The Execution
The seconds bang shut like cell doors
as they strap me down.
The death cell swims in its heaven of white:
white walls, white floors
death's president whitehouse.
I am elated, elected
to this throne of light
where the doctors check that the needle's point
is sharp as the scream
of the pitiless nightmares.
When they read the death sentence
I am stupid and dumb -
I have come
on the scene of a miracle
and can only gape
at departing angels
their wingbeats loud
as the thuds of my heart.
Come back! O come back!
I'm emptying out through the tube in my arse.
If you tapped me
I'd echo -
you'd hear the hollow ring of the years.
I am helpless as a fly
trembling in the web
hypnotised by the spider black arms of the clock
as the levers bang open
and a poisonous thread -
clear as the first bleb of sperm
as it weeps from the eye of the penis -
as a poisonous thread of fluid cocoons me
binds me, winds around me,
my neck, my arms, my legs
my - Help! Help! Help! Help!
Aaargch, aaargch: time has been wrung into beads of sweat
and blinded my eyes with its salt.
I can feel the dark spider
weaving fluid around me.
It clings. It clings.
O white world, O white
I am ringed by the Ku Klux Klan
helpless in cocaine land.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I am beamed up from earth to the bridge
and rise, and rise
captain of the Enterprise
past a burning sun
round the glowing moons
through the speed of sound
to the speed of light
falling through the galaxies
by a shooting star
on a comet's tail
to a White Dwarf
sleep
to a forest glade
sleep
sleep
to a woman's lips
sleep
sleep
to her snow white skin
to her ruby lips
to her
sleep
sleep
sleep
sleep
the apple it lies in her throat forever
in the
sleep
sleep
sleep
sleep
____ petals.