I don’t mean to sound like a priest
\nbut casual espousals of the occult<\/p>\n
aren’t cool. Someone will bring a Ouija board,
\nsomeone will deem it vintage<\/p>\n
to evoke a minor demon and giggle
\nas it whispers to them of tube crashes<\/p>\n
replaceable presidents
\nand which of the cafe’s millionaires<\/p>\n
slices has adeno-cell cancer. from the ceiling at the V&A, like Lars von Triers and the ghosts which were her warnings and sound like a na\u00c3\u00afve person.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pret a Manger<\/strong><\/p>\n And if the world ended now, <\/p>\n Self-Conscious Sestina<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMorning, sexy,” said God And if you’ve heard God whimpering God wondered whether the soul God was asked once on TV impression. People don’t like to hear a robot It’s sad when you realise the bathroom mirror Whimpering, I read my poem to God <\/p>\n aren’t cool. Someone will bring a Ouija board, to evoke a minor demon and giggle replaceable presidents slices has adeno-cell cancer…<\/p>\n By Matt Shoard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nYou sound naive<\/em>, she shouts<\/p>\n
\nher arms whirling like leaves,<\/p>\n
\nin Scrooge’s window,<\/p>\n
\nas much as mine. You look <\/p>\n
\nwhat would they find? Laptops, one ham
\nwrap, a strand or two of pinkish hair,
\nbeams and speakers, centuries leaning
\nrampant on each other with dark brown thoughts.
\nAnd none of this would have found its dust
\nwithout you and me, our teacups
\ncondensing sunlight, our newspapers
\ncocked, our handprints roadmaps back
\nto our trusting bones; half-seconds
\nstraddling that ending with a kind of arrogance.
\nRemember there was a monk? Remember
\nthere was a monk that used to come?<\/p>\n
\none morning in the bathroom mirror.
\n\u201cYou’re a beautiful soul,
\nwould you like to watch television? Robot
\nWars<\/em> is on.” But then the thought of TV
\nstarted him self-consciously whimpering.<\/p>\n
\nlike the movement of time itself, God
\nit makes you want to break a TV
\nfor bad luck, select a piece of the mirrored
\nglass and self-harm. He sounds like a robot
\nwould sound if they gave it a soul.<\/p>\n
\ncould leave the body by whimpering.
\nHe made a voice like a robot
\nwith a bad German accent. \u201cHallo my namen iss God.
\nWhat iss your oh-pin-yon Mister Mirror?”
\nBabestation whispered on the TV.<\/p>\n
\nwhat he thought about the erosion of the soul
\nbut he was too busy trying to mirror
\nthe body language of his interviewer. Whimpering
\nin the audience did little to distract God
\nand he proceeded to do his funny robot<\/p>\n
\nthat sounds like God, especially on TV,
\nbut every time this occurs to God
\nit’s already too late. He’ll be in the bath whispering Soul
\nMan<\/em> by Sam & Dave or whimpering
\nself-consciously in the bathroom mirror. <\/p>\n
\nis your only friend. \u201cZee verld off zee robot
\nvill begin not viz a bangs but a vimpering.”
\nGod watched himself on TV
\nplaying his part in the corrosion of the soul.
\nHe could hear shouting outside: \u201cWHAT! NEXT! GOD!”<\/p>\n
\nlive on TV. I said \u201csestinas are for robots.”
\nHe prayed for my soul in his dressing-room mirror. <\/p>\n![\"matt\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/matt.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/strong>
\nMatt Shoard<\/strong><\/a> won the Poetry Society’s Young Poet of the Year Award and a Frogmore Press Short Shorts Fiction Prize. He edits Fleeting Magazine<\/a> and writes about books<\/a> and culture for The Guardian. He is currently teaching creative writing<\/a>, working on a PhD and writing his first novel The Sibilant<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"matt\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/matt-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>I don’t mean to sound like a priest
\nbut casual espousals of the occult<\/p>\n
\nsomeone will deem it vintage<\/p>\n
\nas it whispers to them of tube crashes<\/p>\n
\nand which of the cafe’s millionaires<\/p>\n