Poem # 56 Who Cares

Who cares

Riding my bicycle;
Jasmine scent in the
moonlight,
sharp and heavy,
where the gliding
air changes from
warm to cool.

An open window,
domestic drama,
I stop and watch.
Is this suspect?

The moon escapes
from the clouds,
and suddenly I
feel naked,
like the world
can see me.

The street is numb and silent,
but for a man who's
stumbled home and
shouts at his wife.

A little girl cries.

"Why can't the world hear?"
I ask myself.

Poem # 55 Simpson Desert

Simpson Desert

Perspiration drips onto
The skin made raw by the spade
I used to dig my vehicle
Out of the sand dune.
Like Cain I wander the desert
But can find no refuge.
It's Christmas 2011 and
thirty eight degrees.
"Fuck Off!", say the caretakers,
"It's Christmas!,
We don't do business
On December twenty-fifth!"
I feel that's not biblical,
just sad.
But the desert has compensations
- landscape charms,
Old ruins,
strange sculptured rocks,
big termite mounds, and
birds with attitude.
I've seen fleeting luminous colours
that like pots of gold
are impossible to grasp,
and trees that are almost
human as they droop
from lack of water.
In the desert man is not
able to hide away
like the animals.
In the desert man
cannot hide his desires.
He can fufil them, or not,
but cannot hide them.
Are our actions ever
spontaneous or always
pre meditated?
To what extent is
generosity on our part
magnaminous or
self serving?
Maybe the desert animals
know these answers.
Maybe my dogs know them too,
because their heads are
cocked to one side,
listening without judgment,
Like a therapist, and
their eyes are bright
Above their panting tongues.
I smile at them
as I put away the spade
under that hot sun
in the desert
at Christmas time 2011.

Poem # 54 Reggae Song

Reggae Song

I keep no secrets
I keep no secrets
I keep no secrets
from you.

I tell no secrets
I tell no secrets
I tell no secrets
of you.

I seek no secrets
I seek no secrets
I seek no secrets
from you.

I find no secrets
I find no secrets
I find no secrets
of you.

Love is a joining,
a span across the void.
a union, a narrative,
great stories will unfold.

An open book whose leaves
with seasons will be turned.
The path on this journey
of our lives will not divide.

I keep no secrets from you
You keep no secrets from me
I seek no secrets from you
You seek no secrets from me

No secrets, no secrets,
no secrets in our lives.

Poem # 53 Any Body

Any Body

Got a tattoo on my stomach,
a circular line of dashes
says ' hole to another universe
cut along the dotted line,
earthman inside!'.

Got two earrings - got them when
I saw a special at the wicked body shop,
one piercing for five dollars
five piercings for twenty.
You can't see the other three.

I carry a piece of ten centimetre
nylon fly wire in my stomach to
hold in my hernia.

Got tribal scarring in Becuanaland,
it's identical to the binary code for zero.

Got a quote from Proust tattooed
on the palm of my left hand -
that hurt!

Got a rebore in my sinus, and
a port and polish, helps
my engine run more efficiently.

Crimped my salivary gland
one night when brushing
too vigorously
whilst under the influence.
Pushing it with my tongue
constantly makes me look
evil.

I could go on -
but why bother,
let us simply say that
I am unique,
just like
everyone else.

Poem # 52 Wordplay III

Wordplay III

Zeppelin airbus dub her data media
Zeppelin airbus dub her data media

Bulbous bouffant blubber macadamia
Bulbous bouffant blubber macadamia

Degrade centigrade persuade upgrade

Lamia anemia academia mania
Lamia anemia academia mania

Mullet gullet mukluk buttock
Mullet gullet mukluk buttock

invisible unthinkable admissible medicinal

Roughend jocund fecund refund
Roughend jocund fecund refund

Tortilla!

Poem # 51 Farmhouse

Farmhouse

Ruined farmhouse in
crepuscular light
parquet floor a mosaic
of rabbit and sheep
droppings.
Sagging linoleum
in the kitchen
below the old
kooka stove.
Peeling wallpaper,
dust doing its dust dance
in the half light.
Nothing else to indicate
a man and a woman once
lived here in
love and hate,
had conceived in
one of these rooms
or the other,
three children
one with a physical
deformity the parents
were ashamed of.
In this house jam was
dribbled on the floor,
urine swirled around a bowl,
and dreams on a pillow.
Children left, never to speak
to their parents again.
On the wall illuminated in
a shaft of sunlight
a bleeding heart,
and outside the house
a shroud of blackberries.

Poem # 50 Life

Life

Like a rock climber dawns rosy fingers
pulled themselves over the horizon.
At peace for one moment and
hands behind my head I stared at
the spider webs in the corner
where the wall met the ceiling.
Then she said,
" Every time that I tell you
that I love you, you say nothing,
but that's your problem"

I had an inner dialogue with myself
( thought bubbles ) " If I say
nothing when you say you love me
it's both our problems.
My anxieties become your anxieties.
My confusion becomes your confusion.

In life children confuse parents.
Students confuse teachers.
Patients confuse doctors.
Individuals in the flock
confuse pastors.
Those in love who have confused hearts,
confuse those in love who have clear hearts."

but I said nothing.

" You need to see a counsellor!",
she said getting up out of bed in
her underwear momentarily illuminated
by golden beams of light
in which floated myriad
particles of dust.

Poem # 49 Penrith Blues

Penrith Blues

Well I'm going down to Penrith
I believe I'll dust my blues
Oh yeah!
Well I'm going down to Penrith
I believe I'll dust my blues
Yeah! yeah!
Well I'm going down to Penrith
What have I got to lose
Oh Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lord!

Well I'm going down to Penrith
I got Panthers on my mind
Oh yeah!
Well I'm going down to Penrith
I've got Panthers on my mind
Yeah! Yeah!
Going down to Panthers
Gonna play the pokies all the time.
Mercy! Mercy! I got the blues Oh yeah!

I saw a pretty girl Oh Lord she looked so sweet.
Oh yeah!
Well I saw a pretty girl oh Lord she looked so sweet.
Yeah!yeah!
had a tattoo on her left foot,
had a tattoo on her right,
Said " lift up both my feet
If you want sex tonight!"
Oh yeah!
I've got the blues so bad,
I'm almost wishing
I was dead!
Oh yeah!

If you go down to Penrith
wear
a bright bandanna
round your neck.
Oh yeah!
If you go down to Penrith
wear
a bright bandanna
round your neck.
Yeah!Yeah!
Caus it seems that down in Penrith
reds
the only colour it will get.
Oh yeah!
Lordy Lordy, mercy mercy, Good God in heaven.
I've got the blues.

Well I'm going down to Penrith
I believe I'll dust my blues.
Oh yeah!
Well I'm going down to Penrith
I believe I'll dust my blues
Yeah! Yeah!
Well I'm going down to Penrith
What have I got to lose.
Lord Lord, mercy mercy
I've got those low down
pie munching, chip crunching,
bottle sucking,
Lonesome blues!
Oh yeah!

POEM # 48 Junkie Calypso

Junkie Calypso

One morning when I woke up late
a junkie was standing outside my gate
the sight of the junkie so un-nerved me
I had to sit down and have a cup of tea
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
The sight of that junkie was getting me down
so I thought I'd take a stroll around town
but when I set off - junkie set off too
and when i cut back - junkie cut back too
when I speed up - junkie speed up too
when I slow down - junkie slow down too
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
When I sit down junkie sit down too
When I stand up - junkie stand up too
When I stroll around junkie strolling too
When I turn around - junkie turn round too
When I went inside junkie did that too
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what that junkie might do
I take a walk into the CBD expecting to lose that nasty junkie
but when I went to the matinee -
I found the junkie sitting there with me.
When I walk down the street junkie walking too
when I jump on the train
Junkie jumps on too
and then when I went to pick up my stride
there was the junkie there by my side
I don't know what this junkie might do
I really don't know what this junkie might do
I really don't know what this junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what this junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what this junkie might do
I mean I really don't know what this junkie might do