Issue 9: March 2005

Ian Duhig | Annie Freud | Mark Granier | Heather Holden | John Stammers | Matthew Sweeney

HEATHER HOLDEN

Little Ghosts of the Industrial 1830s

There used to be a factory in Languedoc.
In Languedoc, where spiders were reared.
Their webs were woven into gloves and stockings.
Spiders must be kept in isolated pens,
for they fight, may even eat each other,
are very active and need a great deal of room.
There used to be a little factory in Languedoc.
In Languedoc, it was. It failed. The expense.

Their web is used for cross-hairs in instruments.
A man, by name of Rolt, with a little engine,
won a silver medal for winding off
from the Royal Society of Arts, in London
two miles per hour, from twenty-four spiders
of cobweb, cobweb, cobweb.

To Weldon Kees

Ketty Lester sang at your memorial and I saw her
singing Love Letters live at Rawtenstall Astoria,
seven years on.
It's a thread that connects us.

I felt shy standing right in front of her.
She was one foot higher, up on the stage.
Everyone else was slow dancing.
Weren't there others staring?
She looked in a bad mood
but you can look stern when concentrating.

Ketty Lester was and I knew her song.
So I concentrated on concentrating,
on her concentrating on
love letters straight from your heart.

How to Unravel a Sweater or Remember a Dream

    in the manner of Ashley Martineau, sweater unraveller

There are good trains of thought and bad trains of thought.
You can get a good train of thought, a super-long strand of memory
and wind it up, into a skein.
Don't even bother to remember dreams made with bad trains of
thought, it means the dreams were machine-made. Yuk!
Good train-of-thought dreams are easy to remember as a scarf.
Bad trains of thought garrotte memory. Yuk!

Separate the pieces of the dream, to remember each one.
As you pull each piece apart you will see a thread, blue as memory.
See the little blue thread? Love the little blue thread.

'Virgins' will want to unravel bit by bit, which is totally acceptable.
They will usually have longer dreams because they are cautious not to
love memory itself.

I am happy not to have had too many lost memories, for I made it
quickly to the shape of the dream, which was rectangular.

Here's a train of thought I've had all the way to this moment:
Beautiful. I love without a care in the world.
Like, be free. Show the dream who's boss.
I've finished with that train of thought now, from the ocean of that
dream to the ends of that sky.
Beautiful. That time is free. Huzzah!

I'll take a photograph of what remains, to pay homage.
Thanks, blue thread, I couldn't have done it without you.

By following a thread, you too may find an end. Ay Caramba!
Your first end. Unravel that end.
With gentle pulls and looping around, you too shall dream —
remembering occasion. Ramen!