Author Archives: Damian Garside

DEAD PERFECT

DEAD PERFECT

no one, nothing
has ever moved
across this dead planet

I feel we can safely concludd this
though more scrupulous
scientific analysis
might
say something different

and yet
here I am
in the picture

there is a world out there somewhere
in an expanding universe
dead perfecf match
for this one here
before us
now, of
which we speak

the planet
looking back at us
seeing, not seeing,
perhaps
even conceptualizing

there
being physics in
these rocks a serious mathematics

in the current uncertanties
regarding a history of life

and speculation about
what might well have
been a purple sky
before
something
may well have
absconded
with the atmosphere

STAR BRIGHT

STAR BRIGHT

sapphire blue star
at my window

and you with a dish full
of technicolour mushrooms
figured
even with
the blessing of Vega
this is
just too early
in the morning for
over the rainbow

but the magic in those fungi
such that
a tin-
brained man can
solve such
complicated equations
as any red-eyed billion terrabyte
wizard
locking the pod bay
or monolith
on the Moon

SHUFFLE

Shuffle through selves
as though through cards

Tarot cards
really ancient, origin
God knows where

that reek of dark
and translucent magic

and here
is the Empress, all
Aphrodite
she I was most faithful to
in the face of
steep disregard

her beauty, as you see here,
leaving me floundering
leaving me speechless

reading in the arcanas
the failures of my journey
as I cling to
this mask trying to
keep it secure as
it slides down
my face

the tragi-comic smirk
moulded there
mocking my feeble
attempts and onrushing failure
as I grope in
this swallowing darkness
for some
kind of illumination
some
kind of source perhaps there a

complete reading, a divination,
the wisdom
that I need

if there is wisdom
you always telling me
we can
find the wisdom
(so Empress-like
in everything
you
do).

MUPPET

MUPPET

as Niner fans go
I’m a real muppet
(must be one
to think we would
get
to the Superbowl,
the fourth quarter
of our
last visit
firmly behind us)

so call me a muppet
— go on, trumpet that truth
(truth of
your perspective
as you
limitedly see it)

leave me in my cuddly
muppet comfort zone
believing my eyes
and the logic
of analysis

so many fans here bandying
it around
at every opportunity:
muppet muppet muppet

were that they
could have such charm,
wit and
be that
cuddlesome
(or meet
a muppet of
power that might
tear
off their heads)

LINGER

LINGER

unspeakably glad
you have
taken time

to read this poem
stepped outside the habitus
of your time zone
embraced relativity
treated each
word as special

allowed
your mind to linger
dally with the craziness
of each idea

such time to spare
such acumen, breadth
and depth

all of
which

a function of our modern
exponential economic
and social development transforming our

time space
space time
mindset

rendering our
reality much
more malleable, elastic,
receptive

which
you so most
beautifully exemplify if

you
have made it so far

HORRIFIED

HORRIFIED

so many
a dastardly dragon, big bag wolf out there
slavering
at the mouth to
make mincemeat of
your fable, all
fairytales, itching
to dismantle the projector,
tear
the film
to little pieces
shred our victory scene all
over
the cutting room floor

but you
stabbed in the back
sent out into battle with
bogus plan
and cardboard armour

leaving even the ferociously
hostile wolves and dragons galore
totally shocked at
the unbelievable mismatch

suddenly human again
horrified to the core