Company Of The Damned
From the hall of mirrors where strapping hydras
in flip abandon poured long chins away,
grimaced, groaned,. bared uproarious teeth
in scherzos of rich distortion,
from amusement only we turnstile back
to the hangover of what goes for normal:
the focus of a day whose shots
contrasting seem intolerably savourless -
daguerrotypes dead-leafy-dry.
Yet, something has occurred: a trigger-happy
catalysis whereby the matter’s charged;
funny become sinister, flagrant
pantomime a real demon’s cue.
From now, monstrosity’s what’s on;
our painful safeguard the indecent glass,
the warped glass that sees we get it straight:
our bloat carnivorous potential
when it comes to clenching: life size.
What the stereoscopic nightmare shows us
- unbridled in its brash convulsive masque -
these curved lenses will relentlessly endorse;
photo-circusing our stark meanness,
giving us this day our bread of guilt. . .
fawning at the legal cut throat’s
hair splitting Damoclean edge;
thigh smiling at the gagged and pinioned
schoolgirl, below her screaming eyes.
No longer can we stroll abroad
in the glad rags of cavalierly innocence,
freemen of the sensuous ideal,
its golden terraces and star-languor.
Our quarry’s here: the soiled asbestos
barracks in whose cold flame
we wrestle nature, are determined, human.
Heaven we can leave our elders;
this hell alone is hope.
Page(s) 5
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- Thumbscrew
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