Carcinogen Wire

8/14/2019 Carcinogen Wire

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.....DB Fishman..................

POETRY

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Carcinogen WireDB Fishman

Dead Left Hand

Poetry

2009


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DB Fishman was born and raised in Edinburgh and

believes in fnding modern art in regular street

scenes. Now mid-twenties, DB is currently based

in Stirling and still not medically allowed to drink.

All images produced by the author.

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by

Dead Left Hand PressPriesteld Gardens

Edinburgh

EH16 5JN

Copyright DB Fishman 2009

The right of DB Fishman to be identied as the authorof this work has been asserted by him in accordance

with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988

All rights reserved

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

ISBN 983-0-667-55555-1

The publisher acknowledges nancial assistance from

Publishing Scotland

Typeset by Fishman DTP

Printed and bound in Scotland byMcKenzie Print Services, Aberdeen


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Everything

is

True.


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CONTENTS

It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Leith (Lunchtime) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Martyred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Rococo Footsoldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

.: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Scenes rom an Overload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Streetswept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Bus Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Easy Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

In the Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Surrender? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

XXXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Never Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Cosmopolitan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Wait, What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Slagheaps o Jade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Whos a Woman Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Death Car

Solid 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

(Theme rom) Death Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Clean Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Over the Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Exhaust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Over the Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Wraparound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Stirred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Loster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Tagged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Ruptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Day o the Match; Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30v


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One or One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Notes Infection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

25 Songs to Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Inverurie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Cradle o Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Nostra Culpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

G0d

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

The Wash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Like a Fascist, A Slavetrader, A Hypnotist . . . . . . . . . . . 39Peanuts with a Sledgehammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Gods Fingerprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Aterdeath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chinese Lilly Wish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Glimpsed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Installation Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Us >< Anxiety/Cancer/Neurosis >< Civilisation . . . . . . 47

Cycles & Seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

American Golgotha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Murk Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Dying o the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Carousel Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

THE NEWS STEPS Down on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Optimism o Rubble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Topple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Red Spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

The Passing o One More Chance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

vi


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Figure

A manStandsOn the tarmacIn the sunOAn early summerNoontime

His hands droppedBy his sideHis mouth closed

Will he starto walk? o run?Will he sit downBreatheClosing his eyes?

Will he lieIn the path orac?Will he detonateIn explosion?Melt across the curveO the road like butter?

Will he simply ade away

In the heat haze?Trow a rock andSmash something?Begin screamingUncontrollably?

Will he quietlyDrop his eyes andInternally

Collapse?Will he stripNaked and eel the heatO starwarmed constructsOn his skin?

Will he look aroundHimsel?

Hammer sts on hisTighs; esh-on-esh?Will he tryo see what (ianything) isIn the sky?

Will he speak?ShoutOut?

Will he smile?

Tis man is you.Carry on.

DB Fishman

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Streetswept

The Pidgeonslook

like

Crawling& Petried

Hearts

Cut Outwith nervous

Heads.

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In the Forest

The tree trunks cut

Thick and ragged

Endless parallel wakes

Up through the grey

Like inky vapour-trails poured

Over dirty waterBranches bleeding across like

Cracks in the ice

Surrender?

Tatters of polythene carrier

Bag hang from twisted prongsOf the tv aerial of aSuburban home likeA ragged white agThat no one notices becauseNobodys looking for it.

The notion of resitance wasNever even considered.

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DB Fishman


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Cosmopolitan

Are you marriedyet? Pregnant?Do you think youre

hot? Here,smell thisChemical ragrance- Its nice.

My Sexual Dysunction;Wol whistles: Do theymake you Angry ormake your day?; Howto make a Relationshiplast; How longHe should last; TeVibrator Revolution:

Teres no maleequivalentAre you married

yet? Pregnant?Do you think youre

hot? Here,smell thisChemical ragrance

- its nice.

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Carcinogen Wire


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stirred

The contained

tumult of the body

of a river

under rain

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DB Fishman


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Loster

He long hair blow out, carrycrate beer through crossroads trafc

He smoke fag to lter, sat in doorwayHe stare cheap LED phone covers through

shut shop pulled shutterHe kick chip wrappers apart leaving barHe out on the main street midday

hands pocketsHe shaven head greying over

crumbs of empty table.

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Tagged

Cocks for democracy!Cocks for equality!Paste up your likeness onA phonebox in NiddrieAnd in Tipp-ExMarker or scratchesYour genitals will appearShowing its known thatIn the heart of your LAApartment, at the front ofA multimillion dollar campaignUnderneath everything, you are stillA human being like

everyone elseAnd if you were ever to come

Around hereThey could prove it.

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DB Fishman


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25SongstoWrite

PretendedMoney

WhosDead

SuperLittleCompromise

MutinousPhysiology

ReagansKetchup

Pussyboy

LoveNotes

WorkHorse/WarHo

rse

LearnbyDoing

S/he

ExitStrategy

IswimC

olours

BrokenGrandfathers

PissingDreams

Intothe

Dawn

ProstheticHead

BadSex

DeathofaMiddle-Aged

WhiteMan

SponsoredPrayer

FakeBlackMen

TryingHardTo

Feel

StatuestoDust

NaziFear

Mask-Tape

Toothrattler

WrongPeople

FurthestPointO

ut

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Cycles & Seasons

ROOM 1 DesiccationRoom 2 Nothing much.room 3 ading ast / Scratching back

sparks like cutsROOM 4 bloodre EXPLOSION!!

Stabbed and SavageRoom 5: 1969Falling space

Room 6: .MAHEMONOLIHIC MAUSOLEUM.room 7 ormless enunciationdrowning; lling

everything; no words..

[Room9]- Storm a-Come DownBlow it all of/ Away

orrential

Room 10. Te Incredible Roar o the WashMonets Waterlillies brought us here.

Incredible.Room 11 owering vast warmth

orce and arcVicious Hard Blooms.

Te bright blossoming o the residueConcrete wordlessness o absence.

Room welve Arterial Spray & Innite LoopingRED so Bright

Tey Hurt my eyes

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DB Fishman


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Dying of the Year

Wire

Warmth

Soft

Knock

Colour

Hard

Stone

Snow

Thin

Aching

Nothing

not

in

hot

on

of

frozen

still

starts

Light

rock

for

Wood

Cold

Close

Thaw

BreathPricks

Wood

Falling

reaches

Whisper

Miles

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Carousel Horses

Carousel horseswith wide-eyed abandonin wild amboyant lustreend up going NowhereBut slowly succumb to rustand the longer you watchthe more those eyes have a look

o terror.

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DB Fishman


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Topple

2993. Manhattan191. Madrid88. London

52. Bali

15 Klebold,Harris

32 - Cho46 - Whitman

1800 Katrina10000 Sichuan30000 Nargis

73000 Kashmir100sx1000s 26/12/04

Hurricane sunami Cyclone ornado EarthquakeWild Fire Forest Fire Bush Fire Drought Flood

Hacking coughCracking the egg

WarWarWarWar

Run rom yr clawed thrones

or the mountain tops

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Red Spot

A rosePetal in the bankO dead and allen

Leaves; a anO muscle wallRaw, red andOpen.

Tese dark men are standing on the borderO the burning ribbon o horizon

Lone young men armed to teethwith purchased repower

Stood at the edge o

the alling away

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DB Fishman


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Urban violence, isolation, anxiety and metropolitan dereliction:

Carcinogen Wireviews our surroundings with a modern eye. Whatis gender, class, faith or nature in the 21st century? All of this isbrought against the power of music, the raw energy of art and a hard-won love in Edinburgh poet DB Fishmans eclectic debut collection.

5 99All images created by the author

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