Friday 24 October 2014

BIG UP THE MUNDANE

For once I get the right photo for the post. 

If each thing we write, every poem or story, is a piece of jigsaw that tells of our experience, our influences, of how we connect different things up to make something hopefully unique and interesting, then I am not sure where this poem fits. I've been toying with a number of ideas recently. I was struck by reading about the dubious flying saucer expert George Adamski repeatedly meeting aliens [who looked just like you and me] in Los Angeles in the early 1950's. I just love the way he made each planet in the solar system sound so homely, like small town America. 


George Adamski's in the Pontiac's back seat,
the driver is from Saturn, next to George sits
a Venusian, who bigs up the mundane, claims
to like tv and respect the institution of marriage.
He feeds the con man a white bread vision, the solar system
as some banal B-movie town, where everyone smiles.
Old George for his part, keeps silent about
the flying saucer he's building in the garage.
You see, he needs proof, something people will believe in.
When he stands in front of paying audiences,
not even his honest eyes can quite swing it.
So that chicken incubator heat lamp housing
will be made to fly on film. The Venusian
doesn't care that his world is a nightmare of
green house gasses gone made. That'll come out later,
[after people stop seeing Adamski-type ufos]
-just tell the earthlings what they want to hear
and everyone's happy, save Amelia Earhart. Who is either
a bored housewife hitting the highballs at eleven am. Or
an incomplete set of bones on a Pacific island.
You takes your pick -some realities are more fun than others.


This is the saucer
Here's another view
There is much to be said about Amelia Earhart and the mystery that sounds her death. You can read about it here
Amelia at the controls of Electra
Here's a photo of her in front of Electra, the plane she disappeared in. I've taken all the black and white photographs from on line- I hope there is no infringement of copyright.
I have to leave you with Plainsong and The True Story of Amelia Earhart.

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