1, poem, poetry, – Page 43

RENAISSANCE

then did the tree cascade

burst into fruit

a poem, two,
three even there
to be
found
on every leaf

none of them great, none
very good

it has to be said
(or perhaps just whispered)

BLESS

BLISS

here I am
conjugating the verb “blister”

where after
took a trek to the zoo
to escape (Mama taboo)
the schtick I was
taking in the zero point
quantum field

and you in your G string
playing the devil’s chord
entertaining
string as your
theory of everything

blitz attack it were
(forgive my dialect) when
you came
to seduce me

our ramshackle bits
that we might juxtapose
somewhat
surreal or
even psychedelic

shipwrecking me in the tropics
slave to fat climates

exercising your leverage
haughty in the knowledge
that woman
is subroutines, is
ex machina, is Grecian
statuesque chemical
factory
cosmic comedy, existential
tragedy
disjunction waiting
to happen

lured into those gardens
sheer abyss of bliss

fusion
is out there beyond the borderlands
of anything
possible

time beyond time if
we could but find it

place of riddle and parable
stamped in the image
of all that
ventures with trajectories

that
(for want of wings demonic
or distinctly angelic)
is suffered to stumble, crawl,
shuffle, hop and swing

sharp and lithe end
somewhere between
plain
writing stylus and hi-
tec Nile
crocodile

OR SO YOU BELIEVE

déshabillé
(or so you believe)

whereas I would say
too much is divulged
subtext is showing

paradigm so exposed
to the ruination of your reputation

need a cover up
heads to
spin

though my own stock-
in-trade be
scarcely golden

seems like you may just
have rushed too pre-
cipitously into
some bad
media alchemy

and now
are looking high and low
under every bombed structure
for each
and every collateral

making such a racket to
deflect our eyes
from the hypocrisy

the place
reduced to a desert
carnage
beyond words

sad that what might have
served poetry
bent out of shape to
sustain
the war industry

defend
death’s exceptionally

make the case for a rapture
thing so sickly sweet

will
annihilate the need for
theology
morality, humanity

basic kindness and love
the species professed to hold dear

TAIPAN

I do hope
these feeble offerings

meet expectations
blend in with perceptions

fit the ruling algorithm
work wonders in the wash
with
every colonial.mindset
under the Sun,
the skin-cancer Sun
likely to play havoc
with the
shade of our species

need to hit this one
not just out
of the park
but across the entire outback
(mustn’t
come boomeranging back
in any size shape or form)

or return
with that sour vomit reflux
that you
people antipodean
have just way too
many synonyms for

and so
as you see by my references
and appendix certification

I have not only
chosen wisely and well
but have measured every
word, graphene,
syllable using
precise laser alignment
and most exact
of micrometers

have filtered via pipette
to withhold any residue

what is left
should be
immune to distaste,
inoculated against deep scrutiny

unless somewhere in
the nature of the whole toxic
chemistry
produced a venom more
troublesome than
that of
the inland taipan itself
.

PLASMA (POEM FOR CARLOS SANTANA)

say it was gradual
no big bang but
some
kind of inflation

whereupon in this
fable
gas clouds gravity
stars
plasma

hydrogen helium
smorgasbord of elements

and you
subject of
every song

Muse of
every meditation

you every delicious atom
of your loveliness
from
an entirely different star

Oh baby
reminding me tonight
of that crucible
perfect furnace

and then
soul, word,
music

constellation
gnosis between galaxy
upon galaxy

ocean upon ocean

you wrestling with that
red python
on the Woodstock stage

(if you don’t mind me saying so)
cosmos coursing through you

KINO YVES

Yves
you swallow continents
pedalful at a time

expending more energy
than the whole of Europe
(no wonder
you eat so ravenously
and with such
miraculous delight)

Morning you guys. Let’s
get going Onward to Lusaka!

moon buggy astronaut of
the whole of
Africa
Emperor of handshake
in his slowly slowly chariot
of joie de vivre

“are you
for real?” they ask him
and
he does alter perceptions
pre-define reality

inexorably, beautifully
edging your way down to
Cape Town

bringing
out the best in us

all of South Africa it seems
waiting for you

screeching to an ecstatic emphatic halt

when, to their total belief
they see you, catch you,
pass you
dodging through Mother
City traffic

munching lunch
in their neighborhood

his little candle bringing
light to
us all

slowly, exquisitely slowly, guys,
wending its way
from France to
Agulhas

cape of needles, furthest point
South where
oceans meet

PLACE OF WORSHIP

I achieved
my spot

in this place of worship
found a pew to myself

unlike the time
when they had locked the door

had singled me
out for exclusion, railed
from the pulpit

my face published
in the prescriptions
nailed to the wooden door

silly me
to overreach
not to comply, my soul
(so young) still
deeply
wed to chaos, disorder,
anarchy

anything that reeked
of liberation

schism
with blind authority

COLOURS APART

cold world
cold war

trillions in debt so
we go submarine

stalking as only the most.
lethal can do

we are
in uncharted waters
following some sacred map
which shows no
colours of
possession

only rivers
and mountains

you can look to find
inhabitants but
they are
to small to be seen
to inconsequential to
be detected

even with
sonar, infra red
space telescopes,
electron microscopes

should you
prefer to use a magnifying
glass be careful
not to
focus that white
sunlight
incinerate carelessly

Oh that mentality
guess it comes with
is what you
get
with the studied
inculcation
of desire logic
labotomy

got to a place
here
where the labels don’t
stick
paradigm corrupts

and there we
look for and find you
spread-
eagled across all spectrums

split up through a prism

coming to me here
for plausible deniability

your only failing (not a sin!
not a crime!)
your unshakeable supremacy

SADALMELIK

SADALMELIK (Alpha Aquarii)

I tell
you that the stars
have Arab names

and that we might
calculate their distance
thanks to your algebra
.
Zero too
is a

beautiful concept

so much zero here
across these desert sands

there was life
but something subtracted it

bodies abound
even the sky fireworks
and shock waves

somehow
fails to wake them

arabesque
algorithm

the stars, the bodies
have Arab names

luckiest of the lucky
down to zero this night
in Palestine.

I tell you
the stars have Arab names.

RETURN

how do I read
your great stories, grand tales?

today I found you
crafting a supreme narrative

left me wondering if
it should reach me
how I should
withhold access
strive for
it not to get to me?

do not wish
to be accused of
complicity in this affair
subterfuge
in this region

stuff
   deeply subtextual, skimming
my surface,
            dropping decoys
                beneath all radar

returning deeply