A major poetic statement of our time.

The Episode.
- Mikhail Poppyseed

Abhor yourself, charred Face.
When I spoke, not one grasped
That the nuclear holocaust
Only cockroaches would survive.

Playing the Violin, with arm outstretched
In lieu of band, a shining steel blade
Blood-music seeps out of the veins
Shove my face into the Microwave
Tomorrow is weary of existence.

The vultures gnaw impatiently
Society–an evil membrane
Semi-permeable at best.

Retaliation is death.
My end will herald
A race of mutant
Cockroaches.

————————–————–

Mikhail Poppyseed is widely considered as one of the most avant garde young poets of the post-modernist movement. Although most literary critics are unanimous in their regard for this poem as a work of stunning profundity and incomprehensibility, they are divided on the issue concerning the sub-movement that this poem rightly belongs to.

Many critics consider this work as primarily a trapezoidist poem. Trapezoidism is a movement that takes into account the overall geometric structure of the poem. For instance, the poem excluding the first four lines has the approximate overall shape of a trapezoid (a trapezoid is a quadrilateral with two parallel and two non-parallel sides). Trapezoidism as a concept encompasses both chaos and order within its principles: non-parallel sides can be considered as symbolic of the notion of chaos and parallel sides as being symbolic of order.

Other critics point out that it is of vital importance to consider the entire structure of the poem: one cannot overlook the first four lines and then go on to label the work as ‘primarily’ trapezoidist.

Electrocardiogramism or E.C.G.ism as it is popularly known takes into account the jagged edges formed by connecting, with line segments, the last letter of the last word of every line. The basic philosophy behind E.C.G.ism can be understood by looking at the monitor of the E.C.G. machine when attached to a human being. The jagged peaks that we see in the output tell us that perturbation is a necessary component of life. Without perturbation, life would not exist–notice how a completely straight line on the monitor indicates a dead person.
From an E.C.G.ist point of view, the first four lines more or less display uniformly jagged peaks, implying that there exists significant perturbation in the poet’s mind at this stage. But after that we notice an almost straight-line recession in the graph showing the height of the peaks, signifying the poet’s life-force ebbing away at an almost linear rate. Thus, the poem is at first positively e.c.g.ist and then becomes negatively-sloped linear e.c.g.ist. Such an assessment fits well with the feel of the poem: it starts off with the censure of a being present in his hallucination but turns quickly suicidal and generally downhill thereon.

Poppyseed died in 2006 after entering voluntarily a lion’s cage in a zoo. It is believed he did so because he felt like combing the lion’s mane.

End.

Volcano

Watch,

As I faze the Night–

Set her black sky alight.

Portentous rumbles,

Then I explode;

Into the sky I blow my load.

Watch,

As I scorch the earth,

And extirpate all that you birth.

With molten avalanche shall I drape,

Neither man nor structure shall escape.

Faces will contort in pain–

Fleeing, petrified or slain.

The seed of miseries that I sow

Will spawn tormented memories.

Pay obeisance to me, take heed,

Awake again I shall indeed.

Humanity shall remain my minion,

Eternity shall be my dominion.

I shall once more seek release

When I crave to be appeased.

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End.