to our street
a bitter harvest
Those waiting widows
no one comes home
The empty air waves
no one is there
Girls cry hello soldier
Come closer – lets get bolder
Hard times
with out some closure
or consummation
the endless seeking
some sweet approval
why do we do this
are these things written
this time is shortening
these days are counted
like ice on fire
like ice on fire
a scarf on barbed wire
a rain filled shoe
the light is changing
this feels like fading
can’t feel a thing now
like ice on fire
like ice on fire
no one is listening
So two arch enemies sit down to speak with each other for the first time in their less than honourable associations. Neither of them got what they want but they have learned about compromise some thing they would have both described as capitulation not so many years ago. Paisley and Adams are over and this farcical attempt at reconciliation for the greater good of the group is forced upon them. They are icons of the past and we will be all the better for their demise and eventual passing. I remember listening to Paisley’s ranting back in the seventies at a huge open air meeting in Belfast. We were one of the only bands interested or mad enough to go there to play then. I hated the sound of his bullying dogma then and I still do. I always thought the term Rev when applied to him must surely be seen by all as a concrete sign of his hypocrisy but he survived all manner of opposition and remains to this day a belligerent, intransigent bigot to all but the saddest of democrats. Adams is a swift and slippery mind with a solid criminal streak who has as much blood on his hands as any protagonist during the so called Troubles.
So to their respective hells with both of them but if their compliance helps effect the re-affirmation of a workable Assembly then they will have achieved some thing. A revolutionary freedom fighter knows how to lay down his weapon and adapt himself when the time is right. Many still cling to the way of life they are used to regardless of the cost in human suffering. These two were dragged kicking and screaming into the now and about time too.
Gordon Brown does a slippery with the budget. Brown is the guy who forgot about the VAT bill for the Olympic Games in Britain. Brown almost mumbled his announcement that he was going to remove the 10p starting rate so few realised that he'd announced, in effect, an £8.5bn pound tax rise. So some who cheered his £9bn tax cut felt deflated when they learnt what had really happened. Is there any one left in the labour Party with any integrity who still has a job where they can effect any positive influence. I suppose it is far too late in the day to expect any one who is fundamentally honest to step forward. Blair has culled most of the likely candidates ages ago or they have left on matters of principle.
Last year the government paid out benefits to 57 million dead people. Are they practising for some thing BIGGER?
The war rages on as though it was always meant to. The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war. It was decided that the report was accurate and so it would not be a good move to criticise it. Gosh! Those chaps at the Foreign Office Know how things should be done, don’t they?
Bush still maintains the figures are not credible. Now there is a man who knows how to rubbish anything that does not fit into his born again, end timer religious perspective. He probably isn’t too bothered about the 655,000 Iraqis who died as it’s all grist to the mill that grinds towards the end of other civilisations as the USA End Timers have it scripted. Even though they accept there must be chaos before the Rapture Bush's gang won’t take any personal responsibility for causing it.
People who saw the EBB over the past weeks will have heard my joking about the End Timers and The Rapture.'The Rapture' – the belief held by huge numbers of American Christians that Jesus is due imminently to come down from heaven and collect all 'true believers', who will then be transported to paradise. It is estimated that some 50 million Americans are followers of 'The Rapture' movement, while many more believe in the New Testament's Book of Revelations, with its prophecy of the tumultuous Last Days and the end of the world, when Jesus saves the godly and damns the sinners. I shall probably miss it due to rehearsal committments.
Tomorrow I will begin to try to assist a seventeen year old young man I know to get the support he needs to begin to determine the way he lives his life. Soon his father will send him to “the homeland” where he will be forced to marry a young girl who must be impregnated with his baby asap. This is to save him from a life of degradation in the west. His family fled here as refugees and are now UK citizens. There is no doubt his father is a victim himself and extremely damaged. He has declared his son must live in his image and if he refuses he “ will become as a slave to them”, "them" meaning his family. He will be cast out to fend for himself. He will effectively lose his family if he refuses to comply. He has decided not to comply and now needs an agency to support him in his decision, a decision not taken lightly. Some times I despair at this world but more so at the impositions and abuse rained on children by the people who should love them best of all. I am reminded of the story about walking in a mans moccasins before making any judgements. It seems that some times the coming together of cultures with out mutual comprehension and acquiescence will inevitably lead to hard ship. I hope my young friend can find what he needs to live his life freely. I know that with support it is possible. A young man who I know of, and who made a contribution to an earlier post on the subject of his freedom, had suffered extreme privations in his own country and was then subjected to the indignities of the UK asylum system as a refugee. How ever, he is now a free man and has a roof over his head here among his own community, in London. He has the opportunity to realise his dream and his right - to be educated.
I shall be fishing again at the weekend on a private lake. It is close season otherwise and I need what I call a hydro fix or some time spent by water with rod in hand and an imminent cup of tea if I can just stop casting long enough to drink it while still hot. Old Pikey has eluded me for some weeks now mainly because I have been hanging out with a bunch of complete nutters who play musical instruments. In a week or two we are back touring in Germany where you need to pass an exam to get a fishing permit. So that will be a fish less, experience again. Bloody touring! All that adulation (lol)! 'Ain’t life tough?
copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007
