JUST A FEW RANDOM PIECES

Apologies for uncredited appropriation of photos, hope forgiven.

The Second Session with The Kemp

Took place in his bedsit, not visited in eight years.
A camp Trinidadian prowled the stairs. The room had room
For two chairs. I learnt that time could be dependent
On entropy. The universe is thirteen point
Seven billion years old. Sir Henry Sinclair
Reached Massachusetts in thirteen ninety eight.
The Phoenicians devised the world’s first phonetic
Alphabet. To see back in time you’d need to travel
Faster than light. A striped barber’s pole is derived
From the work of the algebristas, who set bones and
Drew blood between shaves. Algebra was invented
In ninth century Baghdad, twelve centuries after
Berossus told the Greeks of the fishman, Oannes,
Who brought geometry and all things humane into
Sumeria, where the first words were written on
Tablets of Clay. A supernova flares with the light
Of a million suns. In our skies they can be seen
Living and dying for no more than a few weeks.
Most of the universe is dark matter, beyond
Our discerning. I left at eleven after
Noodles, chicken and a glass of white wine.
Borges was with me, travelling through time.

12.02.04

Death by Water

A mother breaks a hole in a bathroom window
Pushes her child through to the other side

Not knowing what’s there or what waits for her.
Surely it’s just an act of hysteria, something from

The movies, these things don’t really happen
To us, but - go through anyway, just in case

I’ll be round in a minute, water can’t keep on
Rising like an unlimited cake, can it, but hurry

Just in case it can, and this is real and I am about
To drown. Hurry now and go as high as you can

Climb to the top of the mountain, to a place that
You’ve never even seen, and maybe, just maybe

We’ll meet there. But the child’s gone now, running
Away from the sound of water, and there’s not even

Time to catch that last breath, before it’s gone. The
Mother seized by a world beyond any world she ever

Even guessed at, far from the hotel, the towels, the pool,
Out into the deep, the blue, the beyond accounting,

To a land immune from the dreams we float in
A place so quiet and still it feels like nowhere on earth.


040105

The Plumbing

For months there has been a leak under the sink.
A steady drip from the pipe with a blue tap. The
Water drips loudly at night, silently by day. It turns
The Cupboard floor into a swamp. Who knows what
The floorboards look like beneath. Glue seeps out of
The cupboard joints. The door hangs at a blistered
Angle. The water table rises, in the end the whole
Kitchen will flood, we’ll be out of our depth, up
To our eyes in the stuff.

Periodically I go to work
On the leak. I use my grandad’s old rusty spanner,
Something out of the stone age, which looks more
Like a tool for dead-heading Kray brothers than
Mending leaks. The spanner is unwieldy. It helps
Stem the tide for a while, nothing more. The water
Fights back and I’m slithering on the floor again
Spanner slipping, cosmetic improvement, nothing more.

Then, yesterday, I had a brainwave. I could place a pan
Under the leak. The pipe still drips, but the cupboard floor
Stays dry. So long as I remember to empty the pan once
A day, a pleasant enough habit, my plumbing problems
Are held at bay.

One day, I know, I shall have to take a drastic
Step. Buy a new spanner, or call in the experts. The plumbing
Is not fixed, it’s stop-gapped. But for now I can continue working
In my kitchen, the threat of drowning dealt with, the tide turned
Back.


060405

New Year Cull

Round the back of my way
The Christmas trees are put out
To grass. They sit on the
Pavement, Unnaturally
Tilted, pointing the way
To a distant star,
Tiny radars each and
Every one, reading the new
Year runes. A year that doesn’t
Belong to them, in which
Their participation is
Almost already done.

060105

BERLIN

All the Berlin poems were written on 24th November 2005.

Treptower Park

History appeared to belong to the victors.
A landscaped park. At one end, twin slabs of
Anvilar stone framing a plaque on which
The dates 1941 - 1944 are written.
Facing this plaque, a giant holds child and
Sword, crushing a swastika underfoot.
A dozen matching stone plinths guard the
Perimeter. On each is inscribed a quote from
Josef Stalin. Carved German tanks fall eternal
To heroes of the Soviet Republic. Beyond these
Po-faced guards lurk trees, weeping faded
Leaves through Autumn’s maelstrom.

nach Weberwiese

An avenue as broad as the Mississippi.
Fronted by mock classical, sub-palatial
Apartments. Splendour of the democratic
Republic. Humans off the scale. Not a
Foot soldier in sight. In a Teuton bower,
Beneath fake plastic trees, two souls grapple
Within the utopian shadow. Fending off
Mushrooms. Trying to find sense in atoms,
Veins, bricks and brains whose composition
Seems unalterable, and yet… the world
Shimmies round such constants. The avenue’s
Semiotics are skewed. Its very name, Karl-
Marx Allee, takes on a meaning never
Conceived as foundation stones were laid.
Alteration lies not in mass, but in velocity; the
Night air. The changes charged as history.

east/west

I can recall lying awake in a foreign bed,
Inhabited by a vague dread of the other
Side of the wall. The end of that world.
Night sounds boxed into new shapes by a
Subtle claustrophobia. The other day, we
Strode across the boundary, leapt the
Hemispheric divide. Only the traffic lights
Signal a trace of the lost divide. Still.
Beyond the Mexican joints, the empty
Checkpoint, the liberated bars; beyond
Marketing and architecture;
The East remains the East. The West’s
Antipode. The weight of time might elapse
Unto collapse, but this will still hold true.

a naum gabo sculpture

At first sight it looks like bits of cardboard
Glued together. Stretching out into the world.
On second sight its a new vision of form. It
Might be a woman or a dog. Or anything. Who
Cares? It’s the past’s statement of what
Future’s possible might have been.

monday morning

Seven am. A foreign city. Dark outside. More
Muddled sleep flecked with slippery dream.
The hotel shower clothes a body in mist.
Dewdrops gleam. Water masks water. Lean
Against tiles. Capture time. Emerge no
Newer than before. Shrouded before dawn.