Cbeebies

Another pic of the wean, this time with his grandmama. The large framed photo on the left is one of Slant's Saltwater series.

For those who've never been initiated, the blip-title is the name of BBC's childrens' TV channel. Most of the programs are ok, less inoffensive than Barney (where all the kids seem to have permanent, death-rictus smiles). Still there's the odd one that I find hard to endure,like 'Big Cook Little Cook' or (his favourite) 'Lazy Town'.

I was surprised when a poem I wrote about TV got shortlisted for a prize; I wasn't surprised when it didn't win anything. I can't think of a better text to post with this blip, so here it is:

The Box

Sucks, but is beautiful.
I was raised in its milky light, fell
for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Astroboy, Dr Who.

Thought-proofing for the old winged chariot's out-of-the-blue-
doom on our doorstep. Nothing
is new after all:

pristine, natural
as any synaptic lightning, the wheel
pinwheeling in our eyes millennia before the dream

of cartwheels, sputtering rotors spun to a gleam.
Feeler to the stars, the bottom-silt
dark where they dwell

down the telescope-well;
our unfledged, twitchy buzz pulsed
far from the watery cloudnest. When you flick

it off, brush from the dark screen those webs of static,
inevitable in the primeval smog is this
square egg, warm still.


from 'The Sky Road', published by Salmon, 2007