Author Archives: Damian Garside

PENTATHLETES

PENTATHLETES

there is Hell to pay
in the non-fiction section

storms hurricanes temprsts
rising temperatures
signs of alien life

stuff creeping out of books
not even waiting
for anyone to read them

danger money for
sales assistants, librarians
as well

as they hack their way
to the undergrowth
to reach the stacks

no sign of an increase
seems like no one
of substance is
left in the union

no old style hero’s journey
pentathletes
able to have their backs

INVESTMENT

INVESTMENT

death pitched up
to teach me
how to divide by zero
and to determine
what his return
on his investment
would likely be
.
meanwhile, background
microwave radiation made
it difficult to hear him

and so I set
my soul into
freeze mode, so not
a molecule might move

went cold cold cold
in my
outlook,
philosophically speaking,

laissez faired every inclination
as far as could possibly be

MOON

MOON

In my grey dressing-gown
I feel and look like Jedi

solar consciousness figure
I suppose, no daimonic
Plutonic energy
running rampant if released
all to the power of two
by two

Ah yes!
dark life dark matter
dark energy

infra-crimson spectrum emission
from the ultra quantum soup

out of which blood chaos,
quite naturally,
radical individualism
sith vicious boy emperor
you do it my way
steam punk gladiator
in colosseum 360
sensurround to
google into gorgeous
reality
every single Roman Empire
be and wannabe
under every single (or
binary sun)

so let me
meld with snake and spider
and creatures chthonic
in my rainforest
on my swamp planet
whipping up
some steaming mushroom stew

or find some shade and water
(just a modicum) in the heart
of the desert

think of oasis somewhere
in the desert of my heart

grey is ash, grey is
sombre, grey is plaster

grey is everything that
yearns to be silver

yearns
to be animate
to be animation

to be turquoise, indigo
or royal blue ocean
to
rise in triumph
on a gigantic moon.

MOON

MOON

In my grey dressing-gown
I feel and look like Jedi

solar consciousness figure
I suppose, no daimonic
Plutonic energy
running rampant if released
all to the power of two
by two

Ah yes!
dark life dark matter
dark energy

infra-crimson spectrum emission
from the ultra quantum soup

out of which blood chaos,
quite naturally,
radical individualism
sith vicious boy emperor
you do it my way
steam punk gladiator
in colosseum 360
sensurround to
google into gorgeous
reality
every single Roman Empire
be and wannabe
under every single (or
binary sun)

so let me
meld with snake and spider
and creatures chthonic
in my rainforest
on my swamp planet
whipping up
some steaming mushroom stew

or find some shade and water
(just a modicum) in the heart
of the desert

think of oasis somewhere
in the desert of my heart

grey is ash, grey is
sombre, grey is plaster

grey is everything that
yearns to be silver

yearns
to be animate
to be animation

to be turquoise, indigo
or royal blue ocean
to
rise in triumph
on a gigantic moon.

MORE

MORE

thank you for inspiring me
filling my sails with zephyrs fair
so that I sail
around the cosmos
in next to no time

and running with the favour
of your sweet support

they pour out of me, the
symbols and images
that tell, in such
extravagant terms, of
how this power
now drives me

to achieve greater heights
and depths than ever before

and yet

you still inspire me more
insisting that
it is well within
your capacity for
sweet
reception and
assimilation

SQUARE MEAL

SQUARE MEAL

what are your
co-ordinates
in terms of ex, why and
zee axes
or the number and
letter of your
black or
white square?

here is Pac-Man singularity
gone full T-Rex devouring
all your pieces

and here I am
coming to save you
to tell you it is
all Maya, all simulation,

a game that is being played
through the complete joy
and abject pain
and horror

of all
its infinite possibilities

CHOICE

CHOICE

Shake off that dust and follow me.
We shall take this road
even less travelled than any
you have read about.

Just through this door
you call a gate
secret garden? you ask,
but in truth this is way more
in the nature of a secret world

so many covet, yearn to own,
failing which destroy,

for who should enjpy
such a world if
the freedom is not proferred
to subjugate it, colonize it?

so take in as much
as you can whilst we are here
commit to your heart
this set
of directions

and I shall leave you here
so fitting, indeed politic,
that I should disappear

honestly, I do feel
that this is
all I should say
am
permitted to say

indeed it may be said
to have
may be charged with
having spoken
out of turn, broken
the code,
said too much already.

But the thought that you might
guide
your soul’s
choice

here,
when you assuredly return.