To a tuna
Once you swam in the sea
then became part of my body
if one day the cemetery
will be submerged by a rising sea
perhaps your descendants will sup on me
thus favours returned
eternally
__________________________
A school hat with a name in it
of a child who has long since left the school
a small photograph of a woman who
has long since left this world
a pigeon flying overhead
carrying the DNA
for a thousand future generations of pigeons
all cross my path
now
____________________________
When bad things happen to good people
when good things happen to bad people
when bad things happen to bad people
when good things happen to good people
when good people turn out to be a bit bad
when bad people turn out to be a bit good
when the categorising mind takes a lunch break
when most people turn out to be bad and good
when bad things turn out to be not so bad
when good things turn out to be not so good
when everything is in transition
and labels fall off like leaves in Autumn
when good people eat good animals badly raised and killed
when nameless animals eat other nameless animals
when trending to good people make judgement calls other good people judge as bad
when bad people unwhittingly or knowingly do good perhaps because
they're having the afternoon off
when green things push up through the cracks
when the mind's circus stops whirling hither and thither
when everything begins in something else
like a great chain of clasped hands across the universe that slowly let go
'cos they've traced themselves back to the same body
when the burning question falls away
______________________________________
G-d made everything in two colours:
red and white
I try to keep them separate
but inconveniently
they keep on coming together again
I open the cupboard
looking for milk
but find blood
G-d made everything in 3 colours:
black, white
and red
pulsing underneath
only held in check by a layer thin
as skin
__________
the world is full
of beauty and splendour
especially
when you surrender
________________________
of course there is terror
along the way
but on the other side
is freedom
vast love
without fear
_________________________
On the first day of school I was very frightened
my stomach hurt
I cried
I held Mrs Cunningham’s soft hand
she told me everything would be all right
and it was
__________________
THE LAW-ABIDING FOX
The fox
went into Colesto buy a chicken
but even thoughit was wearing a scarf
and sunglasses
(it had seen Marilyn Monroe in similar get up)
the teller recognised it
and refused to ring up the sale:
"You're an introduced species", said the teller,
my hands are tied, management will kill me."
"What would you have me do"pleaded the fox,
"raid the neighbour's chook run?
then they'll call the rangers and they'll kill ME"
"Sorry" said the teller,"rules is rules."
so the fox waited outside
until a sympathetic possum
tossed her a coin.
"I'm not looking for donations" said the fox
"I'm just trying to feed my children.
Would you be so kind as to purchase me a chicken
- preferably free range - they taste better"
The stranger agreed so that night
the foxes had supper
and the neighbours chicken was spared
but as someone once remarked
there's no such thing
as a free dinner
and what tomorrowwill bring
the foxes, chickens
and possums
isn't easy to say
______________________
note: coles is the australian equivalent of sa's pick n pay
chook= chicken in australian
______________________
PUT WITH "AUSTRALIAN" POEMS
I ran the city to surf alone
without a true friend, without a true home
plastic cup shards formed an angry sea
from their barbies the cows asked wistfully:
"what has all this to do with me?"
\
_______________
Sweet regret
inside I still feel like a young man
wanting to bed as many lovelies as he can
for the sweetness of skin
of down on the arm
and the soft apertures down there
but outside I'm ageing
I'm supposed to be settled and content with my lot
not staring at the strikingly tall blond schoolgirl
exploding out of her blouse
sweet regret
__________________
Obituary I
He paid his bills on time
he hung his washing on the line
- but to live the life he dreamed of -
for that he had not time
__________________________
Obituary II
He lived in his head
made plans on his bed
strung words on a thread
but remained unsaid
_______
Rosh HaShanah Poem
May we be renewed
from moment to moment
instantly forgetting the
false knowledge
we acquired yesterday
and the vain hopes
we have for tomorrow
may a divine Alzheimer's
leave us as fresh and fertile
as the ploughed field after rain
and let us say
amayn
Friends of Palestine document Israelis when they sneeze
but somehow miss dictators killing as they please
____________________________________________
The song of the Atman tree (not latest version)
I want an inclusive poetry
a poetry of endings
as well as beginnings
fixities as well as
transformations
of routine and inescapable
dilemmas and same old same old
because under the rock of
boredom
a great truth lies waiting
a poetry of maggots and
degenerative diseases
a poetry of land fill sites
and the stench of decay
not just a poetry of
rosebuds in May
a poetry of awkward
uncomfortable feelings
a poetry like Parkinson's
which shakes your hand
a poetry which does not
lead you to a promised land
a poetry where lost amongst
the discards
may still be found some
beautiful shards
a poetry of melanoma
of legal disputes
which takes into cognisance
a father shouting at his uncomprehending two year old who did not stop playing
when called:
‘get into the fukking car’
which acknowledges
post-natal depression and that we cannot assume parenthood comes naturally to
everyone
that the schizophrenic and
the swindler
are just labels we put
on moments gone wrong
(you can freeze the film at
any frame,
it changes moment by
moment)
Given that I would rather
the world went up in flames and that inane insane cruelties continued
than risk being labelled
eccentric and finding myself marginalised at work (or wherever we gather)by
trying to brutallly punch through my colleague's defences
with naked animals skinned
alive appeals for us to do something differently, something substantially
inconveniently otherwise
to dent factory farming or
global warming or sweat shops in Bangladesh
So I want a poetry which
sees
how deep our conditioning
and how,
given what we believe,
our behaviours are inevitable
until we loose our religion
of me.
We have all attempted to
scatter our ovaries
not to have all the eggs of
our life in one basket
but rather implanted in
other lives.
I too, to ensure that my
story continues
sow words
hoping you will imbibe them
and they will lodge in you
taking on a life of
me-in-you like a McCartney-Lenon song humming itself
in a million minds, so we
want ownership but we also want
decentralisation of
ownership
but
when I arrive there
as David Fogel wrote
the palace of age
is huge, white and empty
and no matter how many
books
or lps or cds you sell
the mark of the unreal –
contradiction - remains
and everything about us is
unreal
except for the bliss and the
suffering calling
calling on us to come home.
Yet given
that the mind
will not leave me
(or you)
alone
of course we hanker deeply
for something
that is beautiful
to come and lick away
our ugliness, having
conceived of ourselves as such
while a swirling cloud of
cliches hovers around and inside us, and we traverse the lifeless landscape of value
judgements:
"when bad things
happen to good people" bla bla bla
and the biggest fiction we
have invented
and keep on retelling each
other
like a nightmarish soap
opera
is the notion of agency
in a vain attempt to keep
safe
what we imagine ourselves
to be;
if I pretend you
could have chosen to do otherwise
then I can hold you
accountable and punish you
in this way we clutch onto an
illusion of control,
“because of the fear
at nights.”
I want a poetics of
inclusion
a poetry of illegal dumping
not of resentment and
conformity and the stunted process of
political correctness
or of the low meaningless
babble about unenforceable human rights which has been the backdrop
to Holocaust and various other
unfathomable destructions
fashion dictates headlines
and who's given media time and what is discussed
and what is hidden, behind
the smiling death-masks
of newsreaders and
breakfast show anchors.
No! Before we can surface
we must disgorge everything
that is hidden
the opiates of share prices
and sport results
Australian sex tourists
buying children in Bali
The glassy eyed mantra’s of
commodified relationships:
nice to meet you
have a good day
you poor sick fuck.
I want an inclusive,
socially responsible
and irresponsible
poetry
a poetry of dimly lit
casinos and factory farms
because all of these nether
worlds
spring up like weeds in the
cracks
while our gaze is fixated
elsewhere.
conspiracy theories and all
acts of projection cannot survive the truth:
"we have met the enemy
and he is us"
let us organise a clean up
of
the land fill of the mind
Everything we have
forgotten is here
in dimly lit corridors
and bars
red eyed in front of
computer screens
at work late at night
telling lies
look into my eyes
watch my finger
your eyes are getting heavy
your body is relaxed
now close your eyes
and I'm going to count
down from 3 to 1
and when I reach one
I will snap my fingers
you will be asleep
and do and believe whatever
I tell you:
Three, two, one...
SNAP!
Now you will believe
you can all drive your own
cars and not have traffic jams and gridlock
you can show love and
connectedness by going on a 33 hour shopping spree
that casino's can fight
irresponsible gamboling and bars irresponsible drinking
that secret hungers can be
legislated out of sight
that people in Holland and
Australia can resolve problems in the Congo or the rape of slaves in Saudia by
reading 3 articles in The Guardian and clicking on a petition
that a brave new world can
be built on ancient prejudices
that you can run infomercials
about weight loss products or brain training programs or adverts about
wholesome milk from the farm which omit the bobby calves sent off to the
slaughter and teach children not to lie and expect that they
will believe you
that political correctness
can dissolve the fear and desire that lies at the heart of bigotry and abuse
that people who are blind
to their own splitting and disassociation and projection can effect harmonious
change...
that you can fight cancer
and environmental degradation and diabetes and sex trafficking and every other
symptom whose roots you ignore with three minutes of attention and a tokenistic
tick on the to do list.
isn't it clear?
the universe is created
out of habits
Language is a ritual we
practice, more often than any other
we invite in the wild
wolves of thought and then act surprised
when they gnaw out our
wings and legs and we gradually loose the power
to walk and fly
emancipate language from
the subjugation and colonisation
of commodification and
media manipulation
move away from splitting
and projection towards integration
leave tokenism behind, not
mothers day or fathers day or cancer or earth day
but every day
like breathing, like walking,
like brushing your teeth...
if you don't care about
branding or being a brand ambassador
if you don't want to chat
with a customer experience associate reading a script, but with a human being
if you need some kind of
snorkel
to get to the air
somewhere above the tons of
shit we shovel
if you don't believe the
word restaurants fits with fast food outlets selling sugary, fatty, fibre less
factory farmed foods
or that news is only about
conflict and violation, insanity and provocation, taking sides and
polarization:
begin with a new daily
ritual
check the labels
you have placed on your
self as product;
maybe you’ve missed
something
that begs to be seen.
I want a bounded poetry
without borders
whose insides are like
their outsides
black fire on white fire
let compassion rule as the
sovereign force in the universe
may it annihilate all barriers in its way
may it nudge all stunted
process back into flow
acknowledging all beginning
and end points are arbitrary
may it practice viveka
as in the rope from the
snake
as in owning an impulse vs acting
on it
as in telling benign from malign
prejudice,
may It be revealed as such
to me and to you
on that day
the body will exhale
our doubts will come galloping
our doubts will come galloping
over the hill like cavalry
each one an ugly duckling transformed
and the mind's chatter
will be a sweet serenade
letting us know
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
Adonai hu Elohim
veAni Adonai
Its as G-d as it gets
right now
________________
Note:
There are many inter
textual allusions in the poem, which I leave the reader to explore.
Viveka – Sanskrit –
discrimination, the power of discrimination
Adonai hu Elohim – Hebrew – the G-d of mercy and the G-d of
justice are one and the same
veAni Adonai – Hebrew - and I am That, That I am
_______________
ommited lines:
if you think disingenuous
corporate vision statements and political slogans are there because we have
made it unsafe to say right out what we want, being unable to distinguish
so that somehow,
magically
I get created and recreated
from the outside in
________________
sometimes making love to my wife
who is also my business partner
friend
critic
co-child rearer
support
emotional punching bag
can seem a little too
incestuous
for decency
___________________
Confessions of a pornography eater
O how many smooth skinned plucked melon breasted woman have I fallen in "love" with
thrilling at their abundance and forgetting my troubles
and the hard paving of this world
and when I surface
sullied and sorrowful
for them and for me
bewildered by my reception
of what had come to be
sullied and sorrowful
for them and for me
bewildered by my reception
of what had come to be
_______
The blessed counseller
turns suffering into connection
damage into new growth
they work with the aspect of mercy
and the aspect of justice
and the aspect of justice
water and rock
then they come home
and rake up the garden leaves
for compost. They know
"that the saint has sinned and the sinner will be sanctified"
that a little less doing
can go a long long way
and that new life bursts forth
from seeming stagnant decay
from seeming stagnant decay
__________________
to be broke
is no joke
but don't
knot that rope
while there's life
there's hope
is no joke
but don't
knot that rope
while there's life
there's hope
______________________
whether you're a Buddist or Jew
a Hindu, Moslem or Christian
on the right or left
a conservative or progressive
you're on a thought train to an
Aushwitz
of the mind
where contrary information
is gassed and then cremated
and from the barren ashes
only more thoughts grow
_____________
doesn't matter
whether you're Bhuddist or Hindu
Jew or Christian
Moslem or Bahai
we all come home to 2.3 kids
dealing with impenetrable call centres staffed by robots
eat the same over processed foods
we all hanker for something forbidden
all feel victimised by something or someone
______________
Erev
zeman shehashemesh
shoka'at bemaarav
veohr vechoshech
mitarbavim
_____________________
the sirens are calling from the rocks
shave your peah's, grow your locks
the sirens are calling from the shore
don't be different any more
speak like us, think like us
Erev
zeman shehashemesh
shoka'at bemaarav
veohr vechoshech
mitarbavim
_____________________
the sirens are calling from the rocks
shave your peah's, grow your locks
the sirens are calling from the shore
don't be different any more
speak like us, think like us
eat the same, don't make a fuss
celebrate the same days, drink our booze
celebrate the same days, drink our booze
__________________________
words as incantations
words as launching stations
words as meditations
words as calibrations
words as maturations
words as transformations
words make conversations
words make conversations
___________
I dream on my bed
Try conjure up bread
Live a lot in my head
String words on a thread
Yet remain unsaid
Try conjure up bread
Live a lot in my head
String words on a thread
Yet remain unsaid
________
The wave
used up all its energy
worrying how it could
improve the ocean
________
2, 4, 6, 8
leave your troubles at the gate
get your act together mate
thank you G-d for rooibos tea
for healing and for cleansing me
_______________
Sung to the tune of Queen's "This thing called love"
Crazy Little Thing Called "I"
This thing
called I
I just
can't handle it
this thing
called I
I must
see under it
but I ain't ready
Crazy little thing called I
This thing (this thing)
Called I (called I)
It cries (like a baby)
for its dignity
It sulks (woo woo)
It lies (woo woo)
It makes up fibs any time of day
entertains me
Crazy little thing called I
There goes my harmony
I lost it when I awoke
I drive me crazy
I drive me like a rental car
Then leave me in a foreign town
I gotta be cool, let go, relax
And get off my track's
Take a back seat, sit down
stop looking for something to complete my I
But am I ready?
Crazy little thing called I
Gotta stop, sol-ving, selving
get off my grooves
Take a back seat (ah hum), fall off (ah hum)
just let the sea dissolve my I
I yam ready (ready steady)
Crazy little thing called I
This thing called I, I just can't handle it
This thing called I, I must get around it
I ain't ready
Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Crazy little thing called I
Crazy little thing called I, yeah, yeah
Crazy little thing called I, yeah, yeah
Crazy thing I call my I , yeah, yeah
Crazy thing I call my I, yeah, yeah
My I oh my oh my
yeah yeah
___________
O Shchinah
O Adamah
Adonai hu Elohim
(sung to the tune of)
_________________
If I could just get my death behind me I could really get on with my life
____________________
I hid in a synagogue for two years
making pamphlets and eating cake
waiting for my time to come
________________________
If I am a lettuce
then let us
_____________
_______
In the morning
when I struggle to rise
I say these words
familiar and comforting from long being held
like smooth sweet pebbles in the
mouth of someone
lost in a waterless desert:
modeh ani lefanecheha melech chai vekayam:
I gratitude to you, living G-d of being
that returns my separation
great is my faith
that we will meet today
____________
Maariv
Thanks for this glorious silence
thanks for the sun in the east
thanks for the trouble that passes
thanks for this famine and feast
____________________
I've made my bed and now I must die on it
________________________
now that I don't know who I am anymore
I'm free to be what I never was before
_______________________
Itinary
I grieve here
at nine
and alive home
at one
______________
PSALM
G-d takes me for a walk
Adonai Roh-ee
I will not lack
for everything
and everyone
is in me
_______________
There's little room for complacency
as I continue my search for safety
sometime's its hard to relate
to my particular fate
but don't get me wrong
I love my song
as I drive home alone in the rain
seeking to live
beyond pleasure or pain
_________
O lonely masturbator
running hopelessly down
the rails of desire
_____________________
FAITHFUL
when I was 13 I longed for a snowy smith skateboard
and a bulova watch
and when I was 27 I longed to write
the perfect short story
and when I was 35
I longed to direct a profoundly moving feature film
and when I was 45 I longed for a handsome house
and family car
but always
I longed for a woman
_______________
(These poems have nothing to do with the politics and religion of desire)
______________
Australia
land of anti-depressants and kangaroo culls
big-car cuntry
_________________
Fruit
pears
fresh peaches
ripe pomegranates
MELONS
______________
when we judge our impulses
rather than allowing them to come into full view
they remain subversively
activated
__________________
a slim young women
with a diaphanous blouse
and generous breasts
walks into a funeral parlour
death makes sex
even more urgent
(let us at least die
copulating)
____________
I ate a Mc%$@#s burger
and sank into oblivion
I bought things I didn't need
and sank into oblivion
I went off to the races
and sank into oblivion
I fiddled with the pokies
and sank into oblivion
I wrote another poem
and sank into oblivion
only problem is
oblivion doesn't last
___________
I get hooked on a passing thought:
I get hot under the collar
I write letters
I sign petitions
I post thing to facebook
I get exhausted
I subside
I remain
_________________________
your eyes are looking at something you've found
the world keeps on spinning around and around
and whether you dream of the earth or the sky
I want you to know that you're my kind of Guy
Life lends you to us, and G-d makes no mistake
so much abundance can make the heart ache
but whether I smile or there's a tear in my eye
I'd like you to know that you're my kind of Guy
_________________
For 25 years
a bullet
has travelled along with me
until last night
on the cliffs of Vaucluse
I threw it into the sea
_____________
I have a diary
courtesy of Walter Carter Funerals
that numbers my days
______________
Don't be the husband or the wife
be the love between them
don't be the leader or the follower
be the love between them
don't be the parent or the child
be the love between them
don't be the owner or the dog
be the love between them
don't be the flower or the bee
be the love between them
don't be the whale or its song
be the love between them
al pi amirah shel Sri Nisargaddata Maharaj
___________________
TRANSITIONS
jagged edges
smooth as glass:
this too
shall come to pass
___________________
The kick off whistle. Playing rugby
against Highlands North
a collective puncturing
and escape of air as they slammed into us like a goyishe freight train
into brittle boned jewbirds
did this create the story or affirm it?
____The big stink
said Uncle Sid
who made the big stink?
shame came early dropping in
seeping through the cracks of my
open soft skinned being
__________
Sam bedigz
At yeshiva
I went down
to gaze upon the two plain woman in the office
their long sleeve cuffed with lace
and for a mad crazy moment
when one entered the toilet
peeped through the keyhole
hoping to see
the sweet stuff of life
_________________________________
A man known only to me as "Lemmy"
the tea boy at my father's office, Teleoptic
brought sweet sweet milky tea
around 7 or 8 times a day
chipped and stained, but china with saucers
on a tray. Well I remember
his toothy smile, not like the man whose fingers were caught in the metal stamp
and two lost. I never saw him, just heard his story
that night as my dad related rushing him off to the hospital.
This was the safe backdrop to my life, removed and comforting,
the order of things in a known universe,
Lemmy died. I think my dad went to the funeral.
He and dad in the great Teleoptic in the sky.
_______
Doggerel Day (with acknowledgements to Gus Ferguson)
now that I don't know who I am anymore
I'm free to be what I never was before
__________________________
to rest in my prison
to rest in my flight
to rest in my weakness
to rest in my might
to rest on the grass
to rest on the sea
to rest inside you
to rest inside me
__________________
I've been to the west and I've been to the east
and I'm bloated with spirit like a warm bowl of yeast
I've been to the ashram, I've been on retreat
I've sat in the silence, I've stopped eating meat
I'm so enlightened I can't find my head
perhaps it has fallen under the bed
I've been to Satsang and I've been such a whore
and yet I'm no settled than I was before
_____________________
The things that I wanted to do in my prime
will when I am old(er) and then have the time
not seem so urgent, not urgent at all
the fingers will reach for the pen and withdraw
instead I'll bed virgins and sip from their cup
despite not being able to get it up
yes when I am (old)er with only one eye
I will smoke dagga and look at the sky
________________
when you are young
wear your body
like a shoulder bag
like a pair of slip on shoes
without socks
when you are old
wear your body like
a slightly crumpled coat
on a melting, too small
hanger
______________________
Believe
with a pure faith
that you are That Love
that swallowers up lovers
clenched on their beds
that swallows up travels
to distant lands
and swallows up dreams
that swallows up prisons
and hospital beds
first days at school
and last days at work
that swallows up victory
and mangled defeat
that swallows up bodies
into the eloquent chatter
of interstellar
silence
____________________________________
Like a Buddist in a butcher shop
like a lover of pristine coastlines
watching people carrying out their overpackaged shopping
in the millions of plastic bags that will despoil them
wrestling with the seeming turgid inevitability
of the way things seem to be right now
but knowing it is all changing
relentlessly, irresistibly
by itself
_________
I always wanted to protect Israel
and Judaism
like a little baby
like a guiding star
by which I find
my way
_________________
In Jerusalem
time and space are contracted
the 21st century touches the 57th
Har Habayit touches El Aksa
Talbieh touches Kommimiyot
North touches South
East West:
That's why there's so much friction In Jerusalem
time and space are contracted
the 21st century touches the 57th
Har Habayit touches El Aksa
Talbieh touches Kommimiyot
North touches South
East West:
_____________________
Advice to the sons and daughters of Adam ve Chava
"Al Tihiyeh Tzadik Harbei" (Kohelet) - "Don't be too righteous" (Ecclesiates)
Steal
but don't steal too much
Tell the truth
but not too much
Eat
but don't eat too much
Love
but not too much
Work
but not too much
Kill
but not to much
Give
but not to much
Conceal
but not too much
Reveal
but not too much
______________________
My hands
my feet
my car
my old school
my bacteria
my fundamentalists
my factory farms
my global warming
my olympic gold medals
my babies
my wars
my philanthropy
my heroism
my sacrifice and discipline
my good sense
my drug lords
my coal addiction
________________
In the land of Israel
when disater threatened
the kohanim, the priestly caste
would go to the temple
would light a fire
offer sacrifices
perform rituals
sing the psalms
later when the temple had been destroyed
and the people scattered
when disaster threatened
the kohanim and leviim
would light a fire
perform rituals
sing the psalms
still later, when the land had been taken away
the temple destroyed
the people scattered
and disaster threatened
the authorities did not allow Jews to light a fire
so all who claimed to be descendants of the kohanim and leviim
would gather in the synagogues
perform the ritual
sing the psalms
and tell the story
of how disaster was averted
and later still, when a third of his people
as in every generation
had not been saved
and disaster threatened
they could not go to the temple
or light the fire
offer sacrifices
and the rituals had changed
but they sang the psalms
and told the story
which grew the telling
and acquired
quite apart from the things of which it spoke
a life of its own
so that those who told it
found in it a reason, a purpose, a pay-cheque
whether disaster was averted or not
_______________
Now I am writing this
Now I am writing
Now I am
Now I
Now
One day I will be gone
One day I will be
One day I will
One day I
One day
One
Is it not indescribable?
Is it not?
Is it?
Is?
Now One Is
_______________________________
I bring Hebrew where there is none
I bring exercise where there is only slump
I bring doubt where there is complacency
I bring certainty where there is none
I bring otherness where there is only sameness
I bring depth where only surface seems safe
I bring quiteness where noise abounds
I bring connection where there's only cliche
___________________
At night I dream of you
beloved that has gone
mammals that have disappeared
each and every one
the crescent nailtail wallaby
the pig foot bandicoot
the Tasmanian tiger, the boodie
which lived near figtrees root
with you has gone some wonder
the gasp in a child's eye
who saw in them reflection
of G-d's diversity
yes Bega cheese is on the shelves
but quoll and koala were quelled
with the introduction of cattle
and the Eucalypts that were felled
So you'll see a maccers wrapper
and you'll see a plastic bag
blowing down the street or
festooned upon some snag
but you will not see the rabbit-rat or
hear the lesser bilby's hiss
as they fell before the boot of man
and the poison in his kiss
_____________
may I borrow your crotch, my dear
may I borrow your breasts
let me take them home for a while
so that I can get some rest
your toungue, your lips, your nipple your hips
I will not take them far
to have them is to be done with them
and then I can see what else you are
________
thought happens to me
almost constantly
I step out of sleep into a blizzard of them
"the human condition:
lost in thought"
_______________
the toilets at work
beit mikdash me'at
my little sanctuary
________________
the sea of cause and effect
is tangled and wide
and while one may catch a fish
one cannot catch the sea itself
___________
Identity theft
Someone has stolen my identity
the bank will no longer take my money
someone bought a treadmill
using my name
and had it delivered to an address in Zimbabwe
my children will not
climb into the car
claiming they've been warned against strangers
the woman I've lived with
for twenty years
says she doesn't know
who I am anymore
my access card will not work at work
so I suddenly find I have time on my hands
and with nothing to do
can find out what I am
am I your son? I ask my father
am I your father? I ask my son
am I at all? I ask myself
and wait for an answer to come
in the meantime
I go for long walks on the beach
and try to maintain
a scholarly mien
I read in the papers
that I'm wanted for fraud
or, at least, a person with
the same name as me
perhaps I should try to steal it back
the accounts, the habits, the plans, the facade?
or perhaps it is better
to travel incognito
at least this way
i don't pay taxes
and feel less aggrieved
when the waves wash my footprints
away
------------------------------
The vocabulary of equinamity
Instead of harassed
try 'the police stopped me one more time"
why bring your blood to the boil
when it could be cool
instead of abused
suck on "my father did that"
instead of unfair play with
this taught me that
_____________
Songs to the Silence
Rabeynu shel Olam
let me be less grasping
___________________
Adonai
is a name
for That
from which every
thing
emerges
and Elohim for That
which takes it all back
_____________________
Making whole
Even during peacetime
a psychologist or counsllor
is like W.H. R. Rivers
sending Sassoon back to the front
now able to cope
with the insanity
of kill or be killed
ready to hold down a job
and watch ads on television
ready to consume
whre consumption is needed
and contribute to landfill
with every council collection
to bring in the exterminators
should pests be in the kitchen
and speed the collapse of bio diversity
with every tasty bite of palm oil
to send the kids to the best schools possible
so that they too may succeed
back to a life
of props to self esteem
tummy tucks and anti ageing cream
instead of the thing itself
back to a life of work that disadvantages
as much as it benefits
______________
"Suck on this, bitch"
The Austrlian community
and working Australians
want safer borders
the freedom to make their own choices
a strong economy
and reality tv
regular education grants
to spend on the pokies
and subsidised pain medication
__________________
I want to lie
very still
inside you
moved
but unmoving
hardly daring to breathe
my stomach against your
back my
hands cupping your
overflowing
breasts
your nipples
taut aginst my palms
with no past
or no future
I your Adam
you my Chava
waiting just a little
longer
to explode
___________________________
hands cupping
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