Anna at Stoke Newington Literary Festival Sunday 5.15pm

I’m performing at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival tomorrow (Sunday 9th June) at 5.15pm in the Budvar Marquee. Here’s a poem.

THE DISS PERSISTS

For are we not a cruel race?
I’m told that often,
By people who are cruel
Who make a virtue of their viciousness
In the way only the truly callous can
Who then turn around and say
Ha! We can do that to you,
True, we can,
And there’s nothing you can do.

So here I am,
Furiously stroking my pussy
Like a comic-book villain
And twirling my moustache
Which I call Lyrical
Because I wax it.

I am your reflection in the deepest night
When your bowels pack-up and collapse in fright
I am the yellow brick road to hell,
I am that part of you that is not well
Yellow dog, yellow peril,
Yellow fear, yellow feral,
Yellow fever
A letterbox beaver
The stripes on a wasp
The colour of piss
I resist
But still the diss persists
And still the diss persists
Should I slit my wrists
Or just get pissed?
I grind my teeth and shake my fist
I’m diced and dissed
I remain unkissed
And still the diss persists
Still the diss persists

So stick me with a yellow star
I see it coming down the tracks
Must be heroin left over from the opium wars
You should have stuck to crack

(Anna Chen 2010)

Stoke Newington Literary Festival