Spark In The Dark

 

‘Like Shakespeare on acid’ Time Out

‘Past and present, sacred and profane jostle and collide in a glorious tumult… couched in verse that is muscular, ribald, and often dazzlingly rich…’ The Times

Best known for his ‘Southwark Mysteries’, playwright John Constable is also an accomplished poet, satirist, and writer of colourful dramatic prose.

‘Spark In The Dark’ is his first collection of poems and prose poems, including Wennefer, a hallucinatory, visceral, cautionary tale, retelling the Isis and Osiris myth in contemporary south London club culture.

Copies of the book can be ordered on Amazon and from all good book stores. Spark In The Dark is also available on Kindle.

ISBN 9780956247384

 

Two extracts from Spark In The Dark:

 

1. from Wennefer John Constable’s epic prose-poem set in a South London nightclub

 

So, 2.30 a.m. The Party in full swing

Seth shows up Here @ The LUXOR with like a litre of juice.

 

‘Hey, Osiris! Wennefer! Hey, Wenn! Wanna shoot?’

Sis I shoulda seen it coming, looming in Seth’s slick fluorescent grin:

‘Snort it? Snortin’s for pussies! Wassmatter, Wenn? Scared of a little anthrax? (heh heh) Joke! Chill out, Bro! Sealed bottles. Pakistani pharmaceuticals. Snot like I’m asking you t’share m’needle! (wheedle wheedle) See? Unopened pack o’ brand-new microfine spritzas! Only skin-poppin’! Snot smack, Wenny! You won’t get a habit – though it is very MOREish (heh heh). Vitamin K (no it is NOT a horse tranquilliser!) ‘s a battlefield anaesthetic – as test-driven in Nam, the buddy shot. Here, buddy, what say we step into this convenient unisex (ahem) convenience…’

 

Knowing I could never resist

this near-death Out-Of-Body Astral shtick

like I got something to prove to Sis

 

only when I pop the first flight

a fat crimson blood-line oozes & tracks down

from the puncture

(Nile mud)

& I catch her Eye that

‘Wennefer watch your back’

look

 

2. from Burlesques :

PHATTY

For Niall McDevitt

 

Phatty got a problem

Phatty in a fix

Phatty been got up to his old

not so clever tricks

Phatty got sticks

Phatty got stones

Phatty got a murky mix of

toxic home loans

Phatty get transfixed

by the things he think he owns

with his hypnotist inflections

and his wheedling little voice

Phatty project another trillion pound bonus

and an armour-plated Rolls Royce

and how we all get to trade our Freedom

for a share in his multiple choice

 

Phatty raid the kitty

Phatty pig the food

Phatty bank his fractions

on the price of Brent Crude

 

some say Phatty too fat to fuck

but somehow we all get screwed

 

Phatty he no Dumbo

Phatty know the score

Phatty know he been here not once

but many a time before

only this time how to wriggle out

Phatty not so sure

 

ENDTIME PHATTY NUKE REACTOR

MELTDOWN AT THE CORE

 

Phatty in a fluster

Phatty in a State

Phatty think about things he shoulda done

and wonder if it now too late

 

or whether he could buy a little more time

if he join in the Crisis Debate

and if he should use the time that he buy

to lose a little Phatty weight

 

Phatty need a chain reaction

Phatty need a juju man

Phatty need another distraction

like a Nuclear War with Iran

which is why we all got to disarm and defuse

before Phatty shit hit the fan

before Phatty money won’t buy no more time

and the Phatty bar-code don’t scan

till then scanning the dead

banks of CC-television

holed-up in his high-security tower

in his moment of decision

Phatty knows time and money just bought him

a luxury Phatty prison

for Phatty is a phantom

he feed on Phatty pricks

only this time his money won’t buy no more time

no matter how many digits he clicks

 

now when the Mob come howling for the Phatty Controller

it be Phatty head catching the kicks

or strung up from a lamp-post like Phatty Mussolini:

‘That’s Phatty fixed!’

*

Or?

Phatty get sorted

Phatty get fit

light-bulb in Phatty head

be suddenly up lit

Phatty treat the Human Race

like he ready to run with it

but…

take more than a remix

or a bullet-proof Bugatti

PHAT as in BEAT

not as corporate catty

Race as in Human

when we flush out the ratty

as fat and thin we here begin

to bid a fond farewell

to Phatty.