Paul Sutton
How to remove a single brick from the middle of a wall
Agony, eviscerate cry over a poisoned well
black earth host to an unknown parasite
only thing thriving in this heat.
Liberal hate figure
did they make you just to berate you?
I saw where you came from
maybe I’m heading there some day -
moral luck to be able to define the world your own way
mostly it’s an agonisingly slow journey
black and wet and too late
a feeling that everything’s finished -
Christ, they don’t leave a man with much, do they?
She’s not born yet, but she will be soon.
Tarmac melts to mark her birth.
Tear down every street lamp
the world is lit by lightning
screaming figures stand on hillsides
appear then disappear
are treated as messiahs
saviours wearing nettles
drinking rain-water
confusing beardedness with profundity
scaring nature in their nudity
give them a child and they’ll wreck it for life
snatch him from his family
if this hole moves when it’s touched
detach him from his family
give them a pen
and they’ll rewrite your history
minus you and everything you’ve done
not educated, indoctrinated
not saved, desecrated
not whole, disintegrated -
they don’t leave a man with much.
Page(s) 20
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