.................................
Net nationality
.................................

When I was young
my eyes sucked the stars and stripes
out of the glass teat
and now that I am plugged in.

I have come home.

It really does not matter where I am
the body I inhibit is but a thing
in the internet you can call me
a virtual American.

 
.................................
Fooling the ant
.................................

My one kilo and something
weighing brain
concentrated today
on something little
very little.

Ants.

While waiting for the other boys
to get their paintball guns working
I saw an ant on the ground
holding another one
taking it somewhere
for a reason unknown.

I tried to grab them both
on a stick
but the other one fell deep
into the moss
and I could no longer find it.

So I was left with one
climbing up the stick
and when it got to the top,
it stopped
and began waving its tendrils
like a blind man's hands
and my superior brain
could predict
that it would jump
unless
I would turn the stick.

So I ended up
turning the stick
up and down
watching it
walking up its
barkless surface
somehow holding
to that smooth-looking surface
and I remembered
that scientists
had just taken the first pictures
of a mosquito's knee
using the most powerful x ray machine.

They were fascinated by its
functionality,
because it had all the same stuff
that we have
in our kneecaps.

They had prolly presumed
that a leg so small
would just flex,
like the elastic limbs of the elastic man
from the fantastic four.

And as I watched the eyes of the ant I thought what surprises does that tiny
brain hold,
can its size
fool us,
like David fooled Goljat.

 
.................................
Silly fishes get your gills ripped
.................................

The night is full of hooks
hanging in the darkness,
offering painful trips to heaven.

 
.................................
Baby astronaut
.................................

Space is a place in your stomach
where a baby astronaut lingers weightless
with an oxygen tube connected to its belly.

Safe for eight months
until it comes time
to break the illusion and come out with the water.

 
.................................
Nadja
.................................

She is the personification of bureaucracy
with little tits and a cold commanding voice

 
.................................
Someone died on my route today
(about a bicycling accident)
.................................

Someone died on my route today.
at the roadside there was a body of man in excellent shape
now all those muscles are useless.

Everybody thought it was me,
my father went to see
under the blanket
he was surprised.

My mother was so relieved...

He was dragged five hundred meters
there were no tire marks
the one who killed him escaped.

I've been to a hospital once
I've had my share of wounds
but to die for the sake of tightly muscled body?

Should I stop?

Should I change the way I think.

Start smoking
start eating
start drinking
start writing for real
move to California
dedicate the rest of my short life
for the only thing
I could dedicate my life without a bad taste in my mouth.

Art.

To have that one word on my gravestone
here lies
ARTIST
that left something behind
not
here lies
a crazy dude with big muscles
rotting like some beast on the roadside...

 
.................................
Wounded angels
.................................

Are wounded angels
angels anymore?

Fallen down from the sky
dragging their dirty and wet wings
at the roadside.

Can a sad angel commit a suicide?

Step on the road
in front of
an eighteen wheel truck.

Will the holy remains
be left in the gutter
just like those of pigeons?

.................................
Antti Luode
.................................

 
Copyright © Antti Luode
October 1999

...several poems in this room by Helen Walne...
candy
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