poetry – Page 203 – poems 2 die for

FLAMETHROWER

got job as
gardener

put a flamethrower
and (Zyklon-B
out of stick)
gallons of
agent orange
in my hand

can’t believe what
happened to this garden:
not a single rose
red or white to
fight
hack to death over

what the Hell since
my ancestors invaded
has happened
to this place?

Oh they brought you silk
they brought you cotton
brought you
Asian and African wisdom

brought you Rolling Stones
Kinks Zeppelin
and Beatles
(same river
wound its dark way
past our homes)

and now I must massacre
weeds to save
the bowling green surface
recite Prufrock under
the collapsed
gazebo

once walked the streets
with Swift and Pope from
Ashton to
Rusholme

once
       when the youth stuck a
big fuck you
    through lips and nose
deconstructive style
               meaning anarchy baby

death throes felt
       that we all must
             surely see

fuck you-s through

GLOW

walked into the Cafe

fish in the tank
had an unearthly glow

no one else seemed
any the wiser

seems it is
the privilege of being born
twelfth sign
to read this text
devise the code

and see with eyes
pure Old Testament

but as we
enter this establishment
scan, reconnoitre,

see this bunch of executive media
types crunched around a table
talking District 9
or possibility of TV follow up
with talent competition and
fun rides

I could pitch them my talent show
all of them
contestants, nobody survives

and the fish trying to sell me something could it
be a (fish)fingerprint of the gods tale of
Antarctica hiding
Atlantis

love these lost cities when feel lost
in the city, lost in my own mind

should write an alternate history in which
my ex-wife led a revolution sending me
and my kind South
to Antarctica

where
there are alien space bases, lunatic
fringe has it

me and
my kind I do not have a “kind”

milk of
human kindness milk of my galaxy

spiral nebula in my coffee could be Andromeda

hurtling towards us
take billions of years to get here,

Greek mythology certified, sweet extinction on its way

I know
you know
I glow
you glow

twin slit experiment you wave me away

ONE ONE

Gary has scored!
Gary has equalized against
this team from the thirties
he spun, hit his shot and
it went in on
the rebound after
taking a deflection

but now they say
he should stick to
punditry, stick
to scoffing crisps

and they want the goal
disallowed, they demand
a recount
insist there must
be a referendum
on the decision from VAR

so Gary’s goal will be disallowed
and what sinks must carry on sinking
there are wave machines
to sort this out
and full fan hatred
shouting singing.

LET LIE

could write
a poem
or untangle
the big lie

you know the one
tied up in a big bow
charcoal-suited

but went for poem
left big lie alone
(let
big lie lie)

take it easy,
simple

be
glad to
be alive

until big lie kill me:
such a stupid
incomprehending smile blasted

clown-style
actoss my face

NOT TALKING

NOT TALKING

sadly poem

and film of the poem
are no longer
talking
to each other

film
of the poem
is still in embryo
stuck
in the concept stage

the scriptwriter
is trying to hook
a producer’s interest
presenting
a synopsis

everyone is wondering
how much of poem
should be
dropped, how
much embellished
in order to
produce an adaptation
that does not just
do justice but
extends, re-
interprets (without
going full
Charlie Kaufman)

metaphor
synechdoche

we can open with a tracking shot
to outdo Orson Welles or
Robert Altman

lingering seemingly forever
of each of
the seventeen syllables
all
of the three

shimmering lines

TOGETHER

together
we saw Avatar together

learnt how to fly
across our new world

but this Universe
starting to split, fragment
fracture

and we too divided as
everything ends up becoming

no visual paradise
to upload ourselves into

and now
we are on opposite
sides of the galaxy

this our
sole moment of
pure dream

SHUFFLE

Shuffle through selves
as though through cards

Tarot cards
really ancient, origin
God knows where

that reek of dark
and translucent magic

and here
is the Empress, all
Aphrodite
she I was most faithful to
in the face of
steep disregard

her beauty, as you see here,
leaving me floundering
leaving me speechless

reading in the arcanas
the failures of my journey
as I cling to
this mask trying to
keep it secure as
it slides down
my face

the tragi-comic smirk
moulded there
mocking my feeble
attempts and onrushing failure
as I grope in
this swallowing darkness
for some
kind of illumination
some
kind of source perhaps there a

complete reading, a divination,
the wisdom
that I need

if there is wisdom
you always telling me
we can
find the wisdom
(so Empress-like
in everything
you
do).

SOLDIER

poem is
special
forces

is soldier in the war
against being
dumbed down

will
teach you
how to fight
feed you ammunition

one, two, three
programs on TV
crafted supremely and carefully
to dumb
us all down

enough there for more than
the odd pot shot
need some serious serious
poetry
great poetic guns
with heavy
metaphoric artillery
your intellectual life
here
in my hands