NO BRAINER
a no brainer
you cannot lose
you paid the deposit
now stand good
are in good standing
to inherit everything
no moral
price to pay
just
see
the glory
play your part
bank the assets
watch them all
fail and fall
the unevolved
the unchosen
a no brainer
press the button
do what you
have to do
sit back
relax
enjoy everlasting life
by definition
by decree
by all the truth
of natural
divine selection
never
to be raised up
on high
VERY LIKE A WHALE
was up there somehow
miraculously, marvellously
hanging around just
below an underbelly
of interspersed
white
and gray cloud
holding a conversation
with that expression
of cloudiness
whilst beneath us
two could hardly be
more well established actors
were playing characters
somewhat
hostile to each other
playing a game of
power, authority
and contending perspective
debating
the difference between
what princely and sycophantic
imaginations might
project upon
cloud
and me ignoring this happily
knowing it by heart
having watched it to death
broke the fourth wall
to warn them
both of their deaths
until
the cloud took me,
as I became
one
with its vapours
crazy tableau upon tableau
as the stage lighting
got dimmer
darkness
in that prison
unless as
the god of this genre
as he did
to defend
his birthright
simply unlock everything
deus ex machina
a saucerful of insane secrets
hovering above
the two of us
alien
vanity plates
UNDER ATTACK
I attacked your poem
because someone was
going to attack
my poem
as soon
as you attacked mine
the logic here being
super-faultless
and yet
you keep raising
this inane criticism
that poems
are for reading
not for attacking at all.
UPSIDE DOWN
a bunch of bad philosophers
have broken into the library
are hard at work
stealing books
as if they were
works of art
or treasury bonds
I was debating with myself
whether to make
a citizen’s arrest
or
drive the getaway car
the thing being
that so many good books
subject to
in-depth study
would be bound to
impact upon their moral
compass
turning that needle
quickly, slowly,
eventually 180
away from Nietzsche and
Bataille back
in the direction of
Plato and Mill,
Kant
and Aristotle
the kind of thinking
that starts with the premise
the best
first move is
to base the logic
on what
we are, what we have
not the existential, methodological necessity
of turning
inside out
reversing poles and
that radical
decentring that
privileges margin and
everything upside down
CHOCOLATE INDEED
I took
the Emperor to task
over why
there were
no sprinkles
on my ice cream
seemed to me
an example of misrule,
abject discrimination
with which
he did not concur
adding insult
to injury, fuel
to the fire
with a brush
of his hand
simply
waving
me away
insisting
that I redirect
my complaints, to
the author
of this oversight, a
certain Mr Stevens
legal expert, insurance
executive
somewhere
in New England
and so
I looked for him
in Boston, and
Providence Rhode Island,
all over Connecticut, Delaware
and Maine
not coming up trumps
getting horribly misled
at every juncture,
between
stanzas
by host upon
host of
impenetrable clues, most
cryptic of metaphors, obscure
intellectual
references
philosophical conundrums
and impossible
spiritual quandries
all of
which I loved
left me
begging for more
and with this
his answer to
my sudden
supreme question
wondering whether
if you sliced
ripple in half
(be it
with scalpel, scimitar,
or ceremonial longsword)
would it indeed
bleed raspberry
and
with rum and raisen or
blueberry, strawberries
and cream,
rocky road
tutti frutti
and indeed chocolate
would the same fate befall?
same fate befall
and indeed chocolate
same
fate befall
chocolate indeed!
DOORWAY
there is
no one
at the door
no enemy
at the gates
we need a door
we need a gate
without them
how
can our enemies
find us, how can
we locate
our enemy
find out
who is
our enemy
we
and our enemy
need each other
how else can we
set traps, devise
fields of fire?
catch them
lining up
taking turns
to knock
trying to dupe
us into thinking
this be a social visit
UNTOUCHABLE
politically
I am untouchable
pregnant
with bold ideas
in your face
about to
drop a
truth bomb
many megaton
nothing your battery
of lies,
weapons of
disinformation
can do about it
no hope of
saving yourself
building deep
underground
anti-truth bunkers
the truth radiation
will get it
if not
the unbelievable
shock wave
flash of a million
degree light
CHOSEN
Thank you Bibi
for choosing me
epic fury
roaring line
hearing those names,
feel safer already
protecting me
iron dome
nuclear
umbrella
all your power
aiding
and abetting
felt so
insecure
in this parallel universe
cartoon world
where
nothing makes sense
no sanity, not any
terrified that
a stray missile
or drone
homing in
on me
got my name
written on it
bound
to cut
me down
to size, or
worse fate entirely
I tell
you no lie,
no lies
in my armoury.
IN HER FIELD
read her PhD
loved every
bit of it
read it
cover
to cover
her topic
obfuscation
in the media
which she
researched
with such
clarity
exposing it
for what
it is
finding
it everywhere
from basic
low grade
run
of the mill
everyday
stuff
to
obfuscation
of the
highest
order
weapons grade,
sublimely transcendental
MEDAL
He is so proud
he just
got his medal
for exceptional
courage in
the line
of duty
bombing
a school
for
little girls.
poems 2 die for