Damian Garside

UNDER SCRUTINY

will it all
bear scrutiny?

I have also
drooled over these
Michelin star hotels
and restaurants

hoping that they will survive
that you will not
summon me to
destroy

such
a golden circle of elegance

haute couture people
dining haute cuisine

too exquisite one feels
for them to ever to
be put
to my diabolical test

force them to answer
my ultimate question

subject them to such a
basic law of mass
and speed

turning the heat up
on their politics, empathy,
economic principles

a tad below that
of a million suns

SMORGASBORD

we were
cooking together
hot
at work
in the kitchen frying,
grilling blanching, searing,
working to bring
out the transformative
best of every ingredient

making magic
performing alchemy

and then in the afterglow
of taking everything
to super
high temperatures

harvest of all our efforts
much food there for
us to crazily enjoy

dishing up
a breakfast buffet to
reward out efforts

nothing less in the savoring
than a full smorgasbord

SMOOTH

smooth
so soft
and smooth

which is
how I imagine you

rising up before me
like Aphrodite springing
out of the ocean

the taste of those waters
flowing through
every
beautiful molecule

SLEEPER

I had a dream
.which I can”t remember

maybe
I forgot it

or maybe somebody
came to mr
whilsr I was sleeping
snuck up
close and
put a bullet
through my head

not a
dream I was
supposed to have

PLATEAU

it is a beautiful planet
a picture postcard world
without parallel

or once was,
somewhat in decline these days

but still, sadly,
a place of
barbarity, foreboding, danger
she dark imaginings
amongst
it’s most extreme creatures

place where
grace is
lethal
colour is camouflage

and things
have learnt the vital lesson
never to
seem
exactly what they be

and here we now return
after so much time
to see
how much has changed
how much
remained the same

what exceeded
and what fell short of,
far short of,
our expectations

must be something in
the atmosphere
so inimical, utterly
resistant to
growth in awareness
movement to understanding

breathtaking when
you consider the lost potential

this need to settle
for
permanent impasse

level
down to
low plateau

PINNACLE

just after
mind melds
involving
the big five
in Kruger

I climbed Annapura,
Lhotse and, what’s its
name?
Oh, yes,
K2

backpack full of
bottles of
oxygen
for the death zone

plus
packs of wors and
jumbo cans of beer

for what use is
summiting if
you can’t
have a party?

hacksaw blade stuck
under my arm conveniently

that up on the pinnacle I
could Table Mountify
everything

make it
nice a flat for
cable cars and those
who
ascend for a view

SHEET MUSIC

no more poems
to come
between
us

no more
lines of
loss and
longing
to twist
the wrong way

only
bland conversation henceforth
subject matter set
to the
usual and everyday

stuck on
ultimate respect and
regard for
the space
between us

no poem
hereafter

ever going to wrap us
between the sheets

PERFORMATIVE

called in
a psychologist

to do
my rewiring

a young man
from
Zurich

who
left me
positive
negative
in the dark

with all his
talk
of polar archetypes

and selfless shadow work

PLATEAU

it is a beautiful planet
a picture postcard world
without parallel

or once was,
somewhat in decline these days

but still, sadly,
a place of
barbarity, foreboding, danger
she dark imaginings
amongst
it’s most extreme creatures

place where
grace is
lethal
colour is camouflage

and things
    have learnt the vital lesson
never to
      seem
   exactly what they be

and here we now return
after so much time
to see
how much has changed
how much
remained the same

what exceeded
and what fell short of,
far short of,
our expectations

must be something in
the atmosphere
so inimical, utterly
resistant to
growth in awareness
movement to understanding

breathtaking when
you consider the lost potential

this need to settle
for
permanent impasse

level
down to
low plateau

TUNE

just dust

I am
just dust

living
dust

already almost
altogether

piece of the pattern merely
a note
a chord maybe
a line
a stanza
never a whole song
or story

scratchy old time
like Loony Tunes
first cartoon music

a whim
of gravity
speckle
of light

me or the cosmos
toss up here
as to
the more
unfathomable