The Colossus of Snide
The Colossus of Snide
by James O'Brien
Feet planted on pilings too small to bear the weight,
The sunken god fell, contradicted by the elements,
The mournful plaintiff soon vanquished a heresy,
A coddling joke left half distilled like an ethanol drip,
Too paltry for reverie, too insipid for debauch.
How your works mock you, Jokerman, a lost cabal,
A grievous haunting, you ratted out the denizens in bronze,
It was pained plaster painted, crumbling to the touch,
Dissolved in water, a sickly paste of deceit,
Like the stench of cheese rot riddled with vivid decay.
Helios humiliated by the Wizard of Oz.
A vast, seething emptiness silted up the harbour,
The lying, vacuous clown, cried love me for my works,
Tinkers removed an alloy of scrap. Nada. Nada. Nada.
James O Brien
James O'Brien is an award-winning playwright, poet, filmmaker and political activist. He was made an Honorary Member of the N.U.M. during the Miners Strike, 1984-5. He was the PCS Branch Secretary at Tate Modern 2000-16 and led a series of strikes against austerity and attacks on workers' rights and pay.