visible universe

I
Nobody here
Is my chronicler
To record what
I say or do
So let me speak
When I think is fit
And I will
Tell you myself
That ive taken
Surrogate delight
In the consumer’s
Early ticklishness
At owning

Ive seen
Innuendoes, conceit
blunt fare for
Suspicion of deceit
And holy men and women
Sitting around glasses
Saturated with piety

In a momentary retreat
Ive espied from the balcony
In a lower window
A dead evening resisting surrender
unwilling to yield although
bent forward was the head
for she sat her back to me
A tutor, the guardian?
With a stick

Ive been surprised by
Stealing behind on
Silent tiptoes the girl
Playing hide and seek
With toddler tiny
in pursuit wobbly knees
have been turned to putty
by the teasing so tantalising
almost within reach but
there giving you the slip

Ive lived no longer
Than a day and at night
Remember to myself



II
Whenever I want something
I went to the kali temple
Whenever I want something
Went early morning with a cousin
Whenever I want something
Stop he said. What’s that
Whenever I want something
A sacrifice. A jet black kid
Dragged to the altar and body
Flung away from it the severed head
Whenever I want something
And to Abraham he said
Give him up, give up your blood
Your flesh. When I ask
ask not why do my bidding
Whenever I want something
The unbending will is not mine

spyglass is on the other eye

I
Collar up
Buttons undone
Hair unkempt
Bed unmade eyes red
Out on the road desperate
a worry to the world
an expert unto self

II
Do I have time
I own that thing
Like my bitch
I take her out on Sundays
To race her for a few dimes
Me and my friends like
Our ice-cream cola for
The afternoon
In the evening we move
On to serious things
The canny dog she is
She waits to take me home
and knows her way
When I’ve had
Too much to drink

III
Everything that is dying
And possessed of death
Must it pass through me
And I passing from darkness
To darkness like a shadow
in the labyrinth of time

IV
If all the universe was pain
Could I suffer it
I cussed
Opened my eyes
And saw it was morning

seek/order

First I thought
It was this
Then it was that
But just only me
So market-trained
Second nature
Finding in haggling
An able accomplishment
To complement hoarding
And if there is blind
Exchange in everything
our greatest find
Can be so misleading
For love is blind
Mostly worried thus
Is my state of mind
Over the problem of
So little eye and
From what darkness to
pick the gift of freedom


In the kingdom
Of butterflies
There are no
Villains but
Dragonflies
No rebels but
Fireflies
Little politics
fewer gadflies
and they swat
as they go
through them
who knows
what the insects sing
for nothing helps
the tired plodding
in the marshy districts
all sound is a buzzing
in the damp air and
pests in the eyes
mouth and ears


it’s about time
I introduced
Numbers
In my ideas
Like so many
Cogs, bolts and links
That in a box
For a Christmas gift
One could put
Together the toy
In a trice and forget
About it or with
The passage of time
Finding its debris
In some lost attic
Know at once
What parts are missing
If in the offing
Is an intention
To restore it
To a semblance
Of response
to turning keys

nosegay

When im falling
Let a word send
Me hurtling
Skywards let a
Word be mine
To breathe life into
Me when im
Drowning and
Similar magic be
In masses of words
Each as potent as
The last but far
Easier would be
To have so many
Slaves just to make
So much fuss over i
Though of little help
For my sinking
In the chaos
The force of words
In voices full
Chattering, barking
And growling
With the unmistakable
Laughing wastes
The substance of words
When from my
Mouth they are heard
Oh where did i
Empty myself


My countless deaths replayed
I grow old nonetheless
Though none too bad for it
I think
Considering the many times
A mortal sigh
Has escaped this soul
But I shut the lid tight
Inside a jack in the box


See you asked
For a gift
And I made you
This world
And gave you
The whip in
A golden box
Now in all this
Sound of cracking
I wonder what
Odd would your
Rejection achieve
Your refusal of
Your gift maybe
it will send
the structure crashing

it is as you say

Are you
A boy scout
Are you
A setter with
A strong sense of smell
Are you self-loathing
When the search
refuses to abandon
your name
aren’t you
the innocence
of curiosity when
curiosity in its innocence
asks difficult questions


in congress the sages sit
in congress the couples sleep
before the answer
comes the inquest
before juvescence comes
unrest over barabbas’s weeping fit
troubling all both them
who do and those that don’t
know anything about it


write then about
sunrise of
exploding dawns
in gentle skies
at night also
let it pour over
ruinous daybreaks
and desultory twilights
go to the lighthouse
when the sun is
sinking and take
a long look at darkness
across an emptiness
lit by a searchlight