Ciaran Carson

Fuji Film (1998)

I feared the yen was starting to decline again,
Devaluing my take-home honorarium.
I joined the crowd that swarmed beneath the acid rain
Like schools of fishes in a vast aquarium.

Some wore sharkskin suits that shimmered like a rainbow;
Some wore surgeons, with a white mask where their mouth should be;
Some bore barracuda grins, and some wore minnow;
One fat businessman swam like a manatee.

I saw two lobster samurai produce their swords
Of infinitely hammered folded Zeno steel,
That glittered like the icy blue of Northern fjords.

I snapped them slashing floating dollar bills in half
Beneath the signs for Coke, the giant neon roulette wheel,
The money index pulsing like a cardiograph.

‘Fuji Film’ appeared in The Twelfth of Never, is © The Gallery Press, and appears here with the kind permission of The Gallery Press and Ciaran Carson. For a note about Ciaran Carson see The Rising Sun.