George Beddow

MALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING

 

His personality resists

assimilation

and is submerged

by the wave

of my birth certificate’s

watermark.

 

In the convex glass

I am perplexed

by his self-portrait’s

dissimilitude – but then remember

mother breastfeeding

a multitude.

 

Exhumed

with neither

benediction

nor warning

blows

her malediction

forbidding

mourning

with either

lily

or rose.

 

© George D. Beddow

 

 

SYD BARRETT AT THE OPERA

 

In a three-legged opera

he plays the part

of a non-consequential

peg-leg slider

or darts

into the arms

of a black widow spider –

her immortal swansong

sur-titled

over the void

while we “nod out”

in this garret

to Syd Barrett-era

Pink Floyd.

 

I pick out my uniform

from the detritus

of his mind’s emporia

then “play dead”

in A Matter Of Life

And Death

at the bombed-out

Astoria.

 

As an encore

through a balcony trellis

some gargling Delilahs

fall into the lap

of a jealous

Samson

at the back

of our hansom cab.

 

© George D. Beddow