Tony Lopez, p.1



IMITATION OF LIFE

If you are zinc deficient what you lose first
Is your sense of smell. Three human cases
Were chaotic rather than truly random
Due to tree-felling on the line. Ride into space
To wait an uncertain time in units called
Wave numbers. Disease erodes this memory.
I have seen Romanian shepherds piping
on TV, donnish yet funky prophets
Of deformed unshielded crystal. Too late
To convert speech into data packets,
Missing you already. Welcome to Heathrow’s
Gate 31 automatic shopping mall.
Poles fall over and rot, why not leave them?
Chocolate and crisps to eat now or during your flight.

Two packs of melatonin, 15% off.
Because I’m worth it. The perfect start to a day.
He has allowed the substance known as poetry
To be infected with agents that inhibit
Pain receptors. The tongue touches an electrode
But we cannot yet in a ruinous place
Be confident; here comes the science bit.
Narrower towards the front teeth, a main verb.
The same intrinsic brightness cannot be sustained
After the closing date. Happy perpetual flow
Of trivial objects, melted and reduced.
Long term unpredictability is a good sign.
Now they begin to sense their physicality
Most owners want their satellites out of this region.