Damian Garside

EXPANDED

EXPANDED

come back
when I have expanded

come back when I’m
about to go galactic

right now I am going to
be trivial, sound run
of the mill
exploring how
my silly little brain comes
to terms with
my silly little life

like those word-
wizards oc this post post
late capitalist age

wearing their cheap
durable llastic accolades
as if
they were gods

ENDGAME

this is where it all ends
this is where my poem ends

every microcosm got
its King, got its Emperor
without their cast
iron rule
the Sun get sallow
the Sun get sick

every silver cloud could
be bringing rescue
deliver deus ex
machina

task force of the gods sent
to restore the power
of one-eyed man

and libraries within libraries
secret texts coded and
cross-
referring

I read
my name and number there
before I got
taken out

all these crevices
strung between
light
and its shadow

wondering what the abyss saw
when it looked into me and you

having come thus far
having loyally and
dutifully
travelled with me

what might you conclude
if this is where
it all begins?

GO FIGURE

GO FIGURE!

was in Heaven enjoying the brand name
slurping bubbling carbonated cola
through a golden straw

thinking of all
the people in my life
whose names I no longer remember
(don’t feel bad, or alone:
I no longer remember my own)

did they make the cut?
hey who the hell knows?
it’s all
immaterial

but life
lounging by the soda fountain
is not so cool — albeit eternal
when
stripped of all its chemicals
devoid of its additives

seems whoever is in
charge of censorship here

is letting me
express some alternative ideas

a bit of a blow to those
it must be
sacrificed themselves
for
Holy conformity, divine
regimentation

go figure!

GO FIGURE!

GO FIGURE!

was in Heaven enjoying the brand name
slurping bubbling carbonated cola
through a golden straw

thinking of all
the people in my life
whose names I no longer remember
(don’t feel bad, or alone:
I no longer remember my own)

did they make the cut?
hey who the hell knows?
it’s all
immaterial

but life
lounging by the soda fountain
is not so cool — albeit eternal
when
stripped of all its chemicals
devoid of its additives

seems whoever is in
charge of censorship here

is letting me
express some alternative ideas

a bit of a blow to those
it must be
sacrificed themselves
for
Holy conformity, divine
regimentation

figure!

CODE LETTER

You would not know it
I never would have guessed it

but I am.already information
overload

am millions of reams of
1s and Os
all my dualities rendered
binary, stored in
huge treasure troves of
on-off thinking
harvested by machines
whose very existence is
premised
on how
they can get me
to vote

what they
can get
me to eat

and you, oh lightning fast
magnificently electronically
minded
specimen that cannot
(you say and
say
and say again)
cannot
get enough of me

having been through
every sexual permutation
(by
funky rhythm and
algorithm
full tecnicolour word-
fest simulation)

every twist of my code
and nook and cranny
down
to last
subatomic particle

totallind all the bytes and bits
(adding subtracting multi-
plying and such
long-
dividing)

rewiring my brain almost
apocalyptically

IN THE BEGINNING

I was very small. I felt very small too: lying in my bed curiously warm, not frozen with fear.

The thing was massive and its violence was unimaginable. I heard the screams and the seconding sounds of slaughter through my bedroom walls, solid brick though they were.

Then there was silence. The dark shadow shape towering over me filling the room came through the door, then slipped into bed next to me as it did so diminishing in size and then disappearing entirely.

I knew it was there. I knew that it would remain with me forever. Sleep came quickly. As I slipped away I knew that this creature, this beast, this entity and I had an affinity. Whatever it was, whatever its nature it would be spending a lifetime with me.

Turning all the dark vision is churning my head into words, this would be its legacy and terrible gift.