Original Poetry
All poems on this page are Copyright (C) 1993-1998 by Nate
Cull but released to the Web for free distribution, without modification,
as long as proper attribution is made and a link to this web page is included.
How still they lie, how silent
How empty, how alone
The echoes of our World War dead
Engraven on a stone
Can you hear the call of trumpets
And the tune of marching feet
As they fade to distant thunder
And the drum's relentless beat
The world was young at evening
By dawn we all had aged
And all our dreams had narrowed
To one memorial page
Now children play at soldiers
As they did so long ago
But still they lie, so silent now
In the fields where poppies grow
Grandfather's Clock
Do you remember
Grandfather's clock?
How it sat in the corner,
tick, tick, tock
timing each day in
short, sweet strokes,
tick, tock,
chime, rhyme
and all through the evening
every hour
tick, time,
sudddenly,
now
Grandfather's clock
stopped in a crate,
sits, waits,
long, late,
memories locked,
photograph-grey,
fading away,
tick, tock
tick, tock,
too many things
left to explain
tracing us like
a runaway train
tick
time
touches
calls
tock
and
the clock
talks back
in the hall
This side the gun, is peace;
with cool calm metal in my hand,
a talisman against all harm,
I stand secure. Though dare not rest,
for somewhere in the stormy crowd
he waits for me, unflinching, coldly
mapping my destruction. But
he will not take me lightly, nor
unguarded, for I too am counting
out the bullets, buying death in
trainloads, stocking furnaces with
Hades' wrath and honing trigger reflex
to a knife-taut edge. So let him come,
my fatal twin, with all his ill-thought glee
in hope to win;
the gods of hell shall curse the night
before I bow to him.
Hey, hey, Schroedinger's Cat
Where are you at
When you laugh like that?
Hey, hey, how do you dream
What did you see
When you look at me?
I met a girl one night but she did not remember me
I said I thought I'd seen her name before
She looked right through me and said I don't dance with particles
And vanished as she waved me to the door
Hey, hey...
My mommy told me never waste your time on tachyons
They'll only break your foolish heart
But ever since I saw her I can't help but love her smile
And her gravity is tearing me apart
Hey, hey...
She's such a double dealing little singularity
She doesn't even know that I exist
And if I ask her yes or no she only says perhaps
But when I leave she greets me with a kiss
Hey, hey...
Hungry As A Tree
for Alice Thorpe
who showed me the first three lines of the real
'a tree whose hungry mouth' poem
believing it was the most awful one possible
and now regrets it horribly
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Towards the shadows in the West
And leering as the night winds fall;
I'd rather not see it at all
Come scratching on my roof of tin
And threaten that it might come in
To read me stories from the dark,
(That terrifying, misty murk,
Where no-one knows what else may lurk)
Until it is too late to ask
Politely that it go away;
Because it's made its mind to stay
And slowly root into my dreams...
Then fill them with unearthly screams.
I hope that I shall never see
The poem lovely as that tree
Because if we should meet again
I'd kill the poet, then go insane!
I'm listening, he said,
and turned his back
I'm here for you, he said,
and walked away
I care, he said,
her face flushed with tears of rage,
but this needn't bother you
We'll discuss it, he said,
tommorrow. Not today
I may be wrong, he added,
but so are you,
sometimes
and I never argue
besides, you'll probably feel better
in the morning. It's the 'flu.
I love you, he said, puzzled,
as she slammed the door,
but why won't you believe me?
Fourth of July
three years to the millenium
and I'm cleaning a microwave
in my brand new flat
In Ares Valles, Mars
a robot lander touches down
first time in twenty years
and the NASA website is jammed
with all the transmissions
I'll catch the clips on broadcast news
download an image tomorrow
print it out in photo-quality
and pin it to my bedroom wall
while I watch the launch
of MTV New Zealand
drinking Pepsi to celebrate
the new Star Wars franchise
and whisper a prayer
for three trapped cosmonauts
burning oxygen candles
on Mir
For twenty years
all my dreams
were grounded
Maybe
the future's back
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women just machines
There's no meaning in love or in dreams
In an industrial age
The city awakes
Like a child's forgotten toys
See all the people with fears and with joys
See the lonely heartbreak
All the world's...
At the top of the town
All the politicians make their plans
They sign papers and then they shake hands
But they're afraid to look down
All the world's...
At the end of the road
A young man smokes his short life away
There's no reason to live anyway
When there's nowhere to go
All the world's...
The sun sets in the west
See the stars in the children's eyes
Hear the sweet sound of soft lullabyes
Think of what you like best
All the world's a stage
And we dance our lives to unheard songs
Listen and maybe you can sing along
Even in an industrial age
One night I went walking in my sleep
And found myself imprisoned in a mirror maze
Tried to wake up but I couldn't find the words to say
Couldn't make my own reflection go away
Somewhere in the middle of my head
Lost inside some scenes I wished would disappear
Tried to roll the carpet up and sweep away my fear
But it wouldn't move while I was standing there
And infinity's an easy word to say
But it doesn't take the emptiness away
Oh, imagination's free, if you believe in me
Then tell me how to see Infinity
Drowning in a river of my tears
Like Alice on the day she left her books behind
Haunted by the house of cards I'd stacked inside my mind
With a broken Queen of Hearts I couldn't find
And infinity's an easy word to say...
Coming to a shipwreck on the shore
I reached for you to pull me out and there you were
All the things I'd said you said you hadn't even heard
And then you brought me high and dry with just one word
And infinity's an easy word to say...
One night I went walking in my sleep
And found myself imprisoned in my memories
Echoes in the silence telling me I'd never see
See the forest for the fallen trees
And infinity's an easy word to say
But it doesn't take the emptiness away
Oh, imagination's free, if you believe in me
Then tell me how to see Infinity
Frightened, I imagined
a warm sun rising
brightly foreboding
above a picture perfect scene
- too perfect, said a haunting whisper -
the landscape of my dreams
There was nothing
definably wrong
no lack of beauty,
charm, sweetness, mystique
or truth
Nothing to clash or cause conflict
No harm or evil
All well and in order
Familiar, comfortable, reassuring
But something was wrong
I could feel it now
in glimpses, half chanced
over my shoulder
snapping suddenly into the light
and then gone, forgotten
yet not entirely
then I would wake
the dream spiralling, sheared
into chaotic shards of pain
random reflections, soon erased
to protect the innocent
and the fear would sleep again
The darkness grew
it returned yearly
became more palpable, ominously shadowed
an invisible monster, rearing
hideous unseen fangs poised
to clutch and sever
the great dark claw of the dread unknown
a nightmare thing, yet still unreal
conveniently deniable, one step removed
from solid proof, it stalked me laughing,
from the stone-cold shadows
of broad daylight
I never wish
to see it again
But in its passing
there came peace
For my mother, Joy Ruth Cull, 1937-1994
We laughed at your funeral, Mum
somehow it didn't seem right to cry
Sitting there in that chapel
crowded with so many familiar faces
all I could remember were the good times
the little random kindnesses
the happiness you left in passing
It rained in the cemetery
and I didn't want to stay
I couldn't weep for that wooden box
because you'd already gone home
for the first, last time
It's not that I don't miss you, Mum
there are nights I still wake, dreaming
and half wish I could make the tears come
And I wouldn't say it's all okay
you left a void that's hard to fill
and an act even harder to follow
But you left something more, deeper
when you told us those stories about Heaven
the hope you knew, and the glimpses you'd seen
and somehow it helps bridge the gap
There are no tears in heaven, Mum,
but there is Joy
The ringing clash
of blade on blood
echoes down the
wounded centuries
as life hangs shrouded
in cold steel scales
just ice
until one man
parts the scarlet stream
with battle tears:
It is enough!
and silent reigns
The lions
could not comprehend
his peace