I hear them
before they show
three red kites
turning, circling overhead
keening and calling
each to each
through shining colonnades
of superheated air
the storm comes
the outriders
poems
I talked with a zombie
I stagger around after god-knows-what
compelled by this bitey draw
and I really don’t think about things a whole lot
so I’m pretty much the same as before
whilst it might look like a life of brutality
obsessed with things to devour
I worked all my life in hospitality
so I’m used to the punishing hours
you can shoot me till I’m in bits on the floor
but honestly it’s hard to explain
why the only thing that’ll stop me for sure
is a bullet to my wormy ol’ brain
I just walk here! I don’t make the rules!
it’s really not that exciting
I stagger around in malls and schools
and do a lot of biting
thanks for sitting and letting me talk
finding you was propitious
but – my! – how your neck looks plump as heck
and your hands so goddamn delicious
apocalypse whenever
Climate change?
strange
I’m actually a supporter
why would you mind if the weather got warmer?
No bugs?
shrugs
those chitinous freaks jes’ make me restless
I like my balcony nice’n insectless
Water wars?
snores
thas’ why we got the military, man
to shoot big holes in yer watering can
Storms?
yawns
I like me the occasional flash of lightning
why would ya find a thunderhead frightening?
Sea rise?
lies
I live in a nice fat condo
I couldn’t care less if you lose the congo
Wildfires?
kill spiders
anyway – all those trees only spoil the view
and everyone loves a barbecue
two fairytale thumbnails
I.
Cinderella, missed by social services,
victim of domestic slavery,
works all day scrubbing surfaces
in dresses cut from drapery
gets rescued by a fairy
who magics up shoes and a frock
says go to the ball but be wary
of staying past twelve o’clock
lots of dancing ensues
it’s midnight before she knows it
loses one of her shoes
when she jumps in the pumpkin to close it
the prince orders a search
of his poorly neglected kingdom
using as part of his merch
the shoe that Cinders had flinged ‘im
her ugly sisters struggle
in desperation to prove
the prince bites his knuckle
but the shoe doesn’t fit their hooves
Cinderella coyly tries it
while her sisters wail and whimper
it’s just her size so she buys it
and suddenly life gets simpler
II.
Jack spills the beans
uploads himself to the cloud
throws himself on the castle scene
an ogre gets ploughed
yawn
God I’m tired
my battery flat, my password expired
unexpected silence in bagging area
only the chiller aisle is scarier
I’m the Kraken, broken, saying that’s it
I’m done with sinking ships and shit
tentacles bent, suckers spent
a washed-up calamari malcontent
my razzle frazzled, puzzle guessed
I’m like a knight in a castle at the end of a quest
who puts up his visor and has to confess
now the dragon’s slain he’s slightly depressed
my sparkle? unremarkable
theoretically speaking a hopeless particle
dragging his sad and sorry quarks
round & around the Hadron parks
my pizazz in rags, my fitbit quit
am I dynamic?
nee, nein, NYET
I’m a chart non-mover
Henry no hoover
action man AWOL lost on manoeuvres
a long weekend in wet vancouver
an eager beaver
post-procedure
not building dams or giving one either
I’m a me-shaped hole
where my ego scrolls
through an endless, friendless
Facebook of lost souls
not a whizz kid
a was kid
not Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Don’t
not Doctor Who
Doctor Won’t
Schroedinger’s cat
dead and that’s that
Brannigan without the zap
Peaky Blinders without the cap
and even though I started bravely
the only way I can finish… is … vaguely
so
YAWN
the ending is n-AI
every day I
read about AI
where experts say I
will soon get slayed by
bots who don’t play by
rules I set sway by
skull heaps surveyed by
a will unexplained by
this wide, dismayed eye
hiding in a lay by
the best joke I ever made
I had to drop a sample off
(a sputum pot for a nasty cough)
the receptionist called my records up
started to laugh so I said whassup
it says you’re allergic to insect bites
but they didn’t get the spelling right
‘comes out in weals’ but they spelled it ‘wheels’
I’m a sucker for a typo she squeals
Yeah I said but the top physicians
say it’s an automotive condition
(I stood there waiting for laughs and applause
but she just frowned so I left through the doors)
the garden out back
with neighbours and Gaia my only witness
I stepped outside the house meaning business
gardening gloves, peaked cap, steely nerves
hoe, rake, secateurs
ready to wrestle the weedy earth
but only out front
the front is just a front
the garden out back is the garden I want
the garden out back is a nature reserve
apples trees, cornflowers, poppies, herbs
in this laissez-faire heaven there aren’t any weeds
just life growing freely each to its need
no borders, planters, arbitrary distinctions
a humming commune without restriction
a bath for the birds, a pond for the newts
everything seeding and bearing fruit
man, birds, insects, plants
THAT’S where I’d rather be, given the chance
taking god for a walk
And God created Dog
which you’d have to think was a little bit odd
given She was already everything and nothing
but goes to show The Girl wasn’t bluffing
when She said unto Man
I am what I am
(although: disclaimer
that mightn’t be God but Gloria Gaynor)
either way it pretty much covers all bases
how immanence works in the strangest of places
in the end, though
who knows?
maybe God just needed an independent nose
to sniff out Her mighty works with emotion
(and anoint with a sprinkle of doggy devotion)
insertion point
the insertion point
that flashing bar
the off-and-on door
words shuffle through
sometimes I synchronise
my idiot blinking
to make it
seem permanently off
timing it right
is quite difficult
but much easier
than a poem
jim clayton 