I’ve failed.
I got my sea slug poem
but not the one about yr cataract
how when it was removed
& the dressings came off
you went out into the world
like Mary Oliver did
amazed at all you saw.
going Wow! Wow!
yr little expostulations of beauty.
Ants Doing Yoga
I was watching ants filing back and forth the other day
When two pulled ovef for a chat; and I wondered how it was
They knew each other seeing they all look alike; and I
Concluded they must have individual features like us:
Hooked noses, for instance, bushy eyebrows, little pot bellies
And carry nicknames like ‘Shorty’, ‘Ginge’ or ‘Spike’
And further ants must have little to say seeing they say it
So quickly, but mostly I wondered where ants are off to
All the time; it is hard to imagine them doing yoga, or chilling
Out at the cricket or at the beach in a deckchair or moshing out
in a mosh pit to Adam and the Ants. So where do ants go?
Ants
1
Like angry black hairs
the ants scatter everywhere
when I discover them
under the hem
of the water drum
2
They are like
runaway exclamation marks
on their side
their heads
the full stops
3
A year after the gulf war
I stayed with a friend in the states
who suffered a home invasion
of ants .
He sprayed , stamped , stomped
on them
till his house was clean .
That’s what Bush should have done
with Saddam he proclaimed
4
There are no ants in heaven
a priest explained to us at school .
Some how they got beneath the creator’s gaze
like cockroaches , rats and spiders .
They have no souls .
Kill with impunity
5
Smidgins of black , dashes.
a black din of limbs
an amokery of midnight slivers
through a crack in our world
they got in
*pic courtesy of pinterest
I was in bed with two Venetians, a long black
and a sleazy paperback
by Suzanne Pleshette
when an angry text erupted like a boil
on my iphone:
where were you, it said, I looked for you
& your floozy
everywhere in the cinema?
It was my old mate George.
Please don’t call her a floozy, I said.
We couldn’t make it. Sorry.
Sorry !!! Couldn’t make it.?
To see my new film, my best yet.
‘Ticket To Paradise’.
We’ll catch it on DVD, I said.
It’s not the same, he snapped,
sounding peeved and pedantic.
I don’t like hanging up on George
but he can work himself into a lather.
I dipped a Venetian into my long black
& carried on reading.
You apologize to the cat
the turtle in the tank
the goldfish in its bowl
and yr other half
in her room.
What got into you?
You’re not an IED
primed to go off
at the least provocation.
You coulda done better, mate.
You coulda done better.
A Little More
I think it’s okay to want a little more.
A little more love.
A little more applause.
That second glass of red.
Another night in paradise with you.
We were not built for abstemiousness.
We have gullets, appetites.
It does not mean excess.
A modicum of more will do.
Anita + Heydon: Hard Love. For Don, Tnkerr and others
Are they still together , I wonder ,
after all these years ?
Had they cemented their love
after the concrete hardened ?
Are they still living there
in # 510 ?
Is she still the boss ?
[ her name did go first ]
Did she walk all over him
like people do to their names?
Did their love fade ?
Will it outlive the concrete ?
Are they inside now
holding hands on the sofa
[ like their conjoined names
on the footpath ]
watching tv ?
I’d like to go up to the door
and ask ,
Hey ! do Anita and Heydon live here ?
But I stare at the names instead .
One day their love was fresh
as the newly poured concrete .
I’d like to think it still is.
Is it okay to take a post down?
I took a post down the other day
but no one noticed,
said anything.
Look, it had its chance.
But no one came up and asked it
to dance.
It slumped, sad and neglected on the page,
loudly weeping.
You can’t have that on a public forum.
It’s like that Philip Hodgkins poem, ‘Shooting the Dogs’.
I had to take it down to the basement,
put it out of its misery.
I just hope no one was watching.
This is Shrek.
Say hello to Shrek.
As you can see this Shrek is NOT a fictional character
but real flesh and blood.
Nor is he green or ogre-ish.
Shrek works at the Stunned Mullet,
the best fish and chip shop in the suburbs
cooking and serving customers.
His real name is Srikanth and comes from India.
Workers at the Hilton near the airport where he used to work
contracted his name to ‘Shrek’ in 2016.
Srikanth loves it and has been called ‘Shrek’ ever since.
He is warm and amiable and has a wicked sense of humor.
When you get served by Shrek it brightens your day.
Guillotine.
Who devised you?
You look so cute
so placid
so trustworthy
warm wooden seat
on the toilet rim
but when I lift you up
to pee
you don’t stay up
like other toilet seats
but drop down
heavily
like something medieval
a guillotine
ouch !
John Malone 