Poetry: Selections from Julian Thumm

Gutter Stew

Give me the bones

the offcuts, giblets 

gristle & tripe 

disgorged & discarded

that nobody wants

 

and that will fatten 

my gutter stew

the raggedy broth

of a shameful life

sustaining me 

till i feed again 

St Sebastian, Degenerate

As martyr I am able

to offer up myself

sacrifice 

to an enticing illusion

that fills the dour days

 

the lassitude of the nubiles

and the lewd paupers

who slime bareback

leaving snail slicks

that gumshoes track

back to the basement sty

revealing the revel 

in the vile hovel

 

the sewer concoction

the sweet defecation

that swells and swills

behind floating eyes

 

the crimson tide that rises

not as will

not as nighthawk coronation

but as gutter resignation

 

the empty quiver

the multitude arrowheads

that pierce and let flow

the sewage of the soul

a heroism born of weakness

as martyr I am able

The Cryptic Wasp

The abysmal depths 

unscalable heights   

vertiginous shotgun whip-crack 

honesty, brutality & 

funhouse confrontation 

 

The madcap laughter

The rude joke

The gut-hit punch line

 

Bubbling sewer humors

black bile & phlegm

pulsing & sluicing 

yielding up chaos 

debauchery, apostasy 

the seedy reptilian spirits 

of the short-eyed priest

flicker their drugged tongues

their icy veins, needled carapace & skeletal visions

the hectic nectar that flows through the catacombs

& corrupts

& curses

& courses

& creates

wild visions of welcome havens beyond the cartographer’s scope

 

The psychological pretence 

the Filipino takedown

the California stampede 

Grinder trauma & glorious cock 

broken fingers & clumsy circumcision 

the vindictive mohel, committed Freudian 

whetstones his blade with saliva, semen & tears 

haemorrhoids burst, keen & quiver,  

taut emotions, anal stigmata 

garrote with the horse hair bow 

piercing violin record scratch

queer & gloriously wasted, 

bourbon burns the retinas & blurs the soul with sights of saintly promiscuity 

 

The virginal maw

The swift swallow

The murmuration 

The staggering lamp post ballet 

The inevitable quickness of violent decisions & queasy regrets

 

Smears of desperation across bloodlines

generational madness, genetic addiction 

awful innocence that cries for corruption 

the mournful whale song that echoes across the empty rooms of the Sirenum Scopuli 

bathroom wall graffiti scrawled, somehow sublime,  

that captures the farcical thrills & fleeting night dreams of perpetual dark 

 

Paralysed, jaundiced, crumbled liver

framed & mounted 

isopropyl alcoholic 

formaldehyde & seek in crippled silence & cocaine orthodoxy 

empty powder dust bags

excess & arrhythmia 

mastabatory ecstasy 

parental consent with side-eyed shame

 

A boat of vice tossed on the hedonistic swell 

scuttled by a towering urge to drown 

the lingering remnants of sad humanity

hunters, virgins, librarians

martyrs, archers, hitmen

wolf pack street gangs, ravens

chivalry & ridicule

calamitous collapse 

and the catacombs call

a shrill shiver 

a withering welcome

to the home tomb of the shrivelled soul

 

The 3am desperation 

bared teeth monkey grin

shit fling & flung with porcine elegance

a perplexing art installation of degradation & depravity

mom and pop tut their tongues in disapproval 

 

The nightclub sty & hovel revel   

chrysanthemum adversity

lamentation, perfumed waft

honey from the cryptic wasp

manna, man flesh, medication 

the sickly sweetness of decay

crimes of prohibition

hypocrisy of abstinence

angels of sodomy who pay for drugs 

with a pound of anorexic flesh 

innocent & starved but guilty still

 

Ah the exquisite guilt of the innocent 

an intoxication like no other

a glory to glide the tongue across

a sinful taste of hysteria

a vicarious lobotomy 

and a moment's muted peace

finally comes. 

The Ice Cream Van

Blear-eyed & racked

delirium tremens

strung & hung again

all septic shame

and desperate regret

 

In the park 

across the way 

the children play

shriek and squeal

all sweet joy 

and vibrancy

 

An ice cream van 

approaches 

its ding-dong song

the pastoral whimsy

of Greensleeves or 

the kitsch & camp of

the Carousel Waltz

 

Crescendo squeals 

the children run

towards the sugared 

piper’s song

 

But all 

I can think of 

is Gacy.

Julian Thumm is a fledgling poet from Melbourne, Australia. He studied literature and professional writing and now works as a corporate shill, selling his corrupted pen to the highest bidder. His poetry is an attempt to make sense of a lifetime of bad choices.