DATELINE.NINETEEN. NINETY. FIVE

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Marx

Hegel laughed about God

In the Phenomenology of Spirit

Mixing up

The organ of generation

With the organ of urination

Think Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

In every animal species known

The lowest mixed up

With the highest

Which is how I met you Babe

Your arms in the splendour of the sun

My most embarrassing moment

Ever

At the University of York

And now is our winter of discontent

Made glorious summer

By this fiasco

At York

The drawn out birth

The caught arm in the birth canal

The missed midwife

My daughter born

In January 1995

I am whisked out

To the University of York

Across the sea

To give my talk

The case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Marx

Hegel II

The Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Marx

You can guess the plot

At the end of communism

So I make this argument

Faultily nervously

Missing my newborn daughter

And the cruel laughter erupts around me

Imposter! Charlatan! Bad Comedian!

British academics are the worst

Mind you

And the best

Practically booed off the stage

This young guy

Stops me in the hall

You are right, you know

The Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Marx

The year my daughter born

1995

The book contract proposal

Arrives by fax

I said to fame

It ain’t me

Babe

She’s reading Shakespeare at five

Every day glowingly I get to talk to the principal

About her

Last week

We went to Stratford

To see Annie together

You know

Little Orphan Annie

One of my favourite comics

Maybe except Little Lulu

Perfect melding of New York

With the Universe

It’s a hard knock life

For us

I take a picture of her

Tomorrow

Down by the gardens

The swans on the Avon

A few eye blinks away

And I think about

The University of York

In 1995

The camel could not get through the needle

That opened the city

With so much baggage

The first English Revolution