MAINSTREAM NARRATIVE
(for the students)
the great locomotive
steamed out of the station
built up
momentum
determined to cross
from
ocean to
ocean
but
ran out of track
and crashed
unable to
hold up that weight
on its cardboard wheels
MAINSTREAM NARRATIVE
(for the students)
the great locomotive
steamed out of the station
built up
momentum
determined to cross
from
ocean to
ocean
but
ran out of track
and crashed
unable to
hold up that weight
on its cardboard wheels
NOT SO SURE
loved you
from the first moment
that I ssw you
all
those years
ago
have loved you
almost all
my lifetime
a creature of
astounding beauty
and humanity
loved you
constantly, to
the point
of insanity
but
a cleavage came
a massive
fault line
sides were chosen
genocide the darkest
of dark
paths taken
thought that I would
have to just love you
unrequited forever
but the heart
grows bitter as
the world suffers
my Magdalen girl
(so
once you were)
and
now
I am not
so sure
am totally
not so sure
DEMOLITION JOB
My Mother’s voice
am overhearing
telling someone eager
to listen
they knew what
this place was like
they knew what they
were coming to
did they not know
what to expect
front page
back page
centrefold spread
Greek chorus
gossip horror
the shock
the shame
character assassination
and they
or rather he the husband
having Army training
explosives, sabotage
blowing up
things behind Nazi lines
now
out there consorting
with the men of shadow, figures
in the night
feared
shape – shifters
blowing up pylons
disrupted the sacred electricity supply
and me
that night all night
hearing the Indian Ocean waves roaring in to
crash on the shores of False Bay
so much Sun here, Sun
Sun
Sun for everybody
this man and his
accomplices
attempting to take
this Sun
away
****
sixty years
and we have crossed them
in a heartbeat
so much of that time
faintly remembered
not even
taught in schools
(sad that
somehow we
have so relegated history)
but now
a different narrative,
a whole different narrative
a whole different way
of thinking of ourselves, this place
and how
we came here
stifled, imprisoned,
imposed our colonial mindsets
stuck our future in tiny cells
on an island in Table Bay
for long
bitter decades fearing
no hope of solution, no path
to a liberation
that migh
allow redemption
a moment of memory
viewed
with
a self-
forgiveness
graced by the acceptance
of the perspective of great change
****
and here we are
my dear, absurdly conversing
in the light of all those years
democracy waiting
in the wings, or rather
on an inhospitable island
time
become its true essence
as pure
duration
imprisoned consciouness
until
it was not
you born
in the year of its ending
of the release
salvation
far
from its memory, vague
on its history
of the swirling eddies and currents that
despite every counter-
possibility produced
a dawn, a new
day
and now
history has done
a demolition, removed
those back-then voices
that spoke with such
blind conviction,
presumed authority
as
it slowly, inexorably
whittled me away
but across
land and ocean
the old monster
has
found lease of life, more
hideous incarnation
the drive to inflict the worst
of which we are possible
on fellows
of our species
as they, we
did back then
would have done to you
(and now this voice
those voices
who do
they belong to, what
are they saying?)
MY CASE
sick in bed
2000lb building buster
fell on my head
out of nowhere
the papers passive voicing
the issue of agency
saying that
my skull thick
as concrete
no sign
of a brain
no doctor willing
to tend to me
there is not the
bedside manner
in the whole
of Christendom
willing and
able to
deal
with my case
BETTER
you want
Peace
here
is your
piece
its
a bit seriously small
too
small
for anything
is bombed-
out; barricaded
but its the most
we are
prepared
to give
most we
dare spare
we openly defy you
to summon
Heaven and Earth
see
if you might do any better
WEREN’T WE?
weren’t we
supposed to hold
up the mirror
to human nature
not let it fall
splinter, shatter
crash and burn, break
into a billion tiny
diamond-bright pieces
jagged shards, blood
soaked, blood
painted, bloody
never to be fixed
never
to be returned
never reclaimed
never restored
all those bits of light
dancing in the Sun grotesquely
hold
up the mirror
to human nature
who the fuck, nowhere
near his right mind
came up
with that idea
(go not pass go
leave the planet
sail steadfast, venture into the cosmos
cross
the galaxy
not, never
in a trillion lifetimes
nothing out there
to mirror what
we
might well be)
weren’t we?
AND SO
and so;
God showed Job
the small things
of the Universe
the fine
print
of his creation
as they
walked together
across the smouldering ruins
the fields of ash
the huge expression
catastrophic to
a fault
of those
who refuse
to see
who
do not read
AARON
a flame flickers
a fire burns
quick! blanket this
snuff out
whatever significance
we cannot let the truth
proclain itself
raw, unprocessed
searing
we need the truth
to be sliced
and diced
carefully curated
mutilated
ENTIRE
you have clocked us
and cluedoed us
and played
every
game
with us
to see the world
through photoshopped eyes
to switch on that strobe light
good for interrogations
but not for
viewing from a divine perspective
all you have dehumanized
stripped of humanity
millions of God’s image
murdered
each, as your great book says,
a Universe entire
GIMME
world’s
falling apart
little children
getting blown
to
smithereens
so gimme that
sweet false consciousness
that would come
with a
SuperBowl victory
don’t let Mahomes
spoil everything
with
an insane overtime
charge
this after Kyle left
his best laid plans
in a briefcase
in the
locker room
this is not
the script I want,
I need
so write me a new one
bring me that
thick syrupy delusion
that a Niners’
Vegas victory
would bring
the world falling apart
bits
of little
children
how come I always get
caught this way
how come
I’m not
so smart