Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future's endless stair;
Chop us, change us, **** us, **** us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.

Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,
In the present what are they
while there's always jam-tomorrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we're going,
We can never go astray.

To whatever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it's god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.

Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature's simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
'Goodness = what comes next.'
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.

Oh then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be).

Here are my eyes
my fried eggs
teal lily-pads floating
on white albumen.

Here are my elbows
like deformed peaches
my knuckles the peas
wrist corn on the cob.

Here are my teeth
my frosty Stonehenge
a ring of slabs
solid halibut.

Here are my ankles
four gobstoppers
cracking as rocks
under her size-five feet.

Here is my nose
fastened to my face
the garbage chute
meets hoover hybrid.

Here are my knees
two wrinkled potatoes
mashing in their sockets
as waves crumble on me.

Here is my hair
my straw candyfloss
unlike her buttered popcorn
curly-wurly waterfall.

Here are my tonsils
squashy strawberries
wedged at the back
of the cave I once made.

Here are my lips
azalea-pink sweets
flecked with salt
from our slice of sea.

Becoming... hmmm...
what am I... becoming...
is this the enlightenment
of my trip? hmm...
journeying through the seasons
of inner time and place...
therein which lies... a space....
not that sort.... not the sort of the
spicky icky spacky... space...
it's the... hmmm... sleepy space...

I sit and wonder... this place is where I... ponder...
fabric... the fabric of this life...
I AM FLOATING INTO THIS CHAIR
CONCEPT BANDS
CONCEPT ALBUMS
THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO SEE I AM JUST LIKE TIMOTHY LEARY
... but that... that is only a character.. the outlook I assume in..certain moods...
that state of worry... that's what I mean.

I am the wind
the sea
...
speak friend,
enter...
speak...
speak to me.
'I see we meet again... hmmmm...'
The music keeps changing my moods, you see...
Subconscious... I must be more mindful...
'Increase mindfulness'
I must bring the feelings... out
don't shove them away...
don't shove me away...
on this normal
squashy day

Love your dark shadow love the wolves
streams of consciousness I must cut up all of these streams
I worry too much about the future... am I crazy? or just afraid of being...
telepathy

Here's this concept that I have that represents all of these feelings that I have that I tell
to you and you receive as whatever feelings you associate with said concept
and hope they match up

I only write when I have something to preach... a sermon, you see..
yet I write every day...
to preach a sermon to me

'Does it make me bad?' this way I am?
does it make you.. mad?
mushy swampy bog filled mushrooms
I sag into the soppy plants in me
this world is my swamp
and this swamp is me
into the swampy swamp I romp
All day I ravage roam
I stomp
jive my vibe...

Exotic exodus execution
into the deep reeds
paddling the little cellophane canoe
Must... move...
Must... go...

to be
kneaded,
in squashy,
jelly ecstasy,

falling over
tumultuous,
a largess of
festivity,

woman,
not as much
as your walk,
talk or nature,

but that one
boom-rocket,
eminent, salient
feature,

lickety, suckety,
twistety, pressety,
lurety, bitety,
fever,

closety, graspety,
claspety, grabety,
clungety, playety,
severe,

twins to be
tended, a little
gorge, to lash
tongue betwixt,

to be clasped,
lurch after
each tip,
tender,

half-earths,
cast on a
potter's wheel,
sun baked,

shaped in
rain's fluidity,
winter's rigidity,
summer fire,

lover's calm,
luster's oasis,
sumptuous,
lush spread,

breeze at
a tree top,
monuments
in rhapsody...

(For G. H.)

Say, does that stupid earth
Where they have laid her,
Bind still her sullen mirth,
Mirth which betrayed her?
Do the lush grasses hold,
Greenly and glad,
That brittle-perfect gold
She alone had?

Smugly the common crew,
Over their knitting,
Mourn her -- as butchers do
Sheep-throats they're slitting!
She was my enemy,
One of the best of them.
Would she come back to me,
******* the rest of them!

**** them, the flabby, fat,
Sleek little darlings!
We gave them *** for tat,
Snarlings for snarlings!
Squashy pomposities,
Shocked at our violence,
Let not one tactful hiss
Break her new silence!

Maids of antiquity,
Look well upon her;
Ice was her chastity,
Spotless her honor.
Neighbors, with ******* of snow,
Dames of much virtue,
How she could flame and glow!
Lord, how she hurt you!

She was a woman, and
Tender -- at times!
(Delicate was her hand)
One of her crimes!
Hair that strayed elfinly,
Lips red as haws,
You, with the ready lie,
Was that the cause?

Rest you, my enemy,
Slain without fault,
Life smacks but tastelessly
Lacking your salt!
Stuck in a bog whence naught
May catapult me,
Come from the grave, long-sought,
Come and insult me!

WE knew that sugared stuff
Poisoned the other;
Rough as the wind is rough,
Sister and brother!
Breathing the ether clear
Others forlorn have found --
Oh, for that peace austere
She and her scorn have found!

Lydia is quiet
going down the *****
by Arrol House
and onto

Rockingham Street
Benedict says nothing
he thinks it best
to let her brood

until she’s ready
to speak
he's seen it
in the films before

where the female
opposite the cowboy
has her moods
or quiet times

and the cowboy
lets her get on with it
while he rides off
into the sunset

to fight the bad guys
or Injuns
or have a shot
of Red Eye

in the bar in the town
watching the dancers
on the makeshift stage
he gives Lydia

a side on gaze
her straight hair
seems unbrushed
her dress is creased

and the cardigan
has a hole
in the elbow
they walk up

towards Draper Road
by the blocks of flats
he says
(hating silence)

the parents
were rowing last night
something to do
with money

or the lack of it
from what
I could gather
through the bedroom door

lying in the dark
seeing the thin line
of light
from the other room

the old man hates
being short
needs dosh
to get

his best suits
and brown shoes
saw something odd
last night

Lydia says suddenly
looking at Benedict
odd? what was odd?
he asks

studying
her thin hands
the nails chewed
my big sister

and her man friend
your sister's always odd
says Benedict
no

more odd
she made me sleep
in the tiny cot bed
which I haven't done

for years as its
too small for me really
but anyway
she made me sleep there

so she and her man friend
could sleep there
he's been turned out
of his digs

as he calls them
and Mum didn't like
the idea but Dad
in his usual drunken state

said O let him stay
a few days
until he gets himself
a place

so there am I
stuck in the cot bed
feet dangling
over the ends

just about room for me
except my backside
gets cold
when I turn over

nothing worse
Benedict says
than a cold backside
well then

Lydia says
after the lights were out
and she thought
I was asleep

I heard this noise
like squashy sound
and I lay there
with my eyes open

looking
at the dark shapes
and hearing
these odd sounds

and the giggles
and snorts and such
Benedict gazes at her
side on

her thin lips
were opening
and closing
like the goldfish

he had which fell
into the sink
out of the fish bowl
and its tiny mouth

was closing
and opening
upon the wet
white surface

then the bed springs
were going gong gong
then silence
as if they were dead

odd
Lydia says
staring
straight ahead

and I never got
to sleep in the end
for ages
what with them

and the cold
on my backside
and the trains
going over

the railway bridge
and the shunting
of coal wagons
so you're tired

Benedict says
that’s why you
were quiet just now
thought I'd done

something wrong
when I first met you
outside your flat
and you came out

with a face
suppose so
she says
and they walk along

Draper Road
to the Penny shop
where he treats her
to a penny pop drink

and 4
fruit salad sweets
and they stand
by the penny

ball game machine
on the wall
and watch some kid
press the buttons

and the ball
goes around
and around
until it disappears

in a slot
and Lydia thinks
to herself
sipping her drink

grown ups
are an odd lot.

if you don't smile your
cheeks will drop into your chin
giving you square face

then your end up with
a permanent serious
green hulk frown

your shoulders will fall
into your hips and your legs
into your feet

you will end up all
squashy and walk funny
like a snow penguin

so my advice is
smile everyday be happy
or be all squashy small

We spent our first night as far away from each other in his lounge.     I was on the squashy coffee-coloured chair his father always sat on; you seemed continents away, on the couch on the other side of the room.     We did that thing where we look at each other but turn away as soon as the other person notices. It wasn’t flirting with no words. The air was swollen with shyness.     The television was on. We drank whatever fizz was placed in our hands.     You were awkward and quiet and I liked that - maybe we are fascinated by people just like us. I wanted to wrap my arms around you like a blanket, but I didn’t want to close you away and vanquish the light, I wished you could have opened up.     I followed you into the kitchen, my mind whirring with the possibilities, each one more unimaginable than the last.     The list of ‘things I now know’ grew at a reckless pace; the chocolate mole beneath your left ear, the glint of a piercing, the Irish tinge to the accent that lodged in my head and played endlessly for hours. Then the inescapable silence. The inability to instigate.     I threw a lukewarm answer back at you as if a shuttlecock barely flopping over the net. You said something about you weren’t staying long. You left the kitchen, and then I did.     On the chair in the lounge we went back to snatching glimpses of each other for a handful of seconds. And I bubbled full of frustration, annoyed at my cellophane-made response, wanting to punch myself in the jaw for not being better, for not being normal in a rather normal circumstance.     My eyes were sacks of rocks. You kept twiddling a strand of your hair, and the night sank like a kid dunking a plastic ship in the bath.

To walk on water could there only ever be one?
Was it not Gods only son, who strolled in Galilee, with the fishers on the sea?
It has been disputed that another fella, name of Blaine, gentle strolled upon the river of grime, a.k.a the River Thames.
Obvious illusion, well at least that's what I'm guessing.
Now however; a change in  the weather, provided squelching mud cover, engorged the fields of mud with water.
Mud supports those who walk, in squishy, squashy welly boots, fighting through, unholy mud.
Hereby, I now pronounce out loud, more than Jesus, an entire crowd.
(C) LIVVI 2014

I welcomed you into my labyrinth,
shut all the doors,
drizzled blankets across
everything, each squashy chair
where you could rest your head,
leave remnants of you
in perfume and hair
so I wouldn’t forget.
Little pictures
developed in my hands,
a simple magic trick
which made us smile
as sniggering kids.
Then they dropped to the floor,
created a collage
of recent memories,
our private history
stationary and square.
Bricks cold as frost on grass,
you danced,
I fell deep. A soporific
multi-hued haze played in my eyes
as if it was endless hopscotch.
Sunset glazed our faces
a marmalade-orange,
we lost ourselves
in towers of books
and images
which now spread
beanstalk-like up the wall.
Pinch-marks resembled
berries on my arms,
soaking in madness,
basking in your light.
I could rest in this maze forever
you said.
Then I, in frustration,
turned over in bed.

Now on ocean floor
We garden with
Complete freedom.

Fantastic vines produce
Polyps, jellyfish and
Squashy pumpkins.

The old ways are forgotten

Speciation, classification,
Removal of forms from
This or that all undone.

Dragons laugh
Spitting fireballs
Which sizzle and lard
The sandy land.

Fantastic vines
Cling to surface
Tense and *******
Sun

Peach halves reunite
And passion fission
Fruits new flesh

And riding dolphin
Is the only bus

Now on sea bed
We reform our lives,
Give endless seed
Back to sky

God I know I'm not fat
But I can feel it squish out of my
******* jeans
And my stretch marks run down my thighs
And up my waist
I don't understand
I'm not horribly fat
My stomach slithers and droops
Out of my jeans
So squishy squashy
I hate it I hate it
I hate being fat
No more fat fat fat

the part that you forget?
is the part that...
   kills you...
                 copper skinned
havens of Southend -
cobble-stone beaches?
                mitigating a
lover for fish, flesh...
  subsequently eating shelled
proteins?!
                           come tomorrow,
you'd have enough time to
reflect...
              Mac Faraday -
                     *******
Rangers, Hearts, protestants -
Celtic, Hibernian, Catholics...
                    i love the Scotch -
                          the most
                          pleasing peoples
on these isles -
never outstay or surrender
their welcome...
                     to be honest?
the only people alive
on these isles to tell you a neat
nibble concerning the tides...
   the rest?
sheep-shaggers.
  and that's that...
                  if they're Welsh
and don't speak a breath /
breadth of Cymru -
or they're "Irish"...
and don't speak an ounce
of Gaelic?
                   ******* mongrel!
nay spekken Gaelic?
   mongrel...
  mongrel...
mongrel!
                i don't trust you!
ups the turmeric up
the fiery ***!
   begun the donkey's gallop
with indian spices!
        ******...
          but at least the Velsh
play the right sort of game:
they know the linguistic domino...
CYMRU!
            CYMRU!
                      and that is what
i love them for...
    no Gaelic? no lost F in T...
  Fe tucking bother!
        take a fake: a **** y'er
McDougal!
                no Gaelic? no *******
Catholic mass, ever,
in Dub-lean!
                          Dubbers' corner...
no no... i never thought
i'd come around to liking the
Welsh...
but...
   they have linguistic pride!
care and who gives a ****
about the english mongrel tongue!
i will not forge a pact
with these squish-squashy
pardon chills of a peoples -
                     like i said before,
in Cardiff:
you want my native tongue?
you better cut it off...
    but sure...
you can have your Pakistani and
Afghan migrants tying up the treason
card, forging ungodly alliances
by forging a forgetfulness of their
native tongue...
                       the moment that
happens?
i'll be toying with the concept
of abortion...
       oh no no no...
                   the Welsh i can respect
for retaining their need to retain
and incubate Cymru -
the Scots need to be pushed on
their Gaelic...
   the Irish need to be spanked
to improve their hierarchic
      foo-nd-ation...
                               no dodo bound to
a mile from where i'm writing...
English is mongrel...
                          mischlingsprache...
i'm not forgetting my language
invigorated by birth...
             that's no way to properly
integrate...
     if a man is without a decency clause
of respecting his integral culture...
then what he integrates into
is a subversive integration of a subversion
of the allowance
to integrate, per se...

             perhaps the supposed "culture"
allows copper skinned sun tanning
as being superior...
but the same culture forgot...
i have retained my mother tongue...
your so-called pristine examples
of integration? forgot theirs...
                     why would i want to ****
a british person?
   it's enough to watch them exfoliate
in their misery!

The cold gnawed through bones this morning
If there were clouds I'm sure ice blocks would have fallen
crushing cars, destroying roofs and squishing squashy humans.
But the sky was a crystal blue perfect.
I thought it said "hello"
and "how are you"
"shivery but fine", my reply
Then a glint of sunshine gave me a smile.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                             You are not a Banana

                                  Sticker Not, Lest Ye be Stickered

A banana bears a sticker to say it is a banana
(The banana, that is, not the paper sticker)
Even though a banana is obviously a banana
(It has a yellow skin and some squashy stuff inside)

If we take the banana sticker from the banana
And stick the ticker to a tomato
The tomato is not then a banana
However much someone claims it so

Sticking sticky stickers to humans is also wrong
A man is himself; a woman is herself
If we stick a sticky sticker to a human
As a joke, well, that’s just a bit of fun

But if as a judgement then we are false witnesses

Stickers, nothing but stickers, excuses
Failures of intellect, truth, and caritas
Stickers are two-dimensional; they have no depth
Stickers are useless even on bananas

We are brothers and sisters, not bananas

Soft squashy
Luminous,
swing seat
Bouncy beat
Secret place,
flutter past,
or stop for a rest,
as you pass
Hop aboard,
or stalk pulley cord,
perhaps a ride,
on white wings,
and, glide,
no stalk climbing,
just lay back,
and, slide,
perfect landing
Sleepy mind

© 2020  Carol Natasha Diviney