Alchemisland

I’m a Prince contending with life on an open road, used to glimmering places

I have relations in Limerick, mostly Norman, Father and Uncles are Knights of Glin

Vast bay windows signal light in, filtered through satin curtains it has the tallow, marshmallow hue of candlelight

It makes the favoured brass candelabra to shine like a drakefavoured jewel sunflavoured

Famous to the family it stood by like a silent cataphract at Christmas

Whenever they broke bread

When Papa delivered his famous Easter speech

I was raised on principles long redundant, taught the world is not a dungeon but an ocean to plunge in

Lots of hugs and lawn luncheons, no attitude adjusting stick or Victorian child truncheon, nor swelling eyes I was forced to say I fell from my bike, it was not that style

My parents were of a loving variety, infinitely kind and utterly unspiteful

Sefless does not go far enough, give you the dress off her back if you needed it, even if you hadn’t asked

Sure a few times a wooden spoon reddened my arse or gave me a dead arm but such does no harm, no alarm should be raised at the adjusting of charms in the dour of temperament

It was idyll, short piping fauns at the gates of dawn, one elaborate play detailing all the ways

One can explore the world and enjoy it.

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I have drawn back the curtains of my life to permit your eye a glimpse of blue sky, sky of mine

Scurrying sounds at night, presumed to be mice, are discovered to be the hummings and drummings of pervert-planted devices designed to dissect my private vices

Voyeurites alight my windowsill at the turning on of bedside lights

Very few fungible assets, more fungus springing than funds in these days

Untended maze like a madman’s grave, half-cut grass like halfway cows stopped grazing

Still I find this place moving and utterly amazing

In the long halls of my father, which oil paintings overlook.