Coverage

Water channels part:

your sweaty thumb slips

from the number 8, stunned.

Carpet stains where the remote drops

are a permanent reminder

of your love for live TV:

the asteroid fiascos,

wearing ecliptic sunglasses

for moments when the earth stops.

The second we realise the atmos-

phere’s mass ascendancy,

dark matter dominates

our deficient space:

imploding into silence

with the pin-drop of a lens.

It’s so titanic there’s nothing

you can do about it!

And the coverage:

time divided by velocity,

quicker than light

in its hyperbolic spell to reassure you

that all this wasted oxygen is

worth your wasted time.

These kaleidoscopic tides

(image upon image)

from the ground gaping up:

a shock of orange in a clear blue sky.

Again, from the smoke-

screen of the street:

a shock of orange in a clear blue sky.

And again, just to rub it in,

in case you’re entrenched

in a glossy magazine:

a shock of orange in a clear blue sky.

One more time

from the channel-changing

couch (terrorized):

a shock of orange in a grey-blue sky.

(published in SWAMP, 2011)