ONE HUNDRED PERCENT

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT

we
   are one hundred
percent proof of
space-time
     curvature

we are that system of
geometry where
parallel lines
run parallel
and
  yet they always meet

and so we saw
ourselves
         heading
toeards each other from
opposite ends
of the galaxy

way way faster
than the speed of light

something to do
with sudden simultaneity
and memory
   of our entanglement

STA R

STA R

could have dreamt
a reality for you

we could have dreamt
a reality
    for each other

but non-event  chirped
                    sick
and sanctimonius
shadow-
spouted
     guff
from his stupid black book

that timing
was terrible nothing
     was possible

and so
   we lived our lives not
realizing we were
waiting for each
other
     found each other

even as
       hearing that
the Universe
now set
     to repeat, geared
forever re-run

northerly and southerly
such
   opposite winds
currents, tides

did
   once tragically contend
now
melt
      in each other’s arms

MONICA

MONICA

when you went
to see the doctor
pregnant with
what would be
your first
born

he saw your dazk hair, brown eyes
and made the mistake
of imagining you
one of his
tribe

but you
were no Queen
of the Levant, no Rose
of Sharon,

nor even English Rose
if truth be
told
you were French Viking
whose ancestors conquered,
subjugated
the poor English people
sat on the throne
speaking no English
for over
two hundred years

youngest daughter of z father
who found himself back
in France fighting
for King
and Country still
pretty much a teenager but
fighting
really well

but could we expect any
less of a descendant of Vikings

and before him
those who were murdered
for the steadfast faith
in the religion of Rome

this
part of the package, came free
with everything
hard to
escape what
history has made you, what
is locked into
the secret
of your DNA

and here is a picture
of you at Stalybridge pushing
me and my sister
in a pram over
the Tame River
before it flows
as the great
River Mersey

and here are you old
and frail
waiting in silence to
see what
Heaven
will make of you

Heaven here remembering
only when
you were young and lovely
that dark dark hair
flowing

and the Jewish doctor so
strongly believing
you must
be chosen person
one of God’s
first tribe

first in
something we all say
adoringly

ON THE SPEAKER AT SPUR

ON THE SPEAKER AT SPUR

takes me back
Supertramp Logical Song

takes me back
not quite to Plato, Nietzsche,
Heidigger, Socrates
that
   smorgasbord of
philosophical ideas and little
old me battling
my way gorgeously
through
     Logic and
Metaphysics 101
               TS Eliot’s Prufrock
and Wasteland

and you there, Missy Libra
sleek and slim and
from the Northern Suburbs
of Johannesburg

but I couldn’t make a move
because you was obviously
so
obviously sold
on someone else

except
that someone
was
    (so, so
illogical, so counter-
intuitive
against everything
about myself
I was
told
   to believe)
me

on the speaker at Spur
the logical song

and you
telling me what I missed
all those
   years ago

showing me
just how logical
      the world can be

DANBOY

DANBOY

Oh how deeply
I regret my impatience!

finding it hard
waiting here for centuries
for a poem
that will
not come

how much better
it would have been
to be
exactly like
my dear friend
Danboy
       (or brother, or
brother’s keeper
or
   something)

who moves with
such lightning speed
hesitating
    for nothing

so fast he moves
between the moments
attains a speed
    that cannot be
seen
   by God.

SOMETIMES

SOMETIMES

sometimes
                   less than
    nothing
is an
         actual quantity

sometimes it is a literal
statement of fact
that you
    could not be more wrong

sometimes I
        desperately need
to shut
out
     your erratic energy

that I might respectfully
commune with
      the dead poets before me

who did
    in their time themselves commune

this a tradition going back
to the
     very first poet
at the beginning of time

CERTAIN OF IT

CERTAIN OF IT

was talking about death

and
   death talked back
spoke
out of turn

        whispered and
shouted

no hooded Bergman Bill
and Ted Last
Action Hero
           chess twister figure
standing
before me
     to attach to this voice

no death companion or
compadre with
him
   either

not a soul crossing back
with iconic death mark

to
  proclaim death
as abstract concept or
             physicality reality

I looked for death but
          death was done
and
   dusted

done and gone

pretty certain though
he had made a call

THE OARS DIP

THE OARS DIP

the oars dip into
the water
pushing the boat
down the fjord

such are the propulsion
means of history

something stirred, stirring
here that may
in the deep image of
time
   come to fruition, arrive
to embrace me
and confront me

relic
   revealed

the sea
   itself an ossiary

untold bones down
there already

     an every bone a lost
a told story

and amongst these intrepid graveyards
   so much rusted metal
which once flashed terribly,
proclaiming itself
as
   bright steel

my steel
      I find it hard to
bring to memory

as if I could just step into
such a life
   live the life of my blood
and extreme legacy

or am I
being too harsh with myself
missing something
not finding
     the tell-tale, been
here all this time

I see that Ragnar axe
scything through the air
cleaving
    the head off my shoulders

swinging sword of this line
piercing my belly
        Ah, yes this
is it
the very
Ppain I feared

Valkyrie here
on schedule it must be said
carrying me up and off
to beloved
        beerhall heaven of
forever belligerence

or
   insane idea that out there
gliding in stealthily
dragonship
   with my name on it

nearing my shore
        me to
take
     my place

the oars dip
into the water