Time’s feral or on the fritz
It gives the incremental strobe effect of batted lashes
Or god’s exaggerated gat-toothed overbite
Suddenly descending
Snow White, real name ‘Sondra’
Made all the children of the kingdom, line up, hold hands
Then she wound them oh so tightly onto an industrial cable spool
And laid them on the sea bed between nations
To fetch oil
Oh her capsule-shaped face
Oh her homogenous nostalgia
Oh her cheeks sucked in for definition
Oh her teeth replaced by the bells they hang from cats
Silver and spherical a ting-a-ling accompaniment
To pretty rants
Oh her plectrum or guitar pick
That was a tiny freeze-dried human placenta
Oh her carbon hair that popped like pressured bubble wrap
Through the glass partition witness
Snow White strapped to a road-kill covered gurney
Press the star key twice if you wish to
Administer the lethal injection
Now
* *
There may be silences
Whilst we process your request
Her crimes were also these: she was a goombah
Selling poisoned mascara on the internet
And mirrors you could spread like butter
Her breasts end like bacon
In a rind
Even the prince failed to escape her delicate malevolence
His bladder is the featured centrefold
In the European Journal of Urology
And his buttocks knock like gavels
On the saddle he's been padlocked to for twenty years
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2 comments:
Hi Moxy - I've really enjoyed everything you've put up here so far. They're all amazing
Out of the 3, I think this one would be the best one to use at the event- I think the iconography of a sleeping Snow White is so instantly recognisable that it requires no introduction. We can just kill the lights and jump straight in.
because the poem is so visceral, i'd be keen to turn it into a short film that gets screened during the performance. currently, i imagine the entire event to be about 50/50 live and prerecorded.
my first thoughts were to start with some footage of a sleeping snow white, slowed down until it strobes (done digitally, but we could add some flicker so it looked like film). Then once we get to the "**" we stop the frame. Then we let the light slowly burn through, until the frame is completely white by "Even the prince..." Then the final verse is just done over the empty white screen.
That's just my first impression- let me know what you think? I think with poetry its always best to keep the visuals pretty ambient, otherwise its like two people shouting at once.
If you have any alternative ideas please let me know. Would you be up for doing the VO, or would you like us to find an actor for it? Once we're agreed I'll source a video artist to knock it together for us.
Finally, where can I find the film you screened at a Texan Splatterfest?
Ross
Hi Ross, thank you for your generous comments. I'm having a lot of macabre fun with the theme, what fun to either celebrate the fictional deaths or kill the fictional characters! I really like the film idea -- how flipping exciting! I agree that ambient visuals are more suited to poetry or you do get a clash of confusions. I'd like to try the VO but if you think my voice is rhubarb I don't mind an actor doing it. The film screened at the Texan Splatterfest is called Cloud Ignition. My agent's got a copy and they should be able to send you it (or a copy of the copy). I don't tend to keep copies at home because I either lose them or my son records over them or the chinchilla decides they'll be vastly improved by teethmarks.
Moxy
PS I came back from Devon last night and hadn't read your 2 subsequent posts and just let fly with another poem. Then I read 'em.
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