poems by Andrea Brady, Stuart Calton, J. H. Prynne, Keston Sutherland and John Wilkinson, responding to the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.
barque
REFUSE
COLLECTION
To a light led sole in pit
of, this by slap-up
barter of an arm rest cap, on stirrup
trade in
crawled to many bodies, uncounted. Talon up
crude
oil-for-food, incarnadine incarcerate, get
foremost a track rocket, rapacious in
heavy
investment insert tool this way
up. This way
can it
will you they took to fast immediate satis-
faction or slather, new slave run the
chain store
enlisted, posture writhing what they
just want
we’ll
box tick that, nim nim.
Camshot spoilers
strap
to high stakes head to the ground elated
detonator like a bear dancing stripped
canny
sex
romp, webbing taint. Confess
sell out the
self
input, yes rape yes village gunship by
apache
rotor capital genital grant a seed trial
take a
nap a twin.
Fruiting bodies vintage
shagged out on batch stand-by, grander
conceptual
gravid
with foetor, sweet rot adoring placid
or
regular. It is we they do it,
even yet now
sodomised in a honey cell, pitted up
against
the
good cheat dimpled in a power cuff jersey,
shrug
to fit waist for traffic, kick the door in.
Go on,
do it, we’ll photograph everything, home
movies
hold steady on while they is we do it,
by eye
it takes oozing huge debt.
Reschedule
value
credits, war for oil, oil for food, food for
sex
molest modest reject stamp on limp abjected
lustral panoply. Little crosses everywhere,
yours
and
mine makeshift parlour chicken rape private
sold
down DIY there is a country.
Bite off the
cap
with a twist, upper strut invest cream off
profit
on a visor, bench law pressure why would
you
not credit that. It is to be
believed by
living
daylights voided moral defection by blank
horror
for terror of sacrifice, stairway to air
drilled by fierce devotion, say
yes. Brutal finish
this
sentence, go on do it. Till
they yelp and
will
rise up against us in a storm of justice or
let’s
pause to redefine that run up a treaty sell
them
into so-called paradigm.
Call-sign freedom
operation Sharp Knife, finish as you
never will in
a heap
on the ground. Prostrate,
back-spavined and
fresh-crushed, then another
explosion. Flush with
cash
for sex for punishment, let’s try a little
execution-only on mother’s endorsement
equity don’t
work
in a high tower no more indwell infidel on a
ranting stair. Profess exactly for take into
cap-
tivity, assault and quell and kill
thirsty work,
sweat
running in our eyes, of course also looting
and
kidnapping so write home about it, go on
do it
invited spectacle dump. Tag
evil so palpable,
fungus
in the nail-bed, your choke on a concert
programme device. Die in battle, die in bed or
maybe
on a
trolley, be sick and feel better, desire even
a just
peace. Kick them around shall
we do that be
sickened stamp on non-white body parts
benchmark
yields
huddled up naked,
land of the free
control respite deliverance. Cut-off spoken abuse
postural forensic gag reflex fabric
whitener, you
do
know this. Global recovery
now warming up:
running on all fours as the dollar
oil price rise
is hedged and written down, corrupt
reserves
declared to win. Simulate handcuff bunker take
out
the turret like dirt fuel data vow to thee.
Is
that what. Snatch attack wire
hid for a circus
for
venture cap life savings razor cut, recruit
to
strip to sweet wince rat garbage trim ankle
go
fetlock, to float there.
Hands-on foot rack,
on
carotid palpitation ravenous, lies and falsehoods
stalled credibly usual, our watch
accepted your
finger
your sacred thumb. The truth
of faked report
on a
pulse, a bloodline stamp on whose neck
why
not credit dog kill.
In the curving
mirror
of enlarged depravity daily and abhorrent a
comfort of disgust adjusted to market
slippage
a pact encroached my face pouch your puffy
demonic
exclusion so far, too far, no we know
that and
never
yes, quite probable, eye-rape transit to
twitch
renege on membership, limbs blazing all out
famous
by gorged access. Did you
heart attack
hear
these words your own mouth purse formation
broke
their outline, just awaiting the chance of
derangement from deep inside. An occupying force
commits pillage the sadism cut to
measure from
its
concept of possession own-brand words rise up
in
some necks to stifle disbelief, bite them down.
Go on,
bite them encircling gloom some bright
ruined
spark goes for broke power failure on-line
claw
back from the entrails.
Ticket of leave revulsed
sup on
this horror story full house endurably
feel-good recoil: the aghast demeanour
our shield
our
family and child-care we form a square to
defend
value invest in safety in fields of plenty
occupation’s gone to a rot clinic. Privation mate
leashed up mental famine.
All right core rescue
by
concession of expendable defect, the option play
to
transference to run hysteric barrage forward de-
ployment. Pre-set threat assessment at
deferred
base
precision, risk profile vamps up by alert to
stockade fire lines; if the inside is
now already
exposed then crush the outside,
consider this your
zone
of inclusion that’s us we don’t pray heads down
we
watch the target this time ah yes right we
are
the target let’s go faster now and self-abhor,
get
there first. Civil defence,
rights issue give
before
robbed in-store. Mutilation
and self-rape
defilement on a display promotion, give
blood shed
more,
greedy bright halo. Warranted
buggery word
chewed
spittoon upper rule of lawyers on pro rata
fee
commission unnatural cruelty.
Entire violation
natural and brutish metal restraints
standing room
only,
seats reserved for women in labour.
Force them.
They
do our will, to deny what they do is ours,
the wanton ambit of self
possession. The tasks of
self-defence. In our name longterm marching as,
to
a holy
city ringed too close to call.
Our land ours,
raw
and forever.
J. H. Prynne, 08.05.2004
