when daybreak came

I was the first to wake up

battered unhinged

with the great cloud of Metropolitan New York 

rising before us

in and washed

we jumped

through the Lincoln tunnel

oh damn

it was only the beginning

pitched

among the pots and pans

sprawled on the floor

four thousand miles withdrew

to a dark corner


This is an erasure poem using words found on page 117 of On The Road by Jack Kerouac

skyline

Beyond September

 

beyond September beyond testing testing

beyond

September

into the military slap of snare

into the neck of naked trees

where robed parliaments make mitres

out of mole hills

where I wait 20 years to taste the

spirit level 

finally testing testing

finally

meet the equilibrium of my faith

zero cant..camber

climbing into echo chambers echo

chambers

testing testing

cheap turquoise curtains
our barricade
listening to the sound

the sound
of old throated soldiers
long dead
long dead 

landscape turns to landscape

what were we

before we were car parks?

beyond our second

September 

feeding the crows on our arms

gingerbread muffins pulled apart

by fingers that have loved

and loved and loved

drinking Lebanese coffee

thick and sweet

laughing at Marx

wondering what

is the object

talking about keystones

spreading

the load

perspective meets 

perspective

pedagogic cogs

text books made of Corvids

and single malt

testing testing beyond

September

watching skies fill 

from the 19th floor

remembering 

her heartbeat

before burning

metamorphosis metamorphosis metamorphosis metamorphosis

anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic

amorphous amorphous amorphous amorphous amorphous

morpheus morpheus morpheus morpheus morpheus

polymorph polymorph polymorph polymorph polymorph

morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme

morphology morphology morphology morphology morphology

she bares 

her midriff 

as if it were 

her words

hegemony drips 

like sweat between

her breasts

mirrors

crack

fragments 

of subjugation

ambushed by brilliance

all her pieces

un

done

object of no one's eye

rejecting anatomy

flux

like autumn leaves

dead

as we

adore them still the tree

naked and spent

 

metamorphosis metamorphosis metamorphosis metamorphosis

anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic anthropomorphic

amorphous amorphous amorphous amorphous amorphous

morpheus morpheus morpheus morpheus morpheus

polymorph polymorph polymorph polymorph polymorph

morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme

morphology morphology morphology morphology morphology

 

I wish I was you (then)

in burlesque  twists

sly to the monochrome

ribboning entrails

smoke

lifting in tandem with

filtered coffee rainbows 

in black

and white

noir

where the disparate seek harmony

with the looming dusk

of never ever after

or a cowboys boot

spurs like catherine wheels

spinning as he twists

his heel into the butt

off the cuff prose

in familiar light

when I crush my cigarette

first second third 

attempt

and i'm all colour

no contrast

stealing four minutes from my shift

to suck on nicotine

no trilby

no blue 

air

every shadow cast

is timid in the tarmac

tie clipped

cuffs a stale grey

I lack

the lacking of the lick

the grasp of night

of broken pain

and pain

I know

with no auteur

without the crispness of the edit

I bleed into the reels

a bore a bore