VEX BOMB 004

ISSUE 004

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VEX BOMB

Poems from the Ventnor Exchange Spoken Word Collective

October 2025 Hello Friends We’re not sure where the Summer went, but we’re thrilled to be back!

Our fortnightly sessions have resumed, the first SPEAKEASY of the season is upon us, and we’re looking forward to what the colder months of the year will bring.

This fourth issue of VEX BOMB showcases some of our finest poets and we’re proud to bring your their work.

As well as continuing with our usual stuff, we have some exciting developments afoot so keep your eyes peeled for updates.

And if you’re missing fringe already, check out the back page to get tickets to Cat James and Steve Taverner’s show Rhyme and Reason in November.

May all the autumn leaves you step on be crispy

🍂

Ben & Cody VEX BOMB Editors

SUB IS FOR SUBLET There was no September this year just an immediate mulch carpet now they’ve asked me to vacuum our love out from between the sofa cushions but those smile stains won’t budge what’s the use in telling me to start again when the beginning never came and the winter has a purpose again and it is oats and amaretto CODY PEVREALL

TOM, CRUISE RUNNING

This is a film about Tom Cruise running. At the start I wasn’t sure if perhaps it would be about something more, as there seemed to be villains and the threat of a very real danger, but now that I understand that they existed only as the moment to set Tom Cruise in motion, it feels entirely natural that they are no longer part of the film and have been replaced by a series of violent explosions, because this is what matters. This is what is important: that he runs; that the explosions which take place initially some distance behind him, allow us time to process his mask of focus and presence before the world descends into chaos around him. This is what matters: that Tom Cruise runs; that when the explosions finally catch up with Tom Cruise running, they deliver no life-ending slice of shrapnel through flesh, no severing of limbs, no bone crushing rock to grind Tom Cruise running into something resembling sausage meat, as would surely happen to you or me if we were running in that environment. Instead the final blast which renders him unconscious is an orgasm, the breath of God which transports his spirit into a higher state wherein he sleeps, finally released, and dreams of a perfection where Tom Cruise running is not distracted by villains or morals, the unbearable accumulation of acolyte and rando, this mess of sausage-meat and emotion, hamstrung and egobound by ignorance and fear, lightness of mind and the weight of memory, all this - all us - is lifted away and he only runs, he runs and he runs, he runs and he runs, he runs and he runs, he runs and he runs.

TIM COOPER

This article first appeared in print in the Isle of Wight County Press on 27 June 2025.

War! Huh! What is it good for? Shareholder dividends

By Cat James By the time you read this we could all be dead.

While we on the Isle of Wight enjoy a sun-baked start to our summer, in distant lands deadly weapons continue to shatter innocent lives. Even though our shores are thankfully peaceful, we are fed a diet of misery, destruction, death, war, ruin and hatred.

For reasons greater minds than mine can’t fathom, humans have this propensity to destroy each other. Even if your tribe is not personally under attack, the threat of war seems ever-present. And to keep us engaged and complicit, the rhetoric is ramped up, like Henny-Penny on steroids.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

And for many people throughout history it has already fallen, or will tomorrow.

The main argument for military spending seems to be that the other boy did it first and, if he didn’t, then he’s thinking about doing it - and there are some extremely hefty boys out there, bristling with armaments and an imperialist mindset. The biggest boy of them all is up on his hind legs, and the man with the biggest conference table will undoubtedly lock antlers.

Pacifists - and I am one - would say that all international disputes can be peacefully resolved. But at what cost, you may ask?

Fundamentally nothing. No lives, no money. That’s what cost. However, there is no profit to be made out of peace, whereas there is an enormous price to be paid in the industry of war, and not just the human collateral.

In 2024, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

(SIPRI) estimated global military expenditure at $2.443 trillion, the highest level ever recorded by SIPRI. The Isle of Wight has skin in this game, with BAE Systems supporting many Islanders, both in work and through their gold- armour-plated pensions.

Every pound spent on weapons, even those of ‘peace’, may divert resources from social and sustainability projects, education and healthcare investment in warfare takes away from welfare. Even back in 1953, US President Eisenhower likened arms spending to stealing from the people.

Do we want our resources to be used on killing civilians abroad, or to help citizens at home?

The military–industrial complex has been accused of ‘pushing for war’ in pursuit of private economic interests. It’s almost like the last gasps of the fossil fuel industry; trying to remain relevant when surely the bulk of humanity is sick to death of this pork sword rattling.

And how will anyone know when the good guys have won? What does winning look like in a forever war?

Keir Starmer is being railroaded into committing yet more of our taxes on these international wargames, where the main winners are shareholders and the losers are us all.

Each June we celebrate Armed Forces Day. This Lest-We-Forget-ival commemorates the contributions of current service personnel and veterans plus, according to the website, promotes peace.

Do any of our leaders seriously respect the sacrifices made? Or, as they unknot the purse-strings, do they simply think ‘best we forget’.

WARNING SIGNS I come with context, With information sheets, With so many letters of apology.

My packaging’s ripped, sodden, Yet singed, Forget me, discard me, Out with the bins,

I come with baggage, With missing parts, My context is endless, With warning signs plastered all over me. I’m not what you bought, Take me out of the basket, I come with breakage, Before you get caught, With hazard lights, With heaps of bodged responsibility.

You found me broken, With hazard lights on, My packaging’s torn, sodden, and ripped, Trust, me My wrapping is loose, flimsy, and clipped, I’m not what you want, I come with apologies, I will arrive late, I’ll turn myself in, Stained, and stretched, Drag my broken sack back, Forget me, discard me, Laid to rest by the bins.

Lay me to rest, At sunrise they’ll find me, I’m not what you wanted Context attached, So best send me back, ‘This baggage is broken, My context is endless, Best send it back.’

My casing is cracked,

BY ANDREW BUTCHER

You won’t find a manual, It does not exist, I am an unfixable Mess of a gift, My baggage Too heavy My breakage Too dire Warning: flammable, HELP, I’m on fire!

Marriage at half-term in abeyance I obey my conscience stands in the corner surveying the dog hair that sticks to the skirting around all issues we wipe clean the slobber and spiderwebs the grudges and grievances dust the globe untraveled, the overused router, the peace lily does not bloom with our baby’s toothbrush bleach sealant showered in grime reach appeasements (yours and mine) open windows unblock sinkholes close the door lock ‘n’ leave

Emma Elobeid

FRESH FROM

Steve

Cat

Taverner & James

Rhyme and Reason ment.b art

enu/the /m

tail.net yre

Bawdy bard Steve Taverner and opinionated newspaper columnist Cat James explore the issues which perplex, enrage and entertain us.

atre dep

Thursday 20 November 2025. Doors 7pm Department, 29-30 Cross Street, Ryde PO33 2AA Show contains strong language and adult themes

GET ON WITH IT Get on with it, get on with it, the show's six minutes old, I came to see some magic, for that's what I was told.

So far you've just asked how we are, to which we answered "yay", Then said you couldn't hear us, though the yay was clear as day, Then asked us if we're ready to see a magic trick, Well what the hell do you think we're sitting here for, you daft dick?

Then you went behind a screen just to come on again And get some more applause, you must be really vain To think you've earned acclaim just for coming on Before you've done a single trick, my patience has now gone.

Why can't you just get on with it, I've had enough, I fear.

At least you've now done one trick, you've made me disappear!

STEVE TAVERNER

VEX, The Ventnor Exchange Spoken Word Collective, meets fortnightly on Thursdays at 7:30-9:30pm starting on 4th September 2025.

Find us on Facebook and Instagram @vexspokenword or email us on vexspokenword@gmail.com