Iain Britton - One Poem

hydrangea translucency

 
hunched converts
 
barricade the only road out
 
they huff ‘n puff into groups -
 
with long-stemmed bazookas 
 
tucked under fierce thoughts
 
 
all walks of life front up      uniformed/    and ready
 
            to take sides
 
            choose colours / mascots / a sponsored drink
 
***
 
the blue hydrangeas hang heavy now
 
            ***

mine enemies

have chosen the ghettos to play in/have infiltrated the ranks/
intermarried/mongreled-up their relationships
and encouraged a squashed-in/each-to-themselves
failed mentality
 
                        I’ve chosen to be
 
where forests of tower blocks
 
peer down from penthouse heights where sacrificial lambs
 
breed randomly
 
oblivious of the promised slaughter
 
***
 
once cut     
 
the blue hydrangeas stoop to conquer
 
***
 
with you       the day’s heat 
 
has a lot to do with people’s actions – it’s a question
of summing up a scene – charging at the logo’d 
firebrands – splitting asunder the cordons
of do not enter this estate – a question of how to proceed
to the piled-up resistance further on     is considered
 
a strange translucency makes the going clearer
 
we’re set on blowing the hostiles

straight up the chorusing chimneys
 
 
you show me
 
           a gap in the horizon’s wall
 
                 and ‘mates rates’ for a holiday
 
                            free of book-banging rages
 
 
                    you display mug shots
 
in favour of John the Baptist 
 
***
 
      I smell meat loaves     cooking
                              cooling 
                              being sliced
                              for human consumption
 
the house I built
 
   floats on a red sea of dyed grass
--

Iain Britton has published poetry internationally in magazines such as Agenda, Stand, The Reader, Warwick Review, Wolf Magazine, Nth Position, Blackbox Manifold, Jacket, and Harvard Review. Oystercatcher Press published his third collection in 2009, and his fourth is available now from Kilmog Press. You can read a recent ebook of his here: issuu.com/theredceilings/docs/ten_poems