A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson

Author:Roger Robinson [Robinson, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press
Published: 2019-12-28T20:00:00+00:00

CITIZEN II

How is it I’m begging you for housing,

when you burnt my building down?

You all ain’t even playing fake-nice, like those

other murderers. You are all cut-eye and snarls,

all straight jargon, and nothing but the jargon.

Can’t you smell the ash on me?

I have the stench of cremation.

I can’t get it out and I can’t get used to it.

It’s all well for you,

smelling like pink fabric softener

and aloe vera shampoo.

Ahh, but in your silence you are revealed

through your eyes; look how they blink

in morse code dot dot dot dot

dotdotdot, for I-don’t-give-a-fuck.

There is a process, someone says.

What’s the process?

Take a number and have a seat.

The number 5 comes up

on a digital sign in red neon;

my ticket number is 25, 000.

When I go to the enquiry desk

and ask to speak to someone

they shout from behind bullet-proof glass:

POOR !!!! then pause for 5 seconds

before shouting BLACK!!!!

So I head back to the hostel,

plotting my next moves in strange equations

on the back of a napkin:

love, love + love + lightning = shout.

I watch static for hours on the black and white

TV with a wire coat-hanger as an antenna.

It looks like electric smoke.

I go to the stove, light a match

and burn it down to my fingers, the flame

burning my fingertips quiet and calm.

I place the wizened match on the counter.

I light another match, turn on the gas.

I squat to look through the fire,

the blue whoosh of the flame.

I light a candle, say a prayer:

Ah you dey in charge of de kingdom,

de power and all de hellish.

I place my hands over the flame,

snuff it out with my thumb and forefinger,

smoke rising from my unsteady hands.

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