Three Maple Men

Well, I looked up those antibiotics on the web the other day and it said amongst the side-effects 'depression and thoughts of suicide'.
Luckily, I have halved the dose and now feel only mildly miserable, and rather than my head being on a different planet entirely, it's orbiting my body at a comfortable distance, close enough to be able to summon up the odd thought if necessary.

Today was the Song Circle, and I took along the song written about a memento. This song fought the chords I was trying to force it into and dictated that it should be written as words first and then accompanied later. It is written about three maple sugar men in suits that I got in Vermont when I was 14 and I still have.

Three maple men
A trio
Of sugar frost
To freeze
One summer day

From serried trees it weeps
The sugared sap that bleeds after the snow

The humming bird
Is silent
It's honey beak
Is prying
Back through my years

O silver birch and maple leaf,
O sweet and sour and sour and sweet
The taste of time

A shaky bridge across the sea
From New England
To a fourteen year old me

A sunny day
After the snow
Back through my years
The taste of my tears

Three maple men
Three maple men
Three maple men

I love hearing everyone's stories at the Song Circle. Best one was one member's story of buying 14 bags of chocolate coins for a singing group that the member was chucked out of by text, as she was on her way to their Christmas do.
She dumped them all in a solo busker's case, much to his amazement.
I play that one over and over in my head!

Then this evening I went to hear Joan Ashworth's very funny and interesting professorial talk at the Royal College of Art. She played lots of really interesting animation clips which I will tell you about tomorrow, and also some of her own stuff which is really groundbreaking.

Then I came home and wrote this.