Tag Archives: poem poetry

FIRST STRIKE

FIRST STRIKE

aliens havs taken control
of Parow library

they are using their plasma
weapons to take out
all the poetry
classic novels and
books of philosophy

there were
not so many
but all are now gone

this alien high command
circling the northern suburbs
in their mothership
are openly
celebrating as
a titanic victory

the human race needs
to be even more unread
dull unimaginative
and stupid

to become the compliant
servants and slaves
the great
alien think tanks
are convinced we can be

LIGHTS OUT

LIGHTS OUT

lights out for you
for me

lights out for us both, for
us all
to the edge
of infinity

and we haven’t even talked
had dinner together
and what
comes after

and so now we know
there ain’t no after
so wrap yourself
in your body blanket
construct
a Faraday cage

dig around to uncover
a shovel put
together a bunker

maybe unearthing
signs
of comet impacts
and lost
civilizations

all the way down
I wished we might
go down

ODDS ON

ODDS ON

bet you
don’t encounter
too many wobbly
xenomorphs
out there

coming here to conquer
and convert you
teach you
the truth
of their
unbalanced philosophy

so many equivalences between
our worlds and cultures

including our deep
religious faith
in four-
lane highways and
reality
TV the black hole of

consumption we
were created to be

GRACE

GRACE

by grace of
was saying grace straight
forty days
and forty nights

had to survive the flood
by surfing on my plate

could have
said it as
an epigram
spoken it
as haiku

no
saving grace
as every unsavoury creature

made its way to gorge its
greedy seven-
deadly self

turning our feast
into a mockery

as
bone-headed
as it
graceless gets
and raw
a ritual rhapsody

THE GODS OF FOOTBALL

THE GODS OF FOOTBALL

the gods of football
turned against us

they scripted our defeat
up there, in the stars

No. They didn’t.
I checked with them
and they swore that
they hadn’t bothered to watch
were much
more interested in
the Burrow/Mahomes match up

than teams committing suicide
via the failed execution
of a diabolically bad plan

STAR BRIGHT

STAR BRIGHT

sapphire blue star
at my window

and you with a dish full
of technicolour mushrooms
figured
even with
the blessing of Vega
this is
just too early
in the morning for
over the rainbow

but the magic in those fungi
such that
a tin-
brained man can
solve such
complicated equations
as any red-eyed billion terrabyte
wizard
locking the pod bay
or monolith
on the Moon

MUPPET

MUPPET

as Niner fans go
I’m a real muppet
(must be one
to think we would
get
to the Superbowl,
the fourth quarter
of our
last visit
firmly behind us)

so call me a muppet
— go on, trumpet that truth
(truth of
your perspective
as you
limitedly see it)

leave me in my cuddly
muppet comfort zone
believing my eyes
and the logic
of analysis

so many fans here bandying
it around
at every opportunity:
muppet muppet muppet

were that they
could have such charm,
wit and
be that
cuddlesome
(or meet
a muppet of
power that might
tear
off their heads)

LINGER

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