Flagellum
by gm
Stevie Howell
Flagellum
In the beginning, we beat ourselves to move to the source,
the sources, the light, the food, the sex
the CNS was a tail, a spine that schemed outside, beneath
–Richard the III’s, lurching from sea
slid across boulders peppered with microbes, feasted on weaker,
those with fewer machinations
called this our home, our kingdom. Some called themselves kings
and queens, sat at the centre
of ordered but unstable scenes. The yeast doubled, quadrupled,
n-tupled, and the more we had,
the more we wanted, the less restful the sleep. We spawned arms
and fingers to snatch or stroke, handy
when you’re broken, palpated our guts to annunciate menacing
grunts, morphed vowels. Word begat
the poet. The ocean bubbled and steamed, burped up future
family, frienemies, fanemies.
In the end, we describe blatant phenomena–but with eloquence,
we slow the world down, we say, like a cud.
More than nitrogen, more than vapour, more than clay, we need me,
I say, I am the why and the because.
[…] That’s the start of my poem, Flagellum, up at New Poetry. You can read it here. […]
[…] summer (forthcoming) Poem: “Ontarioabandonedplaces.com,” Taddle Creek, no. 35, summer Poem: “Flagellum,” New Poetry, April Poem: “Barriers,” Geist, April Criticism: Kate Tempest, Hold Your Own, Partisan, May […]
[…] (forthcoming) Poem: “Ontarioabandonedplaces.com,” Taddle Creek, issue 35, summer Poem: “Flagellum,” New Poetry, April Poem: “Barriers,” Geist, April Criticism: Liz Howard, “Infinite Citizen of the Shaking […]
[…] (forthcoming) Poem: “Ontarioabandonedplaces.com,” Taddle Creek, issue 35, summer Poem: “Flagellum,” New Poetry, April Poem: “Barriers,” Geist, April Criticism: Liz Howard, “Infinite Citizen of the Shaking […]