Today I'm sharing the poem that was recently printed in Issue 9 of Potroast. The theme was diagrams, how to guides, instructions, components etc. So I decided to write something based around the idea of distorting the "true" meaning of a word by breaking it up and concentrating on the other words embedded with in it, thereby creating something radically different than what was intended or expected. This was very much an experiment for me, and it has spawned a few new pieces exploring a similar theme. Here goes...
De-con-struct
An explanation, friend,
is
not
A telling how or why
but
A former 2D colony,
Lost for scheme, design and strategy
That is now a body politic
With all its bones but buried.
A diagram, therefore,
is
not
a picture, showing
but
A letter sent to someone suffering
Where stops are small black breaths, for
Ironic font typed names
Behind dull plastic panes
A system, then
is
not
a whole comprised of separate parts
but
A shaft of growth, diseased
No budding colour at the apex
Just the start of inconvenience
A growth toward the end of ends.
A method, it follows,
is
not
A numbered process or procedure
but
One’s harsh demise abbreviated
By chemical conspiracies
The true end product of its excess
And networked faulty compass Norths.
So therefore,
then,
it follows,
friend,
That context
is
not
Meaning
can’t
be
Message, sense or point,
but
rather,
Lying, cheating phrases,
With manipulative tendencies,
Absolving themselves of all
literary
Host responsibility.
Copyright: Kirsty Helen, 2012.
