The television is a cardboard box of nightmares
dreaming loudly, and in three dimensions.
It screams its colours into our heads,
puts our own thoughts in suspension.
The telephone is a plastic bone
for human dogs to chew -
it rings at too high a pitch
to make sense to you.
Cars are metal ghosts,
possessed by poltergeists,
their phantom electric circuits humming
and brimming with unnatural life.
Craig Raine was a Martian,
his eyes frozen ochre rock
that freakish birds with massive wings
would idly perch atop.
Humans are sacks of cells
loosely held as one,
moving in terrifying patterns
(chemical reaction + chemical reaction = love).
If it helps, the television in the 50s used to be called an idiot's lantern. Could probably alter that first line to reflect that.
ReplyDeleteOh, cheers Tom. Nah, I'm not looking for oneupmanship - just emotional truth! (But 'idiot's lantern' has a nice ring to it, lol.) :P I'd like to expand it, though. Have you read A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine? It's kinda awesome, but it only goes so far in defamiliarising reality.
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