Thursday, 3 October 2013

Rat piss in the springtime (rainbow over Campsea Ashe)



Look, it’s easy, 
easy you see; 
Thou hast lost thyself 
oh great Verdini 
Snowflakes soaked in paraffin, 

I want them to trickle down my chin, 
Because I have sinned and I am thin 

and I don’t want to look like my liver 
which is swimming in gin. 
For I have tomorrow and never again, 

seeing the great pyramid of oosa 
flung henceforth from a well of dreams 
shall I decline a fat bemused 
and lyrical swish of diminution 
for the rifle of parallel desire 
with which I am blessed
Hic. 

And I am a cigarette 

sellotaped to the end 
of a bleeding lip 
soon shall be buried in a pile of dust 
crushed and disgarded with luscious contempt 
swilled down in the dumps 
paddled amongst the shit and spit 
in a pit of mud and blood. 

For she is blunt and she is tiny 

and I have no yellow lines 
All for one and watch with mother 
Coming true at various times 
Then she went and rented rivers 
Singing hey man 

floods in Spring 
All I knew was bent and withered 
I knew she was the King of tides 

the watcher dodging 
Jams and breaks and dams and grief do
Come along and watch her walking 
On the bank with handsome 

carriage floodlights 
Shining in the brief 
March 
Air 

But no one was there, 

to stare in the bitter wind 
which tore the faces 
of innocent passers by 
who'd just witnessed a crime. 
The crime was wasted and festered 

and tattered scarves were ripped 
and shredded in a pageant 
full of nonsense and noise 
and a struggling toothless lady 
who stank and screamed, 
but nothing came out 
of her stained and rancid mouth, 
but a rasping hollow rotting sound. 

Aaagh begotten 

flesh and rat-piss 
wiels disease 
Stinking dog pus like a love feast 
Scattered through the sewage pipe 
Making tomatoes wherever it lands 
Making hedonistic smells from clay 
Making play where fishes flap 
Come with me my severed brethren 
Come and eat these maggots raw 
Come and walk by shattered willows 
Bent and savaged 

just as straw 

I will never go to heaven, 

never read a book again 
listen to the sounds of human beings 

rattling and eating and whistling 
endure the breathing 

of other people  
It’s all so smelly 

and not frosty enough. 
Disgusting as lumps of meat 

and fish heads 
jumping out of the ice in supermarkets. 
It’s crude and wonderful. 

Like the back of my watch 
Sweat encrusted jewel encumbered 
Smashing beauty from the tick 
Lo you sit and tick unheeded 
Needing time to wind you up 
You useless gimmick 
Old forgotten 
Dying by the force of service 
But you live in dreams like colour 
Hopeless when reprinted 

by the most efficient machine 
How can I touch you 
When you don’t exist? 
At Christmas 
The summer holiday 
Or some other time 

when nobody’s witching? 

In a bubble of snot 
I dwell in the fingernails of a Parisian tobacconist 

and swim in the cracks of the fallow pavements 
whilst the dogshit’s being hosed 
into the gutter 
by giant street cleaners 
on a Sunday 
when all the dogs in the world have been walked. 
time turns to gunge and is no longer now, 
No longer warm breath 

that you can see when it’s snowing 
or beans and garlic 
that you can smell when they're cooking. 
I am the ghost of grime 

which haunts the dreams 
of old men and beggars. 
The colours are just ink, 
infused with thought, 
so dangerous it stops you thinking. 

Quiet shades of white and purple 
Telling anarchy of purpose 
Why don’t people sell their stories 
When they write their epitaph’s? 
This one for the guardian 
That one for the times 
This one for my mother 
Next comes readers wives 

When we’re dead our smiles get lurid 

as a model fucking money 
Why not run like shit down sewers 
That’s what they’re made for honey 
poets hang themselves from piano wires 
men grow tits by accident 
Who invented mindless questions 
Who made handbags made of envy 
Who said shoe heels should be bent? 
Along the streets of trepidation 
Angels sing in vats of pasta 
Worlds collide in deprivation 
Hungry ghosts are slave and master 

Trouble is grot 
Anger phlegms 
Beep beep beep of consternation 
Oh to be in realms of not 
Where pictures flea 
And lice are legion 

Crabs are almost flat 
Politicians are reason, 
Bogies are tasty, 

except in Paris where they are black, 
but still they have a gritty kind of quality, 
so does unwashed lettuce, 
and worms I believe, 
although I’ve never eaten one myself. 
maybe I will one day 

when it is raining and they are plentiful. 
We wouldn’t have such tasty potatoes 

if there weren’t such things as worms. 
Nightingales wouldn’t have anything to eat, 
or maybe they'd eat snails like the French, 
I don’t know. 

O birds 
They fly all over the place 
The little fuckers 
hey 
Give me back my two white maggots 
You bastard. 



pic - rainbow over campsea ashe - arthur tikhon cooke - age 5.




































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