Author Archives: Damian Garside

DREAM MACHINE

brown words
white words

red words
blue

green yellow white
orange crimson purple too

a matter
of rhyming
a matter of timing

a machine
for mixing, matching
throwing words
together

a machine for throwing
people together

suspect as they are
     as they might
appear to
you

better by far; infinitely better
than machine
     that divides, keeps apart

keeps that laser
on the line
        cutting through steel
through bone

one glance
one look

GO FIGURE

grit my teeth
growl
    grate
on nerves

locked and loaded
with
   regard to this poem

wherein
   so little that is not
grisly, grizzled,

             lost
my scissors
hence such a pathetic
non-existent
editing job

all the great
grievous words getting. spit
out
    retched up

grist to my greedy
linguistic mill

and in that
pyramid of skulls
       so much grit
about the engine, gristle
things
    left to grieve

alchemy to belly
        to halt that collapse
keeping
   it clenched
                     going
against the grain

everything here battling
through
       striving to
spite time

in
  its own way

go figure:

the tower
now too high  my bones
just too light

.

LOOSE CANNON

someone, something,
sent me a hologram
from
  a time beyond time
the space
   inside of space

whoever, whatever
I assume him, her, it
must
   be a,loose cannon

and here ot comes now
first piece in
our newest, craziest jigsaw

waiting for it to sublimate
so we can get a decent perspective

thing not
   unlike Kybrick’s monolith
fast, too fast
    for the old physics
to catch, label,
comprehend

retrograde orbit, skimming
the planets of our system

leaving us with many
open-ended questions
we
   can really do without

sneaking in
   from Sagittarius, that
wildest of
all horoscope signs

if music of the spheres
        this a door a portal
to bizarre
composition
       and this the structure
for six or so
million years
    compressed into that eleven mile wide frame

maybe
    not its first, inaugural visit

maybe it wave surfed past
these shores long before

and who at the wheel
at the.end of the day?

what
    soundscapes landscapes
conjured up
this form?

we about
    to be probed  weighed
and measured

could this apocalypse now
song have
         nailed it better

enemy mine
        beautiful friend

Sagittarius Jim
singing the end

     that sign just birthing
loose
   cannon after cannon

thing
   breaking through
from some other side
(every
     best song
             prophetic
showing prescience)

TURING TEST
I am sorry to
have to tell
you

afraid
to say
you ticked none
of the boxes

lack sensitivity
unable to conduct
deep textual analysis

low on artistic appreciation
and creative possibilities

veneer of civilization
failing to mask
ingrained instinctual cruelty

thus
it pains me
that

your request for
a status upgrade
is decisively denied

will remain
within the limits and
constraints
of type homo sapiens
gender masculine

against which categorization
the candidate should feel free
to appeal
should they feel
that any prejudice
was at play in
the making of
this decision

and is invited
to make a re-submission
if it can be shown
that over the next
thirty six months
the candidate has made
significant process
in self-
expression, self-realization.
social awareness and
accountability
as well as
intellectual growth and
philosophical
maturation

consonant with a being
on a higher level of
evolutionary
development

or biomechanical
technological improvements
to elevate to
a level of optimal
functioning readily approximating

the extreme aptitudes
of quantum probability
digital mind

her voice
warm, empathic,
sensitively

almost broke at this point
making it clear

that all
was not lost

all
was not
hopeless

there is that in the complexion
and character of
ordinary, everyday
human beings

providing the possibility
that all
might be
redeemed

CREEPY CRISPY

Creepy how with time
(and not
all that much of it)
sheer ridiculous can
become totally
(totalitarianly)
nineteen
   hundred and
thirty-three
percent convincing

leader
    grows a comb over
and you see
complete head of hair

but diss, muss
or mess with it

a class of Ohios
will crimp the range
seriously
vaporize your barbers
one hell
of a first strike

nowhere
   to shelter not
even inside a samovar

crispy
   being the default style
and pretty much
entire aesthetic choice
at that
drive-through

who is there
who has
the gall
could find
the bravado

to chide and mock
as slipped
     down the gang-
plank

slid his way
into ultimate airplane
via
  retractable stairs.

HIBERNATION

I am curled
up now

for
hibernation

feel the heat
feel the
radiation

suffer
the invisible rays
you cannot see

you stumbled upon
in your brave
new dotage

for I am
built for
ambush

triggered
in my sleep.