BONE TO PICK

Tags

poem, poetry, Universe

BONE TO PICK

I have a bone
to pick with my species

let’s make it
that Kubrick bone
that the Ape Man throws
right into the landing bay
of the Moon-orbiting space station

that bone
dissolved and refigured
as the heart of the HAL computer’s DNA

red eye watching to
see what bad stuff in the cave
Odysseus will get up to

that bone I came to
pick with you all (so
billion plural)
having so
much to answer for.

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CAESAR SALAD

Tags

arrogance, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, pride

CAESAR SALAD

Caesar was thinking
in the third
person

at the moment
of his assassination

in such a way
were Roman dictators
(first amongst
equals) accustomed
to write
and die.

CLEOPATRA’S TINY VENOMOUS ASSASSIN

Tags

poem, poetry

CLEOPATRA’S
TINY VENOMOUS
ASSASSIN

aspersions
aspirations

the latter like the
diamond hard blade
sawing through
your metaphoric
chains

the former, its incestuous
cousin

telling you the blade is blunt
is bent is about to break

ICARUS

ICARUS

Icarus
sweet boy

sucked in
by the Sun
wanting to
feel
like a god

underestimated
overreached

soared so high
he escaped Copernicus

found himself in
the realm of myth
where wax melts
wings fail

bodies
do not die
in a vacuum, frozen
to absolute zero

but
fall
broken
by hubris
like all
true heroes

loved, feared, despised
admired
by the gods.

STYX

STYX

it is good that
ink is black (as
if scooped up
from the Styx)

what colour could be better
for the death-like
numbness I feel
now I discover the truth
about you

colour for the sadness
deep as that river
and as bleak

EURYDICE

Eurydice
did not look as pretty
as he remembered her

so much time had elapsed
since she first disappeared

yet he had come
to plead for her return
longing to be reunited

yet
the dice of
life were

already rolling their
tragic numbers

and when
does the Underworld
give up its final claim?

CATHARSIS

catharsis
doesn’t happen
every day

the shock of witness
leaving us
dripping

for it was in truth
such a monstrously noble
horrific battle

the cheating gods
winning only
in the last
seconds

HERA

HERA

as a young man
poring lasciviously over
the artwork of Classical Mythology

you were
always
the one: I

asked you to call me next
time Zeus went gallivanting
as a bull, as a swan

but am
still waiting

longing for the taste
of your sacred pomegranates

AIN’T NOTHING LIKE

ain’t nothing like
commerce for creating
Helens of Troy

take war and
that other up
into the heavens

where trade is free and
tribute global
and there is
Aphrodite snapping
selfie
after selfie

STONE

O Medusa
how did I come
to get so
entangled
in your life
in your hair?

Those snake coils
drawn to me, sweet
to me (in
both senses) and
everything about us
of opposites a
gnostic fusion

but now
those gorgon eyes flare
anti-matter to
my matter
pulse with dark energy
deep as
a collapsed star

look upon what
you said was
your Sun
you called
your heart

that fire
now charcoal

that dream
a stone.