Ones And Zeros Of An Endless Monday
I’m having a crisis meeting
at The Ivy
with the Marketing Aficionados
you recommended
bending an iron bar until
everyone stops clapping
pull serious faces
say they’re gonna open me up
see if there’s anything
impactful to revamp
by the afternoon
all anyone can think to do
is drop vowels from my name –
sorry, but is there a plan
that involves me
feeling
I don’t care if it hurts – the Life
Coach wearing a T-shirt saying
Postmodern Badboy
wheels in an iron-maiden – I rise
from my chair
Googling alternative torture
devices – one search
image, is a man dressed like Jesus
going down a blue plastic slide
at a splash park on his summer holidays
another, a family portrait
put through the Reface app
which means each member is me
now they all know what I know
about myself
Aficionados are holding me
down as Life Coach prizes
the phone from my hands
gestures towards the maiden
inside, i run
my finger along its spikes
my mouth wide for its dark
lift my fat pink tongue
which you lay under like a pill
Lou Hill is a London-based musician and poet. His most recent spoken-word record Dogends, released earlier this year, has been played on BBC Radio 3’s The Late Junction, on BBC Radio 6 for Tom Robinson’s BBC Introducing Mixtape, and on BBC Radio London. He is currently writing towards his debut pamphlet.