Four Poems by Aaron Saint John
Trying to sell a Nespresso machine
"And this one, I think, is really nice
(though it is just a little bit dearer)-"
she said, as if it were an accident
that the one she thought the nicer
was also more expensive,
and she pointed at the thing
which was lonely and bright
and resembled the engine
of a fancy old aeroplane
in which some waxed Italian ace
would finish his cigarette and toss it away
and go winging off over the sunset
down the white Dalmatian coast.
Sheffield, December 2020
On Wood Sticks
God loves you in the evening, when
the stars are coming out; God loves you
in the morning, when you’re frying eggs.
God loves you in the hyacinth, God loves you
in the grass, God loves you in the summer and
the nuclear winter. God loves you on the
mountaintop, God loves you on the moon,
God loves you when you kill and steal,
God loves you when you scream.
God loves you like he loves the crunch
of broken glass; He loves you like he loves
the taste of petrol. God loves you for
your pearls and the transparency
of your bedroom windows.
God loves you like the rock
that killed the lizards. He loves you like
a magazine, He loves you like a snake,
He loves you like a thin red river.
God loves you loves you yes He loves you
thinks of you all day He wants to wrap
His spine around your neck your
lovely little neck and pull it off.
Sheffield, June 2020
Their Own Plastic Genius
Gentles we are facing a Situation –
there is a Situation out there beyond those doors
and by God you better believe it –
there is a Situation out there with gnashing teeth
and dripping jaws and Jesus –
you’d better call your mother, tell her
about the Situation –
the Situation is big, offensively big –
the Situation is dark and imposing –
the Situation is a cloud of collective amnesia
connected to quacks on the Moon –
the Situation is satellite vision, is trouble
and capital strife –
once there was no Situation and
now here it is, we are all
terribly horribly Situated out of our souls –
the Situation is here for a lifetime –
the Situation is here for the sun –
the Situation is here to extinguish
a peace of the mind –
no one can reason with the Situation, not even
the doctors can help – the Situation is beyond all possible hope
of prevention –
there is no alternative to the Situation,
no refuge wherever this Earth –
the Situation is negative –
the Situation is not –
the Situation it must be addressed –
everybody call their mother,
tell her all about the Situation.
Sheffield, January 2021
Seattle 1951
In your deep blue jumper
and goldfinch dress
you smile at the camera,
squinting a little, extending
a look from inside a gone world of colours –
& next to you, a couple,
your parents, perhaps,
dressed in old people’s clothes:
her white cardigan unfastened
over pale silk dress, his
navy suit jacket, grey trousers –
he doesn’t look at the camera,
looks off at the impossible instead –
behind you a circus of signage announces
a series of names:
“TEN TALL MEN”
“WOMAN THEY ALMOST LYNCHED”
“BURT LANCASTER”
“GILBERT ROLAND”
& these names all smell like popcorn
hot with butter, in front of them
you share your mother’s smile –
your smile is beautiful, so is your dress,
they remind me of another old picture:
a man in thick rubber suit & glass helmet
scooping goldfinch yellow uranium
out of a bucket –
he’s smiling too, only he isn’t showing his teeth.
Sheffield, February 2021
Howie Good
Aaron Saint John (22) is an emerging writer based in Sheffield, UK. He has had poetry and short fiction published in both English and German, and since January 2018, has been a co-founder and marketing director of Only Lucky Dogs Theatre. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to records, lighting fires, and making pizza.
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