ALL POWER TO THE ALLOTMENTS
Eder Stubbs Festival, Oxford, Saturday 31st August 1996

humanity is born free
but everywhere is in supermarket chains
buying 14.7 cm long carrots
stripped of dirt, geography, effort, labour
stripped of content, context, joy and flavour

buying 14.7 cm long carrots
stripped of carrothood

No! This Can Not Be So!
This Can Not Be Right
Carrots have rights
essential, self-evident Carrot Rights
to be accepted in their diversity
encouraged in their deviancy
to be eased and shaken from their familiar earth
with inefficient and unprofitable gratitude
to be greeted by eyes that have
followed them from seedling to maturity
to be welcomed by the eyes that will eat them

only thus
only thus will we see the demise
of the 14.7 cm long carrotless carrot
and
carrot by carrot by carrot
shall we pull the synthetic rugs from under
the well-heeled feet of the Super Market Masters

so
More Power to Our Elbows!
& All Power to the Allotments!

power comes from the water barrel
of an allotment shed
power comes from the meeting
of rain and sun and earth
power comes from the blade of a spade
the turning of a fork
the rhythm of a hoe
power comes from the raw materials and means of production
seed, earth, trowel, spade, watering can -
being in the hands of the proud and sweaty producer
in generous, toiling, filthy, happy hands
connected to generous, toiling, supple wrists
connected to generous, weathered forearms
connected to generous, toiling, unsung elbows

Yes! More Power to Our Elbows!
& All Power to the Allotments!
from each according to their agility
to each according to their taste

this land yields food fit for a
not a king not a slave
but fit for a human being

this land levels pretension
this land plays host to the revolutions of the seasons
this land cradles
roots that undermine
this land is shadowed
by the joy of leaf and flower and fruit

this land is an earthly barricade
against the facism
of conformist
uniformist uniformist bourgeois counter-revolutionary
counter-evolutionary petite bourgeois imperialist
materialist xenophobic terraphobic petty petite bourgeois
consumerist illusionist confusionist reactionary
refractionary petty petty petty bourgeois
fascistically lit super market vegetable displays

this land is an earthy barricade
this land is an earthy serenade
this land is an earthy cascade
of root, fruit, shoot, leaf, flower
of pod of sod of
fodder for stomach, heart and soul

Comrades in spades!
Let a hundred courgette flowers bloom!

let allotments roll higgledy piggledy across the land
like a harlequin's haphazard cloak of earthy hues

Comrades in spades
we have nothing to lose
but our neonic, demonic, necrophiliac, necrophobic
supermarket chains!

More Power to Our Elbows!
All Power to the Allotments!

More Power to Our Elbows!
All Power to the Allotments!

Poems in this issue taken from the collection 'enough of that nonsense' by Stephen Hancock.
Published by Pig & Ink Books, 29 Maidcroft Road, Oxford OX4 3EN
poetslog@hotmail.com

syzygy (Julian of Norwich remix)

this being human malarkey is a dizzying thing
a sprialling prayer upon a broken wing
a billion wounded angels spinning on the pin
that pricks the skin of the man who would be king
or the woman who would be
queen bee of

this being human malarkey is a topsy turvy ride
a roller-coasting railroad, a helter-skeltering slide
a merry-go-round ferrying us down to the other side
a game of zigzag hide and seek (or zagzig seek and hide)
a necessary fall before a certain pride
a - don't be shy - open wide and look inside
at the genesis of

this being human malarkey is a well-spun tune
a synergy of bone-dry sun and moist and bloody moon
a breathless canine sperm chased by its tail around the living room
a purring feline egg curling by the hearth of the womb
a lingering fingering of the golden ring by blissful bride and groom
a wedding feast deliciously dancing on the well-worn tomb
of all those who've ever danced

this being human malarkey is a brave decision
a single cell multiplying by means of long division
separating and differentiating with uncanny precision
a blind foetal volution with a perfect vision
unfurling and evolving of our own volition
forever bound umbilically to our mother's intuition
seduced by the lullaby pulse of her telltale rhythms
fed by the consecrated body and blood of

this being human malarkey is one of the best shows in town
energy choosing to be time-and-space-and-body-bound
pressing against our mother's belly listening to the sounds
that invite us inside out and upside down
as reginal vaginal walls undulate against our crown
furrowing our royal brow with a republican frown
against the world of air in which we learn to drown
out the memories of when we once found
ourselves sitting around the edge of this playground
world looking outside in at

this being human malarkey is a dizzying thing
a spiralling prayer on a broken wing
a billion wounded angels healing upon the very pin
that pricked the skin of every boy born king
and each girl born queen of it all
shall be well sounds the knell of this bell
and all manner of things shall be well

zen and the inevitable destruction of capitalism

sitting quietly
doing nothing
spring comes and capitalism destroys itself