Tag: poetry
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Weight of Mind Weight of Mine
Thought-distended mind of mine, is there no end; no funeral-knelling bell Balrog-housing mine, tomb of Balin son of Fundin Warmed to a mull, the mulling agent bubbles like rice boiling the Asian Potato I say so Mug updrunked eclipsed the sun, sulking in my cups, sullen sulcus succour-seeking Will no one cheer the King, soul-sucking…
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Cleaning the Church
Chapelein in apple green cleaning the chapel Vestibules signalling foliate spring festival A capful of rum in pineapple punch he took at luncheon, unburdening him of learned trenchancy Lending him confidence enough to pen off a sentence, he has never been much for entrances Preferring exits Entranced by orders and oaths of office, saint’s bones…
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World-Smashing Rockets
Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir wielded, shaken like a gargling baby’s gargantuan rattle Two on night watch, dire sentries crotch-grabbing and watch-watching, hawk-gozzing Camera-bellied spyplanes like agile goshawks somersaulting above a shell-assaulted salient Alien in aspect replete with asphyxiating atmosphere and fearful androids Powerful as Greek androgynes the war machines, interfering at genetic levels netting the prizes…
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Assyrian Kingship
Drams given as gifts to Annamelech and Adrammelech at Sepharvaim That latter namesake drew a sword above his head and slew his father Assyrian Sennacherib, drew blood then fled the temple Cain remade in each generation, well-thumbed claythat familiar haggard visage He is banished from villages and haunts hinterlands A million guises: a wise hittite,…
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Battle Knackered
Cattle cattle cattle Years of battle A decade waging a pro-war campaign, sabre-rattling zealots at last touch down on the frontline Meeting the chain death of rises lipped by gatlings Skulls in a line, as would dot tribal idols’ feet Slumped dead along ratlines east of the Seine, rivalling rubbish for scent Spent shell wreckage…
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Cold War
Overall it is a dull war A dreaded bore Nothing like the war you think of from stories Gore, glory, posh men ahorse arrayed in pendant-laden grey khaki and sashes, cavalries arranged in lines charging flak cannons under fire, legs exploded by mines, crying oxbridge sorts penning dreadful lines of clumsy-rhymed verse in rat-ridden billets…
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Slip
Deck wet with brackish water Cap’n sashayed, he fell over Skull warped against bulwark Be more careful how you walk.
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War’s Gnawing Worms Chewing Worldroots
Cavalry saddled, dappled flanks foam lathered Rattling at their sallying, fracturing gatling action Cleopatra’s fleet abandons field at Actium, ending the team. Teeming with corpses, sunrise orpiment solifies creamy pinttop waves bloodfoamed Octavian, having smashed Marc Antony’s maritime armies, consolidates Pheasant-fletched arrows along a dead soldier’s ridge like fangs in a fine-toothed comb.
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Hollow Now
You, finest mummer, around whom the glum blubbered with laughter Ready applause at your coming and silence reigning after When you died, that part of me for you alone died too Bikes like ready horses ahead a sluggish hearse, mired by grief Chief among us, bright-headed kindest, admired by all. In the pub an altar…
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Loss
I remember how much half-smiling teachers loathed your interruptions I remember eruptions of laughter every time you spoke I remember buying weed from you, smoking it in the lane There are more good times than I now can remember in the haze of days We spent blazing in what seemed like hazy endless summers, pondering…