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

Tuesday 29th March 2011 1:43 am

The brain is impressively hard to control
And I find that very comforting.

It is easy to worry about our masters
They only want the best for us.
So when I find that they are finding NeW aNd InViGoRaTiNg WaYs To ErOdE mE
I do not worry
I am unique
As it is me that allows them to do so
And unlike the lab rats and the fruit flies
We aren’t stuck in cages
We are free
To consume this soup
to watch TV
Free to ingest trusted chemicals, such watery gloop
Inject my breast with water
Mark my carton with sun ripened images
Touch the comb of my chicken head
This blood transparent
Projects the scarlet red of the real me.
Free to shop
Unclipped and Free to fly
Free to choose the colour of the box in which to die………
The asphalt of the drive by beckons
…………………
…………..before

I happily lay down every evening
With udders full, this festering feast of felons
un sure if it is legal
The colonel call’s it food
I happily flatten the cotton grass
And wait for rain, the pain the ass, the mule the task to live, such belching extrusion
as they spoil blood for crude
do you hear me complain?
They happily lead me over pastures pixilated, sky tv
and I dance
To the sound of the subliminal messages again.
They have finally made me happy
My dirty thoughts have scrubbed up well
They hung me out to dry
Finally fed me the answer to the problem they created
And look I am cured, the finest Parma, I do not protest
So rooted, so so, so never to overthrow my farmer
This shank I am
You push a little button and you get more chocolate
Cured and Fallen from bone

The brain was impressively hard to control

Comments

Elaine Booth

Thu 31st Mar 2011 22:54

Very dark but I agree with the sentiment. Loved this: "free to shop" - that is it - free to consume and be consumed. Really appreciate how you have communicated these ideas in such a powerful and accessible form. Brill, Pete.

Isobel

Tue 29th Mar 2011 22:22

I'd agree with Rachel about the erosion title being best. It fits in better with the last line of the poem which because of its change of tense, is a bit dismal. In effect you are saying that we are all erodable - if that is a word. I would probably agree - in the fact that we depend on society as it is - our nice central heating/air conditioning/means of transport. Try taking that away from us now and there would be anarchy. We are therefore complicit with the authority that is and dependent on it - and all the atrocities that may go on behind the scenes. There are lots of subtle references in here to oil etc

It took me several reads to understand this, not being much of a surreal thinker - I guess reading other comments may have helped. I didn't like it much on first read but that was because I didn't instantly get it - maybe still haven't. I am impressed by the thinking though - and its originality.

Pete Crompton

Tue 29th Mar 2011 20:25

Laura, Melanie,Stevie, Rachel, Julian ta

ta, lay and la!

did you get the 'lay on grass' 'rain' reference?

anyone?> :-)

thanks for the super-essay R! a poem within

Julian (Admin)

Tue 29th Mar 2011 19:35

what a load of... Peter, I hate you!
What I am trying to say is, I was going to say that!
But I didn't
perhaps I couldn't
not mad enough,
not got the balls
or the vocabulaire
not sad enough
not cooper Clarke enough
though now he has gone mainstream
you are he to the power of many
DO NOT STOP WRITING PETER
KEEP PERFORMING
UNTIL THEY COME FOR YOU
they will have to get past us
scary thought
Rachel - brilliant essay inspired by peter.
Peter, you inspire.

Steve Regan

Tue 29th Mar 2011 15:44

I am unique
... you certainly are mate.

An understanding of human freedom, and maybe the harm it can do too. Lots of irony in this, or at least irony perceived by me.

Can we have too much freedom. Can it, in fact, trap us in tyranny?

melanie coady

Tue 29th Mar 2011 13:25

love this 1 hun xx

Laura Taylor

Tue 29th Mar 2011 09:38

Loving the rhyming scheme in this Pete, and an excellent subject to boot. 'And look I am cured, the finest Parma' - great play on words there, love it

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

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