Stämmersong

Norman Miller

Man hat es mir gesagt. People have told me.
They // you have told me ( ((  spit it out 
// the song of a locked tongue, no
voice singing on the pale blue dot 
on the edge, spinning
banking through endless dark
where neon eats the stars

dimming, stimming in the effort 
to en-un-ci-ate , , , in gasps & cries
of a shared Pompeii shudder, 
ashen in attitudes of dead prayer.

Spitting out a song for the deaf,
the fall of a withered leaf
under hard rain of vinegar lakes
& the hurricane eye, staring into 
hot oceans of angels' tears.   (*)

A time sprung with signs, sense:
musk scents of soils and souls
and wild fires and coals ////, 
& no-one listens, climate 
unchanging within numb skulls. 

In vitro : we are isolated from the world; 
In vivo : fused with it --- it ---- IT
God &Dictatorship &De-mock-racy &Kapital
clanking chains in the hustle of Free Markets. 

Sirens drone, drones wavering in hot air 
shivering breath, breath ((( breathe  
a deep silence before the final slide, a last
trump to end the Game where fat Medea sings

of opiates, sorceries of pharmakeia 
and the old poisoned springs 
of hope - and hope 
and hope of sustenance 

to keep the press of lungs
and hearts in the bone cage 
of life terms, tariffed, 
raised against you / we

against land & sea that will not 
forever feed its parasite
or extradite a blighted earth
chewing the global beef
of a cowed World.

(*) angel's tears is a term referring to microplastic ocean pollutants

The Science

I've interpreted the theme of Chaos from various angles via a broad lens of stammering/stuttering (a lifelong disability I have), with a particular thread around climate change and its impacts. As stammering can manifest in desperate dis-fluent efforts to speak that comes out a mess, so responses to climate change often come across as a disjointed struggle to respond that comes out a mess. Also, stammering is an 'invisible' disability until a person is hit by fractured speech - as climate change is widely ignored until catastrophic manifestations strike (wildfires, droughts, floods, etc). Societies blithely carry on the damaging behaviour (e.g. mass meat farming referenced in closing lines), and the poem also references wars via drones (both aerial weapons and a form of expression), ocean heating and microplastic pollution (angels' tears is a term of microplastics in the sea).

Inaction is referenced via an image of Pompeii, plus mentions of 'older' now almost forgotten manifestations of ecological carnage such as acid rain. I have also alluded to a distance between hard science research data (referenced via 'in vitro') and how climate change impacts on living beings ('in vivo'). The mention of Medea draws on her complex role in mythology as a 'sorceress' making drugs with a link to poisoning (cf Big Pharma and the opiates crisis). The appearance of the words 'trump' and 'musk' I will leave uncommented on…

The Poet

Norman Miller is a UK-based journalist and non-fiction book writer covering an array of topics, alongside creative writing as a poet, playwright, and fiction writer. He has had around a dozen poems published in both print and online and been shortlisted or Highly Commended for awards several times in recent years. Most recently, his draft pamphlet collection was shortlisted (final six) in the 2024 Disabled Poets Prize, and he also has a poem included in the recently published Live Canon International Poetry Prize anthology.

Next poem: The Butterfly Effect by Andy Jackson