Oct 5, 2023

Poems by Mark Young

ENTERPRISING BARGAINS

Some invasive herb has been spread-
ing, engulfing both a cardboard 
cutout of Danny DeVito & a box 
full of Legend of the Bulldog Tees. 
Does all poultry have to be this 

sophisticated? It's an exaggerated 
reaction to numerous satirical re-
views; but, severely hampered by 
logistical problems, the subject is far 
more complex than some nuanced 

black tie dinner. Satire remains a 
powerful tool; but by turning side-
ways, the resident hippopotamus
has totally exposed its hidden
logic. That's not such a bad payoff.


THE SCARRED CONTINUUM

What is happening to real music?
Is said that many-particle excited
states are not always a cause for
concern; & this view is compatible
with the assumption that the peculiar

motion of ionized baryons is known
to introduce passing feelings of de-
personalization. Splicing genres can’t
always be fruitful: there is no magic
technique to render things otherwise;

the presence of an observer always
means our perturbation will never
be perfectly spherical. How might
the brain approximate this inference?
Think of the Earth, & breathe deeply.


FROM 100 TITLES FROM TOM BECKETT

#95: Tattoos Submit Behind Closed Doors
Highway 101 stretches out in front
of us. What is done is done behind
closed doors in a studio with no tat-
too sign out on the street. It’s hard
to beat a panther tattoo or one of a
lion with no blue in the muzzle. My
time is taken up with innumerable
actions & things, but just a small
number of symbols can describe
them all. I was out way too late last
night getting tattoos. Now I'm just
going to bleach my teeth, lay out on
the couch with my boys, & decide
whether or not to invest in this busi-
ness that gives people the option to
preserve their late loved one's tattoo
as a piece of artwork. If you want to
have my name tattooed on any part of
your body, then fill in the form below
& submit it. We can't wait to see you.


A LINE FROM PIERRE DE FERMAT

You're turning right onto a dual
carriageway when you're con-
fronted by a stone tablet which
dates to around 1800BC & is

sparsely accompanied by an en-
raptured voice. The lane you were
going to move into is now likely
to be too narrow to contain the

opacity controls that ride the sides
of the car just above the rocket
launchers which they control. So,
press the firing key. The immediate

problem solved as the tablet shatters.
But a secondary problem & solution
not noticed in the debris, a shard that
reads “a3 + b3 = c3. Workings follow.”

Poem by Stephen Bett

Novel Lines 101:  101 alphabetical poems, each riffing on the opening line of a postmodern novel or metafiction. Antonio Lobo Antunes, Act o...