ROLL
rolled my eyes
during your poetry reading
tried my best
but could not help myself
kept thinking of
a ballroom waltz but
the dancers on
rollerskates
with the skates themselves rusted
and long strangers
to oil
as a whole, not the rock
and roll linguistic gig
I had been
anticipating
as a whole, the sum of each line
as a part
considerably less
than a hole
TRADE SURPLUS
shut up with
this stupidity
are you grooving
into an epoch of
mental deficiency?
just because it is
the sublime will of money
the rapture of
self-serving power
when I see you
talking your processed
speech
I wonder how much
in the way of steel pins
for your face
brass screws
for your teeth
when they resolved
that you should
trade
your humanity
rent out your heart
IN PRAISE OF
SACRIFICE
people will
fight for truth
be nobly
martyred
but how much more
strongly, happily,
forcefully
fanatically
they will
fight for lies
the bigger the lie
the bigger the sacrifice
DAVID
if you are
the David in
this great battle
why
are you slaughtering
all the poets?
if you are Solomon
with so much wisdom
to bestow upon humanity
why are you
flattening all the universities
burning the archives?
watching as
culture and history goes
up
in smoke
or dancing
around the flames
HANNIBAL DIRECTIVE
Ah, yes,
the Hannibal Directive
thought that would mean
smashing your enemy
into a lake
or luring them into
a complete double
envelopment
not killing your own
people to avoid having to
submit
prisoner swops at
outrageous rates of exchange
WHAT THE SATIRIST
TOLD ME
tell me
about yourself
so I
can really
offend you
feel my words
razor sharp
as they slice
flesh from bone
SURPRISE
here’s the surprise
in this morass
of words
.
lies are truth
truth
is lies
every meaning
you woke up with
were
certain of
has been
re-defined
and the symbol of
your salvation
bent,
twisted
into new configuration
HERE
here is my poem
poem I am so proud of
you tore
out of my book
ripped
out of my mouth
plundered
from my body
buried
in deepest
hole imaginable
since contrived,
created
to be part of our conspiracy
we
animals
non-people
FARM WITH A BARN
the farm
with a barn
and a silo
underground
wants
a world
without
consequences
world
for and
by
the exceptional
for your
disinformation
as their
forever playground
IMCOMPLETE
do not learn
we never
learn
what have we
learnt?
don’t hold back
just
let rip
tell me
tell me!
look at me
pay careful attention
thorough scrutiny
all those years
gone to waste
sitting down
lying down
standing up
writing something
learning nothing
what in here
worth speaking?
out there
worth reading?
what
good are books
when there are tanks
in the street?
indiscriminate slaughter
clearing a path house
to house
room
to room
every alley
every precinct
this book of horrors
as yet unwritten
as yet incomplete
one two
three four;
every paragraph
breaking
every wall
poems 2 die for