VidaKashizadeh

Agatha creates Hercule
and Hercule recreates Agatha
He reads himself
and is written by Agatha
Agatha is the perfect killer
and Hercule creates
a murder
wherever he goes

Hercule is not bothered about love
he never had a mother
he was born
out of Agatha’s rib.
In the same year that Hercule
was watched by many in Styles
Agatha’s mother died.
Hercule is there to watch Agatha
when she makes a mistake
- fastidiously -
and his search for the truth
will reassure her
that the world is a stage
hence manageable

Agatha
has the key
to the bereavement’s room
where I have been staying
watching Her
cule
to unlock the murder
by the angel of death
and search the truth
of life and death
old age and decay

It is my great luck
that I don’t find anyone around
delicious enough
to regret the fast slippery slope
of my ageing
It is good
I will never be the older woman of Kundera’s Immortality
and if waving my hand
will never look good
like it did when I was young
well tough.

And the first love dies with a mother
and what is life without the original witness
the first one who watched me
being spec ial.

Agatha broke down
under Arch
ibald
and so she disappeared
for ten days
before opening
the bereavement’s door
and while sitting there for four years
when she looked
out of the window
she knew she was on the Orient Express
on her way to Istanbul
and there the young Max
was digging the ground
Arch
aeologist
Then they sang together
in Edinburgh
while Hercule
was still searching
for the truth
and Agatha sort of settled down

When the Hercules in her
got tired
and had to be retired
she gave him
the 12 Labours of mythology
to complete him
in people’s mind
as myths never really die

But as it was World War II
the Nemean Lion in legend
turned to Pekinese
though keeping the heart
and the Lernean Hydra is nothing but a rumour

In Arcadian Deer
Hercule orders Agatha
to bring about a happy ending
the Erymanthian Boar was caught alive
and defaced in Switzerland
while a woman grieved for her dead husband
ten thousand feet above sea level
in Rochers Neiges

And in London Hercule hushes up revelations
of corruption and jobbery of the prime minister
and the under-secretaryship watches
the Stymphalean Birds in Herzoslovakia
with dismay
while being made fool of
by English crooks

The Cretan Bull laughed a laugh
‘…such as a lunatic
might popularly be supposed to give’

The taming of the flesh eating
on cocaine feeding
Horses of Diomedes
And in Hercule’s hands
Cranchester Bridge
turns to the Girdle of Hyppolita
and the young Amazons
ask for his autograph

And the Flock of Geryon
are jabbed with hashish
- only Agatha
could think of hashish
jabbed

And praising a fine dream
where the whole world
is arranged beautifully

The Apples of the Hesperides
became harmless at the end of the world
in Inishgowlan
the toll of a bell
made Hercule dream
of the Isles of the Blest
the Land of Youth
and as Hercule walked back in time
his patent-leather shoes
holding his feet on the rocks
were no longer
making him forlorn
and so very much alone

And on the tube at last
arrived at the Piccadilly Circus
and on the essc lator
the flame of his youth
shouted: ‘Hell’
and in there
he completed his tasks
with the capture of Cerberus

And when David Suchet
got imprisoned
in the jailing body
of Hercule P.
he had to tear many films
with his teeth
And he is still trying
although it seems
he has managed unherculeing himself
at least twice

And he is still crying
Unherculeing himself
Agatha Herculed
and David
Unhercules

Now
not only David is crying
but Agatha
and Hercules
are crying too
ay sob
sob, sob
everyone is crying
ay sob
everyone is herculeing
Agathaing
and Sucheting
sob, sob
everyone is acting
agathaing
Herculeing
and dying
on the rocks
everyone
is sobbing
ay sob
sob, sob.

Vida Kashizadeh
1^st April 2002