Three poems by H. Mark Webster

Life partner at two-hundred-and-seventy-five

Swiveling from hip to hip,

The voyeur choketh on her bottom lip

Hypocrite lecteur –

Sniveling from pocket to cusp,

The voyeur choketh on her least lip;

I have so many shitty people in my life at the moment

Retrograde & regressive;

Invidious, & recessive

You might say

Forthright;

You might say her life was being held together by a shaky camera,

You might say with geraniums, fisticuffs, and little blue balls of nice foamy feathers,

To the tune of a sassénach passacaglia,

To the tune of a great black piano approximata;

I have so many shitty people in my life at the moment

Exiting with soap & water

I have so many shitty people in my life at the moment

Exiting to Schnittke & Boulez

We had better remain together behind

You might say we had better remain together behind at this time

Gödel

The base forces of all the world

Have been subsumed to the imbeciles –

Gödel would be happy.

Purity,

Henceforth,

Shall guide the declensions of the planets,

Shall oversee the discretion of cockteaser, purist, and priest.

Cockteaser,

Purist,

And priest.

Henceforth,

Shall at least two in the world

Be combustively

Happy.

Combustively

Happy.

And the two shall be pursued neither by shibboleth nor shadow.

And the two shall be neither killjoys nor chemists,

And the two shall not be over the hill.

And the two shall reign until once again the grids have closed over the shtetl.

And the grids have closed over the shtetl.

Gallimaufry

story, story, story, story

lickspittle victuals, children – up there with the nosebleed seats

story, story, story, story – whole series of patchy discharges

in the neighbourhood, unbeknownst –

puffery & flattery – chatterbox river

bled

a posteriori

bled

from afar

a fortiori

dipshit snaffles up esurient arsehole – snaffles, snaffles, snaffles;

what is he looking for – contradictions in the shape of the light?

what is he looking for – floury benedictions with regard of the mud?

chatterbox river – story, story;

chatterbox blood – bled in the night ...

what he is looking for – flour, shape, mud, light: a whole series of beneficent contradictions

H. Mark Webster's previous publishing credits include poems in anastomoo, printout, elimae, Blackmail Press, Poems Niederngasse, otoliths, Lotus-Eater Magazine, and here on Milly. Webster teaches literature and cultural studies at IPU New Zealand.