London Zoo
The muskets are hushed on Hackney Marsh;The pheasants revolted at Stratford.In Streatham, the meerkats have reached an impasse,And muskrats are marching through Catford.The finches of Finchley are...
View ArticleThe Slaughterhouse (II)
When something cloven this way encroaches,We anthropophagously eat our own,And beat the tribunes down, obedientWith bloody baton. Do not walk alone Through howling streets, nor gather togetherAgainst...
View ArticleThe Slaughterhouse (I)
Hang up your uniform of impunity.No one smiles like the man who ambles free,Nor butcher abandons the abattoirAs brazenly as he who overseesThe mincing machine – a finger's minuteFrom losing a limb....
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Hawks Stones
Stone-hearted, the outlines came mindfully around the jowl Of the mound, rising immensely over the arc of yearsTo demarcate a cavity. Swifts stayed the course Of our slow ascent, through a...
View ArticleDe Profundis
The cumulus nimbles on Norland MoorWhere sedge festers and heather stretches Infinite needles into the suckling sky.At hushtimes, the peat releases low lamentsBemoaning the lot of those hollow menThat...
View ArticleThe Birds
First it came for the canaries. At eight, The cages were closed by spinsters and widows,The water trays full, the seed bowls overflowing.By the time daylight edged through the nets, The soft...
View ArticleThe Battle of Lewisham
The Battle of Lewisham was a tawdry affair.For the greater good of national hate, we marchedFrom New Cross Gate to Deptford Bridge,A mile behind fomenting bands of foaming skinsAnd memento mori...
View ArticleThe Bull
I tramp the boundaries of this skin, slipDown clavicle drifts and barefoot skate On a frozen solar plexus where We settled in exile and waitedFor winter to strip the pine.When the ice sheets...
View ArticleThe Time has Come to Eat the Poor
The time has come to eat the poor.Remove the tasteless skin; it tendsTo tear if tugged too tight. Now scoreThe tendons. Pluck the odds and ends(If keen to learn, the kids can slice The teeth, the...
View ArticleLet us not speak ill
Let us not speak ill of the ill-lived dead. Be iron-willed, still; tacit as a stopped clock tower Gagged by siege machines, cogs seized, Hour-hands held by orphaned soldiers, Guns cocked in hardened...
View ArticlePrelude to Terra Nostra
Parnassus rises on the edge of the underworld.Sleep, the sleep has shifted. Under skin-silk nets and Artex arches,Between Beijing sheets and sweated bedding, Bound by stitches itched by infant...
View ArticleThe Lion and the Unicorn
With apologies to Edward Lear, his owl and his pussycat.The lion and the unicorn went by train On the East Coast line from York. They sipped champagne on their southbound campaign,Ate canapés with a...
View ArticleBlack Dog
tick-bitten, thistle-tonguedshe comes like hungerhung on a rib. a cradle graven,a sloe crib in covert scrub,cowering. haunch worn and winter-pinched,horn-toed and hackle-flecked,she waits, ticking.a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hawks Stones
Stone-hearted, the outlines came mindfully around the jowl Of the mound, rising immensely over the arc of yearsTo demarcate a cavity. Swifts stayed the course Of our slow ascent, through a...
View ArticleDe Profundis
The cumulus nimbles on Norland MoorWhere sedge festers and heather stretches Infinite needles into the suckling sky.At hushtimes, the peat releases low lamentsBemoaning the lot of those hollow menThat...
View ArticleThe Birds
First it came for the canaries. At eight, The cages were closed by spinsters and widows,The water trays full, the seed bowls overflowing.By the time daylight edged through the nets, The soft...
View ArticleThe Battle of Lewisham
The Battle of Lewisham was a tawdry affair.For the greater good of national hate, we marchedFrom New Cross Gate to Deptford Bridge,A mile behind fomenting bands of foaming skinsAnd memento mori...
View ArticleThe Bull
I tramp the boundaries of this skin, slipDown clavicle drifts and barefoot skate On a frozen solar plexus where We settled in exile and waitedFor winter to strip the pine.When the ice sheets...
View ArticleThe Time has Come to Eat the Poor
The time has come to eat the poor.Remove the tasteless skin; it tendsTo tear if tugged too tight. Now scoreThe tendons. Pluck the odds and ends(If keen to learn, the kids can slice The teeth, the...
View ArticleLet us not speak ill
Let us not speak ill of the ill-lived dead. Be iron-willed, still; tacit as a stopped clock tower Gagged by siege machines, cogs seized, Hour-hands held by orphaned soldiers, Guns cocked in hardened...
View Article