TAN DUN MOUNTAIN

Life became unbearable when her mother packed up and moved in.
She picked up memory loss in the manner that some people pick up their gin.
She became as thin as a   garden tool     whose name she no longer recalled;
except when applied to me of course   as   the rascal who'd ruined her girl.
She did her best to eat but couldn't remember how to get out of her commode;
it slipping her mind that the chains which confined her were clasped by an uncrackable code.
You'll not get away with this!   she rasped at me  during a stormy September night
when I carried the commode with her strapped tight and dumped it at the waste refuse site.
That she survived her obvious fate owed more to chance than good sense
as she wriggled inside a wheelie bin and recycled her way to Kent.

Some time later I was informed she had settled in Maidstone   and Minster    and Margate
and other places close to the sea where she was used as fishing bait.
So I took to the road while the going was good; to the Costa del Sol I did venture
- though the journey came to a shuddering halt  when I broke down on the outskirts of Toadster.
It was lucky for me that KoleeMarie offered succour in this hour of distress;
things progressed finally to a point where she asked me to take off her dress :
! It just duzznt suit yer   she croaked  in a tone which left me utterly dismayed
as she lay on the bed and stroked her long golden locks  which hung from the  Habitat Shade.
Squirming from shame I slid under her mane and here obvious Fate played her hand
for it fell on a copy of  TheTibetanTimes   telling of    struggle in faraway lands .

With two rucksacks jam packed  I headed far east after having picked up my dole.
The food would last a while at least and bring me luck through customs' control.
Aware of the dangers of trafficking jam  I''d concealed the pots in some soft cuddly bears.
( And because of the risks of carrying drugs I'd stuffed KoleeMarie down there ! ) 
We spent three long hard months on the  Tan Dun Mountain   at the mercy of  The Elements
- a band of terrorists fighting for the rights of goat-herders in Tashkent.
Influenced by Takemitsu  they covered   PinkFloyd    LooseTubes  and  CharlesIves ;
although somewhat unpolished  they still managed to clean out the mountainside. 
Force-fed their songs  we worked all night long  driving their goats like ourselves to distraction
until during a storm  on a later morn  I suggested a different course of action.

With my portable tape and mike I offered them a recording contract better than Most :
They would keep KoleeMarie but give me back my life  and seventeen goats. 
Under the media spotlight  we cut the deal as they carved their names on my body
- I talked of personal splits; they thought I meant David and Kleggy. 
I mentioned my success with  TheGrasskutters  - a pygmy combo now based in Cadiz
and how I went gold with a religious cult: The album was called   Dark Side of The Moonies .
Heady stuff indeed on the  Tan Dun Mountain   'til a note of caution was sounded:
KoleeMarie was piping up  and  The Elements stood confounded;
it's all just so bloody inaccessible  she squawked   with a fearsome frown.
Well  ?who were we to argue   stuck on the Tan Dun Mountain  as the mists rolled down.

                                                                  Pastor Henry Frog & His Klammy Toads