Wednesday 18 July 2012

Coffee morning


                       The smashed glass grains
               about the fronds
                          of the dumb plants

                    all for glitter
                                    for the show
            the work a drunk did do

                   O, you and your borrowed heart
                                       singing a nursery round
  
                              You press
                  the collar back
                              at the nape
                                       till I nearly drop
                           my second cup

      A daft fire could start between the legs
                                            (but it’s easy enough to check)

                     The machinery
                     that couples according to some
                     old and boring law
                     turns the filthy sunbeams on
                     for more

                I won’t be anyone’s reason for anything

                   Time to step outside for a fag
            and to take as long
                                     as an unsmoked smoke

4 comments:

  1. Ah, but the god in the machinery. Just when it seemed the works had closed down for good.

    More than half of Euripides's extant tragedies employ a deus ex machina in their resolution and some critics go so far as to claim that Euripides invented the deus ex machina as a work dodge.

    Lovely about the collar/nape/drop/cup, the suddenness of the pressure rekindling the daft fire, and no one being anyone's reason for anything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm hoping Deus makes good no resolution here. I don't like things too tidy. I don't mind him popping round once in a while.

    Those five lines come in a bit at odds, like some well-dressed drunk uncle sliding onto the beer sodden dance floor, but this gives me a kind of pleasure.

    Poor old Euripides; there are worse ways of swinging the lead.

    I'm glad you picked out the reasoning; I've a great horror of how we use others to serve our plans and pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for drawing out the music too. They're lovely words, tender and small in themselves.

    The subject doing the telling could well be a bit of cold fucker here, so such words had to show up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It should read "...a bit of a cold fucker..."

      Delete