SCRY
I scry
the world
through
smokey quartz
whereby
whatever
visions I see
always
remain guarded
steeped
in cold blood
close to the bone
I scry the stars
through the same
dark crystal
knowing as with us
and our blue
bright planet
out in that darkness
nothing remains what it first seems
B
ASS
listen
observe
I sense here
a mad dialectic
right wing
left
wing
left brain right wing
not excluding
all that stuff
still left
in the centre
left and right of centre
talking opposing fighting
negotiating
brought to
the boil
coming to head
pain
in the ass
virus finding the door
wide wide open
no need to burrow
drill
right through the skull
SEE (C)
Cincinnati
cinnamon
what’s in a consonant?
what’s in a syllable?
you taste
of cinnamon
such a strong striking taste
lingering on my tongue
(and my tongue
knows lingering
learnt it by heart
from great ancient manuscripts
I love strong flavors
tastes that linger
grow on you
down there where
as you descend
zone
grown delicious
and there
deeper down
freshly ground
maybe I will stall
entangled in the roots
of first fatal tree
which I believe
just had to be cinnamon
here we are
sneak a look
spell out
all you can see (C)
BREATH
fish swam
as fishes do
because they
like to have to
kind
of by definition
saw something bigger
swimming her way
something very unfish
too big to be fish
even ancient Megalodon
to big to be any
aquatic creature, sea mammal
thing
with whirling propellor
yet quiet
as a mouse
super stealthy multi-
megaton mouse
mouse in a mask
in a soundproofed house
seemed to fish
that it needed to
take
big breaths
so many tubes symmetrical
huge breathing tubes
would have
to open them all
breathe
through them all
one two three four five
six sixteen
gigantic
arrayed in
pairs
all the way
down its back
its sleek
deadly back
BREATH
fish swam
as fishes do
because they
like to have to
kind
of by definition
saw something bigger
swimming her way
something very unfish
too big to be fish
even ancient Megalodon
to big to be any
aquatic creature, sea mammal
thing
with whirling propellor
yet quiet
as a mouse
mouse in a mask
in a soundproofed house
seemed to fish
that it needed to
take
big breaths
so many tubes symmetrical
huge breathing tubes
would have
to open them all
breathe
through them all
one two three four five
six sixteen
gigantic
arrayed in
pairs
all the way
down its back
its sleek
deadly back
3I
piece of
space rock
encroaching
if that be the correct verb
for thing absolutely
shunting it
fastest of the insanely fast
top of its class
which
speed and
basically everything else
our state of the art
Maths and Physics
can
say nothing about
every thesis and
theorem instantly
black holed
pure nickel
pure nickel
not even conceivable unless
metallurgy manufactured
Nature
caught us napping
never told us
how much out
there is
left field
things like that
keen to just fly by
take
a good luck at us
(though
without brain, without
eyes
probabilistic freak out
presumably most certainly
REAPER
thought roses
inappropriate
so sent you
a bouquet
of Carolina Reapers
could not be
more scarlet
brutally
scarlet
emblem of
the fire
of my love
AT A STRETCH
things inhibit
us
curtail us
bend us
this way and that
to conform
to their way
things
project us extend us
the marvel of your music
case
in point
stretching me, reinventing me,
pushing me past
everything I once figured
about
bend, not break
thin as a string
as the one Hawking
was looking for
vibing with
you
up
but equally
out there
somewhere between
the edge
of garden and
precincts of infinity
IN FACT
liminal zone
masquerading
as downtown coffee shop
me (par
for the course) all
over
the place
me and my chatbot
me and my avatar
three-
some plus one
table for four
double dating, rearranging,
exchanging, explaining
hard to impress
these doyens of
hard tech
with native wisdom
have mapped every
fact retrospectively
through our
entire
human history
every bit byte whatever you
binary system call it
every
universal snapshot
all those juicy, revelatory
life changing snippets
of resounding
information
we in our
divine hubris
just so happen to forget
TOUCHSTONE
trick of the light!
the poem
was there
all along
just had
to be uncovered
unless excavated
dug up
out of that trench
fished from
that pond
traced back to
its pathway through
your
ocean of smart
quick-fire synapses (not
to mix
metaphors at this crucial point)
for here we
outdo ourselves (or would if
we knew
our power, how easily
we could)
sail that sea of combinations
cross continents of
possibility at
what in reality must
be light speed
test
the horizon of galaxy as
we find ourselves
infinity bound
backwards forwards pitch, yaw
and roll
from here we can
head in
any direction
rounding the cape
from interior to exterior
and me
so softly, soundly touched,
rounding you (or
so I must believe)
here at
the heart of simulation
sublime deception
exactly as I dream
poems 2 die for