prizes the poetics of a double tongue
that speaks against itself & is untrue
head-lice & fleas, poverty & baldness
cross-coupled fox & hound, apples & pears
praises the poodle & the labrador
PR smiles & HR platitudes
Inherits the debts of bankrupt bankers
the wheezing breaths of redundant miners
speaks of itself & its own perfection
folds over on itself inverted in
insouciant re-presentation
such different duplication
anticipates its own undoing
spending again what is already spent
Robert Hampson
Illustration: Claire Palmer
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