ALTAR
I came to your altar
to worship
check out the place,
speak to your God
and ask him
a few things
but a homily I got
and a dubious one too,
condemning all
barbarians,
is what
I did receive
painting the picture
for me
the one I am supposed
to believe in so
much
I cannot but see
but the picture did
not show itself, I felt
deficient in vision
all the gold everywhere
blinding me
leaving me
struggling for balance
beginning to sympathize
with the thought
that it
would be
better
burnt down.
UNLESS
Yes, what would I
what would we do
without you?
not a joke
and if a joke
not
such a good one
in all seriousness, you ask:
is there, could there be
satire in Heaven?
and me thinking
of loading the dice, going
to my grave
with my face painted
satire? Could it be possible
that they know
that tune
have that
music?
or are the strings of the harps
up there strung far
too tight?
if it is absent from Heaven
perhaps satire would
be conspicuously absent
from the other
place too
no place for criticism, correction
and logical exposure
when
all are condemned
torured
to the limit
for all eternity
beyond pointed comic comment
unless
WARLIKE
“Let me tell you something – black folks was never worried about anthrax because, half the time, we don’t open our mail no way. We might think that’s a bill. We might hold it to the light and go, ‘That’s a red slip.’ If you want to get us with anthrax, put that in a Jay-Z CD. That’s how you get us.” Aries Spears
Warlike, Aristophanes
stalks the streets
with pins
for the pompous
floats overhead
in a diigible
turning all
into buffoons
Oh, what a scourge!
did Zeus with his bolts
ever out-thunder
that laughter
crazy Dionysus
whose stage it is
must be deliriously amused
Apollo
less so
forks in the road
facists being told
strictly to observe
total radio silence
a deus ex machine looking
like it
could not
possibly fly
and yet
every one fears it
Aristophanes
Aristophanes
what kind of a name is that
for such a ruthless comedian?
come to think of it,
what kind of a name for a comic
is Aries Spears?
AT ALL COSTS
When your whole narrative
is a lie
whole thing, all
three acts,
start to finish
you have to defend it
at all costs
dig in, buld ramparts,
lay mines
they shalt not pass
take no
prisoners, no surrender,
you have no idea
as to what a terrible, unforgiving,
merciless enemy
the truth can be.
THANKS
thanks for protecting me
against evils known and
unknown
possible abd impossible
real
and imagined
and even
imagined-imagined
thank you for protecting me
from my self, all my
avatars and handles
thanks thanks thanks thanks
thanks
but no thanks
I’m too useless, uneducated, over-educated, uninformed,
misinformed, disinformed,
to know
anything anyway
do what i am
supposed
do what
is required
follow the plan
execute nicely and neatly
alomg the dotted line
tick my tock tick
the right box
be the perfecr customary
idiot you can package
in brown paper
send off to
war (just saying, just
saying!)
prime human material
ready to be exploited
smothered
in your love
suffocated
with affection
and now technology
world of
science fiction horror
alien
event horizon
thanks
but no thanks
thank you for protecting me
from it
must say this
demonic technology
was only
a pleasure, a joy
in this shit life you
do manufacture
milliobs of us
zillions of us
having fun, being
creatuve
feeling the same way
not feeling all
that mind control, becoming
other, changing shape
changing form
as our world turned pink
and then red
and then,
as that poison did its work,
complete Chinese
Communist Party
wonder what
we can do
now its gone, Devil
loving hands
idle
need a new vehicle to
go same-same to
ridicule this nonsense
throw
your democracy
back at you
mock, scoff, laugh, sing,
dance, ridicule
tell a little
needle sharp truth
to ridiculous power
CATCH UP
your lies
are going to catch up with you
all those untruths
fantasy fabrications
coming home to roost
returning
with a vengeance
karma
(that boomerang
principle)
it is a
theoretical, theological
necessity,
an empirical fact
switched
to remote targeting
hunting you down
.
no use screaming
crying
swearing innocence
denying everything
plausibly
implausibly
pleading with your lirs
flattering them
as tp their sheer
beauty, supreme
inventiveness
telling them that they are
your frankenstein
creations
monsters steeped
in the secrets of power
havibg sown
such much death, damage
and disillusionment
killed so many they
should be
to you
as children to
a Father
worshippers
to.a god
no, my friend, my lying friend,
what
goes around
comes around
they have not a shred
of belief in you
sad sad to say
they are here for us all
to rip you apart
NO MORE
no more poems, paintings
three act strucures,
somgs
nothing to transport, nothing
to inspire
the visions of
the precious decades
all
thrown out
simple economics really:
supply and demand
city after bankrupt city
cutting, killing
every
creative grant
and now
its all
gon
the books have gone
the libraries have gone
the theatres seem
to be
closing down
the groves
have been ploughed up
statues have been
toppled
their stone recycled
(where other than those
of current corporate
executives
or business tycoons
or the current political class
who make
so much money for them
and good! I say
best
thing out
for words and pictures
that do not commuicate
straight
(as per
cybernetic model) are a
waste of profit
waste
of tax
are as
self-
indulgent, narcisstic a luxury
as they come
above all, that demonic genre,
satire,
which refuses to know
its place
should receive
the kiss
of death
accept
short
shrift
accept
that we
people of
grandeur
pinnacle
summit
polish and
yes,
class
need not
apologize if
we do not
prioritize
in our best intetests
for what
could be
in the national interest
possibly
that does not
first favour us
we
elected to this power
by popular will
and divine
comnand
that the best
must rule
and the
rest
hang
USED TO
we used to have a better
kind of godhead
better
kind of self-
appointed god
pontificating papally
on every TV
across all social media
shadow deities they
may have been
eventual disasters
in the making
but dalling short
of the epic
idiocy
of this new breed
these crash car snake
pol plugging used vehicle
salespersons
for whom
logic, truth,
moral
being
are
problems of the mind
that needs to be fixed
in order for us to live
with their collisions
within
collisions
contradictions within
contradictions
Mad Hatter re-definition of
everything by
simple act
of spray-psinting
BUST
heard the good goog news
that they cut
the arts in
th-re-will-always
be an-England
big cities did it
because they are bankrupt now
and who wants
poems and plays about
terminal
austerity
why should the State
or anyone subsidise
anything so irrelevant
trivial, spurious
as performance pièces
exposing this very hypocrisy
when money
is desperately needed
for jets and bombs
preserving the hegemony,
no time for idle hands,
wicked pens and
wasting
all that is precious on
such self-indulgent luxury
nothing there worth
watching, listening to, reading
this is our absolute truth
to you
there is no longer space
or capacity
they are
no longer part of
our identity
do not fit in
our economy
we
are the final arbiters
we decide the colours, tastes,
feelings, shapes
this
the realisation of our
special, almost sacred mission
to tell our culture like it is
close down all else for all
poems 2 die for