Greg Thomas, Matthew Hamblin and Lila Matsumoto
Shiny Beast Poems
On the dog/ last three beefheart albums
A bag of dogs, the whole field humming, angry green vortex
What does your body mean diving in a ditch
crows melting around
dust, machines
The curious necessary shiny beast
What does its body mean eating hawthorn, what does your body mean as a function of information
What does it mean as a bowl of ash
or if the horizon converged an inch closer
What does it mean for my body to be surrounded by your hair
eyes the colour of mud
I have seen you being made
What would it mean if there was such a thing as that
A place where colours meet
in the long shiny unnecessary field
fat and humming, close to July.
Greg Thomas
In the lane where they dance
four hoof bobbing red tin clung
big cloth werewolf is a lamp-lit sack
moon bell bull
bell-nosed star
starts
thumbing the purse
scrunching the sash
ha-ha-ha
ha-ha-ha
*
every thin moon zoot horn rollo
stone throw arcing cast in lemon
ask the shiny beast
popped beak
popped beak
few sparks spark through
Matthew Hamblin
sonnet for a third
A drum high up on a telephone pole
gets hit by a wind
back and forth --
Let the merry bugs in the bush
call night closer
I promise to hear them even forty years on
Whaleskin on the beach ruched to sand
An organ peering out from the gaping hole
studded with flies
A human has skin
But an animal has hide
I wish it to be --
It is becoming --
And now from its hands it gives out a sound
Lila Matsumoto
Greg Thomas, Matthew Hamblin and Lila Matsumoto form the band Food People. You can come see us play at the Peter Manson symposium in October, in Glasgow: https://mansonsymposium.com/#programme. Matthew and Lila co-run the poetry and art zine FRONT HORSE (https://fronthorse.wordpress.com/). Greg is preparing a book on concrete poetry.