Tuesday poem #315 : Tim Atkins : Excerpt from a book called: NOTHING CONCLUSIVE HAS YET TAKEN PLACE IN THE WORLD THE ULTIMATE WORD OF THE WORLD AND ABOUT THE WORLD HAS NOT YET BEEN SPOKEN THE WORLD IS OPEN AND FREE EVERYTHING IS STILL IN THE FUTURE AND WILL ALWAYS BE

Section 3.1.2 47-82

When you are less angry the landscape recedes to a horizon or a moment that clangs

In the soundscape of the Danube there are those who make me want to puke over my shoulder when no news comes

You loved Tishe Amijo Head when she left your body in Oxnard and all that remained was a postcard of the beats with her name on

A book bearing your name may or may not exist moulding a jello map from prominent bumps

That book may contain invectives against the government along with portions of August and forgotten poets from The Penguin Book of 20^th Century German Verse

I take hold of the toe of infinite power and loved Tishe Amijo Head she lived in a car with a bank robber called Buck when we made love

The book you may have written you believe makes no mention of this

When a woman leaves her body they leave yours also to listen to the Danube but no longer see it

When you lie flat beneath the wine dark sea and feel the fresh water touching it there are marks on your arms where the secret police promised to twist them

Turning away from metonomy towards the space that the globe opens up things you wish you had never written thinking you had hidden them in the lungs and the liver

& the spaces between letters

When you are less happy you try everything revolutionary

To turn the clock back to a time before the industrial revolution you think

You do not know if there was ever a time when the secret police did not know where you lived

When you are busy initiating and documenting a more sexual mode it is harder to tell if any of the participants work for the filth

To fight with a person you must use cum but not for the weapon for example I fight the monkey with a rose

Cum simia rosa pugno in England thou is commonly used because in that country they have no need for police

Everyone who lives there is dead or asleep

Tim Atkins is the author of books published by Book Thug, The Figures, O Books, Barque, Crater, Boiler House, ifpthenq, and many other presses. Petrarch Collected Atkins was a Times Literary Supplement book of the year in 2014. He is the editor of onedit.net. He can be reached at timatkins1234@googlemail.com

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan