blackbox

Now we are in the Late Late Show studio of fading images. Only with Allbright’s infrared specs can we see the apparitions: shadows who have ...

Da band ha’ brung guitar and drum Dis music be for change Da carbine make dis music dread Wake up da woods, Down south dey ready for da figh...

Butch chuckles away. The jihadists look merely confused since none of them have ever heard of “Pinnocchio” or “Giappetto” until Thierry remi...

“He who pulls the strings cioé – the puppet master – As if by way of explanation, Butch is bending the ears of Khalids Thirteen and Nine (El...

Nursing his gourd of mate, Thierry is telling for the umpteenth time how he and Butch managed to thwart the attack of the one-armed bandit. ...

Hovering above the heads of the Cato Masked Interviewer and Sarah D, the jihadi seem to glow like Jeddi round the campfire. All it would tak...

Just when you woz thinking everything had turned to fuzz, a picture flashes across your screen… has the Parasite analysts running around for...

Some days later, she read, with tears in her eyes: Perhaps it is the fault of my style – this postcard bricolage. In memory’s striving and t...

To a rumbling chorus of Flying Away he bought the ticket with the old Costa Rican passport Carlos’d given him. When he reached departures, h...

First Projected Voice: Where are we? Second Projected Voice: Wherever you want, you git. – We made it. – A week back, don’t you remember? It...

Voice off 1: They just got Alvarez. Voice off 2: They did. Voice off 1: Yes, in a salad bar. One shot to the head. Voice off 2: Funny, I di...

The Monkhouse pulls off his jacket to reveal a soccer shirt (colours of AC Milan). He whips a whistle from his sleeve. (Just had time to sco...

Walking up to the Mike, jangling his pockets, which are full of loose change, the Monkhouse unleashes the scattergun of rumour-has-its: (1) ...

Voice off 1: Where are they now? Voice off 2: Coming in through the back and up the fire escape. Voice off 1: The Frenchman doesn’t have muc...

On the postcard is written in bold type: An angry God has put a stop to love and intimacy. The Sheikh wants to bring back on Ghost of Allen....

The Girl from Impanema wafts in from the back of the building; he lies slumped in the corner. The postcard peeps from under the empty bottle...

(The following can viewed as a series of inter-cutting scenes only with access to the BB programme.) Someone must’ve put something in the pu...

Jonathan: Sez who? Sharkhunter: I have it on the good authority of Colonel Della Chiesa of the Italian met. Jonathan: Della Chiesa! Surely y...

Jabba writes: You must be kidding! The year of the pig will be a year fraught with danger. Expect things to come to a head in the ninth mont...

With Jonesy and Fraser on an annoying loop (must be Homeboy sampling): Don’t panic! We’re all doomed! The BB editors would like to point out...

Mushroom clouds balloon in memory’s eye Negatives of nuclear physicists in protective helmets and goggles Somewhere on an island in the Paci...

Jane analysts outline the following worst case scenario: (1) The Fifth Army, under General Alexander, is on war games around the oil fields ...

Cato Masked Interviewer: Finally, what will be the impact if they do, as it appears, develop weapons of mass destruction? FPU man: (Eyebrow ...

Cato Masked Interviewer: The question on everyone’s lips is there still time for a diplomatic solution? FPU man: Well…(Eyebrow movements at ...

Returning to the Late Late Show studio where a man from the FPU (Foreign Policy Unit) is exercising the heavy use of his eyebrows. Cato Mask...

I saw the elders in the circles begin to choose, some in the first direction, others in the other, until all had made the choice, and while ...

In the other smoke was a planet of plenty and Spirit where its peoples created all they needed as easily as thinking it, where creation was ...

Then I saw the elders sitting in the circles of the world, saying "what must we do to stop the suffering?" and into their circles ...

Campbell: Extraordinary, Frank! You are asking us to believe that it was a duck. - The voice of a duck. Muir: To give it its Latin name, Bul...

The dream was somehow contagious, it buffered me from all my senses. It drew me headlong - I saw the horses that carried the souls of those ...

From The Black Box Notes: On Dream Derive-ing. The student (it could have been me) asked the professor once: Why do we dream? The professor,...

To my surprise, there was someone in a mask peering over the commando’s shoulder. I think she should be informed, I heard. There is a hole. ...

The man, who was dressed in black naturally, just like my Milk Tray ad, and wore a beret slanted across his face, spoke to me. Sorry, he sai...

I was dreaming again, only this time in colour of a mountainside. Or if not of a mountain, a hill with a precipitous incline. – The dream to...

Finally, in some difficulty, I managed to sit down; I remember I turned my head slowly. - Slowly turning my head to look at the flowers – th...

I felt not only weak at the knees, but also in my bones. My bones felt as though they were about to crack. My bones were about to crack. And...

Pleased at my mental agility, they had showed me some pictures and asked me to tell a story. Could I please make it cohere? “One day the gir...

I remember they’d told me the name of this place. Leith Park. They said “You have been asleep a long time. Things will not be easy.” They h...

When I awoke, I was standing on the path, between the flowerbeds, in a white dress that came down to my ankles. The sun was just hitting my ...

Muir continuing: “Fernando Rey, as I am sure Patrick will know, was part of the delegation sent by Francisco Pizarro to deal with the unfort...

A Black Box as summarised by Robert Robinson is (a) a record of communication i.e. between pilot and ground control (b) an instrument of pre...

Kola: Doc, you are not going to believe this. They have cut to what looks like a Seventies Quiz. - Everyone’s wearing bow ties. And, besides...

Doc: Have they killed anything? Kola: Not yet. It appears they are looking for something more than just simulation. Doc: It makes sense. The...

A brilliant game devised by Texan hunter/rancher John Lockjaw. Summary: The game consists in sitting at home, looking through video camera a...

Doc (Practically epileptic at Kola in charge of the wraparounds): What is going on? Kola: Looks like an ad… in Gameboy Weekly. Doc: I knew i...

By way of explanation he spoke of the great unsettlement of the previous century - the world wars, genocide and persecution. The escalation ...

On the horse they rode with fear at their back. She huddled down behind the rider. He rode with a sense of urgency. The horse galloped on th...

The Monkhouse places horse and rider on Vallee mountain. What could it all mean? F. Amiss looks around for help. Apparently oblivious to the...

Meanwhile on the Latte Show (surely some mistake, ed) the Monkhouse has just proposed to write a poem for F. Amiss. F. Amiss: So what is the...

From the Borges Community of Montevideo to the rider gallant: How would you describe your ficciónes? Rider gallant: Surely they mean the wri...

Kola (Peering over the writer’s shoulder, reads): I myself do not have any confession to make unless it comes from the story I wrote many ye...

Doc screeches with neurosis like of a sudden blind Tiresias staggering under the weight of new jugs: What is going on? Kola: Nothing. It’s g...

Evokes more of that time in the dormitories, where hands grope in the darkness, and his friend Raul flaunts a cheekily lit orifice… Everyone...

What he would give now for some cheese! It reminds him of the mouse Anatole in one of those quirky fantasies drawn from the picture book of ...

With these thoughts hanging over the pinging bullets, Thierry has a gnawing flashback to school and biscuits. Those Garibaldian numbers that...

Butch nudges Thierry - jumps history. Cutting from Lucanii and Romans to brigands (must also be our exemplars, and strength) and back to the...

Butch puts it simply – romantically enough. “We must be like the wolves of old,” he tells Thierry. – And in so doing draws an analogy with ...

T’was no doubt this sorry tale of the chastened young nation that pushed Butch down the path of deep hatred for the Imperium. Having obser...

“In point of fact, we are the victims, Thierry. The sacrificial goats.” “We will be left to stew in our own still soup. Simmering for fort...

“… died a famished prisoner of war. Like all poor, dumb Italians of his generation, he was fooled into fighting for the Duce in his madca...

“My father, God rest his soul, emptied his tank at El Alamein…

“In little less than a decade my family lost everything, Thierry. … I myself was a shoeless boy made to sleep with dogs and farmer’s boys ...

Fragment of Epic Roman Slips out Of the baroque bordello Of the Box Like a Dali Clock: Butch, by his own admission, is an unusual case study...

Crunch time in the ars retorica : What makes a man do the choices he has done? As if Butch and Thierry having forged their friendship can re...

Whoever it is is not exactly playing by the Queensberry rules. On the ground, as bullets fly around them, jihadists call to each other from ...

News just in on the Reuters ticker tape: The Jihad Boot Camp is under fire. Someone we feel is going to have to put a restraining order on t...

Sarah D’s Notes in Margin: L. Butcher, I Stanton and Paul Little Flowers come in on chorus. Monkhouse with ax. "Chop-chop at the door A...

I came to salute my lady of honour She was married to a Southern Gentleman, John Bradley O’Connor John Bradley fought in the dirty war And I...

Would I fight for my country? Would I fight for my home? Is it worth all the trouble? Would I pick up the rubble? Would I fight for the butc...

Sarah D’s Notes in Margin: Ghost of Allen comes over all enigmatic for this Nick Drake-ish number: The man by the bar On a stool With his gu...

Thought she was dead On her wedding night And the stars were not So bright On her wedding night I took her to bed On her wedding night She t...

Old Man Texas Thought he was a western He wore a holy Stetson Old Man Texas Shot the ceiling Plastered my feelings To the floor Old Man Texa...

Back in the Late Late Show Studio: Sarah D: Now this is rather exciting! Ghost of Allen has brought along the Wild Org. Cato Masked Intervie...

Ghost of Allen on I-scream : Howl! Jeanette on Jack-in-a-box : Why not Jane? Monkhouse over her shoulder: Got two erseholes. Footnote to the...

Sarah D (Voice Off): Appears we are having technical problems with some of the poems. I shall just have to describe what you cannot see… an ...

(2) Twin Tower B L A C K 9 B O X 11

In competition at the BBC Awards the following eye poems have been shortlisted: (1) X marks the spot b l b l o X 9 X

Sarah Donut is in the Late Late Show studio with the Cato-Masked Interviewer for the BBC (Black Box Creatives) Awards. The lights in the stu...

Danker was returned to his cell where he was made to strip his orange overalls. He lay naked in the bright light. Hours passed… or was it da...

Danker was in tears. Fearing that his wife was dead, he called her name. What did you do to her? Someone cried angrily. She is dead! Yes! Ye...

Danker waited, but the silence was all around him. - The court enveloped in darkness. His accuser stepped into the light. You must examine h...

The accuser seemed to speak for a long time. – Longer than Danker’s concentration could hold up. Finally, he paused – as if allowing the ful...

A terrible hush came over the courtroom. - Danker grew afraid for he realised the trial was about to begin. A man who believed to be his acc...

Expecting to be led back into the chamber, instead, he was escorted, between two fat security guards, into what appeared to be a court of la...

Struggling with his memories, a void had opened up. As he tried in vain to hold onto those images of his former life (his friends and loved...

It looks like a film set, Though you know it isn’t. There are ketchup-like bloodstains On the chamber walls – a graffiti doodle Depicting a ...

The Monkhouse pacing with his customary ticks stops by the table of Fat Tony and George to cue the swivel bow tie. Water squirts over Fat To...

Fat George and Fat Tony are in the middle of bible reading and prayers in the Springer Secure Corps Staff canteen when the unexpected happen...

Tis late at night; everyone has gone home. The Springer Secure Corp Staff canteen is all but empty except for Fat Tony and Fat George who ar...