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.