9. Essential

Please hold sweetly onto consciousness

like, the “I’m” is now acceptable and nice

here, I’d dedicate this to you, Fanny

let’s crank it up in venture to high art

dress ourselves all proudly in pellicules & mantles

the colour of damson ketchup – ahh! breathe it in

in this new era such joy unexceptional

there will be balancings: this the one hear then

when the city pulls itself in & rests, oh

like someone who has eaten too much beef

you know, bad for the wits but not unpleasant

not like real diseases caught from Faber & Faber

see – let’s hew at the lot & then build

this page isn’t empty because of fever but fear

fear of what’s empty, deaf blind & aphasic

so let’s be heroes of some ridiculous sort

swinging through in our primrose clothes – oh posturing

a kind of delight to behold, sufficient

for this whole thing issuing out like pie juice

                                      haemorrhagic

                                      language leaking

                                      process unending