“BE CRAZY & STUPID” (Kenneth Koch)
A book changes as time goes on
it sounds fun indeed marvellous
crazy if it surprises me
stupid and don’t get me started
on how it says things I didn’t realise
making outrageous statements away
from sense leave it over there written
how my old stuff makes me want to barf
and I can’t revise much it unravels
you can’t make it new without breaking
the usual way that is a good line
on my new old stuff and if
new stuff isn’t freaking you out
be abandoned then move on
ODE: TO MY BOOK CUPBOARD AGE 15
You’re another world a marvel
you’re a galaxy a constellation
endlessly in an infinite stream
of inner space and outer
in my little room a rocket
squeaking in his metal-insect
voyage to the top of the stairs
head full of starlight you’re
the visitor who puts the milk out
flunking homework in my
shiny steel portal bristling
with illusory worlds of blatant
alien life force antenna’ed and
tuned to a multiverse
for the cat who reveals himself
to be an ironical commentator
on a world without end-terraces
poor backward and largely
concrete grey uniforms classrooms
where I don’t do homework
and old men have their prayers
answered you get me in trouble
blue door undistinguished wood
panels on a perilous adventure
locked when the dark matter
of homework comes up which is
certainly in the megaton range with
latin declensions declined
problems in maths unsolved
a non-stop tour-de-force where
odd in a world of same
I’ll drop in from the moon
the nuts and bolts of time
for the lonely or some out
there colony of the fantastic
till I sell all those worlds
twisting in slow transversal rotation
for a fiver seeking a different
freedom from the little streets
I was never at home in fly
at full throttle to the
enormous carcass of the future
ON THE TOP DECK
A smile from my door to yours
today started well
then someone handed me a leaflet
they’re always shoving
their god in your head
as if yours were worthless
*
On the news this morning
they recommended acupuncture
don’t see the point
myself ha ha
yeah they
said there was evidence
*
You really have to
really try to
No new notes
everything just repetition
we all get the Christmas
we deserve all that enforced
bonhomie but it’s a week
then new year’s
resolutions
yes I see that
don’t you think
*
I resolve every year
not to make
resolutions
the flood
was just God over-reacting
as usual
I make one resolution
then break it
with a bottle of port
*
All over the place a lump
of pure copper
my thoughts today
are in at least
10 languages
SCI-FI DAYS
Tomorrow
it’s the 70’s
Marc and I
walk to school sing
children of the revolution
aliens on Top of the Pops
soundtrack
what’s her name waiting in the sky
there’s a Starman Vermillion Sands
what is that boy/girl/fish
what’s he wearing on her face
*
Wherever I am
whatever I’m from
it’s not here
radio streams from my head
in angles and curves
does anyone know the way
from this town
there’s got to be a way
ain’t big enough
so beam me up Scotty
from this planet of grey socks
& uniforms beam me up
from cobblestone hearts &
millstone heads
to my silver foil moonbase
with boots to match
where they quaff pink drinks
in perpetual starlight
*
Bisexual days
where the weather changed sex
hourly
I’m working to earn
a seat on the rocket
with my name on it
school’s been blown to
jet boots flying cars
a denim guitar &
a synthesised beat
on the planet
where no-one remembers
the rain
Copyright © Steven Waling, 2015. |