Iain Britton
That Otherness
is criticized.
Why do it?
Why go there?
What right have I to loll about
in some soporifically-enhanced
fairyland
up to my neck
in lapping water
which doesn’t exist
but which bubbles warmly.
You stare and a maker of fake images
unveils a figure complete with similar characteristics.
***
That otherness is stopped at the door.
Strangers of the field
come knocking
voodoo harmonies. They carry dolls
their souls dyed in wood
their exclusive rights torn to shreds where they stand.
You plot the dots
of newly-hatched clusters of weather bombs.
Skies cut their wrists
Phantoms splash in puddles.
Day becomes night becomes day.
***
That otherness
creeps into my life
into bloodshot eyes
and the sea pours in windows
swamps the things we love
we cherish
then cleans us out. The sea
squats on its haunches
and gushes on.
***
You get the idea.
You hang your shirts out to dry
knowing tomorrow
a noble savage will wear your colours.
Black Rose
A theme pouts
and a talismanic pendulum
ticks to and fro.
Lips
smear walls.
A black rose springs up
centre stage.
Floorboards shift
and thorns
flake aphrodisiacs.
***
On stage
she touches my arm
speaks of doping herself up
lays eggs in my skin
curls up in the cup of my hand.
***
My role: to collect
wings abdomens cocoons
maggots
famous for their spirals
their twists and turns
sudden dead-ends.
They gulp at headlines.
***
A rare find (darkened by dust)
she reveals a truth
a clutching of hand on heart
a life form softened by sound.
_____
Iain Britton: Poetry published in NZ and overseas in many magazines on- and off-line / soft & hard back, e.g. Harvard Review, Agenda, Stand, Scythe Literary Magazine, Slope, The Tower Journal, BlazeVOX, Horizon Review. Oystercatcher Press (UK) published his 3rd poetry collection in 2009. Kilmog Press (NZ) will be publishing Iain’s next collection, November, 2010, http://www.iainbritton.co.nz/.
_____
RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 4 (2010): Emergence
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