what breaks through

@poet’s corner 18 march 2026

less what breaks through. but more, what i wish i could break through, to other people. this is called

the futile push

i decry the wasted effort
of nationalism
if you look for
a thing that isn’t there
finding it
will take forever
but we keep looking
for sovereignty
as if it could keep us warm
or fill our bellies
when we have for long
lived in an age of empires
we bear the fasces epochal
as the colonial ceasefire breaches
yet more racist murders
sanctioned.
victory is hollow.
temporary.
achievement too
the only things
of meaning
are the gentle process
of making
of caring
of loving

nationalism is an addictive mixture of complacency, historical delusions, perverse grudges, jingoism, racism, fairy tales and holy violence. the struggle of one is the struggle of all people, of all lands. so i now want to offer everyone a positive vision for the future.

the 13th month

the bell chimed,
it’s time
to introduce the thirteenth month
rationalise the calendar
with months of 28 days
plus an extra day,
a global holiday
for all workers
during which the bourgeois financiers
shall man the (beer) pumps
and another one the same each leap year
and the extra month should be a holiday too
slide it in
between july and august
call it hedonia,
for a free summer of bliss

so, i was buzzing for my new society, with its new, quite lazy calendar. i started developing a utopian framework of government. but, ultimately, power corrupts, so i decided i would do my fellow citizens a favour by seizing it all for myself as a sort of sacrificial benevolent dictator, with questionable priorities.

why i support scottish independence but only if i get to be in charge

i long to modernise scotland
to the revue of my imagination
to restrict actors to a single role
depiction in our nation
and making them legally change their name
to the one they portray in fiction
punishable by death
and claiming global jurisdiction
then i will reduce the toothbrushing time
from two minutes to 90 seconds
and thus sanction my cohort
to luxuriate over breakfast
then i will retire to
the camper-van i’ll embezzle
proud of my augmentation of
our cultural endeavour

thank you, remember to vote on the 7th of may

bonus material (all untitled)

how many times
must i scan my tesco club card
at the railway turnstile
before they put me
in a care home
as i fear i may have
already gone over

remember library tickets
little card folders
watch the librarian
slip the ticket
into the folder
file it in the wide drawer
slide it closed
hand me my book
giving me gentle
asmr tingles

i once threw a ball
and simultaneously
caught an identical ball
i chucked the ball
i saw it fly out of my hand
felt it ping my grasp
yet there it still was
within my fingers
for a brief moment
the laws of physics
time, space,
cause and effect
were all up for grabs
i’d sliced into the warp hole
then a saner hypothesis
occurred to me
though i note
it was not proven