Never Good With Horses

You were happiest in the dark room

conjuring shadows and shades

running film through your dry fingers

keeping ghosts in their graves

And you could handle a steering wheel

rounding the corners and bends

watching the movie of life play out

through the windscreen's lens

But you were never good with horses

were you, my dear

Always took a step backwards

when they came near

Couldn't bear to look

in the dark rock-pools of their eyes

Couldn't hold your hand flat

and offer your sugar cube lies

Thanks for the dried buttercups

pressed between faded pages

Thanks for the tropical butterflies

pinned in their glass cases

For the snow-white rabbit's foot

screwed to a key fob

All of my thanks

And the skulls studded with precious stones

And sharks in their glass tanks

But you were never good with horses

were you, my dear

Always took a step backwards

when they came near

Couldn't bear to look

in the dark rock-pools of their eyes

Couldn't hold your hand flat

and offer your sugar cube lies

You said a man with his own telescope

isn't especially strange

And to be a collector of doll's houses

is fine for a guy of your age

I said look at their pretty ankles

and smooth coats

look at the grey and the black

But you wanted the painted, wooden kind

You could rock this way and that

And you were never good with horses

were you, my dear

Always took a step backwards

when they came near

Couldn't bear to look

in the dark rock-pools of their eyes

Couldn't hold your hand flat

and offer your sugar cube lies