Future Perfect
Ian Gibbins
“This tense denotes the completion of some event either in Future time or in Past time. . . . It seems like a contradiction to make a Future tense have reference to anything Past. But the future tense here implies an inference. . . .” JC Nesfield “Outline of English Grammar (Revised Edition) in Five Parts.” Macmillan & Co Ltd, London, 1917/1961.
he say tense note plet some vent eith
fut time or past or not or I will have
alt fut oth mag when I count bless
when we slip tween next fam cur hung
with nev ly fresh wat vol clear air
for spir in out hale hale else chest
splut flam eye blink my cut lip quiv
we list ev ject ev sound und roof
they struct ov tree burn skin grass
clay crack down mid earth deep split
so we void zard ware cip ast loom
less grav drift plan orb skew from reg
new moon trav furth from ease script
and quake rumb fort miss our frag home
he say seem dict make fut fer thing
past but here ply fer but we narr tale
with hist with unc aunt grand great
our cest our sib now vive tain press
I we vis numb dress crypt sec veil
fing print dent my whorl touch cog
safe or not poss cide mit to search
gard cept port to fight batt min spect
though our crete jung shelt hid neath
sol terr neath tox gas ward us round
our feeb sist sid us stant turn back
cross opt my our dream we cov oath
they cord fic nor us treat us as dirt
still come wish aft fore to have been
A video-poem version of this work can be seen at:
Ian Gibbins is online at IanGibbins.com.au and at vimeo.com/IanGibbins.
