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TEST PATTERN city poem in Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection, a selection of poems free to read online. Webmaster for this site is poet Hugh Cook, born in Britain, educated in New Zealand, and the author of, amongst other works, the fantasy series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
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Paperback Book or US $5 PDF file |
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Limp meat and a hangover
Slumps in the living room; The test pattern sucumbs to soap and suds, And meat raises a beer to suckle meat's lips, And yells at the kids to turn down the volume a bit, While the long-leg blonde drools over deodorants, While the smoother razor shaves smoother, While The kids hunt for glue and petrol, While — Six legs lost in a maze of electrical torques, Climb like a vein of metal amid radiations That would skin a scream from anything less like armour. Antennae probe and scan For the road to the cinnamon hive. A laughter shakes the world, high and hysterical, Applauding a waterfall of tampons, A fountain of cholesterol, While Plastics burn from a blistered wire And armour fights against oblivion. Meat murders a packet of peanuts, And yells at the wife to Cut the yakker on the phone, While The faithful dog is faithful, While The deodorants deodorise and the razors shave smooth, While — Six legs lost in a maze of electrical torques, Places on the slippery ply of magnet and force-flux, Darkness and devil-lights. Every step is a gamble — but to stop, Starvation's stalemate. And who could endure to stop Here in a ringing world Crashing with laughter and gunfire, With the screams of limbs strung up on barbed wire For the entertainment of the nation, With the slobbering joy of lips and saliva Acting love for the loveless, With the slobbering greed of lips and saliva Clamouring for toothpaste and icecream. One leg slips, and burns out, A white-hot agony. But still the struggle: Joints, claws, carapace, Lever and hoist, Endure death within murder — The last wish A wish for the wings of farfalla. Meat screams murder At the screen more dead than a test pattern, At death in the afternoon — The death of his afternoon. |
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May be photocopied for classroom use |
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Click to Read |