Planetary Wiz

He was wearing a coloured waistcoat,

All covered in Moons and stars,

With planets and things, and Saturn with rings,

And one glowing red like Mars,

I saw him first in the marketplace

Hid under his pointy hat,

With ribbons and whorls, and pictures of girls

Pinned over the place he sat.

And she was there at his feet that day

In a dress like a gypsy curse,

Her hair was red, and I’ve always said

She was one with the universe.

If ever love had bitten my hand

Tearing the flesh from the bone,

Then I’d have bled like a river, red

While dragging the girl back home.

But there on the table between them

The tickets were piled so high,

And each one said, ‘would you rather dead,

Or up for a place in the sky?’

It looked like a planetary super mart

With pebbles from outer space,

And there I saw an astrology chart

With a sketch reflecting my face.

I’d swear that the gypsy scowled at me

As the Moon Man tapped with his wand,

A sense of dread sweeping over my head

Put me in the sea of despond,

‘You know you have to get out of here,’

He whispered, the Man from Mars,

‘They’re coming to sweep you away this year,

Along with your rusty cars.’

The girl threw open her gypsy dress

The end would play on her screen,

The earth had gone where it once had shone,

It looked like a nightmare scene.

For bits of earth were floating apart

And space glowed green in the night,

While only the Moon still lit up the room

Where once there had been delight.

‘Pick up your ticket for who knows where,’

He said, to lighten the gloom,

The gypsy curse had been getting worse

Since I knew the earth was a tomb.

I thanked them both, then I turned away

As they faded into the stars,

With planets and things, and Saturn with rings,

And one glowing red like Mars,

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Celie Rose]

Enjoyed reading your poem. "With planets and things, and Saturn with rings,
And one glowing red like Mars," I like the spins and turns of your poem. The arrangement of words are very good. Tongue tie rhythm that flowed together very nicely yet a sense of fear and stillness in the air.
Well written and expressed.

[richieb]

David, very much liked this poem. Enjoyed the mystical theme and I am a sucker for a gypsy woman. Thank you for sharing. Richie.