Poem
Anupama Pilbrow
SEMIAUTOMATIC
SEMIAUTOMATIC
SEMIAUTOMATIC
hunger is the oppositeof everything I eat my
way out of purgatory I ingest
everything I swallow myself
I have that fear of peanut butter sticking
to the hard palate of my mouth I eat everything
but peanut butter I am
hungry and out of work
I lay down on a conveyor
belt like Chaplin’s in Modern Times and I fuck it up
and I miss
everything and get sucked into the
machinery where I am eaten
first and the gears pound me
I am cooked by a Black and Decker waffle
iron my hair falls out to start with I eat only my hair and nails
then I carve bits of thigh and boil
them in water to make soup I eat
slow to make the most of it
and sometimes share it with
those I love a meal brings people
together I eat leather I make choices I
have free will and I choose
to eat it instead I eat
art when I can get it
except art eats me so it’s
more like a once-in-a-while treat
I eat steel mostly hammers some
drill bits I eat a Cessna 150 I wrap
bacon around the barrel of my
M16 assault rifle and fire
off about 80 rounds and eat
the gun which is greasy with bacon fat
I stick my trigger finger down
my throat and eat my throat
my hand eats me I eat my hand
© 2018, Anupama Pilbrow
From: Body Poems
Publisher: Vagabond Press, Sydney
From: Body Poems
Publisher: Vagabond Press, Sydney
Poems
Poems of Anupama Pilbrow
Close
SEMIAUTOMATIC
hunger is the oppositeof everything I eat my
way out of purgatory I ingest
everything I swallow myself
I have that fear of peanut butter sticking
to the hard palate of my mouth I eat everything
but peanut butter I am
hungry and out of work
I lay down on a conveyor
belt like Chaplin’s in Modern Times and I fuck it up
and I miss
everything and get sucked into the
machinery where I am eaten
first and the gears pound me
I am cooked by a Black and Decker waffle
iron my hair falls out to start with I eat only my hair and nails
then I carve bits of thigh and boil
them in water to make soup I eat
slow to make the most of it
and sometimes share it with
those I love a meal brings people
together I eat leather I make choices I
have free will and I choose
to eat it instead I eat
art when I can get it
except art eats me so it’s
more like a once-in-a-while treat
I eat steel mostly hammers some
drill bits I eat a Cessna 150 I wrap
bacon around the barrel of my
M16 assault rifle and fire
off about 80 rounds and eat
the gun which is greasy with bacon fat
I stick my trigger finger down
my throat and eat my throat
my hand eats me I eat my hand
From: Body Poems
SEMIAUTOMATIC
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