Bag full of headlines

Cut up newspaper headlines,
Magazine article titles
And that one question
That really sticks out:
Are you a psycho?
And I think if you want
To answer that question
On this little label littered
Brown paper carry-bag,
You’re having other questions
Forming in your mind.
One being: What exactly
Did the person who wrote
That question mean by it?
I am covered in headlines
And questions such as this,
Which are derived
From memories psychological.
So perhaps that’s it.
A person who studies
Psychology is a psycho-student
And the head of the department
Of psychology is a psycho-head!
Or maybe not.
Perhaps we should think
Of Greek myths more
And understand where Psyche
Fits into the equation
Of the psycho,
Whatever that is.
Gazing into face of a god
And all that comes with that,
Seeing the hideous monster
That you have grown to love
And being the goddess of the soul.
So, is your psyche a psycho?
Do you want to take the test?
Are you secretly wondering
If you actually are
An illogical severed penis
In the pocket of a grotesque mind?
It’s all about what
You put into me;
I am after all a bag full of headlines.


Initially NO (Victoria)
From Initially NO's book Riotous favour (2013)