The world

is controlled
by people
so important
they do not exist.

The silence of onlookers

is the sound of shame.

* Contemporary Poetry

(to Paul Muldoon et mult.al.)

A wave of treated
toxins, chlorinated turds
in a slimy sea
of over-considered
words.


*(in the English language)

Non-penetrative sex

is to the cruder kind
as Dhrupad is to Opera.

[Dhrupad is the most contemplative form of Indian Classical music,
usually sung (in solo or duet) by deep male voices,
but also played on the most contemplative instrument,
the Rudhra Vina.
A single Rag can take several hours to perform.]

When death

is penultimate
integrity,
grieving is
another kind of vanity.

Though all prisoners

are political

the true anarchist
is not.

A Place to Rest

The other day I hired a grave
@ 9 euros a year for
the minimum 30 years.

It is in a beautiful, secluded,
empty corner of the graveyard
with a splendid view across
the river to the village.

Others seem to want to rot
in the open, in full sun,
but I prefer my shady Vampire Corner
where I have planted hellebore,
heather, periwinkles, costmary
and wild garlic - though not
because I think the last-named
will be necessary.

Heaven

for dog-lovers is full of dogs
for racists has no people of color
for control-freaks is a gulag
      of their very own in the sky
for Jews contains no Gentiles
for Muslims is full of virgins
      for whom there is no competition
for cats is full of mice and small
      endangered, feathered species
for me is gloriously null eternity

'Embedded Water'

It takes 130 pints of water
to grow the food and process it
to make a pint of beer.

A cup of coffee "embeds" 140 litres
of water, a cotton T-shirt 2,000 litres,

and 15,000 litres of water (plus
a lot of drugs, husbandry and transport) make
just one kilogram of steak...
for necrophagy's sake!

Words and the World

interweave
and unravel
each other.

Application of Intelligence

It requires only the slightest shift
of mind, and modest application,
to turn oneself
from sexually-deficient
to sexually self-sufficient.

Women of the World,

unite!
For the men are
faking it
too
-and don't even know
that they're faking it.

NASA

is now working on the logistics
of using the dark side of the moon
as a dump for nuclear waste,

and how to make Mars
habitable for colonising
members of our species
- which is so good at
cherishing planets.

Make haste! O make haste!

Deuteronomy & Leviticus

Every Christianity
is à la carte
pick 'n' mix doctrine
and morality.

(see Comment for amplification)

What the Cat said

Curiosity killed
the planet.

Sexual jealousy

and capitalism:
if you love the latter
you revel in the former.

When I come to think about it,

'high' culture
is only a little less trivial
than the 'low' variety.

The best future

is none.

(Brevity
is the soul of
levity.)

Arthritis :

an old dog chews on
an older bone

Mystery

is the natural order of things
which the vanity of our curiosity
imperils with such impertinence.

'What is important'

said the great heterosexual chansonnier,
Georges Brassens, 'is the sum total of affection,
tenderness and fellow-feeling
that a man can offer another.'

We have the arrogance

to think we're more than
animals ruled by appetites.
But our appetites have become
ingeniously multifarious

and our reason is their
pathetic slave.

Truth

invented by humans,
exists only in laughter.

Our skins

feel like
the skins of snakes.
We are one of only two
mammals without fur.

This evolutionary
accident was our
Original Sin.

At the deepest level

of civilisation:
prison.

Optimism's ruthless,

unremitting rays
glare out from almost every human act
and scorch the Earth

which merely adds
to hubristic humanity's self-praise.

POLICE SAY

(a found poem)

Police say 28-year-old Anthony Coffman
walked into the Jay C. Foodstore,
pulled out a hunting knife
and attacked packages of hamburgers.

When an employee tried to stop him,
police say Coffman lunged at the man
with the hunting knife.

"He told people at the store
that God had sent him there to do that.
And he was trying to save young girls from the beef,"
said Deputy Police Chief David Lutz.

Coffman is charged with criminal mischief,
and criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.