RETURN
just returned
from the war
came back
scarred, horrified,
from killing people
all shapes
ages, sizes, many,
many
everyone of them
just like you
spiritually, emotionally,
psychologically
ticking all the boxes
in terms of
shared humanity
things
in common
yet
in physical appearance
so crucially different
as per those small things
which
really really really matter
above everything,
nothing like you
or me
at all
SO FAR
so you were born/
cloned to
protect our crowning
achievement
our ability to
split the atom release
planet destroying power
which have become
so widespread every
nation, family,
individual
owns at least one
bare minimum
essential for humanity to survive
for without
fear of mutual destruction
what might
keep us civilized?
to destroy everything
wipe out one’s neighbours
every citizen across
the globe’s inalienable right
testimony to
the vast advances
in wisdom and knowledge
we have made so far
SPECIES
maybe
as they
deepen
these divides
and dichotomies
are
not going to plunge the world
into civil war
upon civil war
no
we could
find ourselves
saved from self-
annihilation by the advent
of the
simple, planet-saving,
evolutionary solution
allowing us
to species-split along
all seams,
do the most natural thing
become
as many kinds of hominid
as there are stars
in the firmament
since it seems impossible
that such an
outcome
will scarcely allow
us to
treat each other worse
than we
do now
or as
unequally, unjustly, and, yes,
genocidally
DOLPHIN
ah! the ease, the effortlessness,
this dream is what you get
with being streamlined,
by
thinking
free and deep
final shape emerging
through that brutal process
of secret, significant,
implicit choices
taking the evolutionary path
of torpedo, missile,
submarine
and here
we have it
the latest model, built
for speed bursts, leaps zig-zagging
at will across
the prow
pretty breathtaking for
us as we
negotiate those swells
make our little journey
and you
sewing it together, stitching
every seam
sea, beach,
cloud, mountain suddenly
fused, welded
together
glimpse for a moment
into a
close but distinct
different Universe where
gravity seems
not
to apply
and of friction
there be no need
PLATEAU
it is a beautiful planet
a picture postcard world
without parallel
or once was,
somewhat in decline these days
but still, sadly,
a place of
barbarity, foreboding, danger
she dark imaginings
amongst
it’s most extreme creatures
place where
grace is
lethal
colour is camouflage
and things
have learnt the vital lesson
never to
seem
exactly what they be
and here we now return
after so much time
to see
how much has changed
how much
remained the same
what exceeded
and what fell short of,
far short of,
our expectations
must be something in
the atmosphere
so inimical, utterly
resistant to
growth in awareness
movement to understanding
breathtaking when
you consider the lost potential
this need to settle
for
permanent impasse
level
down to
low plateau
AT THE ZOO
at the zoo
the animals
barred
from contact
crave a captive audience
pity how
distant, strange, caged,
changed
the visitors look
peering back through
the grill
from behind the wire
the mystery of their humanity
dead to them
COSMETIC
to the best
of my knowledge
no one asks
the planets
the stars
the galaxies
about their loneliness
not a single poet
single cosmologist
and so to
Earth
for God knows
how many centuries
the centre of everything
Hubble bubble
popped that one
didn’t he
back to Earth exquisitely
nothing special
we got mountains we
got oceans
boy have
we got oceans
but under this curved sky
this vault of blue atmosphere
at least
talk of beauty, the cosmos
cosmetic
to the best of my knowledge
LOVERS
millions
were making love
when the bomb
dropped
a fat few megatons
vaporized them instantly
moment when
dream and desire
annihilated themselves
love and death
in dark exactitude
of intensity
so mirroring each
other
as if the species
was fucked from the moment it began
but
the poem still here
jury out
clock still ticking
lifetimes of love
still to resolve
UNDER WRAPS
Rutherford split it
in a laboratory
at my alma mater
(kudos
to that)
then
over Bikuni Atoll
air burst.
over Nagasaki
barely tested and
rushed into action
could have ended all.wars
previously if
as
conjectured
had set the atmosphere on fire
be thankful
for small mercies
atom split
world went hush-hush,
furtively fissile
pandora’s box within
a box within box
inside Schrondinger’s
thought-out, Cheshire cat
beaming
wave collapse experiment
in Miss P box (box according
to Madane P (P for plutonium)
the weight of
secret subterfuge
lethality
of
big lie
obviously satanic in its ceremony
dark critical mass
common (and uncommon
sense) dictating
must keep the sure thing
odds-on holocaust
forever
under wraps
ISA
who here
at this time, in
this place,
truly believes
that Isa was
a prophet, truly
a divine messenger?
that was seminal about him
(peace be upon him)
was not that
he saved souls but
spoke for the poor, spoke
against Empire
performed miracles, cured
the sick
raised the dead
less that
he preached his own divinity
than suffered
for humanity
less that history
has him exalted, than
the evil
of our nature
claimed as
his
text, in
his name?
عيسى (عليه السلام) نبي الله الواحد الأحد
poems 2 die for