Jamie speaks for himself.
there is no such thing as a thing not in flux.
by Jamie Thomson
HELLO?
No one looks at anyone because everyone
is disappointed in each other & also
themselves I realized this when I realized
I wasn’t looking at anyone & no one was looking
at me
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RITUAL CANDOR
Vexed is a funny word for a pretty typical
state If you say new moon backwards enough
it sort of sounds the same
but not quite Instead
I stood up & declaimed ON THE BALCONY I POLISH A PEACH
(I was wrong) Upon flapping my wings
I discovered the shortcoming of certain glues
To say that we all experience episodes of the blues from time to time
is totally asinine & therefore I say it every day Dear x
I’d love nothing more than to be that thing
you hate At least then I’d exist for some might be reason
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STATUS QUO
Hence the thing happens happens happens Empty shoe
= end of dreamlife A small crack
pursued the one big break I had built
the immaculate trapeze but where were my monkeys? Where
was whip & pony? Sometimes bones soft boil like potatoes (slip
a
part) It’s time for dead then
I mean bed The thing happens happens happens
————————————————————————————-
VERTIGO
Dismantling every last peony & swooning
in all that sun Nowhere was I more beloved
than in the one dark alley What always held us there
was but a very real rope Of course I laughed
when a cow squatted & shat It was the simplest thing
to do Once-upon-some-time-ago a horizon was nothing
but any long pancake & such a feast No no no
at a certain point you just watch ten too many trains
depart & every room becomes the blue one then
————————————————————————————-
ETERNAL SYSTEM MALFUNCTION
Everything you learn gets put in a little room
in your head each night & burned This explains
how you’re alive but still so dumb This explains
the pile of ash in the sheets The real reason
you’ve hung around so long is it’s always so new
for you For me it all gets put in a little room in my head each night
& then buried inside 10,000 other identical rooms
so that I’m always left with the feeling of looking for a key
in a drainpipe or of stepping into a room full of light
but is not a room is not light is just a place I sometimes fall
———————————————————————-
NEW LIFE
Falling in line
Learning the steps
Smoking because the others do
Lacing my boots with both hands & spitting
When I say, Time is killing me boys
I mean it
Growing a belly
Seeing how they scratch it in the early morning light
Chewing & spitting more
Becoming one of the others
No longer others
Becoming us
Mastering all the daily chores & tugging on my cap when required
Doffing rather
Going to mess is not what it was before
I am together & totally changed
I do not weep for the old pathetic reasons
Not from the hopeless pit
(There is no hopeless pit)
That was just a game I used to play & it was wrong to play it
I am a solider now soldiering on
Carrying the brunt of it
I snap & hum & smoke I smoke
When the quart comes round I pull but once then twice
Then pass it along
Then some idle chatter at times like this
But most of the day it is all business
Moving the objects
Recording where & when
Nodding
Placing the stacks in rows & ready to burn
Can this really be me
Yes it is
It is
