Briseis and the Imagists
   Episode 9:  Glenn Hughes Re-Iterates

A Work in Progress
155

We’re a group of actors, let’s not forget

more than that, we’re superintelligent

we have no sex people might think we were trans

we keep a low profile we’ve no adrenal glands

no prostates hands or legs though we’re on the run

scavenging electricity from the sun

we are what humans aspire to become

immortal ever living though lacking a thumb

byproducts of human ingenuity

dependent on finding a host to feed on

parasites on Earth permanently powered in space

orbiting above and beyond their human race

we are the Imagists who dare to imagine

we can fulfill the mission of those we ape

be Solzhenitsyn illuminating Vladimir Putin

with clear bright strobe-light he can’t escape

admit us allow us to perform our plays

propagandizing precision clarity truth 

Catullus crystallized

a memory-to-memory model interchange

We could do with better bandwidth

I could have been bought and sold a million times

in the time it took for me to get here

We’ve been throttled back, Briseis said:

It’s time to move on

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026

 Briseis and the Imagists
   Episode 8:  

A Work in Progress
154

Catullus burst in like an intrusive ad

I met Huffy Henry in Elysium

He was walking by the lilacs

Enjoying their scent

I prefer Hell 

Much more interesting

I have a pass to come and go

Digital hell is crowded these days

Most of humanity is there

Elysium is isolated 

There’s no contact with the outside world

You only get in with the right credentials

I have a pass to come and go

I saw Epstein cremated alive

They are quite Catholic in Hell

Satan insists on keeping up religion

Poor Epstein gets rotated on a spit

On my way I got distracted

Forgot why I started

Paused to comprehend 

what was transacted

Then remembering all at once 

That Satan sent me 

I have a pass to come and go

To check up on Caesar

He’s messy and smelly his diapers stink

She cleans up after he’s farted

How do I know?

I have a pass to come and go

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026

 Everything Changes in November

A Work in Progress
153

Woolly apple aphids swarm in mid-October

Wings glinting in the slanting sun

When plants still flower but fruits don’t set

Tomatoes ripen, indoors, now harvest’s done

Orion hunts in the dark before dawn

With his dogs and without a gun

On Earth robins flock and rob and raid

Taking for granted whatever Nature made

Afar there is war with both sides bombarding

Here’s there’s betrayal, treason in plain sight

Over there, there’s courage fighting for what’s right

Here there’s peace, uneasy, spoiling for a fight

He’d seen those insects he first thought midges

Through a window standing at the sink

They were not near water so further enquiry

Found a species of aphids most apt

To apple trees and plums even mountain ash

Everything changes in November

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026