We’ve clambered back down the Grindle,
finding our way out of these warrens,
you stamp an empty coke can halfway
into the mud and mulch of the mynd;
and if the can is buried into the mynd’s sulci
and if the can becomes part of the mynd
and if the can stagnates, it decomposes
and if the can decomposes, it solutes into the mynd
and if the can solutes into the mynd, it becomes the mynd again
and if the can becomes the mynd again, its history is lost
and if the can loses its history, its history becomes the mynd
and if the can is the mynd, the can has lost its purpose
and if the can has lost its purpose, its fate has been disturbed
and if the can is disturbed, I am disturbed
and if I am disturbed I am thinking about the can,
and if I am thinking about the can, stamping an empty coke can halfway into the mud
and mulch of the mynd is stamping my mind into the mud and mulch of the mynd.
You tell me the can’s purpose was to be drunk,
to peel its aluminium shell
and crack it open like a snail.
I tell you my purpose is to be drunk,
I tell you to peel my aluminium shell
and crack me open like a snail.
Scott Lilley
Scott Lilley is from Shropshire studying for his Master’s at Oxford and works full-time at a school in Oswestry. His work is forthcoming or has appeared in Trickhouse’s Virtual Oasis Anthology, Wet Grain, Black Bough’s Deeptime 2 Anthology, and The Babel Tower Notice Board. He can be found on twitter @ScottGLilley.
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