In the acid
-bath of
any brain
that thinks
enough
reality
dissolves.
What’s left
but something
known as
nothingness
plastered
over to
conceal it,
then painted
on to look
as real as
a rock or tree
revolving
round a
magic star.
• Biography: Richard Livermore was born in Sussex in 1944. He went to various boarding-schools and left at 15. He joined the Army, but was discharged 6 months later. He went from job to job and in 1974 to Newbattle Abbey College in Scotland. He has lived in Scotland ever since, except for 5 years in Spain. He has had numerous poems published in magazine and webzines in Britain and the USA, plus books by Lothlorien, Diehard and Chanticleer Press. He is presently retired.
