1, poem, poetry, – Page 48

BITE OF THE APPLE

BITE OF THE APPLE
“I don’t like cities,
but I love New York.”
Madonna

Men have
been blown here
before

wandered
off course,

many
(akin to Odysseus)
into the Aegean
across
the Mediterranean

so much of that culture
alive on these streets

and whilst
(slice
of life) they
while away time whittle
down the hours

Patti Smith is going
full barefoot channeling Rimbauf

someone one there too
Christianized Jew
mournful
singing the apocalyptic signs
all along the watchtower

everything with soul
heading for this harbor

cataclysm of Europe
strongest of
land breeze

what is the supreme
text that we have faith
here gets
written

skyscraper high
scrawled on every wall

PROMISED LAND

succubi
could not keep their
claws, feelers,
hands,
tentacles (the whole
caboodle) to themselves
or whatever

and she
of snake coronet and
stony glare

stood as an edifice
rock
of ages in
a desert of desire

inclined if for just
a foretaste, foreshadow,
to prostrate
herself before him

there to find her, fix her, frenzy her, feed
her,

fashion her into
something the gods who
thus condemned her
might not
fully comprehend

running those serpents
through his fingers

sifting for gold through
her every
grain of sand

turning her click back
way before history

right to the border
of all (so-called) promised land

SHADOW WORLD

like a
shadow on
a bridge in
Hiroshima

some things
are destined
to
remain

FIRE

hardly poetry
in motion

I slip and fall face-first
the ball dribbling away from me

the goal at my mercy
the very gods of association
football
begging me
to score

before that over
the bar
past the post, every
shot off
target

something askew
with my sinews
what
it just has to be

one day I shall write this
as if it were just
bad
dream
not painful reality

drafting like a maniac
on my mobile phone

I may just
out of nowhere
bring into being
a cannonball
of a poem

artifact smooth and deadly
with that force that
be the product of
mass and
acceleration

crack open any
defence readers
might prepare

(ultimate answer to
so many misfires)

ONLY ROCK AND ROLE MODEL

they played black music
darker than anybody
these white English boys
demonized
by the establishment
in trouble with the constabulary

those
guardians of the imperial peace
ridiculous in their choice
of millinery

and here they are
seeking shelter
that goat of
a lion
prancing across
the stage with s striped
plants Gaga

hooked on twelve bar but
soon that skin
was shed
and your tunes stuck
their claws into me

lesson after
brain-twisting lesson

voodoo voices
soaked in ragged truth

needed something mesmeric
to get ms through
years of
strrrtfightimg

only rock
and roll they claim

give me
a break

CLEAR

it is the cracks and crevices
that one must probe, be eager
to peer into

willing to follow to
whatever logical conclusion
it lead to, even if this
be a crevasse

or deep marine trench
such as some
oceans be renowned for

and here I am
in that liminal space
between parking
lot and Mall
snacking on Sushi
as I stroll towards
a fast food joint

no need
to name them, they are
a household word

and there in a crack in
the new pavement
a leaf green
grasshopper
minus
a few legs getting
swept up
by a broom

same green that be as
the Kawasaki racing green
of my old
cafe racer
motorcycle

such out of
   the everyday stuff
not difficult to
spot if
   you take
a look.         can see

and me
always on the alert for
glitch in the program, mis-
quote
in the subtext

the Zen of the mindful
from
the stupor of
all that is
empty, hide bound and
mindless

razor edge thin, which
is why
we stay clear

LIKE A BILLIONAIRE

LIKE AN BILLIONAIRE

I’m shopping
like a billionaire

the app
revolutionary
the benefits fabulous

am in a digital paradise
buying whatever
I desire
purchasing everything

bonds and stocks
trusts and shares

my house full to its limits
stacked floor to ceiling

rsilways, hotels,
airports and harbours,
vast tracts
of underdeveloped land

got me feeling like a billionaire
carving up the world
on this
unbelievable app
full
of such radical potential

hundred dollar
sandwich
as yet unbitten into

there to fix my hunger
should I get round to eat.

MURAKAMI

MURAKAMI
“you must have big rats
if you need Japanese steel”
Kill Bill, Volume 1

I read some Murakami
that we might
be on
the same page

if not
dance together
at least be able to
whistle
the same
tune

which I hear now
floating over old Edo

before
it got firebombed to death
turned to ash

rose again as fresh colossus
spreading its fingers
into how
we picture our world

GOLD STANDARD

you are
the gold standard

best
touchstone

asked for a handout
you chopped
my head off

split
the atom

stole
several body parts

oh my staccato life subject
to this debt slavery

roll over credit
what was now
roll over
play dead
or actually die

all for a few scrappy
coins in the offing
kind of
smaller
than atoms

and me
under such pressure to
edit down
this poem

get it in tune, right tone
sufficiently complicit
in every single way

FRIDAY 13TH

FRIDAY 13th

it”s Friday 13th
St Jason”s Day
in September

so wear your
hockey mask children
you know you have to
deep down
want to

nothing like
slasher jump scare
to bring that
delight home

and this the message
that we telling
the monster exists
and he is
pretty much
indestructible

will
keep on
coming into
the Universe ends

and even then
that might not stop him
something about
dear Mr Vorhees
precedes everything

was here
long before the idea
of safety
was even born