reader – poems 2 die for

LINGER

unspeakably glad
you have
taken time

to read this poem
stepped outside the habitus
of your time zone
embraced relativity
treated each
word as special

allowed
your mind to linger
dally with the craziness
of each idea

such time to spare
such acumen, breadth
and depth

all of
which

a function of our modern
exponential economic
and social development transforming our

time space
space time
mindset

rendering our
reality much
more malleable, elastic,
receptive

which
you so most
beautifully exemplify if

you
have made it so far

HEY POEM

hey poem

structurally
speaking

are you
wrestling? are
you
striptease?

looked for you
in Barthes mythologies

did not
find you

maybe you are
not a part of
any
system
of signs

have
nothing to do
with culture
at all

SOMETIMES

SOMETIMES

sometimes
I am
just
randomness

Cummings words
jumping all over the
quantum page

as if
twin slit experiment

(the smile of physics gone Gemini
getting our minds pretty
tangled up together
you tell me coyly
inform me
in no uncertain terms)

if it cannot be
real
this everything

if it is lax on locality

could it
be dream?

I asked this of the iconic cat
in the box before it
disappeared

and now I am blessed with
the answer but sworn to secrecy

science
now in uproar

doctoral candidates frayed
fissile

exploding in clouds of
white chalky dust
as if
made of talcum powder

all over Tesla’s headstone
thinking of
the half-life of what
lies
in that grave

Sent from my iPhone

EXPANDED

EXPANDED

come back
when I have expanded

come back when I’m
about to go galactic

right now I am going to
be trivial, sound run
of the mill
exploring how
my silly little brain comes
to terms with
my silly little life

like those word-
wizards oc this post post
late capitalist age

wearing their cheap
durable llastic accolades
as if
they were gods

PUT DOWN

Put down
your candy crush game
(would so
like your candy
to crush)

but first a word from
our advertisers

if you went professional
option you would get
premier service and not have

to worry about anything

meanwhile in the simulation
that is the poem
we are either particles
or waves or
both or neither

so let me crush your candy
whatsover

catch you me
cheating on the two
slit experiment

by the time the last line enjambs

many many alternate universes
(eat your heart out
Michelle Yeoh)

up and running, teeming
with our joint energies

EXCHANGE

EXCHANGE

paradox of choice
constant of change

let’s just surrender to
life, the flow, the poem

forget writers and
readers
who is where
who is what

where to find our story
the narrative that spreaks us
captures us totally
in its
open-
ended box

EXCHANGE

EXCHANGE

I have no
exchange value

you would not get
a sous for me

on the open market
not worth the speculation

and so I hold my breath
will hold it so until
it all
just
burst

till I just
burst

my extinction
good for rarity

FILL

FILL

poem would
not come to me

do its sure sell
soft shoe shuffle
open
a window afford

glimpse
of its tricks

said I
lacked
the appreciation
was far too driven
for anything
to
nestle, rest

fill that grievous hole
in my disposition,
cement
my understanding

these basic
words having
so much
to discover
not to
mention
(by way
of footnote) seren-
dipitously gain

WHEN THE POEM READS …. YOU! reading my poems at Marionhill Monastery KZN RSA 2005

ZERO GRAVITY my poetry collection