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I am Mox

Friday 18th March 2011 10:56 am

I AM MOX

If you inhale me
I will boil you from the inside
I am the worst kind.
The sickest of the sick
The most invisible
The most potent, blister skin prick
The most concentrated
This Tokyo panic plume descends
I am the grave you dug with cancered hand you lend
You architects who pretend this earth will last forever
-I’m afraid I am the alien arrived

The cooking of the kidneys
The erosion of the lung
The slippery slope of a soggy neck slung
On wasted muscle
There goes another one, in the post ten years on big c.
The writhing jump out infront of me
They squirm beneath the might of me
And I linger
The slowest finger inserted
To make this drawn out death
Like logic inverted the strands of spider thread
Make all these cells so fragile

I watch one burst, the artery first
Then her entire vessel
A gruesome site
On radiation
You shall die
I am the invisible killer
In my periodic testament you shall trust me
I will boil you from the inside.

Laughing atoms celebrate, you set us free
The deceased beneath me, millions
Your concrete cannot float
On this cloud
This magic carpet
My silent voice is louder than ever
I bind cells together to make that dreaded word
This nightmare jump-started by you, such a gluttonous herd
This pathetic consumer race
This quest for Giga-watt
This capitalist rot
This media fear
The heart of the earth torn from here in atoms
You split them and expected only reward
But I the sleeping giant
Leapt toward you when un-tethered
The puny concrete cap
The draining salt bath saps away
And reveals the rods that sweetly sway
All happy upon their release
Like prisoners starved of this fetish feast of killing man
The atoms can’t wait to kill my children
And how Ironic, you dropped atomic all those years ago

abstract surreal

◄ the quality of silence

'New and invigorating ways to erode' - or 'the brain is impressively hard to control' ►

Comments

Seamus Kelly

Sat 26th Mar 2011 08:06

Powerful stuff Pete and as each day passes with the situation in Japan your poem gets more and more relevant. I hope I get to see you perform this one.

Excellent

<Deleted User> (9215)

Mon 21st Mar 2011 21:17

This is lovely:
"The puny concrete cap
The draining salt bath saps away
And reveals the rods that sweetly sway
All happy upon their release"

Very provocative and very effective, i would say.
Would love to hear you read it.
xx

Oh and it reminded me of Threads too. Terrifying.

Elaine Booth

Mon 21st Mar 2011 20:47

Powerful and scary - evoking the right mix of emotions to provoke the audience (this will be / has been (?) brilliant performed). Loved "cooking of the kidneys" - horrible but also nice touch of black humour. Or is that just me!

Julian (Admin)

Fri 18th Mar 2011 19:06

The one word that comes to my mind in this poem, though also others of its ilk by you Peter, is "care". You care about such things with a passion. And I know that in the past you have taken action as well as written about such subjects. Brilliant, important, visceral, yes indeedy.
And, good reminder Dave, On The Beach should be on every school curriculum.
Two weeks ago I was talking to a chap I know in Millom, on the Cumbrian coast south of Sellafield. In that area you cannot even venture the subject in a local pub, as so many of the people work in the plant. The topic - infant leukaemia, incidence of cancer among the workers - cannot be aired.
My pal, who owns a garage up there, admitted that lots his contemporaries, workers at the plant, had been lost to cancer. And he lowered his voice as he said it. Perfectly safe of course.

Laura Taylor

Fri 18th Mar 2011 10:26

Powerful, visceral, revelatory

Great poem

Pete Crompton

Fri 18th Mar 2011 09:35

corected a few typos, a late night post, post vouyeur doom gloom sky news viewing guilty pleasure watching sterile disaster movie news proves we are in a circus not seeing bodies behind the curtains of the BBC sky CBS often lie or paint picture miles high of the horrendous truth

Dave Bradley

Fri 18th Mar 2011 09:19

Effective and powerful (despite the many typo's).

Reminded me of 'On the Beach' by Nevil Shute. Still one of the most chilling novels ever about what radiation could do to our planet.

<Deleted User> (8943)

Fri 18th Mar 2011 08:23

Nice one Pete, enjoyed the rhymes placed here and there, they give it a lilting rhythm and help with the disturbing flavour of the piece.

Reminds me of a TV series called threads from years ago about surviving in a world poisoned by nuclear war and of course this is once again, sadly very current.

Francine

Fri 18th Mar 2011 02:10

Gruesome indeed!
The message is powerful and the images make quite an impact!
I like the intro because it immediately draws you in and captures your attention.

My fave lines:
'Your concrete cannot float
On this cloud
This magic carpet
My silent voice is louder than ever'

xxxxx

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