36
S’io credesse per morte
essere scarco
if I believed that death could
set me free
from this unwinding universe
of love
I’d connect the exhaust to my
snorkel
& let the garage door
crash down for good
but you’re never certain which
dimension
you’ll wake up in these days
what with
daily upgrades to the laws of
physics
& cars running on healthy
chip-fat fuel
you might just come to in
intensive care
exhausted & clinically
obese
wired up to NHS Word for
Windows
better to let the tug-of-war
go on
between Amor & the forces
of Death
guess who they’re using
instead of a rope
40
S’amore
o morte non dà qualque stroppio
if
love or death don’t fuck it up
by
making me a mumbling imbecile
another
gormless poetry muppet
or
just a corpse chilling down the Co-op
I’ll
polish off this amazing sequence
which
will be classy but bang up to date
&
could find acclaim as far away as
Norwich
or the rougher parts of Cambridge
but
you need to let me have my books back
I
can’t get on without the old masters
Italian
English & American
I
don’t need all the academic cack
but I
need my Dantes & O’Haras
my
James both Rileys & Ted Berrigan
41
Quando
dal proprio sito si rimove
there
are so many versions of Laura
thanks
to so many mythical creatures
that
when she departs from her native glade
I hum
along with the spectacularly dead
not
forgetting their worthy successors
so
almost everything evaporates
in the
misremembered blues of her eyes
as the
Scissor Sisters or was it Johnny
Hallyday
so very nearly chanted
Julie
London & Ella Fitzgerald
Eric
Dolphy in Europe Volume 2
Vous êtes formidables Charlie Parker
with strings Sinatra Where Are You
Laura won’t you just tell Cincinnati
44
Que' che
'n Tesaglia ebbe le man sí pronte
even nasty bastards have a soft side
Mussolini collected toy meercats
Michael Gove licks his snake to sleep each night
George Bush whispered to bricks Pol Pot liked dogs
Fascist eyelashes tremble at Schubert
the lumps in their throats curtsey to the great
graphic novels of the quattrocento
& thick albino athletes made of rock
so how in heaven’s name can it be true
that someone of your sensibility
can see with perfect equanimity
my heart twitching to death in front of you
your eyes brim with irritability
but not even a micron of pity
45
Il mio
adversario, in cui veder solete
after I’d invented mountaineering
& then the dark ages I decided
I’d try my hand at making up the self
ready for the rise of the bourgeoisie
first stare at an image in a mirror
become entangled in bright absences
banished to flatpack oblivion
at the back of some suburban warehouse
you add label after label until
you’ve made a 3D paper-mache
robot programmed by the Murdochs
then you end up addicted to updates
each vacancy replacing another
as your blood turns slowly into water
56
Se
col cieco desir che 'l cor distrugge
so
they buffed up their fake gnostic proverbs
it
is forbidden to find a lost sock
until
you’ve first discarded its partner
(church
affirms) & bees cause global warming
what
evil spirit infiltrates the seed
&
blights my crop so close to harvest
what
beast is roaring deep within the cell
who
left a hot tap on in the basement
dangerously
high on non-hormonal hopes
I stretched out to pluck the ripest plum
fell
out of the fruit tree forever
autumn
puts a cold hand up your jumper
Mr
Waits growls back at the equinox
call
no man happy till he’s dead he said
58
La guancia che fu già piangendo stanca
your bishopness should rest his head on this
attractive kneeler remembering
how wise it is to shun Amor & all
its tired & emotional devotees
then clutch the enclosed pamphlet to your heart
to reinforce a philosophical
position which avoids excessive ups
& downs remaining steady as she goes
my final gift is this simple wine glass
from which you may sip such oblivion
as may be smuggled past human senses
I hope you’ll keep the poem in your heart
as well as out in the wide wild world
where O’Hara said I must live forever
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