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
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
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.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
Militant Thistles