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The eight poem from my third collection, A Light Goes On , is “Sum of their Parts”
This poem originally featured in Backward Trajectory, in April 2022-a wonderful word press site full of contemporary global poetry and I am so thankful to them for providing an outlet for my work.
So let’s get to the nuts and bolts of this piece. The opening line establishes place- “The perambulated promenade”. This promenade is from my home town of Bray.
A Victorian era vacation destination (Pictured) that is august in August and the months of Summer and average in April or any other days the Irish Sea and the East wind is over-tired of being polite to passers by.
“Men of my own Chinese animal pass by”-
One day I sat on a “chatting bench”, hoping nobody would-to me- and sat aghast at the number of Men, perhaps born in my own Chinese year sign-the monkey- who looked barely evolved (There is an exodus of the uneducated and those unencumbered by social norms to Bray on Summer’s days), but had produced progeny and were pater-ning them in prams while dressed in uniform patterned sportswear -“pushing again, the womb fruit towards sunlight”.
Note-I believe “womb fruit” came from the compulsory daily “Hail Mary” ,which had to be recited in primary school without fail each morning. Note Note-There was no daily bread in school, but plenty of expensive statues.
This led me into my usual spiral of disbelief and it’s apparent arrogant streak-How is this possible?, the future of the human race is screwed, lower consciousness will inherit the earth, etc etc..
It also led me into the leaden thoughts of my own situation-
“Loneliness has a certain gravity in it “-
a ruminative re-amble through my second collection’s “Orbit in Earth Minor” and it’s reticence of re-entry.
“Equations”, “Solution” and “remainder” –
wrapped up this Sunny Sunday of circular thought and also gave rise to today’s piece’s title -“Sum of their Parts”.
Algo.
My second collection, Unreconciled Doors, is the subject of Season 2 of the Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines podcast-follow it on your favourite podcast provider to listen along.The latest episode has an intriguing title-“I fought the knife and the knife won”.
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 