Clancy of the Cultural Studies Department
I had written him a letter. Now, I know that there are better
ways of making contact but I did have his address.
I had looked him up on Google but the pickings there were frugal
and he hasn't got a mobile so I couldn't SMS.
Then an answer came by email from a post-grad student (female).
Shook me up so much I nearly dropped my laptop in the spa
and when I managed to retrieve it I just could not believe it.
"Clancy's been deconstructed and we don't know where he are."
In my academic fancy non-visions come of Clancy
no longer prowling libraries or the student union bar.
Vanished thanks to Derrida; not even dead and buried a
worse fate could not have been his had he been hit by a car.
Now, I'll say this about Clancy; there's not the slightest chance he
has risen up to Heaven where good theoreticians go,
where with sempiternal patience they lie round swapping dissertations
on French films, fashion, Fantales, football, fisting and Foucault.
It quite gives me the vapours as I sit here marking papers
to think that Clancy disappeared with so much still to learn.
I can't imagine his life ended, so I'll call it an extended
sabbatical from which he is unlikely to return.
Just as sure as Sid killed Nancy, there's no way I'd change with Clancy.
Having lost corporeality I know I wouldn't cope,
while he spent his days at writing and faculty infighting
and his nights at bonking students and smoking lots of dope.
More poems from 'The Unspeak Poems and other verses
Pentecostal Chillout
Advice to an Emerging Poet
Other poems by Tim Thorne
Jonathan Burke McHugo Comes to Town
Tourism
Alabama
When in California
Bronte Country
Normality
An interview with Tim Thorne
A conversation with Tim Thorne (2007)
Reviews of Tim Thorne's poetry
Taking Queen Victoria to Inveresk (1997)
Best Bitter (2003)
I Con (2009)
Reviews by Tim Thorne
ALVAREZ, Ivy (edited): A Slice of Cherry Pie
ALVAREZ, Ivy (edited): We Don't Stop Here
BENNETT, Stefanie: Symphony for Heart and Stone
KNIGHT, Karen, MATHISON, Robyn, KNIGHT, Norma, REEVES, Lyn, WINFIELD, Liz: Republican Dreaming
LOMER, Kathryn. Extraction of Arrows
MANSELL, Chris: Mortification & Lies
MINTER, Peter: Blue Grass
RIETH, Homer: The Dinng Car Scene
SIMPSON, Matt: In Deep
WEARNE, Alan: Kicking in Danger
Book launch speech by Tim Thorne
TULLY, John: Robbed of Every Blessing