As Is What Was is a collection of poems created with no thought at all. None. There is no control over grammar, sound, rhythm, idea, or anything really. Why? I thought it would be fun. Is it insane? Absolutely.

 

Guts to dance on ice

and not crack up

the hairline is a million to one

if you know the right place to step down

Of all the folklore they fed you in the halls

And beneath the fused chandeliers

this was the one you settled on

 

Freaks don’t mix because they’re freakish

But because they’re free

Didn’t the fables tell you that?

Was that not the moral and the morale of each chapter

Or did you turn it into a set of rules?

 

Bogarts and hairy fairies don’t dwell on mushrooms

And in forests past a rainbow made from a waterfall

On the sixth of June every twenty years

This isn’t some foul abomination

It’s right under your nose

Sniff it

 

Help the elder tales into the next century

That may just be your legaly

But some stories die and get reworked and that’s how you get mythology

Others are just brushed up for the textbooks

Truth isn’t as absolute asit seemed to be

Black and white doesn’t have that clear cut line any more

The way you thought it was

But hurrah to the last defenders, the torch bearers and the warriors

This is the final frontier is it not?

 

It isn’t

Nobody’s on the other side and you’ve been duped

The castle’s been stormed

And all you can think of is redwood and the abbey

Martin’s not here nor is Luke

The honey roasted chestnuts aren’t as sweet as they are in the books

No it weren’t a lie

 

You just thought in absolutes

God is or is not

He isn’t but it doesn’t really fucking matter

The issue is your institution but you’re too proud

If the church burns or the mosque burns or the temple crumbles

That doesn’t mean God’s gone with it

But you’re dumb enough to believe he’s in the walls

Or he is the walls

And if he is what you say he is then boy he’s given shelter to

Some disgusting things

 

Absolutes don’t exist any more and I’m afraid even the most liberal of us

Are under this sway and in an equally menacing manner

You’ve got the art of confrontation all wrong

It’s more blended than you realise

This isn’t dodgeball it’s more guerrilla

Except it isn’t

 

How do I put this?

You know the phrase – the grass is always greener on the –

Yeah

The grass is always greener if you water it

There’s no fucking side

And it depends on what’s lit and what’s not

 

These systems you worship or demonize

You can’t just take one down or let one be

It’s a bloody cobweb

Whatever catches fire catches fire

Whatever happens happens

You’ll get bit too and so will the safest of your spaces

There’s no helping that

And that’s the untangling there can exist