Rivalling Vogon Poetry
Tue Jul 08 2003 11:23PM -0600
I quote
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Vogon poetry is of
course the third worst in the Universe. The second worst is that of
the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master
Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green
Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his
audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the
Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his
own legs off. Grunthos is reported to have been "disappointed" by
the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his
twelve-book epic entitled My Favorite Bathtime Gurgles when
his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save life and
civilization, leaped straight up through his neck and throttled his
brain.
Without further ado:
The Stone of Sisyphus
Forcing it will get you no where
Like hurling flesh headlong into the concrete
No matter how hard you mash, you still won't pass through
walls
Red meat, guts everywhere
Everytime you stick things back in
blood gushes, entrails spill
The mindless savagery of animals tearing at my heart
enraged by the scent of blood
and I am helpless
as they rend and they shred
rip my belly wide open
Give it enough time, even heart-crushing pain becomes part of the
background
Like the blue sunlit sky and the dizzy red of mind-numbing
agony
I reel
I have long given up on asking for mercy
whether there is a dead or merely deranged God
blood seeps from the corners of my mouth
the taste of cold iron (the end of all fairy tales)
I am a dying thing
Alone, lying in the desert waste
choking in the dust
burning bright sun
the smell of burnt meat
charred flesh
Stillness
though my soul still wriggles
like a worm pierced by a metal hook
In this hour
before the Judas kiss
the music has faded
and all words fail
I stand stock-still and mute
even language having betrayed me
and everything I have given
still coming up short
missing the mark
there is only the falling
plummeting through empty space
I stopped screaming millenia ago
In the time ahead, I have no choice
but to rise again.
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