UNDERWHELEM
Foul village in a hag-ridden hollow.
All ways to it winding, all roads to it narrow.
Bedevilled bog, veiled in fog,
perverse, furtive, rank with seepings:
Jeyes Fluid, slurry, sweat and pus,
anus grease, squitters, jizz and blood.
Breeder of asthma, common warts, ringworm.
Ward of ancient occupations;
ploughshares rusting in the brambles,
half-walls, smuggler’s runs and ditches,
blackened hearthstones, ulcerous lullabies;
Mummy’s going to smack you if you don’t . . .
The crossroads a red hanging-post
to GOAT HILL – RANSHAM – OVERWHELEM.
Three hoar-stones, one Golden Fleece
connected by a single Riddle.
Grandpa blackthorn bent by wind.
Shabby ewes trying to die.
A haunted wood in the realm of an Eye.
A farm of hooks with a rout of Rawles:
a mother of sorrow, a fatherlike fiend,
an oddball son and his inward friend,
and a not-girl born amongst them:
fouling her fig in the forest,
honking a conk-load of creosote,
downing a dram of diazinon,
flaying a fleece-full of maggots,
gorging a gutful of entrails,
crunching the scabs of her grievance,
hoarding the horrible omens,
bearing the burden of world.
UNDERWHELEM
Voul village in a hag-ridden hollow.
All ways to it winding, all roads to it narrow.
Auverlooked bog, veiled in vog,
thirtover, undercreepen, rank with seepings:
Jeyes Fluid, slurry, zweat and pus,
anus greaze, squitters, jizz and blood.
Breeder of asthma, common warts, ringworm.
Ward of ancient occupations;
ploughshares rusting in the brembles,
half-walls, smuggler’s runs and ditches,
blackened heth stones, lured lullabies;
Mummy’s going to smack you if you don’t . . .
The crossroads a red hanging-post
to GOAT HILL – RANSHAM – OVERWHELEM.
Three hoar-stones, one Golden Fleece
connected by a single Riddle.
Gramf’er blackthorn bent by wind.
Shabby mothers trying to die.
A haunted wood in the realm of an Eye.
A farm of hooks with a rout of Rawles:
a mother of sorrow, a farterous fiend,
a rumstick son and his inward friend,
and a not-gurrel born amongst them:
fouling her fig in the forest,
honking a conk-load of creosote,
downing a dram of diazinon,
flaying a fleeceful of maggots,
gorging a gutful of entrails,
scrounching her scabs o’ engripement,
hoarding the horrible heissens,
bearing the burden of wordle.
Mummy’s going to smack you if you don’t – from ‘Alabama C–– Song’; The Golden Fleece – UNDERWHELEM’S pub; Riddle – UNDERWHELEM’S river; Rawles – family name, from the Old Norse “Radulfr”: Germanic elements “rad”, counsel, advice, and “wolf ”; diazinon – active ingredient in sheep dip