Scarlet Seconds After the Last March
Matthew Finlay
War Poetry Contest 2010 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention
Don't waste your time I'll tell ye right now
Buddy when ye pray ye pray to me not any of
Yer idols or coffee sepia ikons that ye got in that
Dirt-and-solace look'n rucksack or yer everyman
Ideas about whose hand it is what holds the pen
Draw'n on yer belly in big bold black sans serif
Take me straight to the pampas plain where I
C'n bleed into the sixth angel's damp cereal bowl
Crater and drink myself right back up cuz yer
Last moments are me standing over yer dervish
Blankets and leaning close and pulsing spit thew
M'teeth looking like six an' two doz'n drachmas
Yew slipping in and out on some cocktail that
Makes ye think I'm Him and maybe yerright
After all I c'n down a strychnine potion watch me
Mebbe ye c'n gnaw yer feet off in one trench
And the rats'll take ye quicker than a slug to
Another but what does that make you some
Kinda unholy sonofagun that got chalk-legs hell
No yain't dipping 'em in the stream just
To let 'em dissolve to one viscous lactic stew
While they watch ye right over the horizon
Line of their throbbing eyelids yonder whisp'ring
Like they're holding the reins of this horse but by
Grace son the only thing their holding is the
Loose paper skin they didn't have the balls to
Torch when they had the chance lookie there
Now it's chafing shifting crimson and hell'f I ain't
Seen these sopp'n boots a hunnert times before
These broke pugilists of mine yew'n' yew'n'
Yew m'boy I knaw I c'n thread my little finger
Right up on through yer bicep like a suture when ye
Come back here one day in yer last prone and
Ye won't even grunt it yer saloon door teeth'll
Be swinging forward backward on they flesh
Hinges and the'll be mud dribbling out of the left
Corner too and then yer down one slimy globe
Little world drowning in sp-sp-sputum'n strangled
By its own capillaries and hey isn't that one really
Just the same as ever'one else's down to the last little
Concentric what blots the sclera and ev'n the juice
On the inside'n wasn' it me who made it that way
II. The Exact Dollar Value of Human Life
Don't want no vowels to birth out no protean
Placentas no afterthoughts to explain what this
Dam thing on a plate is that ye picked from the
Brush so I 'll drop it and shatter it and I'll stand
Up and knead into ye my fingernails and make real
Sure they go secant to the function of yer pulsing
Channels what's the sum of that eh what'll be the
First thing ye think of when ye think of me next bet
It won't be my somber meat hands intervening
Tapping yer shoulder with the same finger I'd
Later pierce ye with to stand here at these
Boulders and bash tenderloins 'stead of brains
All I wanna know is are ye willing to take a jab
To the side and maybe get to dust off the ol'
Crown it's right here an' its spines're quivering
Scrunch my nose up just like so and it starts to
Flush red see that's what it looked like when
All the little cloth bonnets unstitched themselves
As heads bobbed through ejecta unintended
And I could pick the neurons straight out
Of the air and press them up aginst the roof
Of my mouth and see what these bad men
Done to themselves with they long stupid
Arms and legs and before it was noon my teeth
Was grittier than yers and I's still grinning
Into the vanishing point where they gone
Where I told them to go they were so many
Faithless fibroids and I was glad to shuffle that
Deck fifty-two card pickup fifty-two fake lambs
Merchandise expensive not anymore not on
Earth at least it c'n be bought for pennies and
Bread'n sometimes like now it's even on sale
So get some get some and when at last you take a
Bite'n the truth slides down you'll dam well know
What it's worth and your teef'll be splayed open
Tryna vacuum up the world around ye cuz
Ye can't never get enough of it no matter how
Hard ye try to and the light vomiting fum ye face
Splits into seven different colors and ye can't
See any of 'em other than red well now yer
His sinewy T-Bone an' didn't you take the time to
Crack that picture book when you was young
III. Pellucid
I'm sorry you're afraid of what I'm gointa do
Today its my birth's day arright m'best day an'
I'm turning two hunnert fifty thou' at the second
When that there orb-star fizzles out under my hot
Wet tongue what reached across the parsecs and
Squelched the helium into the void oh I snuffled that
White candle with a four-tooth grin and realized of
A sudden that there wa'n't any vestiges far as my
Irises gulping up the very last of the knowledge
Could assertayne and funny story the first time
Yep the very first that I ain't drowned in they
Thoughts is when I stamped 'em out secret quiet
And the best thing I heard dripping down the salt
Sediment face of Har Megiddo that one day in some
Pink wormlike season was the sound of nothing at all
Think y'all got it in ye eh got it somewhere
Safe'n hidden and maybe even all devoid of
Liquidity but nonetheless ye got it there boy it
Sure sounds silly sounds misinterpreted t'a
Guy who jus' spent twenty five hunnert cent'ries
Wit'a forceps pickin' yer motivations piecemeal
Fum the brains of yer fathers what spent they
Whole time aiming maiming sometimes burning
Bridges to see they friends plunge into the
Grey abyss not twenty feet under where they's
Standing little carbon bubbles shooting thew the
River like so many wax bullets in a lava lamp what
Been heating up in th' fires of iniquity and they
Souls float 'tween the two poles once a minute
The trumpets well sure they wuz a lie we
Had to give ye some stark point've reference
Else ye wouldn't understand why ever' time we
Eulogized the crusty dogs what died mid-leap dug
Deep we prayed it to happen just so and think'n on it
Don't even matter we came in bear'n false witness
Cuz ever'thing we witnessed wuz false anyways yer
People all wore 'em frozen pale white masks wif the
Moufs and eyes and ears what looked like they
Been put there by accident or maybe by some God
Who just don't care enough anymore now take a
Moment to fold my consciousness into yer own an'
See Jesus I an't even penitent ye jus' thought I was
