Hi all. I haven't posted here before. My name is Marcus Slease. I currently teach ESL in Poland. I am finishing a manuscript I wrote in Korea called Wonderland. The last section is a long poem. It alternates between Korea and memories of growing up in Northern Ireland and some scattered memories of living in Las Vegas and North Carolina. This is a section from a Northern Ireland memory. I was around six in Portadown and a bomb exploded somewhere. We were unfortunate enough to run into the area where the bomb was detonated and I saw a man with his legs gone. Looked like carpet on the pavement with some wiggling legs. Anyway. The memory is fragmented as well. So the agitprop cuts many ways. The propaganda on both sides and I also question the nature of my memory of the experience.
10. Agitprop
for a split
second
in-
sensed
&
smoke-
choked
you are
legs
on gravel
blood-stumped and cherry
red ploy
to sell
the soul
and you
don't know what is leased, leashed, and lashed
don't know what is la blade for murals advertising divides
for God
and Ulster
for a
united
Ireland
legs blown
asunder
scissors
open
and shut
ex-
posed
&
sun
shine
never been
the same
since
