I

 

[I]

 

I, the undersigned, being of sound mind

admit to repeats, infrequent defeats

indiscreet yearnings, natural burnings

crazy ambitions, dumb inhibitions;

recall motley nights, some singular plights

those dodgy neighbours, the extra labour

idiocies a score, faux pas more and more

payments outstanding, my own moon landing;

deny wrongdoing, at least what’s ensuing;

accept every wonder, the blessed thunder

a rain gauge of tears, the drain of the years;

bequeath all these words, whatever’s preferred

to your passing eyes, good-humoured and wise

my name writ at last, as I join the cast.

I

 That skyline of I’s keeps veined population industriously in line. Hi vertical I after vertical I, workplaces squared-off towering glass. I robot at every desk, their IQs never in question. Password all my I and Betty Martin, I in caps. Email grammar check underlines in scarlet ‘Between you and I’. All time stops, a lunch pebble lodged under the I-key. Either side of the I’s, vehicles transport their egos home. I after I avoids collision, separates the up from down. I don’t know how Poirot does it, I really don’t. Though I in dreams dissolves some say, dream’s all [I].

 

     That skyline of I’s keeps veined population

        industriously In line. Hi vertical

                                   I after

                   vertical I, workplaces squared-off

     towering glass. I robot at every desk,

                         their IQs never

                                   In question. Password

                      all my I and Betty Martin,

                                   I

                                   In caps. Email grammar check

             underlines In scarlet ‘Between you

                           and I’. All time stops, a lunch pebble   lodged   under the I-key.  Either side of

                             the I’s, vehicles transport

   their egos home. I

                          after I avoids collision, separates the

     up   from down. I don’t know how Poirot

                          does It,

                                    I really don’t.

                    Though I

                                    In dreams dissolves some say,

              dream’s all I.

I (May)

Dear National Security Agency, good morning! Have you ever noticed how lonely I is? Lonely as O, more so as O is a zero. Squillions of them, showing up just how human are humans. Line up those near infinite permutations of I and O and you could almost finalise an I. Our individual politics, religion, work, play, friends, frenemies. It must get lonely, National Security Agency, your sly drool at the slide rule of the selected I. Wednesday turns to Thursday, May to June, the week’s almost over, and the year, yet your investigation of everyone’s sincerity never ends. Sincerely… 

I (February)

I is for Icon as when, in appeal to the self’s ranging selfishness, something’s iconic. The Fairfield paper mills have been demolished and are now surrounded by hoardings: “Iconic residences coming soon.” Can something be iconic that hasn’t been made? They haven’t even laid the infrastructure. Theologians say the universe is an icon of that which (or who, being human) made it. But the universe is a given, not a promise. J is for Job, for example making an icon. This may start some February and never be completed. It’s the I in unpossessive relationship to the I of divinity.

I (September)

Buddha lives with ego. Marcus Aurelius embodies ego. Venerable Bede forgets ego. Saint Teresa directs ego. William Shakespeare imagines ego. Voltaire secretly worships ego. Napoleon Bonaparte nationalises ego. Queen Victoria decrees ego. Sigmund Freud monitors ego. James Joyce satirises ego. Joseph Stalin dictates ego. Spike Milligan cartoonizes ego. Iggy Pop sings ego. Dae-Ho Lee thumps ego. Hanako Ono breathes ego. Victoria Beaumont translates ego. Pedro Garcia drinks ego. Nathalie Masson laughs ego. Anya Vladimirovna subsumes ego. September Smith wrestles ego. Indrajit Pandit beams ego. Henry Appleton re-examines ego. Abdul Wahid inspects ego. Vincent Nguyen survives ego. Helen Jones phones ego.  

I

                    accumulated attention

balanced body

                consistent contradictions

                          dependent dreamer

   everywhere eyes

                          familial face

                          growing guesswork

                    heedful hands

                          independent insider

         jeopardising job

   know-nothing know-it-all

                       living load

        memory maze

                          noteworthy neurology

        occupational optimist

            part-time pessimist

                                quaint questioner

        random receiver

                        sleeping suggestion

                 trauma timer

 uneven understandings

           vernacular vagabond

                   wideawake whenever

               excellent existence

   yarning yokel

                         zooming zig-zagger