Stephen Bett


Three Poems from Song Bu®st

The Great Contender
 
The man who shot Liberty Valence
clearly didn’t care mucho much for Valencia
(nor likely cross-town rivals VillaRReal)

That derby hall a’ miRRors…    a’gin & redux

When Val rode to town the womenfolk would hide
(Rreal men & transfolk, they’d abide onside)

Give me hibbity jibbity or give me the point of a gun
the only law that [libs] understand —
lib·bard·y for not from dems wackos

Rrose Sélavy likely-wise cried snide
in zir Yellow Submarine
(it’s true, #LookItUp!)

Putt it right on the platter
The man who flipped a birdie on yr Lib Pal
— poor Burt Bacharach, dead
at 94 just this week —
He was the [gravest] man of all
he was the Great Contender

Just laughing and gay like a clown 
in my town 

_______________

Gene Pitney, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence” & “The Great Pretender” (the latter also covered by The Platters, & both songs written by Burt Bacharach); properly speaking, Valencia & Villarreal Club Futbol are cross-region derby rivals (the latter’s motto: The Yellow Submarine”); & fondly recalling Grade 4 club Membership Card for “The-Look-It-Up-Club (motto: “We Don’t Just Guess, We Look It Up!”)

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Inhabiting the Sound Gaps

I said see, C.C. Rider
Oh, see what you have done

You slipped ma’ disc, sailor grrl
Chopper Couture din’t stand a chance

Well now see, see see rider
… SEE what you have done

thIN diff:   dis ultra-tiny-tinny fit
you DISappeared, gap in the hall a’ …
holla!

I said see, see see rider (see, see rider)
see what you done done

Doubly (& parenthetically) minced
coma zone-out in my comma

Très infrathin of infra-thin & infra thin
the ol’ miRRor image RE-flect E-ffect overload

So whose fleet feet turns the page
tha’s extreme tenuity   (ThieRRy Davila)

published Dec 17, 2010, at 11:22 am
updated Dec 17, 2010, at 11:22 am

Same Diff times t’ree    — w/in da minute
one & one & two & two

Inhabit every in·ter·val (a hey hey)
C.—gap—C. at sea, oh see here sailor grrl

You are that dancin’ sound

Slippered outta dat vis·U·al hegemony
some différance, n’est pas?

The hear of her·e·sy
what you just Undone

Yas hear don’t see it
Surfer·Grrl   

_______________

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels’ version of “See See Rider” (aka “C.C. Rider”); C.C., as in Chopper Couture (chopper apparel, huh?); several commentators on Marcel Duchamp’s infrathin or inframince concept, easily googled—among them: quoting Thierry Davila, curator of the Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art (Geneva); David Zerbib’s review of Davila’s book Infrathin: Bref histoire de l’imperceptible, de Marcel Duchamp…(published & updated within the minute, note); Paul Matisse (step-son of Duchamp, & grandson of Henry Matisse, collected & published Duchamp’s notes under the title Inframince: “inframince [is] the very lastness of things…[the] frail and final minimum before reality disappears”

---

Insta Surfing

Li·ddle surfer, li·ddle one
Made my heart come all Undone

(Sailor’s gurl, heart’s a twURL)

Teeny-tiny itsy dot fitter-upper
reeled in, bought you by Rreal men
(In my Woody them’s would take you…)

Diss ol’ Miss O’ Ginny RE·verse flipped
chic-o-layin’ cutie pie voice print
all over our gooey screens

Do you wuv me, do you wi’dul star-twick one?
(jes’ me & mah Woody)

’N don’ go DISappearing in the gap
there’s have all Rreal womyn gone

Whoa, oh, mercy mercy me
things aint what they used to be…

On stage now #FiveSeconds Get·It & Forget·It
please identi·size Rupi Kaur 
for Po·it Laur·E·ate
(made 30 mil las’ year!)

Infra-Mincing our way to you, 
dear insta·read’R …

Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie  

_______________

Beach Boys, “Surfer Girl”; Paul Simon, “The Boxer”; Marvin Gaye, “Mercy Mercy Me”; as good an estimation of these ‘identity excl’ Instagram poets as I can see (& time-honoured too): “‘stop deceiving the uneducated crowd / with empty sweetness’ (Metamorphoses 5.308-9) / aesthetically superficial / ethically dishonest” — Joe Safdie, Scholarship, p. 44



Stephen Bett is a widely and internationally published Canadian poet with 24 books in print. His personal papers are archived in the “Contemporary Literature Collection” at Simon Fraser University. His new book, Broken Glosa: an alphabet book of post-avant glosa, has recently been published by Chax Press. His website is StephenBett.com

 
 

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