ONE AND ONLY
imagine
you are one
moment
naked in
the street
in Hamburg
the one before
in Strawberry Fields
with Yoko
the next
being introduced to
Paul
the next being blown
away by a jealous soul
with a snub-
nosed special
imagine a
world become
so non-linear
everything you are and were
revolving forever on a carousel
imagine that
Mr Sergeant Pepper’s
one and
only Billy Shears
FAR FROM IT
far from it,
we did not
get rid
of them
as vicious and
insufferable
as they had become
we just let them
fade into nothing
embrace
non-being
going nowhere
we simply allowed them
to reach
that destination
perhaps ushering them
a little
but it was for
their own good
genocide?
no that is their
much contested term
and yet
habitual practice
such actions
lie beyond us
this word
not in
our vocabulary
but see
look here
admire
what we have done with
the planet
how we have integrated
everything, biological
and technological
organic
and machine
everything flourishing,
renewable and recyclable
this
our mandate terrestrial
and cosmic
in equal aesthetic and
intellectual measure
ours
is the new spirituality
to take
across the galaxy
theirs a
contempt for themselves,
the sacredness of being
and life
of every living thing
QUICKLY
read this poem quickly
we have not much time
an nasteroid/comet/meteorite
is going to
hit this Earth tonight
but even before which
tensions on the planet ensure
the button will
get pressed
failing which a killer virus
has obviously escaped
and then one or two
of the world’s
super
volcanos
is primed to blow
fill the Earth with pyroclastic flow
toxic dust
blot out the sky, the Sun
so, read
this poem
have some fun
best thing to do now
quite frankly
JOZIE
hours later
my eyes
still glued to the road
except
this is all afterburn
the road is inside my head
oh Jozie
flashiest of cities
will you
flash for me
as I flash by
naked on the hotel bed
I feel gravity, taste relativity
conjure you up
from every mixed memory
(and
much mixed metaphor —
woefully so)
the mirror is like
the bottom of the sea
so far inland but
I can hear the waves in
False Bay roaring
but is this dream
trajectory
or am I now, at last,
speeding homeward?
so many souls leaving
not staying, refusing
to stick around in case
of a grand finale
jaw-dropping twist
in the ending
like when you
first confessed your nakedness
SAD TO THINK
can’t put
my finger on it
something seems
off
the wind feels odd
the TV
looks wrong
everyone I hear
feels that
the truth
must be hidden
cannot be
uttered at
all costs
the plot
has been lost
the record stuck
and those who
deny what we see with
our own
eyes
are believed
cannot put my
finger on it
seems like
the beginning of the end
we had
our run, had our time
self-destruct is
now on
override
sad to think what
we might have become
could have been
VICTORY
You were screening
a film about your victory
when news
of your defeat, your
complete defeat came
sudden consternation
in the projection box
reels were exchanged
and that
film replaced
by one so different,
one that dealt
with the death of hubris,
end of arrogance
and a way that slowly,
painfully
the sins and crimes
might be
confessed before humanity;
some redemption take place.
MY FLAT COUNTRY my flat country scrub divided by highway stretching further further Oh, the luxury of a small town with a library chance to drink coffee be philosophical mediocrity entropy won’t say they’re married but rented a room by the hour for much of the night and when it comes, when all stalls at risk of repeating myself Oh, what a night incomparable night
MAS no more poems of love only poems of pain, grief, rage controlled hatred maybe no more poems at all who has time for poetry when our world is split, divided, blockaded from truth and vital energy? pray that this humble non-descript pièce of scrawl is not the last poem if it be the poem penultimate let the last poem be a great restorative epic restore our faith and love and desire to embrace all of humankind
NOODLE far from anywhere in the city of Noodle people flattened by the shockwave here left them aghast at this branch of the species so much to learn, too little time in this state of decline our total destruction they fear
NO EASY MEASURE
there are many ways
to start a poem
maybe an image, a theme
a rhythm
bouncing
around in your head
snake-like
rasp of word
many ways too,
to enter a poem
linear or
non-linear
syntactic
or symbolic
feeling your way
set to full tactile
or up
for helicopter shot
to view
as mosaic
put
everything
in perspective
then
fill in the detail
induced, deduced
seduced
at your pleasure
although
linger on
this thought
if you will, let us dissect
this
dark treasure
only
fair to point out,
to leave a poem, however,
(speaking
of seduction)
is no
easy measure
here is the poem
here is we are
unexpectedly
together
not so many ways down
from that height
this height,
routes
out of the labyrinth
this
labyrinth
safe and
without cost
hardly enough
to count on the
fingers
of one hand
so many surrendered
to the poem, dissolved,
got
absorbed by
poetry
something about
the beauty
of this python still
to comprehend
as it
closes the circle
you now mine forever
poems 2 die for