S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
a spectre is haunting the world
several in fact
and the world is not enough
SPecial Executive for
Counterintelligence
Terrorism
Revenge and Extortion
all the powers of the world
have entered into
an unholy alliance
to exercise this spectre
the times change
and we change with them
I was never thinking
of doing
a sequel
to ABBODIES
my long poem about
Brexit
bodies
and aliens
viewed through the lens of 18
ABBA songs
how do you
follow for follow
that!
but recently
I watched SPECTRE again
the last James Bond film
cause it was on TV
and I remember it being
more misogynistic
than Skyfall
which is nonetheless also problematic
what would happen
if the sky
did indeed
fall?
and it crumbles
what then?
welcome to Scotland!
I realised
that perhaps
there was a tenuous way in
toward a sequel
via some other
unidentified
folks or other
who run
the world
that is S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
number two is in charge
of the NATO project
and Bond films could also reference Brexit
for he is forever keeping
the British end up
Queen and country
but ABBA too?
you might not think
there’s any more
mileage in ABBA
but I do
I do I do I do I do I do
so a sequel
of sorts
but
I didn’t think it could
also include
aliens
as well
then in the opening credits
octopus tentacles
and black ink
do I see the signs
I think
I’m seeing?
the aliens in Arrival
are octopusesque
with 7 legs
the actors call them heptapods
and their language
is made from black ink
(the aliens’
not the actors’)
and the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. logo
is a black octopus
with 7 legs
spooky
it’s even more alien in
the ‘65 version in Thunderball
with large grey-like eyes
and while I was
watching the films
taking notes
a virus appeared
in the news
a ‘vulnerability’
it’s called
SPECTRE
coincidence?
I think not
and apropos of nothing
the other week
my dad asked
if I thought S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
was behind the poisoning
of double agent Sergei Skripal
or is it SMERSH?
he says he didn’t know
I was writing a poem about S.P.E.C.T.R.E
maybe he’s an alien after all
SPECTRE
is an anagram of
RESPECT
spooky
S P E C T R E
find out what it
means to me
in an interview in Playboy
in 1965
promoting Thunderball
Sean Connery said
I don’t think there’s anything
particularly wrong about hitting a woman
an open-handed slap is justified
if a woman is a bitch or hysterical
Blofeld the head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
asks a question and uses coincidence
did you think it was coincidence
that all the women
in your life
end up dead?
coincidence?
#metoo7
in the song for Thunderball
Tom Jones
another pest
sings that Bond is the winner
who takes all
and in The Spy Who Loved Me
a baddies’ car drops onto a peasant’s house
who comes out and says
Mamma Mia!
coincidence?
and then this
this morning
in my inbox
as I was finishing
this beginning
an email from Reed recruitment
it’s time to love Mondays
Stop faking it
Try a new position
who’s hiring?
MI6
spooky!
Many backgrounds
one mission
but you might not have heard
oblique read
ABBODIES
so you might be
a bit LOST
what is to be done?
I could do a little
previously
like on a TV show
a spectre is haunting nicky melville
the spectre of ABBODIES on the line
where others
see chaos
I’ll see
patterns
for example this afternoon
as I was editing this teaser
for The Scores
there was a development in
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s
Commons investigation into
the Cambridge Analytica
oblique Facebook
scandal more of which later
which involves a Dr Aleksandr Kogan
who changed his name to Dr Spectre
coincidence?
Dr Kogan is told
by Committee member Ian C. Lucas (Labour)
Spectre is also the name
of the evil organisation in James Bond films
Kogan says that is “an unfortunate
coincidence”
Cambridge Analytica is not a Bond villain
apparently
(Peter Thiel is – probably)
we are submitting
to what
the world has
become
the world is not
enough
in fact
it’s too much
previously on
I was sick and tired
of
a country that works
for everyone
there is a body on
an ABBA album
the year I was born
about alien visitors
40 years later
coincidence?
predictive text suggests invasion
bodies on the line
ABBA’s last album
about
aliens reptiles
disguised as that!
‘S.O.S.’ is not about the Brexit’
Yes!
I’ve been broken-hearted
blue
since
knowing me
knowing EU
judges will decide
the likes of me a body
aged 10 years
in one winter
all war
is desire
for millions of bodies
on the line
coincidence?
my dad used to tell me
he was actually
Tom Betteridge
tell me
what happened
to the wonderful adventures
about my daughter
and son
and you
and
my mother
crying about
her daughter
I have been waiting
for these V is for visitors
vultures are pretty
came flying from far away
now I’m under attack
there is 52% extra
#notnormal signs
I always point out
these common birds of prey
often
in the middle of a buzzard!
Nick Nack Melville is non-bio. ABBODIES is available from Sad Press.