Elephant

Nellie the elephant

trod on a landmine

in Thailand

they had to amputate

and owing to the shortage

of wooden legs for elephants

they advertised

on the internet

a penitent lady from Kensington

sent them her

elephant's foot

umbrella stand

The Garden

The garden grows as if it will live for ever

Humming bees under the winds of chaos

Flinging flowers into the air

Leaving leaves to hang there

Worming roots of the need for care

Silently screaming: “Weed me, seed me

Double dig me, love me, feed me!”

Suddenly one day in 1926

It grew a house of lime and bricks

To hold tame humans armed with sticks

And spades and forks and hoes

And plumbing

And it was good

The garden wanted more

It opened its legs, jocund and fecund

Bonked a passing rainstorm

And gave birth to a street

Semi-detached, perfectly matched

With gardens in its own image

Deeply complacent,

Looming loam and humping humus

The garden dreamed a long, gestatory dream

Gravid with grapes and gooseberries

Heavy with hollyhocks

Until Foof! Flam! Pinch me!

The garden created Finchley

Complete in every detail that you see

Including fake photos on the walls of Tescoes

Of what it looked like in 1893

Then the garden settled down for an eternity

Of middle-class suburban comfort

But away down, under the ground

The Gnostic Gods of Gnossos

(Not far from Knossos)

Searched under the Stygian depths

And Tartarean epths

And released from a dark, dark, dark, dark hole

A garden-guzzling creature

Who only wants to eat you

Whose fate is still to beat you

Who always will defeat you -

The blind, entropic mole...

Paul Eluard

L'amoureuse

Elle est debout sur mes paupières
Et ses cheveux sont dans les miens,
Elle a la forme de mes mains,
Elle a la couleur de mes yeux,
Elle s'engloutit dan mon ombre
Comme une pierre sur le ciel.
Elle a toujours les yeux ouverts
Et ne me laisse pas dormir.
Ses rêves en pleine lumière
Font s'évaporer les soleils,
Me font rire, pleurer et rire,
Parler sans avoir rien à dire

The Lover

She is standing on my lids
And her hair is in my hair
She has the colour of my eye
She has the body of my hand
In my shade she is engulfed
As a stone against the sky
She will never close her eyes
And she does not let me sleep
And her dreams in the bright day
Make the suns evaporate
And me laugh cry and laugh
Speak when I have nothing to say

(Translated by Samuel Beckett)