thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
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Ben Willems

Euro Coup

Twelve star ooh Danone
La Rage Romaine La Revolution
Chest-strapped Jagerbombs

Paris Match caption
Douwe Egberts and Javanese bride
Ramstein Fairford

Bakerloo line
Kuehne and Nagel truck stop Poznan
Annifrid Benni

Bjorn Agnetha
Olympiastadion
Elgin marbles Greek Colonels

stone circles Tollund Man
the little mermaid
Anastasia

Brunnhilde Ariane
Figurine Panini
Zinedine Zidane

GOLAZZO! cheap flight
stag Riga new Prague crumbling Weimar
Wilkommen Bienvenue

Welcome
Hello stranger!
In here life is beautiful

the girls are beautiful
and ola sir from Brazzaville
we have les sapeurs

welcome the Shisha,
Piri Piri, Chinese New Year
We have kebabs!

Tagines! Baltis!
All the latest in magic beans!
Chocolate fountains

gold bars fat cigars
diamonds from Kimberley
Spa towns miracle cures

imminent plagues
burning rubber, holes in the ground:
burial mounds

We were Atlantis
Tethys Knossos
Monte Cassini

anti-diluvian
up in the villa down in the city
waltz-two-three

Moulin Rougeian
Phillipino, iron crowned
Vitruvian man

good king Leopold’s
whited sepulchre
and its alter ego twin town

they call: The Jungle
“Kurtz? Bring me Kurtz!”
The commissioner howls

“we have butter, pastries,
land set aside –
pale of settlement,

dark of heartness; enough
farm subsidies to sink an Ark
May Day! May Day!

Christians! Lions!”
Feeding of the five thousand
regional cheeses

or leave them
sleep with the fish quotas
wash up on Blue Flag beaches

all hell breaking sunbed row
“das ist mein badetuch!”
“I think therefore I tan”

primordial swamp
frozen steppe aboard
the Orient Express

Leaning towers or
gleaming minarets?
Bridges or expanding chest?  

Pork proud mutton dressed
Euro millions; champagne toasts;
heraldic crests:

Adi Dassler Rene LaCoste
Fratelli Fila tennis socks
Henri Lloyd Hugo Boss

Tricolores Nordic cross
lederhosen Dutch clogs
ushankas

Ra Ra Ras-putin!
Gregorian chants
DJ Otzi Brigate Rosse

ex-Stasi bunga bunga
Oxford Blue Yes Sir
j’accuse I can boogie

Gaz Prom Dracula
Energie de France
all quiet flows

Miss Sarajevo
Pro patria mori
the diary of a young girl

back of a lorry:
Danepak Evian
Ferrero Rocher

Ben Willems (b. Reading 1974) is a Manchester-based poet and political activist campaigning with Palestine Solidarity groups. He writes performance-style poetry and is currently taking part in a series of collaborative readings in Manchester called The Other.

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