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Eraserhead

Yes, of course, my name is Legion,

And yes, my name is Nick,

Welcome to the nether region:

Watch its oily slick –

How I hit you with a taser!

How I wield my cruel eraser …

 

Yes indeed, they call me Satan,

And yes, Beelzebub –

Obliteration while you wait, and

Here’s the thing: I rub

Out your errors, they’re not opaque

After I have used the Snopake …

 

Yes, feel free to call me Vader,

Mephistopheles –

All wicked whims that I’ve obeyed are

Nothing next to these:

Do the sum, but you’re mistaken,

Erase it! – there, I’ve saved your bacon.

 

With my forked tail, I persuade you

To be free from guilt –

Lucifer, that’s me, betrayed you.

This is where you wilt.

You take the rubber in your mitt,

And scrub away the truth. That’s it.

 

Doesn’t this sound like forgiveness?

Erasing your mistake?

Oh Lord, you say, the Devil’s driven us

To hide them. Our hearts ache.

I give you poison, which you sip, ex-

Claiming, Hell is really Tippex!

 

 

Click here for a Telegraph article

 

Eraserhead

“The eraser is an instrument of the devil because it perpetuates a culture of shame about error” – Professor Guy Claxton of King’s College, London, arguing against rubbing out.


27 May 2015

POETRY KIT WEBRING

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