HOW
how may I awaken
when still locked
into the dream
that is
beautiful death
dreaming my love
for you
loving
the dream of you?
we touch, we consume,
believe as souls
we have become
one, are
now tethered together
but
where to
after this ecstasy, our
bodies fulfilled, spirits
unable
to soar
too reticent
to fly
towards, away from,
all that we believe we
know, all that we
know
we believe we require?
CHILDREN OF OUR TIME
“Like the Grateful Dead”
“HAIR” (1979)
Children of our time
that time
run its course
we
run our course (well,
almost)
but not before
we made our mark,
went discovering, opened
up, had our fun
had the hair
(mine all
gone)
whatever it was
love, poetry, sex, politics,
community, cosmos, peace,
dope (and more
love
wherever possible)
we tried to
rock with it, be like stars,
Children of our time, whatever
they say today
(so fallen
from grace flat on
their faces)
nothing like us
they just don’t make
our like
anymore.
CRAWL
the pace quickens
words
begin to slow
lines become erratic
lose their measure
garble what you write
mix up the things you know
sense of time
and memories founder
blurring what was
and never
could have, been
bending the very idea
of identity, this identity,
now less, much
much less, and, more,
so much more
different
from all it seemed
JUSTIFIED
he had
a good heart
but a splinter
of hot steel
got through
his kevlar
he had
a good brain
but the commander’s
tactics
were not
up to scratch
he knew love
but that love
fell
into bitterest
sorrow
do not
look to this man
and tell me
your war
was justified
SUDDENLY SOVIET
suddenly one morning
woke up transformed
no old
nostalgia for
Cold War days
but fully newborn
Soviet
ready to
assume my place
as Commissar, apparatchik, or
on the sly, samizdat
publishing
poetic
dissident
that the West
would fete, and defend
and love
until
Glasnost days and
the walls all fell
at which
(so quick
to change their mighty tune)
suddenly
they
didn’t
NOT DRINKING THE
CURRENT KOOL-AID
was drinking
some Nazi Germany
orange soda drink
fantasizing a la
the high castle science fiction alternate history
Californian imagination
of Mr K Dick
easier to
drink Fanta than
chew on the nose cone
of a V2 revenge
weapon, of doodle bug
physically
impossible, also
politically incorrect if
not total verboten
which
nevertheless, does
suggest an interesting point
of entry
from which to
launch into a Gravity’s Rainbow
type World War two
darkly surreal
satirical fantasy
now more than ever
apt for our age
and yet
as for that war, its
truth (if such a thing)
after so many remakes,
hand-held camera moments
of Normandy carnage,
historical revisits,
re-
interpretations
have any
clear (not constantly
shifting) sensible
appraisal of
what it
meant (and means).
for
if yesterday
is different era
must be
ancient history, dawn
of man we
are talking
about here
tickling my palatte
these soda bubbles
not gas
in a canister
produced to required
specifications by
FARBEN I. G.
WHAT I LEARNT FROM THE MARQUIS
oil or
powder?
presume this
an invitation
to pleasure
start of a
workshop
or torture
the dividing line
between them
so dangerously thin
alternatively,
so lithe
and slender
as I read in your life’s
work
dissertation
about all such things
DOWN THE STREET
heavily disguised
beauty herself in person came
walking past
neither close nor
giving a wide berth
to me
did not speak:
not a word
not a glance
best response possible
given prior
misadventures
seriously sad encounters
(though one or two
with great physical
moments
memories burned
into my consciousness)
all of which colluding, conspiring,
to stick me here in
this rather unique
place as
unique places go
beauty always
heading down the street
moving away
from me
heading into the distance
leaving to me to remember,
kill the dream, forget
FINALLY
finally
I am acclimatizing
can see
things changing
things that
hitherto
put up
such strong resistance
but now
am moving past them
saying goodbye
to all such
finally
ready for life,
equipped for death
SUCH WORDS ENRICH EVERYTHING
truffle
trifle
kerfuffle
trouble with tribbles
such words
enrich everything:
entice,
entrap
create new worlds
and get you
locked into them
let me mathematically model
our relationship, as we
compare and contrast
ourselves to
the automobile, Lamborghini,
Ferrari, most
beloved invention
known to
man
but as car
we go
one further: such
immaculate tuning, engine
that needs
to run on
essential oils to
take good care of itself
where
when it comes to ignition
nought to
three hundred in
way less than sixty
to outdo that
you have to go F-16, F-18,
say goodbye
to Bugatti Veron
but less of this
heading towards story
of the Great Man
heading at speed
huge velocity aware from
steering clear
of that
particular interpretation
going through the gears
sliding
through the S bends
and shooting through the chicane
truffle
trifle
tiffle
kerfuffle
ruffle
rifle
riddle
such words empower
do their thing for you
fast feed
from a clip with
the majesty of
a Kalashnikov
as with all
things that are forever,
constantly recurring
such supreme mechanical
beauty in the endurance
of this machine
coupled with
rate of fire
poems 2 die for