Uricon, and on...
[home] [classic] [simon poetry] [simon prose] [pat] [history] [groups/links\competitions]

The Tunnel
from Creation Myth [#25]

This perpetual cylinder
whose jagged massive teeth
hook twice-splintered legs
paltry specimens
pluck-puckered and warm

rolls slowly for collaboration
up, over
gone in a trice.

And more, still more
skinny bodies conveyed
in flattened fashion
perspective reveals
an infinite distance;
The spitting hatch is but ten feet away.

Chicken armageddon.
I, in my stripy coveralls
small part to play
in this Belsen revival.

You though
efficient and dexterous
sloughing brown stains
each body a culture
a friend after friend.
This is creation.

Hushed tones - reverent:
The Tunnel beckons -
The roar undeafened
by a porthole door.

And my friend recounts
the wheelie-bins full of chicken heads
the occasional cheeky wink
slurried by the churn of steel.

I sat that night, stunned
enough to pick the meat
from my chicken legs
unstained as yet.

- Simon Huggins, 9th September 2002