Contents

I PROLOGUE The Brown Bag Service 5

In the Zoo 7

II BLACKBOX CLEANOUT

Four Ablutions 11

Sweet Fool 14

Shame 15 Radical Shakespeare 22 A National Literature 29 Reading for Compass: Response to Mark Ford,

Enter, Fleeing 31

Reading for Compass: Response to Zaffar Kunial, Us 34

from The End of the Poem 37

Poemime 40 Midnight Robber Monologue 41

III SPARKS

Amusement, to Begin: Going Dancing 47 Futurist Cleopatra: After The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 48

Interlude: Ways to Say Goodbye 51 Lycanthropes Can Remember: After Not to Disturb 53 Interlude: Shibarina Fair, Entwisted Bride of Lullings 59 The Devil in Music: After The Ballad of Peckham Rye 61

Game, to Finish: Hamlet Oulipo 66