Dulce et Decorum etc was written by New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird.
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The poem was inspired by the spirit of the Kate Sylvester ‘Exploding Woman’ collection and we think it is completely glorious.

 

Dulce et Decorum etc

 

I can never have just one of anything

Prizes, sunsets, salted peanuts

Orgasms, ice-cubes, cowboy hats

Crocodile keychains, glasses of champagne.

I sit like a crackpot in my bunker

Stockpiling beauty for the end of the world

Well top me up sweetheart

Who cares if I’m drunk!

And aren’t two moons better than one?

 

I can never have just one of anything

Epiphanies, Agonies, Enemies, Love

Even death in it’s singularity seems miserly

On a day like today, pink & white blossoms ravaging the footpath

Like God were a dog got into the tampon bin

O someone call the make a wish foundation I’m dying

My heart like a Cadillac with the roof down

And the sky flashing past

 

I can never have one of anything

Without wanting everything.

If attachment is the root of all suffering – so what?

I’m attached to my suffering too

Not to mention everyone else's

I run through the graveyard on my way to work

Flipping off headstones

Those great aristocrats of death

Hoarding oblivion