Issue 10: June 2007.
About Us.
Archives.
Submission Guidelines.
Fringe Benefits.
Poetry.
Home > Issue 10: June 2007 > Poetry
3 poems by Jon Stone
Lower Goat Lane
OK. Two grannies sitting in the Copper Kettle
sharing a rolly the size of a cheroot,
locked in something that could be dispute.
One leans forward, says, “Ee, you know, Petal,
this is just the demo version. In the full game,
you get one hundred fat, finger-blistering weapons
—enough firepower to level the heavens—
over ten massive stages, plus tag and team
deathmatch options. And the men! The men
are more hulking than heavy goods vehicles. They’re
angular and shady—prone to going loco.
They're ugly as sin but their A.I. is next gen.
Everything is guaranteed to thrill the player!”
And the other one says, “I should bloody well hope so.”
Psylocke
Panther in boots on the castle wall, and
legs like the moon's if the moon had legs,
Psylocke lies among shards of light,
a magic eye, misplaced in a twitch
of ocular muscle
Limber on her stony branch, she breathes
into the pool beneath
where guardsmen move like fish
under shadows like shadows
of lilies
The rattle of crickets
smothers her moth-drop
The ravenous psi-knife, thought
into her fist's cutting tooth,
sinks between skull plates
On Mrs. Peel
in response to Miss Irving’s Mrs. Peel
It’s everything you say and more.
It’s the way she yields to capture
like she's doing it as a favour,
or graciously giving Steed
a chance to kick some tailgate.
It’s her name—the mm of Emma
followed by the p of pert,
the double e of sweet, and the ull
of lull, kill, sully, feel.
Peel,
as in
the skin of a pear
removed in one piece by her tongue
as in
Hell’s bells in a monochrome smock
as in
taking off her clothes in long, sweet licks
before a steaming tin bath
as in
she can step out of those ropes
anytime she likes.
It’s the way
Gale and King look like
her twin shadows in a studio.
It’s the way Purdey
can black the eyes of gangsters
in her loose pyjamas, battling
to keep the bottoms from slipping,
or use her whipped-off bra
as a double-barrelled slingshot,
and still not come close.
All content © Copyright 2006-2007 Fringe Magazine, Inc. or respective authors