switching the dolphin.

dada
is rising early to reap
another sunrise, to rebuild
beneath a low ceiling a fresh head of steam
to repaint thickly the thin morning air and
to switch the dolphin from standard
to economy.

But did you also know that although dolphins
do fondle sandpits, covertly pull fish
and impishly clamp sailors in huge drips,
no dolphin, at least
not any dolphin that I know, and I do know
one or two, has ever agreed to take The Priest Test.
Apparently, they would rather campaign for the banning
of all types of aggressive campanology, harvest wire,
or spend their long and sunny afternoons
looking through their itchy microscopes
at the oceans shiny dust,

which they then, and for no apparent reason,
slightly smudge into kinks, into discrete
winks and nudges
for all of the naked and shipwrecked fundamentalist
female judges.

The Graffiti.

Grace
changing her name to Gavin
slowly deleted his graffiti. The authorities crudely
had criticised his grammar as grandiloquent.
Didn't they understand the etymological significance
of such a word as SINGE or FRIZZLE
orFRAPp, with a small pee.

A long section of red, spelling out the one word GRAPPLE
would be the last to go. But then
as he attempted to scrub out a difficult dark green
that had seeped into the concrete between the bricks,
he suddenly, and for no apparent reason
remembered his grandmothers great gramophone,
her grand piano in the hall, and her lack
of gratitude.

Apples, according to his last graph,
was the fruit he had taken the most, followed
by grapefruit and then plums. The grapes
he had earlier scratched from his list,
as the wooden nurse with the threatening spoon
that stood by the toilet door
was always complaining about the pips. Maybe

after this
he'd go back to drawing girls in graphite
get a grant,
and resume his studies in graphology. Gemma initially,
had been impressed, but then had got upset
over his suggestion
that she seemed to be harbouring towards him
various kinds of murderous intentions.
Perhaps
he could have put that better. Maybe
describing her instead
as competitive.
She could certainly beat him uphill on any bike
and he still carried the bruises from their last
demonstration of Kazokie at the Bank. In fact,

now that he thought about it
he still hadn't retrieved their hand-made
embroidered banner...
ALL EXPERIENCES ARE EXQUISITE...
from the garage of Mister Brown.

and mary
in her corner
perched before her usual
reading out aloud
from her watch tower
bits of plane crash train crash
parts of tidal wave flag wave
imminent meteorite disaster
telling
to terry
how she once did hands
in a dish advert
how she nearly once did feet
in a shoe show
how once
upon a country road
was in surprising touchspeak
with the aliens
within amazing wingspan
of the angels
then
can you tell me, she asks,
through the thick, how far forty mile is,
mick,
and if not that, pat,
then what kind of fruit you get
from the coconut mat