I said hi why are you home so late? I said beg you’ve got black on your eye black on your eye I said stye it’s coming from my nose it’s coming from my ears it’s coming from my mouth it’s coming from my eyes pigsty I said puff let’s have another puff breathe it in and let it pass around the circle I said DRINK petrochemical cleansers I said DRINK petrochemical cleansers I said SWALLOW SWALLOW SWALLOW petrochemical cleansers SPIT oh my god I closed my door the one without a knob

Animalia, Arthropoda Insecta, Siphonaptera Pulicidae, Xenopsylla Xenopsylla from Khufu’s horizon see them bounce across the sky fourteen eggs in thirteen beds suck blood from the host feed the tape worm fuck that one’s infected burn, baby, burn suck blood from the host feed the tapeworm FUCK THAT one’s infected burn, baby, burn got a few prodigies in the bag sleeping on the flesh of a twenty-first dynasty fox force-feed Arab Jew some surströmming force-feed through her veins stroke her long, long, golden hair have you ever let a banana ripen for too long and let it go black and soft? have you ever dreamed of killing yourself?

the vein has been opened the ache washed to gold in pulsating ripples my skin grows old the content overwhelms me as I pick off the lumps I ascend into heaven and my flesh turns to swamp my senses are like a Siberian night there’s nothing left to feel I’ll soon be a heap Jerusalem’s light shines on my face how sweet is my freedom from that opiate? I’ll redeem myself of the wounds and he blots when Jesus dies his body will rot there’s still no need to feel my senses are his and I just wait for death I’ll soon be a heap and when they take him away I can turn to a Marat a Ceaușescu or a Kim they died for my sins

my father died feeding the birds my mother cries when the drones attack my sister went up to the wall she threw a rock and a bullet came back Israel USA how many kids did you kill today?

I try to talk to you you’re smoking your red bamboo you listen to my words slur Jennifer you cut your hair this morning before school you say hello, you’re being cruel in maths I listen to Taylor Swift I see you listening to The Drift you dyed your hair this morning before school I think of telling you that it looks cool “yellow jokes come out from your mind, Jennifer, your red hair’s burning” in the bell jar I’ll be strumming a broken guitar in the bell jar I’ll be pressing a space bar and when a string breaks and flings into my eye I’ll sing you a cappella rhymes of goodbye YOU'RE CRUSHING ME I try to talk to you you’re smoking your red bamboo

I - The Conquest of Bread our walls have ears these walls can talk my family hides in terror for above us flies an unmanned hawk but do you hear the noise from Egypt? can you hear Yemen splinter? we better hurry up and organise before the Arab Winter our empty stomachs take us to the hummock where we organise we scurry like rats to facebook chats to recruit and inform allies on March 15 we march and face the barrels of their machine guns the ‘kingdom of silence’ screams when violence has begun we thought he’d be gone like the Tsar or the Shah but not this man no, not Bashar his reign is one of blood and we watch the bullets flood and the bodies pile up and the gutters turn to red and our teardrops turn to red and our bodies fill with lead and the stars can smell the rising stench of the dead II - The Butchery I’ve seen a pyramid I saw what those men did and I never want to see it again and from this pyramid of flesh as smooth as silk I try to hear children laughing again YouTube told me this was done by Al-Assad but I promise you, my little lamb, that he won’t lay you down I promise you, my darling, my comfort, my joy, my sunshine, that he won’t break your skin III - Ground Zero I see you on the other side of ground zero your hair is waving gently in the flames I see you on the other side of ground zero with your entrails dangling out onto the rubble I run all through the souq tears streaming down my face as your soft melody of shrieks fades from my ear ‘We have not a single honest poem That has not lost its virginity in a ruler’s Harem’ I turn my picture of Him [I see you on the other side of ground zero] so it faces the wall [your hair is waving gently in the flames] and I step out into the night I look up at the sky [I see you on the other side of ground zero] and see a lone star [with your entrails dangling out into the wind] quiver above Pyongyang [I run all through the souq, tears streaming down my face, as your soft melody of shrieks fades from my ear] and I just know there has to be something more than this ‘What I’m saying is, that if you haven’t been in the Situation Room… Unless you’ve been involved in those conversations, then it’s kind of hard for you to understand the complexity of the situation...’ I turn my picture of Him so it faces the wall and I step out into the night I look up at the sky and I see a lone star quiver above Pyongyang quiver above Wall Street

blossoms grace the apple trees and pear trees mist upon the river floated by down Katyusha came to gather berries on the cliff top rising steep and high there she walked and there she started singing of the dove-grey eagle of the steppe of the one she had her heart on winning of the one whose letters she had kept she sings a song of maiden love declaring chase the sun and speed without delay warmest greeting from Katyusha bearing to the border guardman far away may the boy his village girl remember may he hear her love of tenderness may he guard his native land forever and Katyusha guard her love no less blossoms filled the apple trees and pear trees mist upon the river floated by down Katyusha came to gather berries on the cliff top rising steep and high