Own Goal

people laughed
but they couldn't take it away from me:
it was a mistake
but at least it was mine

Following Footsteps (owed to the west wind)

For Granny Do

        even mercury is stabilised,
        - from the patter of tiny feet
        to the clogs they inherit -
        by the hermetic wings
        of our talarial tarsels

some people are scared
to dress in clothes of the dead
but i like the thread
to wear as they wore

my nan had a thing for footwear
she cared about shoes that support
the arch, the bridge, with the extra sole
this was the goal
she found her feet
before she started thinking on them

she laid foundations
she invested the hours
willing growth into roots and leaves and flowers
the teacher in her
that can be found in us all
if itself supported and fostered and cultivated
if given a chance,
if given space to dance

she said
her biggest regret in becoming old
was being no longer able to don
a pair of heels, high and mighty
a stilted Aphrodite
with the prosthetic legs
that could make a single parent tower
with posture, poise and power

later in life
she would always shell out
for the sported brands
advocating her loyalty to the stripes
and the gods
claimed it could help you stop going flat
a step with an engineered spring
Doreen loved to sing
never pronated
chin up, chin up
the world awaited

and when she died
after the eyes had dried
there was the usual clearance
amongst which i was asked
if i wished her trainers
and it clicked, like heels
in this house of cheap skates
trying to make a world
in which there's no place for waste
so i adopted these goods
3 pairs, 7.5
enough barleycorns for a perfect fit
she had gone up in size
as her stature shrank
as she struggled with her laces
too frail for embraces
triggering memories of myself
as a vulnerable grand child
as i struggled to resolve my own knots
and cross the dots

three years i have walked in her shoes
literally, figuratively, and much more than a mile
she is with me
in these innocent memento moris
these prosaic props, my little foundations
in my tread, in my gate, in my wandering tangents
helping me think
of the way that i walk
and correct my carriage
beyond the lonely meaning of marriage
allowing me to hold myself
after years of petty posturing
and adolescent neglect
now, with intent, mindful
of the things upon which i impose
my weight
i've a whole other person here
guiding my step
like when i was young
she was my third and fourth lung
blowing wind in my sails
helping me glide along the rocky and rambling trails
when i couldn't keep up
only half a sea in my cup
now again the canvas is filled by zephyrs
and taken by the subtle stroke of feathers

A Trajectory of Ideas from the Kings of Waffle

Freud Ouroboros Autofellatio (aka sometimes a cigar is a cock in my mouth)

Borrow Meandering Waffle Rings

Paralaxadaisical! (and so on and so on)

egg and gammon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gammon_(insult)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Blimp

Eggshell Chemistry

slap a gammon with some egg,
really get it on their face and
particularly on the chin.
egg on the crumbling dead façade
of man,
now a withering feathered dinosaur;
husked and musky.

all people alike will break fast,
where a scalped summit engenders
soldiers with the gooey insides
emerging s l o w and pahoehoe,
gold blood of the planet
in igneous swarms of dialectic convection
under the continental cranial crust,
as the minds' embers meld
white matter
into the yoke
thatbindsustogether
lest cooling magma turns to stone
in one final grave rotation
before total petrification.

stubborn... and hard boiled.
stuck in its form, the zones remain discontinuous
instead of flowing and srcamlbed
(which is clearly superior)
mixed and jumbled with a mongrel amalgam.
hell, throw some pepper and chilli on it
or at least let the colour run,
run away like a liquid take the shape of your container get into all the corners mobile and dynamic maybe even grow legs and escape the box maybe even develop maybe even evolve.

Alas!
humpty dumpty grows old!
and the cra/cks start to show
and we mustn't forget,
that a rotten egg will float to the SURFACE
like a corpse, vacuous and full of hot air.
like a blimp, like a colon:
as the meningeal membranes recede, aging
flesh replaced by gas
and
Hark!
an egg only grows when fertilised
and the grey areas of self
that are cancer and parasite
will always hijack the native resources
"you unwanted growth"
"you tumour"
"you boil"
(we might say)

"...and where is my surgery?

...my warm compress?"

yes, yes, it is tempting, for sure,
but it's not always necessary to pull out the steak
knives, or the tempered, steely scalpels.
simply rejoice at the sizzling sound
of a subducting slab
of meat going under,
and into Earth's furnace

they can shout about it till they're rose in the face;
shout till their pendulous jowls are plum with constipation,
but the flabby hunks of flushed pork
move inexorably towards happy extinction.

in a shell, CaCO₄ is synchronised by proteins
into a crystal lattice chrysalis
adorned by Protoporphyrin IX
like an alien king
the haem-like pigment
creating the illusion
of a pink and brown exterior
bulging and proud
but secretly, the skin is colourless

paltry poultry and foul fowl

http://ecochickspoultry.com/shop/poultry-equipments/140-birds-chicken-battery-cages/

"Battery cages can be slanted to allow for drops of manure directly to the floor

Battery cages can also be straight, vertical design whereby manures are dropped in trays, 

which are removed and cleaned; this allows more cages in the poultry than the slanted type"

this is not a statement from the RSPCA; this is part of an advert to sell battery cages to potential buyers.

it makes me want to believe there's a heaven 

they're all going to

it makes me want to believe there's a hell 

we're all going to

* 

all the bust up noses
and the billion bloodied beaks
all the bills have broken
now the scales have been tipped
over and over

head over heals

clawing at mud
the pecking little faces
headbutting the ground
they used to wear a crown
now knee deep in shit and death

starved of nutrients

the mash is shunned

in favour of cannibalising 

the unborn children

tiny fluffy dinosaurs

plucked from the floor
by a man with a dead eye
for a man with a beady eye

the scent of dread 
in their heavenhell feathers

you'd have to thread rope through the eyes
of haystack needles

not to see that the system is rigged

through the lips

through the chains of ships

and so for the captains we should fold 

that enterprising fibre
of barbed bògòlanfini cloth
into a noose for Antony Fisher
pioneer of the battery farm

founder of the Institute for Economic Affairs

should put his head in a tank
after all that's been shelled 

out for his gain

in his name

cut from the same cloth as Eichmann

he built the networks

but instead of a noose

twas a sword that was laid 

on his shoulder

so the devil gets bolder

120 birds chicken battery cages

Rated 4.14 out of 5 based on 14customer ratings (14 customer reviews)

KSh 29,000.00 ADD TO CART

·  

• Birds are easily assessible, dont need to run after them, they can not be mistaken.

• Pens are neater as they are easily cleaned out.

• Health issues are better managed, sick birds are easily separated.

• Feeding and drinking are easily managed.

• Automation becomes possible.

• Cannibalism and egg eating is reduced or totally avoided

• Movement around pen is easier.

• Epidemy is easily controlled.

• It is only cost that can make liter preferrable, and over time cage becomes cost effective.

• 120 birds chicken battery cages quantity

• Tiers more than 3 can be provided with either elevated platform or movable stand to allow attendant to reach higher tiers

• Battery cages can be slanted to allow for drops of manure directly to the floor

• Battery cages can also be straight, vertical design whereby manures are dropped in trays, which are removed and cleaned; this allows more cages in the poultry than the slanted type.

• To reduce the burden of cleaning, conveyors can be installed in place of tray, which are easily cleaned at the ends.

• Position of feeder and drinkers on the battery cages can be adjusted to suit growing chicks.

• Poultry Battery Cages can be for LAYERS, BROILERS, COCKERELS and other types of birds.

• Eggs roll out easily from the battery cages for collection.

ova

for mom, recovering from Covid

revert to an egg-like state
i'm not ready, yet
and yet, this husky shell

with its one great wall

or an infinite number of walls

depending on how you consider a curve

wafer-thin and all encompassing

and yet, this hull in which i am the nut

is all i and my white glair know
for now, all albumen jelly and carrier proteins
wherein thought remains embryonic
patiently pursed
for the advent of my re-re-reconstruction
for the passage through the oviduct
careful journey to the outside sphere
to hatch like a sunrise
and spill my yolk into the world