The Lounging Lizard Poet of the Floating World: poems / antipoems

New Zealand literature has no one like Keith Hill. Always surprising a genuine original. - Roger HorrocksTHE MODERN DILEMMAHaving spent a lifetime of Western privilegedoing the limbo while jumping over my kneesI feel it is my right now to proclaimI consider myself short-changed.During hours spent stopped in rush hour queuesI have meticulously catalogued the disparitiesbetween what people heap on their teaspoonsand the unnamed ghouls that slink past their windows at night.I will try to keep it short.But there is no way to make it pretty.I begin by stating the obvious.Everyone is so distracted by abstract nouns-democracy religion economics freedombiology sexuality orientation identitystatus fashion novelty literature-they dont notice what is really going on.I refer to the modern processby which the machinery of civilisationinserts a straw into the brainextracts the juicesthen pounds what is left to forman attitude a person a career a place in jail.How do you stop the juice being extracted from your brain?Some consider such questions a category error arguing being overwhelmed with doubt has for too long been misconstrued as evidence human beings possess a soul.Others petition the ancient prophets God who wrote all his bestsellers millennia agoand has long since succumbed to writers block.This has left modern humanity perplexed.We are each now a troubled mind staring outthrough the sockets in our endoskeletoneyes roaming like searchlights across the bumps and crevices of the world.Only the undaunted few dare look down toobserve their toes hanging over the ledge below which yawns the precipice that separates life from death.This is not a sight for beginners.