#129 - at play with the tomograph (tomography)

10.5.20

129

playing with the tomograph

or simply just

tomography

a little wrestle with myself

for Irina Frolova

following our recent conversation about what we know and don’t

imagine me

sliced right down the middle

equal halves

and everyone can see in

like that cow Damien Hirst did

equal halves

dark ages and here’s my face to light

who to be?

which one?

think of a balanced diet

or mongrel me

go wild with the knife

all kinds of cuts

and ways to baste

the city and my woods

where did I stop being this that?

make a cartwheel once we were

(Aristophanes’ idea)

according to Plato, as he recalls

(see how third hand it all goes)

takes a while to work it out

by I’m the magic pudding

(that’s why always running off)

music and paint

I must balance with words

when out of puff

walk the walk (how else?)

I swam in a pool of genes

came clean

towelled off

nobody’s ancestor

what they knew would chill the blood

this is how I have my nose

curly locks

wry ironies

such lungs

the sturdy heart I tricked

think of it as a club

the family you won’t know

accept a slice

please won’t you?

they took off their pants

so I could be

each morning erect a statue to fact

and too much information

because I am them

and they are me

it’s all a raft to cling

I and everyone goes under

someone said

‘what they don’t know won’t hurt’

but here we are wondering

will it be sinister

what if murderers?

someone has to have been

stories they never told us

ones they were never told

these must hold the key

as with the air we breathe

once theirs

and pass it on                

they forgot so we’d be free

and ask no thanks

but heaven knows them

cloud down glad watch over

as eyes of an eternity

live up and make a reputation 

or we could lower the tone

whichever way

we’re in the dark

joy weeps, won’t it

what are the odds?

(that’s a thing you hear)

just a body in a billion years

imagine me

sliced right

must not

must never

think of them

but always wake to light