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
COMPENDIUM
sorry to
bother you
drag you away
from what
you are doing
to tell you
to keep writing
writing writing
don’t let
them get to you
give me, a, compendium
show, me your heartfelt
give me
your best work
let them read
what you have written
watch their sky
turn turtle
power
of your
words
got them playing hopscotch
through textual minefields
so much horsepower
surging through this compendium
write what you want. every style and font
words long
as a
brontosaurus
tiny
as a flea
write
beautifully
write insanely
show
contempt
show respect and
true endearment
and, if they try to stop
you flex muscle
get your head down
flex all that muscle
write twice as hard
thrice as crazy
five
times as determined
expend energy
blow a gasket or
two
So
let them get
the message
my message to you
being
the thing we
got to keep shouting
KEEP WRITING
KEEP WRITING
write
to the death
my darlings
don’t let them
suppose, impose, repose,
ever presume to
presuppose
throw
the whole book to
get at you
yes, I think you’ve got it,
can hear it
bouncing around in your
head: keep writing writing writing
no compronises
the more they try
to stop you
the more you need
to bunker down
with paper
and pen
power through, say
what
you have to say
do
what you have to do
HEAVENLY
torture is Heavenly
after the rapture
you will have all
of blessed eternity
to devise the most
thrillingly painful
horrendous
punishments
to dole out
meatily
to the enemies of God
and the Nation we
are sworn to offend
how beautiful
it is, and feels, to
be one
thousand thousand
percent correct, utterly
holy and forever righteous,
given complete
carte blanche
to crush underfoot
bend to
our will
for
what matter
if a man
destroy the world
but lose his soul
the destruction of the world
always part of the plan
FIRESIDE CHAT
you thought it would be
a great idea, a jaunty
self – promotion
to give
us a fireside chat
be we all
got incinerated
before which
you told us a great joke
which you were sure
we would love,
respond with ratings-
boosting love
whose punchline just
so happened to
be that
we were all now at war,
update, quick correcton:
that we were
all dead in the war
nevertheless, we loved it,
your aporoval rating
simply shot through
the roof,
the recently-remodelled
trillion dollar roof and ceiling
whereupon
it went ballistic, fully hypersonic,
caught us terminally ill-
prepared as it
did shoot us
in the foot, and
running to you for
not in our price range, not
in any price range medical cover
you droned on at liberty
focusing on the extremity of doubt
written across the touch-screen
of all our citizen faces
swearing it was all AI,
we had been duped by
the extremely accurate powers
of falsification
generated in some
secret hostile media bunker
by pretty terrible
election-
stealing, fake
narrative AI
being dead, however,
we were by no means able
to respond to
or comment on the veracity of that
burnt to death
by your fireside chat
SAME
it’s, my birthday (again)
73rd in unbroken sequence
the one
I never thought i
would make
and talk of oneness
have a little here
shoved up
my sleeve
I just have to share
though, no doubt, you
have heard it
lived it
before
lived it in hearts
and diamonds
and now
spades
I sat in that library once
where we talked
joked
years later
watched burn
you the stellar figure
of those days
light
years ahead of me
and now some guy
publishing a short video
on social media
reminding us
all of us
you, me,
the rest of humanity
of those now
speedily forgotten
ancient truths
coming back to haunt
via truth revealed
in particle
accelerators
and though so far
so distant
so difficult, so much
a problem
so doubly entangled in
all my entanglements
there were
are
these moments
of ocean in the droplet, of
everlasting
connection
put quite simply
I have felt to my core
it’s my birthday again, next,
inshallah, will
be my
seventy fourth
a number
which before, so long
ago
creapt up upon me
as well
I believe you know
poems 2 die for