N  a  p a  l  m     H  e  a  l  t  h     S  p  a  :     R  e  p  o  r  t     2  0  1  2

 

 

JOHN ROCHE

 

 

Song of Wandering Owsley
A Collaboration with Susan Deer Cloud

 

                                    Owsley disappeared into the orange mists of Avalon

                                    And the skies rained orange creamsicles for seven days

                                    And a new world arose full of tangerine trees and marmalade skies

 

                                    On the seventh day the Thunder God of Creamsicles rested

                                    And the children tripped out to the lakes of orange left behind

                                  And the Sky Mother of Clementine Songs saw that it was good

 

Oh, there’s an Awful Orange at the Start of the World!

                                                     

                                    Ah, Valencia! How we weep blood orange when we think of you

                                    By the River of Sunshine there we sat down at the World’s Navel

                                  Skinnydipping in the cool sweet fire of the dream flood

                                    Drowned trees would green and flower forth as saffron suns

                                    Sacred snakes glistened around the children in sacred hoops

                                  But now few can remember the ancient creamsicle rains

 

 

Oh, there’s an Awful Orange at the End of the World!

 

 

 

[This work first appeared in Jack Magazine, I: 4, 2002. Used by permission of the author]