{"id":13823,"date":"2021-09-09T08:35:45","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T06:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13823"},"modified":"2021-09-15T08:36:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T06:36:02","slug":"poems-by-harris-coverley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13823","title":{"rendered":"poems by Harris Coverley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drugged Humidity<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I could break my own face<\/p>\n

If I had no fear<\/p>\n

The heat does not come<\/p>\n

It simply is<\/p>\n

Like it is a divine presence<\/p>\n

A fact of all nature<\/p>\n

All being<\/p>\n

I suck in air<\/p>\n

As a parched man sucks in water<\/p>\n

The cats blame me for everything<\/p>\n

(As they always do)<\/p>\n

The flies hit the mirrors and windows<\/p>\n

In mock suicide<\/p>\n

(I am their Lord)<\/p>\n

The moths wait for death<\/p>\n

They are nobody\u2019s burden<\/p>\n

It never ends<\/p>\n

This struggle<\/p>\n

This dry dread<\/p>\n

Sweat like wasted fluid<\/p>\n

Like the body saying \u201cNO\u201d<\/p>\n

And rebelling against sense<\/p>\n

And love means nothing<\/p>\n

Without another<\/p>\n

And so one sits<\/p>\n

And waits<\/p>\n

Waits for better air<\/p>\n

And moisture<\/p>\n

The rains will come<\/p>\n

Soon<\/p>\n

The breath of God<\/p>\n

The pouring of life<\/p>\n

The purging of evil<\/p>\n

Words on a wind<\/p>\n

Tongue on the odd breeze<\/p>\n

I can see where fever grows<\/p>\n

As fungus envelops a dead tree<\/p>\n

Or anxiety in an empty room<\/p>\n

Christ<\/p>\n

Let the rain come<\/p>\n

Great God Pan<\/p>\n

Let the fields flow<\/p>\n

With green<\/p>\n

And flowers<\/p>\n

Like smiling children<\/p>\n

Let fresh out of school<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hydration<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

walking slow<\/p>\n

bare armed<\/p>\n

bare arsed<\/p>\n

bare headed<\/p>\n

in the summer rain<\/p>\n

like being reborn<\/p>\n

and I scream at the flowers<\/p>\n

to show some respect<\/p>\n

and they turn away from me<\/p>\n

ashamed<\/p>\n

I love this time of year<\/p>\n

naked toes clipping the edges<\/p>\n

of patio stones<\/p>\n

a lone crow looking on<\/p>\n

and the trees know well-enough<\/p>\n

not to interfere<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Your Chamber<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think of you in your chamber<\/p>\n

alone<\/p>\n

listless<\/p>\n

idle<\/p>\n

cold<\/p>\n

thinking of me<\/p>\n

maybe<\/p>\n

if I\u2019m so honoured<\/p>\n

your flesh stirred up from milk<\/p>\n

your hair the colour<\/p>\n

and taste of honey<\/p>\n

I want to kiss your neck<\/p>\n

so you need not turn<\/p>\n

kiss your forehead<\/p>\n

so you need not lean back<\/p>\n

kiss your eyes<\/p>\n

so you need not look upon my<\/p>\n

unsightliness<\/p>\n

I wish I could be there with you<\/p>\n

and smell what you can smell<\/p>\n

and taste what you can taste<\/p>\n

we could walk as King and Queen<\/p>\n

or failing that perhaps<\/p>\n

as the Gods of a New Light<\/p>\n

I await the<\/p>\n

opening your door.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s Marmalade<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following verse is a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek response to this letter by a Mr Peter Betts of Liverpool, published in <\/em>The Guardian, 26th<\/sup> February, 2020, quoted here in full<\/em>: \u201cIt would surely be a mistake to conclude the marmalade correspondence this year (Letters, 24 February) without recalling that George Orwell had his very own recipe. However, in an unpublished essay for the British Council, entitled British Cookery, an editor commented, \u201cBad recipe! \u2013 too much sugar and water\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, not a joy for all! For truth and<\/p>\n

And liberty are too sweet for some!<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much sugar!\u201d they bellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch too much water too!\u201d they<\/p>\n

Add. Would they rather water the<\/p>\n

Tree of freedom with the blood of<\/p>\n

Enemies? Or maybe of the innocent?<\/p>\n

The blood of a slain elephant perhaps?<\/p>\n

Nay, with nothing to offer but their<\/p>\n

Bloated words and obese sentences,<\/p>\n

They are not fit to spread truth upon<\/p>\n

The toast of the common good! For<\/em><\/p>\n

Shame<\/em> sirs! <\/em>We will remember you,<\/p>\n

For we have a list…and what would<\/p>\n

Those at Wigan indulge in, fresh from<\/p>\n

Their agonous toiling for their capitalist<\/p>\n

Taskmasters, if not a spare shilling<\/p>\n

Spent on a little extra sweetness?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blood Inheritance<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the days are long since his death<\/p>\n

waiting for the sun to set in the west<\/p>\n

and for the moon to appear from the blue<\/p>\n

his body is long gone<\/p>\n

and yet we seem to feel it<\/p>\n

watching us<\/p>\n

in the grey light of winter<\/p>\n

we wait for any news to come<\/p>\n

we know it won\u2019t<\/p>\n

but hope is our oxygen<\/p>\n

and our blood itself<\/p>\n

the blood he himself gave us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drugged Humidity   I could break my own face If I had no fear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1514,77],"tags":[1515,1123,1510],"class_list":["post-13823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-68","category-english","tag-egophobia-68","tag-english","tag-harris-coverley"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3AX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13826,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823\/revisions\/13826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}