an old book still haunting me

there were these children

maybe it was london

and a black cat in a garden

a doorway back in time

time standing still

the dead still living in the past

its not that easy to talk to them though

the living seem like shadows here ago

the moon moves like the sun

and the buildings are not straight

as you stare the faces blur

the streets resist your feet

under a palm tree

where a spell is cast

the children find another way out

a stranger still place not far from their own

a place so heavy and sad and still

the liquid air elapses in gulps

the black cat can talk in some world

some world they get into away from the slow place

the black cat is a magician being punished by a king

and he wanders the planes assuming animal forms

and he lives by the rivers and he follows the streams

the children promise him a favour if he can get them home

their mother is cooking their tea and they should be there soon

but the black cat tricks them and returns to our earth

and the king pursues him to the end of time

and a witch caught inside a tree

screams

i shall eat you all if i ever get free

and the little people who live in the woods

well some were quite bad

and some were quite good

the bad ones were wicked dreadful little things

with curved fingernails and dragonfly wings

they didnt mind which imp they got behind

and suddenly the angry king appears outside mothers house

with his men all in armour he could easily harm her

with his barbarian bride and his snake charmer

oh the children are sure this will alarm her

but the children have forgotten mothers gold heart

that hangs round her neck both day and night

a picture of father gone off to the war

true love that reaches into the past

and she walks cross the lawn slaps that king round the face

and all of his one hundred warriors gasp

but the king is impressed and he gives her a wish

and mother says bring back my children and their father to me

and the king doffs his armour and then  she can see

he says

madam it is I who stands before thee

back from the dead in another world a king

come with me now we will rule yesterday

and the black cat comes forward and says with a purr

that he could magic the children all back

if the king will forgive him and the king says

I will

and it all ended well

like a dream

melting on your mind

so far away