By Richard Mather
Once a code of nature without a subject,
Now: language tongue, la, signifying illness, la,
A foreign verb linked to other verbs, other selves.
The larynx the tool of an ancient life-form,
Unearthly rhetoric. Parasite peering through my eyes,
A virtual image you can see but I cannot.
Speak! Ancient virus. Speak with alien joy
About control, about replication, about money.
Lalangue is master to my slave. Now I am
Overcoded. And yet the words I use are not
the things I am talking about. (The pest clings
To me always.)
Comments