"WAR OF WORDS"

[furtherfield]

Ode, do I not like bombs

Oh, do I not like bombs
do I, their corrupting destruction
their unsmart science
their doomed to failure

oh, do I failure not like
tearing the social fabric with armalite
and swollen sneakers
in the cloud bursting bunker bustups
in Baghdad Reyadh Belfast Bali
Oman Armangh Birmigham Karachi
Djerba Grozny Moscow Somali

Oh, do I not like my TV tuned to live devastation
martyrdom logos exploding
mortar popping bombs and bulldozing
suicide bomber Harris's loading

oh, do I not like bombs flying from the air
left in some abandoned car somewhere
driven there by despair, slowly filling the air
with shrapnel and body parts from here to there
one detonation delivered and accomplished
either cross it off your hit wish list
or we'll have to call that a strategic miss
I guess...
Oh do I not know...by the way, who is this?

The future of exclusion zone living:
leaving home just to watch television
in a world become your prison
that's lost any self righting vision
beyond guided glided or planted munitions
that don't talk, that don't listen

Oh, do I not like bombs
shot dropped set off alarmed doing irreparable harm stepped on
packed tight into cluster or carpet bombs
mined guided with the element of surprise disguis-ed
rocket fired detonator or trip wired
hand held sea launched cruising through a thunder clap
nail packed shrink wrapped taped round a jockstrap

oh, can I not wear a hard hat to keep my head intact
 when my feet and shoes land 10 meters down the dirt track
I was just then standing in and now stare at
in dismembered disbelief?

oh, do I not like bombs like that.

14/5/03


switch2 at blueyonder.co.uk

URL: http://sparror.cubecinema.com/macdunlop/
   http://www.herenorthere.org
http://www.signhear.net

"WAR OF WORDS" is avialable from Greenleaf Bookshop, and Cafe Unlimited,
Gloucester rd.
and
"TIMELINES" the perpetual poetry calendar
 is avialable from the Arnolfini bookshop, and the Watershed Gift Shop,
Bristol. and the IKON Gallery Gift shop, in Birmingham.
ffi. on poetry publications in paperback and audio poetry cd's, reply
"ffi. poetry" as subject, or, despatch to: Box 92, Green Leaf Bookshop,
 Bristol, BS1 5BB. U.K.

performance updates:

OPEN MIC POETRY ALL WELCOME
-To listen or to speak-
The THREE TUNS PUB
NEAR BRISTOL CENTRAL LIBRARY
Wednesday 14th May 8.30
PHONE  01179621175
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

DATA STREAM PURE CORRUPT(m.d.):  at F.I.L.E. Electronic Language
Internacional Festival,Hipersonica <http://www.file.org.br/> at Paço das
Artes, August 7 to 23rd/ 2003, São Paulo, Brasil.