Game Enjambment is a reoccurring poetry series on games and gaming.
There’s five reasons why this innovation never took off —
1.
I submerged myself in the bathtub
and thought
I don’t want to play video games here.
2.
Because games consoles don’t work underwater – Swim England (2017)
3.
A message from S.C.U.G.A president, Oma Keeling:
“We were developing an idea that only took off because of how it sounded,
It sounded like market expansion.
Self-Contained. Underwater. Gaming. Apparatus.
S.C.U.G.A
The project is dead now.
In truth
It only lived because I’d wanted to drown my PlayStation 3
For no reason other than stress and grief,
Intrusive catapult
Trap-your-sibling’s-head-in-a-car-door-type stuff.
Anyway,
We played Popcorn from Tetris to some whales,
They hated it.”
4.
It was raining so I went for a walk…
Saw a man carrying a big branch into his house
Very bushy and green
No explanation given
Or needed.
Since we grow underwater
In wombs
And learn through play
It only makes sense that you’d
Play Xbox on a submarine
To chill from war crimes.
A kid talks to their toy push bike
Telling it to wait for mummy and daddy
But it keeps on rolling
“Let’s do your coat up properly, chick.”
A vicar in white robes
Is talking to a congregation member with an umbrella
From their raised doorstep pulpit
Speaking with English vicar intonation
Mask hanging low about the chin.
I whip myself in the eye
With my mask
Before I enter the shop
Must get home before the pie I bought melts
And to put the Irn-Bru in the fridge
So that it’s cold and good.
A heart-shaped puddle has formed in a pothole
My back is cool and wet
The ground smells like moss
My mouth is dry
The stones are alive and
I shaved with a dull razor so my chin is sore.
Imagine playing games in a tub full of shaving cream
And stubble
How would you stop the hair sticking all over?
I gulp down the rest of the pint glass of water by the bed
It’s stale, but after a walk
It’s good.
5.
Younger and more exciting prospects
Yield success
In the underwater gaming industry!
BRINGING A NINTENDO SWITCH UNDERWATER! – BloomFilms (2017)
Read the rest of the Game Enjambment series.

Oma is a freelance artist, writer and art history researcher. They’re the creator of the blog GlitchOut, where they poke the borders between games and everything else, and aspire to head a remake of the 2000 adventure game Gift. They tweet about it all @GlitchOutMain.
Recent Comments