Damian Garside

NEITHER

what happens
happens

look at this poem
it may go
one way
may go
another

I may take it this way
you may take it that

both of
these roads considerably
less-travelled

only chance of us ever meeting
will be on
a road

neither of us picked

LINE

you drew a line

said this is
the law, the rule,
the commandment,
the ordinance,
the regulation

suddenly
no sooner had
you signed off
than the line curved
bent multiplied
wriggled all
over
the page
my page

not yours;
on your still a single line
plain as day

cutting across the page
East to West
right to
left

dividing everything
North South
into two
unequal
hemispheres

you drew a line
for all time

POON

was playing
a harp
but it
became
a harpoon

words flying in
like fish
all over the deck

desperate
to write

knew
the tune

but as the fish
thrashed about, struggled
and gasped

wondered whether
this were
not pure satire

or simply
lampoon

CHEW

comfort zone
comfort zone

swallowing pills faster
than cartridges
passing through
a machine gun

tablets so immense
you could engrave each one
with a fresh
host of
commandments

comfort zone
comfort zone

the dread spectacle of knowing
that one day for sure
you be
bound to
bite off

much more than you can chew

FELLOWS

is dream
about the dreamer

or the dream?

Kurt Godel
Zhuangzi
               Mauritz
Escher
         Italo
          Calvino

help
   me out
fellows    please re-
        direct me

sorry to
name-drop

this very thought
has got me tongue-
twisted lost
in the
labyrinth
that is the brain

and one if not
all of you

may just have the key

SUFI

inside
the egg

outside
the shell

in passing
through that veil
saw
that mosaic
shift
and change
piece by
piece

so
permeable
a being

so diffuse
thin
as breath

all that
I am

EVERYTHING

the daisy
chain you
are wearing
has become
barbed wire

but who foresaw
this transformation?
nailed it down
as per
causality?

I am moved by your poem
shed three and five tears
but
forgive me
if I am holding out
for an explanation

believe
poem can be
the key

to unlock
everything

AUNTIE

auntie
knows best

she banned
the sex pistols
and they
were
pure poetry

lampooned
the punk
sensibility

which lassoed her
back with a
lait of
barbed wire

sowed
satirical fire

telling her and
the whole damned
lot of them

their fundanental
humanity
left
a lot
to be desired

saw
before any of us

the hole in the heart
of this
terminally convoluted
self-
sabotaging self-
disregarding machine

auntie
knows best

she banned the sex pistols
not an idea
in her head

CARDS

let me
drift off for a
moment

step out
of the picture

read
the cards

get a prediction
of what awaits me
and, as
a matter of
implicit consequence

most
certainly the wider world

making me
a figure as iconic
as prophetic

a buttetfly fellow
whose every flap of
confusion
signifies story
to follow
eventual doom

CAMERA! LIGHTS!

CAMERA! LIGHTS!

camera! lights!
let’s shoot
this love scene

make it so authentic,
passionate,
nobody not
going to
suspend disbelief

realism, naturalism,
take your pick of those
what-you
-see-is-what-you-get
styles and genres

after which
we can watch the
dailies

catch the passion
before
it gets edited and

maybe
we get
to believe it is real too