from "Risk Assessment"

by Rupert Loydell and Robert Sheppard



QUALITY

Quality with a silent E     thinking path diversion
rare intuition absent     fair intonation absolved
slinking past 'Diversity'     rediscover and claim 'Identity'
slide into serial thinking     don't get around such many

core'zzs (splat!     sick in sink...     voices silenced
luminous dance across the carpet    Quantity with a
roaring N refunctioning 'Inclusiveness'     wrong-headed translation
surrealism an assumed given     take up The Little Book

of Dada Qualia     feed the imaginary fish
swallow the calm dark whoosh of Mammoth Books
with fish-hook spines     shattered living fragments
hooked line and splinter     on flatter shivering segments

dead swan of my reflection gazing back from empty page
and the moth books' dust cloud settling on my shoulder
annotated collections fade in the circling light
another unqualified dead duck swallowed by risk


RISK ASSESSMENT

R(is)k assessment weekend s(pen)t     k(is)s pre(sent)s its weakened sprint
Tryst thinks little i n k (sic)k     Tom is (her)e as well
taking F orm/rom one curve     Form is opportunity     From Taylor
b(end)ing (as)lant     sm(ash)ing keys     Farm To Let     let go

Tristan risks asking (Tom)orrow     Is older than today to go
w(here) far m(is)sives br(in)g tor(men)t    (tent)ative (part)icipation
stamp (ping!) image on flung see(ping)    see(king) presence m(is)sed
I(sold)e s(old) her c(older) he(art)     (I s)(old)ier on regard(less)

no less a success     a m(as)terpiece is an ex(per)i(me!)nt
that succeeds     (risky Gil Evans     miles to go (and I
no pre(tense)     (comb)i(nation) ))     Tristia in print
in exile Tristano emotes     perfect Tom(fool)eyrie

w(as)te manage(men)t in (plea)ted in(for)mation j(us)tice
eagle (eye)d eager (be)aver(s in) for(mat)ion dance team fri(day) night
dum(pin)g the pois(on)o(us) detritus of our dispos(a)ble (wor)l(d)
w/out (try)st or promise     kis(s or e)mb(race)     high risk factore(d in)


VIOLENCE IS

Violence is a wasting disease     with headbanging flesh-meets
with wigs like Pharoahs' stones    and paper cut fingerprints
with bruised shadow sightlines     snatching from yourself what's
given as little unforgiveables     human life's distilled from it

Violet is a burning light     with scorched splinters
with swallows from tilted microphones     and cut glass senses
with heavy blue shadows     fossils lifted like kippers
onto smoking walls     humane files dictated for it

Viola is a wooden mask     with antidotes to vision
with scratched veneers of bones     a voice that scars
with highly-strung fractures     humming the epic ballad
all the way to China     where man directed: fire it

Violate each pile of chaos once it's stopped smouldering
Vindicate each other once you have hit the concrete
Vitiate bimbo men with suntan streaks firing plastic guns
Votive offering to war and power voracious need


Z-MEN, X-MEN AND CYBERMEN

Z-men, X-men and cybermen     it's unhealthy to be
the Ventriloquist and the Dummy     the pitcher and the catcher
be both sides of the net     the complexity in simplicity is
in the timing (he said)     (well he would, I said)

(but you disagreed)     'like a bine of twine'
Lightnin' sang     missing his fret groanin' and moanin'
throughout the days     feeling shapes of unwritten blues
the unceasing beginning     (no end ever in sight

no sites worth the trip)    a time-based text
an A-Z of Utopia     a guide to nowhere and
everywhere you can imagine     Sinatra ventriloquising Gatsby
at a quarter to three     (that's my kind of music)

to be Bill Evans with you (reader) as Tony Bennett
said before breakfast and then doing the dishes
the ABC Song Book of the XYZ Universe
dancing yesterday's tune     (my kind of muse - hic)




© Rupert Loydell & Robert Sheppard, 2005