Author Archives: Damian Garside

PECULIAR

PECULIAR

I am human being
a peculiar species of alien

my value
    as creature, as individual
varies

between tuppence for
basic bagful of
chemical contituents
and millions for
anyone unlawfully
injuring
     or slandering me

and here I am
steeped in the species wisdom
of a few
    thousand years

willing to share
       before you summon
the strength

to
sweep my off
     your doorstep,
                     stick me
in a
hold with cargo
  
on the backseat
of a plane

thanking me for my visit
that I

peculiar as it all
                   now sounds

do
            not return again.

SCORPIUS

SCORPIUS

Last time I saw you
it was middle of November
just after your birthday

you were with someone
who looked alien
on the dark
side of the Moon

Scorpius was at its zenith
and you wwre discussing
telekinesis, expanded
consciousness
and meme
transmission

wbklst I stood quiet
as a Sentinel
         unobserved

as I had been through
each of a host of
                   less
than celestial
shapes
     and incarnations

defined by the demeanor each
                      tragic loss
to survive.

UNLESS

UNLESS

the meek shalt
inherit the Earth

unless
the meek
are beneath
contempt

snake slithering
leopard crawling
                     bellies
scraping desert
sand or
      black soil

leading you to think
no
   response has been planned
no strategic trap

your low
    and high roads
                       so undermined

Ah yes,
        the Earth as promised
will be theirs

their force an army too
huge, top astute,
     to meek
and mild

        to suffer defeat, be
any way cheated

I say “unless”
          but this is certainty

DOOR

DOOR

there
is a gate
between
us

one of us
cannot, dare
not enter

the other
has the power

there is a
gate
   between us

exactly as, and
totally different from,
how it looks

gate eternal, gate temporary
provisionsal
               and stop-gap barrier

contrary to what
you have told eveybody,
have told me

there is a gate between
                                    us
nothing
        like a door

SO SURREAL

SO SURREAL

O (for black hole)
it has become so surreal
so much
   tunneled under I no
longer feel the ground
to be
   safe
       under my feet

no place to shelter
no place to hide

they sow fire and death
from above, supersonic vampires
(must give our
    instant mistrust to
mythology
        of eagle)

so
  messed up and mixed
the blood that God (so you
tell me)
wants
   to keep apart
        churned together so thick

and who can
demarcate, who can divide

madness from reason, demonic
from divine
     Heaven from Hell?

and you don’t
   have to read up on rapture
to know we are
in Hell

except that place is pure evil,
unmitigated by
                this stupidity
                              that we
see all around us, bombarding us
from all screens

definitve of humanity (no not
science
    or philosophy)

and there are
        chasing the white rabbit
wondering why

no sign of Oz

just bad stand up politicians
so horrible at comedy

should say

              truly terrible
and leave it at that

O for black hole
(this Universe not going well)

SHOW ‘N TELL

SHOW ‘N TELL

show me
your love
don’t
     tell

correction!
after a week of
show
    24/7

words
    have been earned

will
enshrine, augment

then you can tell;
     then we can tell

enthral each other forever
Ooooo in
       the way we
        tell, tell, tell