Tag: speculum

Antarctic Depths   An ice-roofed stratosphere, clear liquid space And nerve-legged spiders Crack fans of anchor ice To mend all seals   Here it is coddled by the final killer, Will it be toppled by comfort’s rays?    

Don’t Touch!   “Don’t touch!” they cried; They really meant no harm, Had not intended To make a shaking, Jibbering apoplectic With their nagging.   “Don’t touch!”, for their interior décor Indeed was fragile and expensive – Themselves and furniture alike To them untouchable, those self-pariahs. There are no easy stages; Somebody’s lost a memory, Somebody’s taking shocks; The papers […]

Immortality You carried your vengeance beyond decease – Slowed down the pyre’s cleansing, Slowed down the soil’s, the water’s warmth, Left total body change open to the senses – Pursued your cause beyond its effects, Stepped out beyond all examples, Further than all reflections, Forestalled all worth – All kindred, all common links –   Seeking to frame a cleansing, […]

Growth Before Buildings   Wood piles beneath the shallow permanent stone Firm feet upon the yielding bog Let water in – the wood’s grain will prevail through its lines Let water out – white softness will grow to draw things down   The foundations could be called organic, So people longed to analyse          to scrutinize   Trade silver mercury Sweep […]

Speakfeel Razor branches, pointed-forked roots stretch centrifugal jabs against middle surface Sources swallowed in the lightless void Cancelled fugitives incubated in pure motion, rejecting sides, all allowed Only restored through leaves and petals avid for translucency Shining to meet the beak and proboscis, clumsy, assured   Seaweed swelters for the dark answer, shimmering clasps from knuckle-protectors, Ricocheting nadir curls of […]

The Musician’s Testament “Being a living legend is such a precarious livelihood. What a ducking of responsibility!” (John Cale) “Success means being worried about everything else except money” (Johnny Cash) I’m putting down this last eyewitness account leading up to zero hour because all the registers have gone into the red; everything’s going to blow. If I am stopped in […]

Nocturne   Small specks at night Made light of all our thoughts Which grew, in wonder, And burned the flesh that knew them And found the first thoughts, the controlled desires, the boxed fires the thrusting shields.   And spoke behind the pauses, And thought between the brain-tissues, And swarmed through infinite cells, And crowded out the millions And burned […]

Cremation   I’ve always believed in cremation; Flames bleach the world, unclutter living things.   Let scum survivors, grasshoppers Leave cemeteries a mess Of living impulses dismembered. Not knowing fire’s totality But sickly honouring it stunting In tortured carbon stench.   I’ve always believed in cremation Ever since I read of great skull mountains; Those potash handfuls are so clean […]

Tangled Drawing the cross slices tramline nuggets, Sizing out torture’s cavity, Wrenching the hopeful – slashes, threads all.   The anchor is split, tossed on a shroud, The elements burgeoning right. The chain is rusted, marking starfish, Shakes in a ticking melody.   Calipers rented, mayhem dented, Cholesterol’s bulb fouls the maggots away; All pupae are gelled, numb triplets they […]

Complacency You had the world eat from your hand And thought you had it made To fade into your fantasies.   Nobody came to put you down, And so you never rose; You smiled and sang in blindness And your wine glass sweetly flattered you.   Supremely bored, And worshipping the needs that passed you by You paused, to consult […]