THANKS BUT NO THANKS EMPEROR AURELIUS

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry

THANKS BUT
NO THANKS.
EMPEROR
AURELIUS

the left
are in
disarray

the right
imagine it’s
their golden age

sinister how
the two hands have
so split apart
the spirit of
humanity
perforated

can be torn
down the middle

but wait!: an age of
(if not true prosperity)
maximum profits awaits

which, of course,
means

internal,
external

no citizen that
could not do
with a subjugate
as dished out
to chancer barbarians

which, of course,
means

war
take off the
door
of the Temple

remove
the walls

always under
perfect order, discipline
control

the law
is the legion

we got this, Mars!

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ROME

Tags

Empire, Humanity, poem, poetry, power, ROME

ROME

the golden greed of Rome
marble knuckle-dust
of her high achievement

template of how
it is done
how it
has to be
done

a power standing in the way
simply burn that
city, annihilate
a people, dissolve
that civilization

no words, no trace,
the text of a history
reduced to ash

reduced to what
the victory column says it is

in business of war, in
business of
State you
came such a long way

shining example of
what an
Empire
must be

PLANET TRUMP

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, power, satire, Trump

PLANET TRUMP

we wanted
the shape of
apocalypse

without
spiritual substance

so we elected this suit
that contains
a man inside
I guess

and now
stupid science says
pur world is
dying

I say:
“button up!
we’ll
suck it up!”

in the meanwhile there are
psalms
we can sing

translated into our special context
how
the enemies will lie before me

specifically references
their racial complexion

and what
are sweet pastures
if not for titanic, cut-
price towers

there is no sin
that gloss cannot remove
no brutal concrete

cannot be
spray painted
with Heavenly glitter.

LESSON

Tags

BREXIT, Britain, British, Einstein, Ending, Intellectual, loss, philosophical, poem, poetry, Shakespeare

LESSON

it started as gut feeling
then intellectual exercise:
draw ever narrowing circles

on this same blackboard
where the dust itself
magically transposed
into telescope looking
into ever-expanding galaxy

into tiny equation
that said everything

how human being is
light might
be turned to fire

no one reads those blackboards now
the world they were portal into
simply run out of everything
except billboard idea

the change so fast
that dust so volatile

a country that has wished
the worst days upon itself
rushing towards
its gorgeous nemesis
like a meteor

let me
try the virtue of patience
staring deep into
that chalk

iconic chalk you
might
add in, your fivepence worth
wishing to caricature

once there wax Empire, for all its deep sin,
this place concentric, its thinking radial

now nothing crosses
to these shores, we have made
ourselves taboo, insufferably precious

that poet whose words they wrote in chalk:
now there was a lesson!

AND EPISTLES

Tags

Alexander Pope, Censorship, poem, poetry, Prison, satire, writing

AND EPISTLES

writing should be
a cardinal sin

we could build
penitentiaries

to keep writers in
laugh at the
stuff

they scratch on the walls
with broken
bleeding fingers

before
we whitewash
or repaint

story has it
there once
was a
Pope

that wrote
satires
and epistles

THE FACTORIES

Tags

Capitalism, Global warming, poem, poetry, religion, satire

THE FACTORIES

the factories
sang out
to God
gave
God
praise

but God
could not
see them
could not
hear them

because
of all
the noise
because
of all
the smoke,
the waste

so they
sacrificed
a few
already dead
fish to
appease him

but God
if indeed
He
did
notice

had
nothing
to
say

was not
enraged

the factories
singing
for all
their worth

the silence
such a shame

IN THE LIGHT

Tags

Light, poem, poetry, satire, Shadow

IN THE LIGHT

the shadow
you cast

so exceeds you

by factor
of twenty, thirty, way
way more

such a huge shadow
announcing you, walking
behind you

source of it all
but a
pinprick
of light

MEET MR LEE

Tags

Britain, British, Comedy, poem, poetry, Stewart Lee

MEET MR LEE

Meet Mr Lee
his comedy

no jolly jack tar
side-splitting,
belly wobbling

coarse
Blackpool Boy
slinging those
good old
British insults

your
great grandmother
used to love
(though far
more blue and
spicy
than what, God rest her
soul

she might
be pleased to recall)

but our Mr Lee
weaves in and out of
a teasingly

subversive narrative
doing a Derrida-deferral when it
comes to our presumptions
of
obvious endings, met
expectations

soon though
we on the trail, got the gist

the punchline more pinprick
than slap in the
face by
clown-glove incongruity

more
I did not realize
the politics
of this world so hopelessly,
incorrigibly absurd.

STATE OF PLAY

Tags

irony, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire, Truth

STATE OF PLAY

a God that
loves
absolute Truth
(with as
big a
capital “T”
as you
can get)

a Universe
that loves
irony

a Devil that loves
lies more
than any
politician

and me
with my
little, stupid
rhymes

WHEEL

Tags

Humanity, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, Torture, Universe

WHEEL

It is the end
of my little experiment

the crows descend
will find me
common fare, not
even a
rare tweet

I imagine the Universe must run
on the principle of wheels
like this, geared to
click with other wheels
all so
seamless

my blood runs
the pain taking
me to places
I pray no human
will ever follow

Oh my cruel companions
everything turning, in
their excruciating truth
the stars
lined up

the crows here
it is the end
at last the end