Milking a Marmoset under a tree Glasses of iron upset under the lee Of ships bound for Reykjavic, throbbing through ice These are the words we found on the device Atrophied marmalade clinging to clocks Stratified sediment cut into blocks A planet of shearing sheds smothered in gee These are the things that it mentioned to me Where black comets roll through the uncharted zones And Zebras have learned how to use telephones Where words come out sideways and sentences lean These are the places it said it had been Where mud stands up bristling and custard has eyes And Egrets complain of the shape of their thighs Where soot is revered by the Skeleton Crew These are the spots it invited me to A factory on legs with a crumpled up hat A lost race of midgets infesting a Cat An odourless gas which was fasting through Lent These are the things that we saw as we went Through oddly-shaped living rooms crawling with cakes And mountains of manuscripts written by Snakes And Whelks who were quaffing great tankards of beer These are things we saw as we drew near Camels with asteroids strapped to their heads And frightened old robots who peered out from sheds An avalanche wept and said 'I was deprived' These are things we saw when we arrived A Cosmonaut stitching his lips to a Goat A fluorescent Anteater casting his vote A mattress upon which a bicycle snored These are the things we saw as we explored A twittering valley where Lungfish applied Themselves to the task of securing a bride And Horses returning with worms to their nest This is the place where we sat down to rest A turpentine Llama with his teeth aflame By means of a megaphone asked me my name Then flew into pieces which asked me again All this transpired as I sat in that glen
c. 1990 by Tim Gadd