Jeffrey Side

 

Extracts from Carrier of the Seed

You made Pandora visit me
from her disruptions across
the sea her mane was
stretched like Cyprus flow
and her mind was as smooth
as causation at a time I had
reached my most content you
pointed her up and to me you
sent like when I passed
quickly through the sheep
pool clustered together there
at the edge of a clearing the
struggle for mating territory
accident and necessity but at
base level this just comes
down to quality asset
concepts recommended for
global incremental alignment
nonetheless you were loved
attracted by cries of the
tormented with the stick
which she uses for leather no
less than poverty expressive
of self doubt held in a head-
lock laughing whose mother
emerges as I sometimes do
myself known for contending
scandal in the libraries
exposed on sale insist we
tolerate anthropology in the
island fashion much of our
lives women and children
with equal truth that burns
produce syndrome which
accelerates metabolism and
the midnight blue of zenith
impersonal and personal
made clear by the notices and
the poster exploitative and
acute against various
defences we might keep the
altitude in view by the stream
near Vancouver ...

I wanted to put things right
down to the letter while he
was just a child and she
called him to her bedside and
said I'm dying I'm poorer
than your parents and I've
nothing much to leave
sometimes I think we have
no choice I wanted to be real
not plastic as once I loved a
bonny lass safe from all the
sleet that had accumulated on
frigid England's sterile
streets while somewhere in
the light an artist drew you
near trees that will never start
and cooperation was not
forthcoming so that it shall
not be confused with itself
come on baby do your stuff
you know how to serve me
suppose you screeve or go
cheap Jack sometimes it
takes luck even to think
straight they would hold you
in the darkness and kiss you
in the light they would listen
to your story until your stress
was slight then they departed
in the evening when the sun
was turning night and her
pulse did beat for thee I'm
lost and I don't know why
sarakawi you loved me really
even though you chased after
your lover but could not
catch him I should've been
somewhere by now I'll see
you back on deck ...

no reason for your mind to
leave you the clarity of the
native hands are deep within
your bed and the mournful
words that are uttered can
never be unsaid and the ones
who were within you are now
without toiling in different
cities to keep your fortress
stone to break now that
kingdoms come and
kingdoms go and your soul in
Gertrude's precious chamber
your love they tried and for
the world outside women in
the parlour have remembered
and in the scattered
graveyard the stolen church
bell tolls you through the
mazes that surround you to
America in this life and in
the next from your computer
they hope you travelled to
claim your freedom back
cattle on a fading then you
came home with a letter
written to shattered hearts
your Arctic beams shone
down on the eyes who would
not leave a minstrel revealing
the pure sound of the music
and the blood that must
sustain you pilgrims
suspended between life and
death and the still cold trails
of autumn dawn were shown
to you caught between two
vast shores where the wind
had caught your breath you
were raised above and all that
did remain was taken from
you used to watch the
dancing girls while they were
writhing in their trance with
their chartered bodies in
jeopardy and all the men who
surrounded you had waited
for their chance they were
ghostly then but now they do
not haunt you but those days
are long behind weary
confession but you still retain
your grace and all of this
territory where all the
maidens in the valleys are
trapped within their sleep ...

soldiers cry out in their cages
and you feel the padded paws
of squirrels all about you I
could never work it out
myself as I went out one
morning in the college woods
those child bearing hips your
husband died in the
mountains and I've got
money in my jeans there's
nothing that I can do with my
heart still entwined I'm
rootless and my swan has
gone I don't want to wish
anything on anyone pull my
heart out with your love I
sunk a well and answered to
my lust so great is his mercy
like a father who pitieth his
children for you did not
receive the spirit of slavery
and your sons and daughters
shall prophesy silver and
gold have I none send me on
my way so that I can go back
to my homeland they were a
people strong and numerous
nothing of theirs was missing
I am about to go the way of
all the earth if only my
anguish could be weighed
return to him you who have
so greatly revolted ...

I was abandoned with
reclaims of the high nature
and there are no accidents
except her anatomy bred
forth organism like that time
she stood me up her
dominant motherhood
wave-matron phallic surplus
condition of autonomy
closing her flesh envelope
over her minoan female
tower made me curious as I
crept towards moment
maximum intensity
horizontal chain-like
arranged whereby
conversation became
pointless camouflage
consumption for the sailors
was her call so don't make
me go into debt and don't
make me play this way now
thou hast sorted out this stuff
in your head he's just trying
to get back cable symmetry
forgetting reproduction and
transference blows
unquestioned opaqueness
through conflation or
colludes with the refusal of
insert and service while
situation process repetitive
delaying my love has gone
escalator she's calling the
river over illusion at my core
while on high heaven's
vengeance what you send out
it comes back more get out of
her my people the lady from
Baltimore like we did for the
eight rivals loose at feet
where they lay in the vale
water shot the last to go
down ...

I hear a great voice
shell-encased turtledove similar
to walpurgisnacht and Tripoli
and like them I'm gonna get
home tonight where she met me
her singularity showing itself in
the way she descended mirrored
accordingly to come hither
consistently but it isn't also an
illness there's a chemical
element that takes place at a
certain point though nothing's
been proven yet come off it you
have a stable mind also you
have a great level ness about
you so hang on this is one of the
voices calling though you were
forced to closely release faculty
with those who will be familiar
among the admired melting into
nature resented and
constructions against the glutted
apple gaze and those drained
myths of religious faith where
mannoisms were writing
contorted letters that became
contempt producing flood
disorganizing processes and
parallels time's interior form of
art converging on kangaroo only
to implement songbirds
mourning dogs while laconic
restraint passes into opacity
presentiment but I believe it to
be the obsession with perception
which forms a sediment in the
contrast dark in pomegranate
bruising born before time
jumped them for nothing in
Venice apart from autumn at gas
no more causation blockage
near Geneva night come I will
fold you in vinegar lest some
time comes between us but I've
used up all my sanctions and
I've used up all my speed ...