The Gate of Extinction, image by Daniel Y. Harris
from does anyone know the plural of coda?
if so, keep it to
yourself
no one likes a smart arse
especially one
producing more than 6 tons of carbon a year
YOU GAS MACHINE YOU
SHITFLINGER YOU PLANETDESTROYER
with your
business-as-usual face
your legalese fashion
chic and your
in-the-closet diesel
sexuality. believe:
there are no spaces
left in the car park for you
uninfected by
your plane crash
malaise—your stench
follows me into sleep.
your hard race to
nowhere’s bottom
your burst of pointless
energy
and po-faced
seriousness
take the corsets off
your languages’ apologies
unmuzzle yourselves
but not like that.
no one said you were
supposed
to do that.
the only thing worse:
you, when you leave the
light on
in a room you’ve
vacated like
you were never really present in the first place
does anyone know the
plural of coda?
shut up who asked you?
with your petrol-eating grin
and your carboniferous
hate-crimes
also for the record
you disgust me with your cravings
for images
seriously, what’s it
like living
so deep in stupid?
you disgust me so much
you philosophical buttonbrain!
if you know what the
plural of coda is
keep it to yourself
during this
<UNSUSTAINABLY-POWERED
SERVICE INTERRUPTION>
</UNSUSTAINABLY-POWERED
SERVICE INTERRUPTION>
does anyone
know what the plural of coda is?
because i really don’t
care, even if
you got here using
public transport and you’re wearing
vegan shoes—that means
nothing
the difference between
a jackdaw
and a crow
is like the difference
between renewable electricity
and
[oh my god you’re so boring]
you think they’re
vastly disconnected images
they’re not
pebbles in the same stream are still
pebbles in a stream
and you’re all disgustingly greasy monsters
trying to wash in that same stream
all you’ve done is
kill the fish
is this beginning to
sound like a pluralist coda yet?
this poem used to be
full of images
millions of them, some
as yet never thought of, but
because you’re such.
a. bastard.
i deleted all of them
you don’t deserve
images
(call it an allegory,
if it helps you sleep
but i hope it gives you
nightmares, shitwad)
that’s the new
definition of environmentalism:
detechnologise your
life
does anyone actually
know what the plural of coda is?
when you cross a meadow
you shed apocalypses
have you ever thought
about how many bugs you kill
spread out in a park
on a lawn
in your bed?
when you drive to work
you exhaust
dictionaries full of
expletives
there is a coda to this
one
it was in my dream
the other night:
John Goodman, in a
river,
on fire
the river looking like
it might explode
any moment
Goodman, burning,
in slow moving
liquid
explosives,
coming at you
for
a hug.
if it doesn’t make
sense
try pulling your thumb
out
then putting your head
in
and listening
seriously, if you’re
still thinking
about what the
plural of coda is
you’re part of the
problem
when the Malthusian
population crash hits
you’ll be twiddling
your thumbs
at the cashpoint /
supermarket / local council
looking for typos in
the sudoku you can’t solve
you won’t last six
weeks
and for those of you
still wondering
what the plural of
coda is
here’s a poem with full
rhymes
and an image:
extinction extinction
extinction
EXTINCTION.
EXTINCTION. EXTINCTION.
i lied
about the image
because you disgust me
so much
you’ve been rowing in
tennis whites through foodbank cities
wallet stuffed full of
credit card shivs and financial protection plan tabs
you’re carried among
the rest of us in cradles made of bank notes and babies’ bones
capitalism’s stance
toward reality trumps the orange halo of the watch towers
where the last dolphin
is sniping down on your credit crunch German Christmas markets with an M82
Barret 50 cal made from freely donated whale cartilage
you disgust me
more than i disgust
myself
still looking for a
coda? Here:
—George Ttoouli
