Brian Docherty
Postcard for Dracula
It never rains on Planet Postcard;
wouldn’t be good for the tourist trade.
I ghost-wrote the original Rough Planet
Guide, so many places I’ve lost count.
Every time I take the long sleep
my memories are collaged. I think
I invented False Memory Syndrome.
I am my own unreliable witness.
That’s why I collect postcards,
one of the few Victorian inventions
I approve of. Museums make me
queasy, bringing on flashbacks,
but their shops sell me back parts
of my past, provided I possess
the right currency in my pocket.
Sometimes I forget that gold
is no longer universally good,
except in some mediaeval desert
I sincerely hope I never visit again.
I saw Doctor Who once, in 1965,
and recognised the Doctor’s plight.
That’s how my coffin malfunctions
when my resting place is disturbed,
just dumps me anywhere, anywhen.
Just look at this, Whitby Harbour,
I remember this a hundred years ago,
I might have written a novel about it,
It was a dark and stormy night etc.
I have written most of my lives,
& will enjoy my royalties in perpetuity.
wouldn’t be good for the tourist trade.
I ghost-wrote the original Rough Planet
Guide, so many places I’ve lost count.
Every time I take the long sleep
my memories are collaged. I think
I invented False Memory Syndrome.
I am my own unreliable witness.
That’s why I collect postcards,
one of the few Victorian inventions
I approve of. Museums make me
queasy, bringing on flashbacks,
but their shops sell me back parts
of my past, provided I possess
the right currency in my pocket.
Sometimes I forget that gold
is no longer universally good,
except in some mediaeval desert
I sincerely hope I never visit again.
I saw Doctor Who once, in 1965,
and recognised the Doctor’s plight.
That’s how my coffin malfunctions
when my resting place is disturbed,
just dumps me anywhere, anywhen.
Just look at this, Whitby Harbour,
I remember this a hundred years ago,
I might have written a novel about it,
It was a dark and stormy night etc.
I have written most of my lives,
& will enjoy my royalties in perpetuity.
Page(s) 44
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