A simple little one cos it’s been a long exhausting day.
#notalldoctors
whether it’s 97%
96 or 95 or even
87 per cent
i really don’t care
they’re all substantial numbers
if 8.7 out of 10
doctors diagnosed
an illness in me
i wouldn’t be quibbling
over decimal points
for an 11th opinion
NOTE: Two long exhausting workdays meant poems were written on Tues & Wed just not posted. Aiming to catch up now.
Inspired by reading about one of the greatest failures in human history …
*****
failure
i.
useless bachelors degree.
unemployed, unemployable.
career going nowhere,
sabotaged by professors
who dislike the class-cutting
cocksure student.
deeply depressed.
burden to his parents.
contemplates suicide.
even worse ; considers
becoming insurance agent.
unwed girlfriend pregnant.
illegitimate daughter.
can’t afford marriage.
this is Albert Einstein 1901-1902
special
ii.
sits in dusty patent office.
daydreams about riding
his intergalactic beam of light.
publishes first paper on
special theory of relativity.
— inverts perception of universe
world turned on its head.
1905, just three light years later
BONUS POEM: April 9, 2018
An accumulation of titbits I read while researching this high point of western art.
*****
David’s Achilles
decades ago
on the instruction
of Nani (a 16th-century
Venetian painter’s model)
a deranged man
hammered the foot
of a master
damaging the giant
giant killer’s toe
every shattered fragment
collected & restored
moral outrage aside
the attack enabled
scientists to learn
the Carrara marble
was full of tiny holes
causing speedier degradation
than other marble
but the giant slayer’s
own demise might be
those who love him
endless microvibrations
created daily by the million
footsteps of iPhone raising
selfie-stick swinging
aficionados
Another topic crossed off the list. Third of the way through, really feel like I’m smashing this NaPoWriMo. (Car crash to follow soon…)
After seeing 100’s of these little critters over the farm all summer, I’ve finally been able to give them a poetic shout out.
*****
6 short poems about Myrmecia forficata
(inch ants)
1. The Scientific
100, 000, 000 years
of evolutionary simplicity
single chromosome pair
lowest count of any creature
cousin to bees & wasps
— endemic to Australia
2. The Philosophic
furious will to live
— as proven by sadistic
philosophers who cut
them in two in order
to activate individual
head v tail fight clubs
3. The Metaphoric
with its blown glass abdomen
it’s a brown bloodred pin
on steroids ; a segmented
chitin tank ; shiny obsidian
suit of armour ; a spinning
exoskeleton compass — complete
with scissors & a ringmaster’s moustache
4. The Literal
technically should
be called 25.4mm ants
owing to our metrication
— but it doesn’t have
the same zing to it
5. The Unusual
their well-developed vision
means they can follow
intruders from a metre off
— try hiking in the bush
knowing inch ants
could be stalking you
6. The Personal
pincers pinch the skin
worse than when
your sister caught
a piece of your cheek
between her strong nails
during a childhood brawl
it was long ago that fight
& though you’ve forgotten
what it was about
you can still feel
that slapsting as sharp
as yesterday
— the inch ant bite
is worse than that
*****
night sky
the stars i think i understand
great plasma ovens continuously
cooking hydrogen into helium
& held together by their own
gravity
but what does the darkness around them
hang from
***
Okay, so leaving it a bit late today. Several abandoned attempts/topics, before this in the last half hour of the day. That good old standby: the stars. Still, I hope this isn’t as wishy washy as some star poems can be (heck, as some of mine have been). Possibly even thought provoking in a naive kind of way.
Image from: http://pyteo.deviantart.com/art/Empty-Sky-163549940
gareth roi poet boi 