Damian Garside

SPEECHLESS

you were
the one who
left me speechless

when your lips
moved
so did
the stars

the raw beauty
to skittle me
Queen Ace King
Jack Ten
top to
bottom
a flush of hearts
and many loved you
my firm
belief
they found you
untamable
but once i held
you close
instantly
my
goddess
beyond all space
and time

but now, when
last we spoke
it was a dark,
peverse loyalty
to
the murderous instincts
of the tribe

whose path
must lead
to dire inhumanity, genocide

taking the startling beauty
from those fine eyes

blind to the horror
skewed by its lies

WORK ITSELF

HOW IT BE

LET

STEW

NEED TO.

NEED TO

need to
juggle cobras

swallow
a snake
once in a while

do something to
develop such
unheralded power
that the world
take note

simply love to
learn to
accomodate with
me

rather than
me with
them keeping the status quo proof against vice versa

execution implicit,
possible all around

FIRST REFUSAL

Derrida
is in the forest

so beware lovers, children

be
excited

every plant has chenistry
there are carnivorous creatures
things shaped
to mirror your desire

anarchy
in the air
confusion in
the clouds

slip, slide
shifting
the twilight lingering

and whilst this
state of being persists
continues to pull us, call
us

who are we sad everyday
little mortals to refuse.

STAR

CHOSEN

Athena most
strongly advised me
to keep
an eye out
fot the Cyclops

that mutanr breed,
twisted spawn
of the sea

Poseidon’s flesh munching
off-sprimg

i owe so much to
this dsughter of Zeus

who so elevated my wisdom,
my knowledge
payback for my selecting her
above Hera, above Aphrodite

the last of whom
has left me
denuded
of love

my lonely, empty
nights doubly insured

DUCKY

I remember my
first cricket encounter

how the red gleam of
that battering ball

instantly
took the shine
out of me, rubbed
off
my high-
spirited gloss

what a
way for sweet naivete
to die

trudging out in huge pads
like a robot on an odd planet

reaching the wicket
taking my guard

one ball at a time
one ball at a time

only got one
or perhaps none
so fast it was

the monster that hurled it
that brutal savage
of a
best friend

what hope did I have
in this game of gentlemen
of imperial measure

his father
knowing the game
taught him everything

was that
a smirk on my father’s face

when i tearfully explained
to my Mother
the abject ignominy
of going out for a duck