Robert Wyatt Follow

Pa arrives in the city of the closed doors
Greeted by miners from Asturias
His limousine streaks past

Giant shiny moneyboxes
Huddled together for warmth
He is deposited in his inner chamber

Later, Pa meets the bear, impersonates a tree
To confuse the hell's gates dog's sense of smell
And rests for chess with no one then
(Amongst the closed doors)
He shrinks

Is dwarfed by rabbits, expands again
To invade the destiny of fourteen
Mysterious others, strangely clad
Captured by a camera, carefully arranged
With a space for his image, a plot hatched by fate

Pa looks for diversion in the written word
Meanwhile, the mundane world seeks solace in illusion
An imprisoned rainbow gives shelter to the homeless
A painted machine registers the weight of mystery

And for background interest a kilometer of women
Queue to kiss a wooden foot, patiently
The Queen had been but no information
In the city of the closed doors on Christian Spain

Elsewhere, bare buttocks wait their turn
In vain, no guides available, all busy in the Prado
Followed by shuffling feet, fascinated perhaps

Outside again in the mundane world
In the city of the closed doors
Living men impersonate sleeping saints
On sundry raised surfaces
(Like benches)

Art objects seat beadless
(Beneath coats)
Performance artists simulate poverty and beg
A day's begging pays the entrance fee

To the cinema of terror, a golden gas mask
Throw the torturers off the trail, amongst
The grazed walls of the city of the closed doors

Pa escapes
Samples the delights of raw fish, good wine
Closes the door of his inner chamber
Closes the door of his inner chamber and sleeps