Poetry - John Bryan

STUPID CONTRAPTIONS

    Walk
    with a flat tyre in storm water drains 
so the world dosen't know grey criss crosses the urbane 
canals don't mark me out for freedom 
jogger's stretching flexi legs burning office fat 
peeping on the troll smoking foul herbs under the bridge 
to reach the destination i can almost travel in a straight line
    
the roads, bike paths and pedestrian crossings 
are false information - too many curves 
designed to stall time 
Give the tax payer 
his money's worth out of lives wasted 
my refusal is this long 
to hit the button 
that makes the colour green resemble 
' walk ' 
i will not flop my useless rubber 
before a firing squad of people 
in motorized horses with 
non deflatable legs that 
make them posthaste 
graffitix:' 
The Queen's a 

    Child murderer 
R E PT ILL IAN 
 
VODYANOI
 

    stolen bits & pieces of her decorate 

    the mountain 
In the lake behind the abattoir 
rules Vodyanoi. 
in the eleventh year of his 

    reprehense this guilty washed hands 
His palace 

    is beneath the waters - do 
not swim there. 
switched that baggage 

    of her from right to left 
Assumes the 

    Following: a fish, a giant 
green man with paws. 
detecting over his shoulder 

    Trespassers 

    are drowned, covered with moss 
and enslaved forever. 
the shadowy trunks & boulders looming 

    Eventually I bring 

    across his frame 
all my lovers,

    when he's alone, 
to the lake / she sees hers 

    but not mine, 

    a silhouette 

    on the surface of the water. 

    cool face & hands splashed 

    across your window's glass 