MINOTAUR
I believe in Aristophanic raindance
I believe in the madwoman’s undergarments
I believe in insubstantial tubes of light
That sit on the face and linger, that are
Remnants of antique worms that crawled
Over the earth at the time
Of ferns and the Eohippus.
I believe in the ghost of time
That will return at the inapt moment
To tap on the windowpane
Of our dreams so that
The yellow light invades
The courtyards of Rembrandt
Of Turner and of Claude.
As it invades the sensual
Signature of roses, leaves, trees
To be memorialised by one
Insubstantial yet deft
Brushstroke that is also
An intellectual worm
Burrowing into fevered
Glands becoming human entrails
Dotted with blood which are also
Confessions of poems,
Spontaneous odes that burn
In the skylight of the membranes
Of vast minotaurs that inhabit
This labyrinthine credo.
TROLLS
Men and women are like trolls
All wrapped up in hollow swansongs.
The lost hours are underneath
The floorboards that clatter
With the stamp of the trolls
The chatter of the bastards that matter.
The trolls eat, sleep and fuck
And in the midnight they can die
Too.
Repay the masters in hard luck
And the trolls moo and moan.
LOW INTENSITY OPERATIONS
After Sir Frank Kitson
The sky is grey. The rain falls.
The dead fall of rain and leaves.
Trees scowl. All is foliage, greenness.
Map 1. Jesus’s tomb
Extend a lead for a CCTV
Camera in there. A dial
With various measurements.
Breathing. Heart rate. Blood
Pressure. The resurrection
Will really fuck up the chief’s
Plans for his new open prison,
Pandemonium, scheduled to be
Built in mid-Ulster.
Map 2. Low key surveillance
The gods of the Canaanites
Are arrayed along with a funky
Statue of Astarte found in Iraq
Or a (possibly) neighbouring
Territory. It looks very like
A man with a huge firm. We sent
It to Sir Frank Kitson for his approval.
Map 3. Sir Frank Kitson’s entrails
O fuck looks as if Sir Frank has been
Brutally killed in a terrible accident
With a pane of glass. This would
Have upset Tacitus, Herodotus,
Pliny, Plutarch, the minge
Of the Venus or Praxiteles,
The orifice of Apollo. Ask Sir Frank
For his autograph….
Paul Murphy
