Author Archives: Damian Garside

CLUB 51

CLUB 51

you might
have your own emoji

tic-tac the technics
out of the Nimitz

come within a hair’sbreadth
of light speed
use anti-
gravity propulsion
to open up wormholes

but your doughnut
teapot boomerang machines
really are the pits
of science fiction

look at
the Discovery, the Nostromo, the Enterprise
next time
you hit the drawing board

what use it being
simply aeons ahead
if you
also good
for a laugh?

you got those anti-matter
particles working
for you
overtime

but to the luxury lounge
please Mr Spock
show them
style
show them
the haute
in our cuisine
and
couture

HOW


HOW

How can you buy Manchester United
for all that money, what
do you think
    you are going to get?

Theatre of Dreams: yes, I can see
the origin of the intensity
of your attraction
      but do dreams sell well,
are they easy to
package
    and stamp with a logo
cultivate as a brand?

and where, Oh
where
    are those funds
going to be coming from
what
starvation wages will
provide that King’s ransom once
the profit creamed off?
or
gushing non-
renewable  source of our death
by
    melting of icecap and
sea set
    to swamp us
or cloud of bad gas destined to
asphyxiated us

the game
        needs people
the game
        needs health

and joy that rushes
through every muscle and fiber
not pretty
          propaganda picture
to dupe a world unthinking
nor
    syphoning off real money
leaving an
              ocean of
endless debt.





STARE

STARE

STARE

I stared at a stick
for too long
    suddenly it

snaked away
      became rod
and staff
became a scepter

became a stick to help
me hobble away
from the damage that
words like these
are always creating

for those who need
tapestry, mosaic, pattern,
mandala

            not ripped
from the wall

kicked
    in the face

however much it happen
with ancient style, and grace.

BAMBINO

BAMBINO

BAMBINO

“Vivam!” Ovid,
“Metamorphoses”

so, bambino,
you wish to discover
life’s dark secrets
    cannot wait until
you mature enough
to mesh in perfectly
with the official orthodox sanctioned
screwed up version

and so
    your childhood has been ruined
by sudden advent of
erotic imagination

in my writerly stupidity me
thinking any
        imagination in this
corporate dystopia
got to be good

and that
      now your English way
better than ever my
French, or indeed
                  my surreal Latin

now you
        the new Henry Miller
on your
    way to next
    Shakespeare

TOP HAT

TOP HAT

I knew I was in trouble
when
at long last

rabbit refused
to jump out of the hat

ten years ago since last we talked
and you there in Puritan country
proposing outrageous
textual adventures
would test my
erotic imagination
to its limit

we lose people
find them lose
them again

and there are exoplanets out there
barren rock, weird jungle

but not a shred of poetry

but if
you find death in a stone
surely there might be
consciousness
even in a stick

stick
stick figure
stick tree roots of
a civilization transformational
generative language

consciousness leaks into
that microbe rich pond
and soon
sky is the limit

soon your saucer
is landing next door

you preaching to me about
humanity needing
to save itself, such
a selfish, self-destructive species

and me so wanting to
go cosmic with you
sublimate all aggression

rabbit
gone billion necessitating
nuclear
me suddenly so clear
about to
square peg hole
it in that
top hat

DECLINATION QATAR

DECLINATION QATAR

Oh we going to be rich
that fossil fuel money
gushing all over us
we can buy anybody
we can
strip the firmament
take all the stars become
supreme galacticos
no need to
ask the price just
funnel into
Old Trafford
lock, stock and barrell

and here we are sitting
atop the Super League
playing the other
Nation-owned teams
to realize our
dream of a world
of huMANity (Manchester)
United less, of course,
the people not
to care about
(including many of
our global own)
swept
under the carpet

No thanks but no thanks

on second thoughts

your kind kind offer
being who we are

we just have to decline it