Horrors of the modern

All the horrors of the modern were
there in one big building

5.15 pm New Bar Schwabing
and you can now be

alone with a txt
but not with a thought

as another one comes up
and takes the seat beside you

It recollects some other place
and a question takes you indoors

There’s a rack of magazines
colours of consumption

a row of television screens
attracting the eye

and a semi-circle of five
t-shirted people

with tall glasses of amber beer
that stand like sentinels

Eyes drink images of football on TV
admiring exertions of men

Others prefer waitresses’ hips
or following their eyes among

the shifting legions who need
this stimulation

All the horrors of the moderns
stood in silent rows like truth

or dead on the walls
like beauty

Grant Duncan, Munich 25.06.04

Lab rats

We were conceived in the mind
of another being
and permitted to be
for the benefit of his kind

We were born in this prison
with no purpose but to serve
in the Great Hall of his knowledge
And when that curiosity is sated

we may be sacrificed
displaying our innards
or be rendered and burned
depending on his will

In our cells
our muted mouths
recall no sins
our eyes are wide and blank


Grant Duncan 15.10.04