Rapid Response

Generalised commotion a scramble for pens a phenomenon no for real it's in our laps well the sky "the sky our lap" that's a good one write that down it's like a bat signal for dreadful poems let's check in on one "A red sun gifted by Ophelia" that's one of the lines, I imagine all over the country poets diving for a metaphor unseasonable winds, too, that helps, uh, um, weird weather looks a bit like an apolcalypse? Oh, I don't know something about brexit?

always the wrong questions if silence is endorsement if silence is enabling if silence is these things no not what you've told yourself years, you yourself, all this if silence is approval if silence is cheerleading if silence is an alibi walls of it thick damned walls the silence round if silence is opinion is silence is worse than the act if silence is elision (of course not this if is owned by other actors scratching toleration for endurance the silence has lain beside you at night informed your smile rewritten your schedules) if silence is a stick if silence is another tool if silence is a quick and lazy shorthand your silence is yours to own others is theirs to do with as they wish

numbers can turn cornering on light a second's refraction a redrawn future glassy possibility the infinite, it's instant cycling narratives a show-reel of cars and houses, probably a heartwarming end to poverty "a journey" numbers resting with a glazed impermanence it's here, on the cusp of ambiguity you decide if

from a height, dispassionate death the decontextualisation, old jokes about ants and now here's the easily purchased death, death on a special offer, death reduced in cost by 15% with a loyalty card we cry each time of course and some prayer, there are always prayers, going back up where the death came from to for argument's sake a similar dispassion the heart spills out over again its old tropes the wearying tears the rattle in the throat and worst worst the instant rebuttals those are the markers of the damned defending their rights as the bodies cool