13/03/08 - HOMEWORK - a new literary cabaret opens in London in April. Featuring new work from Aisle16 members Chris Hicks, Ross Sutherland & Luke Wright as well as Tim Clare and Joe Dunthorne, HOMEWORK has a different headlining show from each month. More details on the gigs page. Check out our MySpace. E-Flyer here.

12/11/07 - The Services to Poetry tour is now over. Aisle16 plan to be back with a regular London gig in 2008. Watch this space.

01/11/07 - Who Writes This Crap? by Luke Wright & Joel Stickley has been published bu Hamish Hamilton. You can buy it from Amazon here

since 11/9/2001

If Hitler

“If Hitler was alive today he would be the toast
of every bioethics committee.” I say.
“He would have fingers in Ofcom and the face of abortion,
and on Sundays he would play golf with Chomsky.”

The room falls silent. “And he would win.” I add.
Dust collects on my shoulders. I pick at a hole in my cuff.
Conversation bores like a giant drill through the time-space continuum
As we travel unflinchingly towards our desert.

The peppered chicken leads to a conversation on organic farming
And the bare-faced profiteering of Sainsburys. “It’s like Hitler”, I add.
Dan argues that the only real alternative is battery farming,
Which is a terrible way to die, crammed in like that. “Like what Hitler did,” I say.

My wife’s friend Sandra tells us how difficult it is
to find parking near her son’s school
now that they have bought a Ford Galaxy.
“Fuck off back to Berlin,” I say, putting down my fork.

Later, a pop group sings on the TV, neat as death. My daughter
appears to like the song. “They are all Hitlers,” I tell her. “And this
song is Nazi Germany. Each verse is an airbase, full of words
that will murder countless thousands once they get into the air.”

People corner me in the pub, hands on their hips,
trying to organise my hypothetical Hitlers.
I look at them and shake my head. I cannot believe
That they want the purity that they wish for.

“Little Hitlers,” I call after them,
“I bet you wouldn’t even go back in time and kill Hilter.”
I pick up a copy of Time magazine and put my finger under the nose of Bill Gates.
“I would go back and time and kill Hitler,” I say to my newsagent.

Outside the sky is Hitler. There is a cloud shaped like a black claw.
My sadness is the size of ten football pitches placed end to end,
as heavy as a four double-decker buses.
I try to imagine something in the world that is still good and pure.

Then a dog with a moustache shuffles noisily between my legs,
and I realise— all is lost.

© Ross Sutherland 2008