Brian White
Scan
There is your brain, the man said
quite nonchalantly;
there is the part that reasons
and there is the part that feels,
and there is the spinal chord that
connects your nervous system,
which dictates what your body does.
All there, in black and white,
terrifyingly simple;
a mirror - a hall of mirrors;
distorted arthritic discs
curling higgedly-piggedly
round a pristine
straight white line,
encroaching on the holy of holies-
old bones in revolt
threatening my existence.
Out of control; the picture tells me;
corrupt flesh will have its own way
whether I like it or not;
scant gratitude for many years
of loyal muscle messaging
for a wayward mass of blood and blubber.
But I shall have the last word;
I it is who shall think carefully
then make the ultimate choice,
the holy edict,
to have it burned
or let it rot.
quite nonchalantly;
there is the part that reasons
and there is the part that feels,
and there is the spinal chord that
connects your nervous system,
which dictates what your body does.
All there, in black and white,
terrifyingly simple;
a mirror - a hall of mirrors;
distorted arthritic discs
curling higgedly-piggedly
round a pristine
straight white line,
encroaching on the holy of holies-
old bones in revolt
threatening my existence.
Out of control; the picture tells me;
corrupt flesh will have its own way
whether I like it or not;
scant gratitude for many years
of loyal muscle messaging
for a wayward mass of blood and blubber.
But I shall have the last word;
I it is who shall think carefully
then make the ultimate choice,
the holy edict,
to have it burned
or let it rot.
Page(s) 28
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The