(First published by Tarot Poetry, Dec 2024 Edition)
1 Light Streaking
In plastic envelopes floating kicking joy
sun in eyes barbecuing skin already pink
taste of chlorine and the white noise roar
of fun I am a star fish smiling unabridged
for the woman behind a mechanical eye
with my cousin posing giggling in
heart shaped glasses Marilyn and
Madonna in mind later still in white linen
dress and court shoes leaning hands tilt
with precision meaningful position of chin
eyes watch the lens seeing the eyes
first trip to Europe first digital snaps
together relaxed, fixed in place by great
monuments of history, memory, births, war
pregnancies and victories all store faithful
in boxed wires until electric mayhem poof
outsourced digital mind melt metal smote
smell of plasticated smoke memento lost.
2 Visual Trailing
Now platforms gathered momentum
amass populations of memory investment
smart phones become sensory organs of
the internet, pictures of me store in a
strange cloud more fungal than cumulus
roots grown in eccentric locations New
Mexico deserts, factory basements hosts
of hard drives pictures seed in digits one
mouse click, spores electric race into outer
space refract back to Earth’s gravity
pictures of me channel through fibrous
roots underground into a study where
a face appears on a screen – me
awkward at a dinner ocean view selfies
see the camera see it reflect in sunglasses
always see it look back even in sleep see
filters and zoom angles in mechanised
dreams pictures of me disappear in sheer
volume reduce to visual trail I am mere
molecules in a single cell of memory within
a vast shrooming digital hive of mind.
3 Illusory or Hallucinatory
After pictures of me in hospital databanks
maps geographic of moles, my ulcerated
mouth, that rash, the lining of my gut
each bump and fold each shade of red one
hundred images imbed splices of spine
its awkward bend my brain in black and white
slides rendered all waiting to be read, each
temple layer casually perused by curious
file surf glance through my insides all of my
secret places once sacred soon dated
scored and recorded.
4 After-imagery
Pictures of me, too many to count
they float in envelopes, posed fixed
by monuments some lost, some stored
random images collect on platforms
dispersal in electronic fungal blooms
finally, pictures of me, my interior bodily
treasons kept locked by government agency,
an account of self saved for perpetuity.
Sky House Poetry 