IN PARENTHESIS
Long division
square root
she has gotten into the habit
of reading me like
a novella,
a very short book
backwards, forwards,
start to finish;
finish to start
goes overboard:
dividing, multiplying
working
her way
down and up, up
and down
searching for that quotient
hunting that
divisive dividend
her face
a picture of joy when
it comes
to multiples
(our
lowest common denominator
a value to espouse).
BUTTERFLIES
butterflies
are here
to remind him
of the truth
of transformation
and of
crazy causality
setting him off
on his own
transformation
which (they
never do)
did not go
exactly as
carefully planned
from which he did
not return as anticipated
in the form
that was expected
unsure
in his own mind
what
he had changed into
what he
was before
and whether, as his
brain was left simply
questioning
whether he
had left
and if, having left,
he had
managed to return at all
AFTER THE WATER TORTURE
after the water torture
what he feared
above anything
was the terrible, brutal,
focused power
of
a
single
rain-
drop
101
postmodernism 101
will be written
in the Mirror Room
make sure
you look good
and agree with
your reflection
before taking
the examination
the notes for Chaos Mathematics
will be issued on holograms
every
key theorem
broken into fractals
delivered
should systems collapse
by android
drone butterflies
well
before the hurricanes hit
the one caused by
the stress and
agitation
suffered by your
fellow chaos
students
writing the same exam
in China
****
COPERNICAN SYSTEM
tellers of tales
doctors of spin
the world
is a globe
it is
an LP record
it turns
with you, against you
within you and
without you
it is the Centre
of the cosmos
it is
a billion light
years from anywhere
screaming
ahead of
languishing behind
the times
common as muck, forever
plucking treasures
from the heavens
out
of the blue
****
RORSCHACH COYOTE STORY
swear I saw
a coyote testing me
not quite blotted out
motioning
for me to follow
teaching me right there
and then
every trick under
the Sun, aphorism
in the book
a wealth of key tactics
and strategies
to cover my trail
dupe this
queen of analysis
****
SET IN TIBET
I perused Tibet
conferred
with a Llama
found
wooly enlightenment
the exact
moment a star
went supernova
somebody’s Sun
exploding overhead
a million years ago
RIDDLE
who
am I
what are
we?
did any of me
manage to
ripple
through
or bump into you
heading my way
from
the opposite direction?
If so
I trust this was no kind of clash
only the softest
of encounters
as yet unlived life touching
yet unlived life
meeting at a cafe
we both conjured up
from somewhere
arguing over
whether it is
spaghetti or
fettucini as we did
once and therefore
must always do
the same ghostly liminal
coffee shop
that always somehow
is deternined to
serve us pasta
and being
a coffee shop
we both scan the tables for
the archetypal presence
of existential philosophical
and literary intellectuals
huge heavy hitters
conceptually speaking
who have
no idea how
wondrous a fallacy it
would be
to take on the grounds
of consciousness alone
everything here
(as the
regulars believe) is
incontravertibly real
****
LET THE POEM FAIL
let the poem fail
allow its words
to slur against
the grindstone
halt
to such
an idea!
under our (your and my) watch
no King shall fall
no Queen tumble
no
sans coulotte tumbril
(marking
a change in style)
taxi these
sweet royals to
a one and done audience
with this most
sharp-
spoken of Madames
yes, and no
booby-trapped package
to drop
through some
key letterbox
escaping our surveillance
promoting
the cause of anarchy
and
God forbid we fail
to deflect
that burning fuse cocktail
named after Mr Molotov
landing
bull’s eye
in your breakfast cereal
putting
fire in your tank
adding punch to your day
let us
leave this here, all
to fate these
terrible days
let the poem fail
it has no
power
except to
say
what it says
****
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
in constructing
your ideal world
use all the elements,
heavy metals
Providence has provided
except
polonium
except
uranium
except
plutonium
all together now
shout it out so loudly
that there can
be no one anywhere
on the planet
that does not hear it
except plutonium
plutonium plutonium
keep
repeating this
until this metal
kills us all
O PROSPERO
the waves
go Charybdis
swallow you
syllable by
magical syllable
I search for an analogy
but Polyphemus devouring
navigators is
the best that I can
come up with, limit
to what my mind can do
and with that
all this wizardry, command
of the firmament
is at
its end
and with its end
the island sinks slowly
like a torpedoed galleon
slides under
a grateful ocean
desperate for repossession
everything best
in the fulfillment of this desire
saved for last
WHEN
When time got reversed
the plan was
to sail backwards
across the sea
undiscovering everything
magically, one by one
things disappeared: chilies,
popcorn, burgers, chocolate,
tobacco, tomahawk missiles,
baseball, gridiron, surfing,
rap, hop hop, jazz, blues,
slavery and potatoes,
Pickett’s Chsrge
Hiroshima and
the Normandy landings
the world
becoming a bit
less fun but
remaining that
much greener
and nuclear winter at
most a crazy science fiction idea.
JUNCTURE
Rethinking poetry
my pen screeched
to a halt at the frontier
between two words
two worlds
uncertain of how to
or whether it had
the right to proceed
at which juncture
the seasons came
and went
the climate shifted
and the poem
moved of itself, springing
to life
finally allowing itself
to slip in
and out of gear.
GUESS
I guess it counts
as a comedy
albeit one
of grotesque proportions
me in my tiny cell
monk-like, drafting
page of page chockablock
full of strange improprieties
whilst the world
convinces itself
it has
to act under the imperative
of ridiculous warp and
crazy tangent
chasing that absurdly logic
punchline
where it knocks
itself out
delivering a healthy dose
of brain damage
beating up
on its own face.
poems 2 die for