: Jeffrey Side :

Extracts from Carrier of the Seed

You made Pandora visit me
from her disruptions across
the sea her mane was
stretched like Cyprus flow
and her mind was as smooth
as causation at a time I had
reached my most content you
pointed her up and to me you
sent like when I passed
quickly through the sheep
pool clustered together there
at the edge of a clearing the
struggle for mating territory
accident and necessity but at
base level this just comes
down to quality asset
concepts recommended for
global incremental alignment
nonetheless you were loved
attracted by cries of the
tormented with the stick
which she uses for leather no
less than poverty expressive
of self doubt held in a head-
lock laughing whose mother
emerges as I sometimes do
myself known for contending
scandal in the libraries
exposed on sale insist we
tolerate anthropology in the
island fashion much of our
lives women and children
with equal truth that burns
produce syndrome which
accelerates metabolism and
the midnight blue of zenith
impersonal and personal
made clear by the notices and
the poster exploitative and
acute against various
defences we might keep the
altitude in view by the stream
near Vancouver …

I wanted to put things right
down to the letter while he
was just a child and she
called him to her bedside and
said I’m dying I’m poorer
than your parents and I’ve
nothing much to leave
sometimes I think we have
no choice I wanted to be real
not plastic as once I loved a
bonny lass safe from all the
sleet that had accumulated on
frigid England’s sterile
streets while somewhere in
the light an artist drew you
near trees that will never start
and cooperation was not
forthcoming so that it shall
not be confused with itself
come on baby do your stuff
you know how to serve me
suppose you screeve or go
cheap Jack sometimes it
takes luck even to think
straight they would hold you
in the darkness and kiss you
in the light they would listen
to your story until your stress
was slight then they departed
in the evening when the sun
was turning night and her
pulse did beat for thee I’m
lost and I don’t know why
sarakawi you loved me really
even though you chased after
your lover but could not
catch him I should’ve been
somewhere by now I’ll see
you back on deck …

no reason for your mind to
leave you the clarity of the
native hands are deep within
your bed and the mournful
words that are uttered can
never be unsaid and the ones
who were within you are now
without toiling in different
cities to keep your fortress
stone to break now that
kingdoms come and
kingdoms go and your soul in
Gertrude’s precious chamber
your love they tried and for
the world outside women in
the parlour have remembered
and in the scattered
graveyard the stolen church
bell tolls you through the
mazes that surround you to
America in this life and in
the next from your computer
they hope you travelled to
claim your freedom back
cattle on a fading then you
came home with a letter
written to shattered hearts
your Arctic beams shone
down on the eyes who would
not leave a minstrel revealing
the pure sound of the music
and the blood that must
sustain you pilgrims
suspended between life and
death and the still cold trails
of autumn dawn were shown
to you caught between two
vast shores where the wind
had caught your breath you
were raised above and all that
did remain was taken from
you used to watch the
dancing girls while they were
writhing in their trance with
their chartered bodies in
jeopardy and all the men who
surrounded you had waited
for their chance they were
ghostly then but now they do
not haunt you but those days
are long behind weary
confession but you still retain
your grace and all of this
territory where all the
maidens in the valleys are
trapped within their sleep …


jeffreyside
Extracts from Carrier of the Seed You made Pandora visit me from her disruptions across the sea her mane was stretched like Cyprus flow and her mind was as smooth as causation at a time I had reached my most content you pointed her up and to me you sent like when I passed quickly through the sheep pool clustered together there at the edge of a clearing the struggle for mating territory accident and necessity but at base level this just comes down to quality asset concepts recommended for global incremental alignment nonetheless you were loved attracted by cries of the tormented with the stick which she uses for leather no less than poverty expressive of self doubt held in a head- lock laughing whose mother emerges as I sometimes do myself known for contending scandal in the libraries exposed on sale insist we tolerate anthropology in the island fashion much of our lives women and children with equal truth that burns produce syndrome which accelerates metabolism and the midnight blue of zenith impersonal and personal made clear by the notices and the poster exploitative and acute against various defences we might keep the altitude in view by the stream near Vancouver … I wanted to put things right down to the letter while he was just a child and she called him to her bedside and said I’m dying I’m poorer than your parents and I’ve nothing much to leave sometimes I think we have no choice I wanted to be real not plastic as once I loved a bonny lass safe from all the sleet that had accumulated on frigid England’s sterile streets while somewhere in the light an artist drew you near trees that will never start and cooperation was not forthcoming so that it shall not be confused with itself come on baby do your stuff you know how to serve me suppose you screeve or go cheap Jack sometimes it takes luck even to think straight they would hold you in the darkness and kiss you in the light they would listen to your story until your stress was slight then they departed in the evening when the sun was turning night and her pulse did beat for thee I’m lost and I don’t know why sarakawi you loved me really even though you chased after your lover but could not catch him I should’ve been somewhere by now I’ll see you back on deck … no reason for your mind to leave you the clarity of the native hands are deep within your bed and the mournful words that are uttered can never be unsaid and the ones who were within you are now without toiling in different cities to keep your fortress stone to break now that kingdoms come and kingdoms go and your soul in Gertrude’s precious chamber your love they tried and for the world outside women in the parlour have remembered and in the scattered graveyard the stolen church bell tolls you through the mazes that surround you to America in this life and in the next from your computer they hope you travelled to claim your freedom back cattle on a fading then you came home with a letter written to shattered hearts your Arctic beams shone down on the eyes who would not leave a minstrel revealing the pure sound of the music and the blood that must sustain you pilgrims suspended between life and death and the still cold trails of autumn dawn were shown to you caught between two vast shores where the wind had caught your breath you were raised above and all that did remain was taken from you used to watch the dancing girls while they were writhing in their trance with their chartered bodies in jeopardy and all the men who surrounded you had waited for their chance they were ghostly then but now they do not haunt you but those days are long behind weary confession but you still retain your grace and all of this territory where all the maidens in the valleys are trapped within their sleep …
jeffreyside has had poetry published in various magazines such as Poetry Salzburg Review, and on poetry web sites such as Underground Window, A Little Poetry, Poethia, nthposition, eratio, Ancient Heart, Blazevox, TEXTIMAGEPOEM, APOCRYPHALTEXT, 9th St. Laboratories, P.F.S. Post, Great Works, hutt, ken*again, and CybpherAnthology. He has reviewed poetry for New Hope International, Stride, Acumen, and Shearsman. From 1996 to 2000 he was the assistant editor of The Argotist magazine. He now runs The Argotist Online poetry web site. Find his blog, here.