#334 - shame

1.xii.20

334

shame

 

should someone be ashamed of a picture?

of course they should

if the picture’s a lie

 

but it’s not just pictures

there all sorts of thieving

all sorts of lie

 

and who should be ashamed?

no you should be ashamed

 

here’s a picture of Australia

here’s a flag

ask whose

and ask why

 

a tit and tattle

not my choice

but

should I be ashamed of what’s done in my name?

let’s just for instance say the murder of innocents

non-combatants, the word children has been bandied

and should I be ashamed?

 

of the hushed up

of the dirty secret

medals handed out

of the chain of respectability

all up to sir someone

and queenly

 

39 civilians

cost me a lot to murder them

but damage is collateral

you pay your taxes too

 

and who should be ashamed?

no you should be ashamed

 

pictures?

there are plenty of which I’m ashamed

and all sorts of things

 

I’m ashamed of how some of my clothes were made

ashamed of what I, personally, have pumped into the atmosphere

ashamed of the daily vanishings – species, languages

 

I’m ashamed Rupert Murdoch was once an Australian

I’m ashamed of Smoko, his baseball cap

confected rage

confecting shames for others

in his painted corner

the little trump grovels

wants to make you shake his hand

 

if I say shame!

 

and who should be ashamed?

no you should be ashamed

 

I am ashamed of the song of the flag 

of all the weasel words spoken for me

 

ashamed my country was stolen

though I didn’t do it myself

though I know most of them are

still it’s a shame job, isn’t it?

see how we have to live

 

that farmer who mentioned the ant and the elephant

he was right on the money there

 

you might not see my black armband

but

I’m ashamed of eating the animals  

of museums stuffed with stolen goods

prisons we call zoos

I still visit the prisoners though

I’m ashamed of the human prisons too

 

ashamed of various empires

including this one now

I’m ashamed of the opium wars

 

and

here’s Smoko

lapping up the coal

here lick this

they’ll love you

in a mining seat

 

I’m ashamed of the dogs he whistles up

ashamed of hatred whipped for some votes

just enough to keep up the shame

 

and who should be ashamed?

no you should be ashamed

 

better to handle our shames ourselves

but we full and frank confess

 

am I ashamed of ?

Tiananmen, Tibet,

Xinjiang and the poor bloody Uighurs,

Hong Kong

The Great Leap Forward –

my own species’ stupidest ever moment

big things, really big

 

no, these are someone else’s

these are someone else’s shames

 

will reality come to the stolen land

will truth come

and who will we be invading next?

what will be the next lie to suck up?

to cover up

will murderers one day go to gaol?

or is it a shame to tell?

#333 - summer is coming in

 

30.xi.20

333

summer is coming in

 

in pumpkin song

and run-along

tendril

melon-ifluous

swelling

 

it’s weed high

and done up in webs

hard spiders hang

walk into summer so

 

and summer is coming in

snuck under the door

through a screen gap

hide underfrond

hope dew and drip

 

summer is growing in

everyone’s buried green gone

unseen things bite now

and swell

 

it likes a sheath and shorn

hangs heavy on the vine

 

climbed the stairs

and too much summer

opened a desk drawer

summer was there

goes everywhere

 

come clouds

and cast me shade

 

summer stirs dust on a last season fan

 

under the collar hot

come hurricanes of respite

southerly bust me

 

cicadas say summer

years warmer than they were

summer says this is just the beginning

 

flail with scythe, machete

but the buggers come back

taller than before

heads of seed

for a homage

 

not even a trump can stop the world’s turn

 

a beast lies down with the grass grows over

any lazy lizard knows

 

summer sold me a noisy air conditioner

pushy bloody deity

 

summer has its vengeance now

comes with own drought

some fire at times

watch

waves of record heat

 

must have opened a window

and let it

 

who flew through?

 

who can act in this?

 

trees rain bark

 

a little limp and wilting

breeze me please

I’ll take a few drops with that

 

so long wanting

now wanting it gone

 

a zephyr in November yet

 

332 - work of waking

 

29.xi.20

work of waking

 

see what won’t be

kilter off

pass the parcel till here

 

the queen upstairs

young and the prince hard pressed

swimming to next light

 

a cramp

and sea in itself

swelling to a roar

a jokey jockeying

 

whisper was ‘not too late all along’

 

amor fati

vision lack clouds come home

 

long in-joke of a pub

footy an all-sides blare

passive courtyard smoke

 

a time come and here we are

living, as we do, after all ages

 

cult of self-precious

 

make myself temporary phenomenon

open a removal shop

 

every tat says forever

 

get back to the dream

 

forever’s tattooed over today

 

it’s trinkety thinking

 

I glimpse the other life then

glad of the one I’m in

 

world hopelessly far

#331 - many truths I disbelieve

 

28.xi.20

331

many truths I disbelieve

for godsbother

 

confessions!

duress!

the too bright day upon us

 

simple things

year of this number already here

today’s date too

 

girth and age

my bath displacement

the tree unleafed

 

testimony here set down

that they are gone for instance

that I will go

the all despite plausible denial

 

walls fallen where the paddock stood

that these now aches are mine

 

things have no meaning

there will be no say

 

pages engraved

the bounce and settle

 

bills and emptying the larder

that these now aches are mine

sign here

 

how day and sometimes, season

come

already the hour again

don’t know

 

I touch a switch

and light or air

news other ends the world

 

things set out in black and white

a certain civilization topple

cruel clauses in fine print  

 

climate for our lives now changed

and ourselves utterly

 

limp arrows

my chariot

how it goes by touch

beyond the understanding

 

perfections of a sky – rotation

 

gods full of everything

the members of a chord conspire

 

I was always pointing to a question

(best part of unbelief)

 

untwinkle a star

blink out

never clipped that one

I won’t wear

 

stumbled in a blind till Christmas

I know I know

how it won’t be

chair gone when the music ends

#330 - by the way

 

27.xi.20

330

by the way

for the politicals

 

 

there is a global conspiracy

there are

 

just because I’m not doesn’t mean

 

let’s call one of them money

dark intentions

us and them

 

they are there

and among us

 

little conspiracies make up the big

the way a cancer spreads

 

think of your heart

turns out to be on death’s team

 

there are dark intentions

and anyway, night falls

to pervert the course of

 

justice is frequently travesty

 

shall we take the sky falling?

long rumoured

 

there’s ownership

almost always involves some theft

but soon forget about that

 

signature’s required

no need to read between the lines

 

Earth’s flat if you keep walking

edgy though

 

conspiracy’s where everything everywhere’s the same

 

blokes in charge on top

for instance

 

fossil fuel

burn everything till the air is black

 

one sea

one atmosphere

first signs of world government!

 

religion is a biggie

where fear meets wishful thinking

and everyone gets to be right

and righteous with it

burn the rest

 

everything’s at stake

 

and irony’s conspiracy

they’re laughing behind

 

fear you will

and violence do

 

let’s take the human race

I mean ourselves of course  

what creature isn’t worldwide threatened?

eat sixty billion a year last count

and that excludes the fish

because they can swim for it I guess

 

imagine unnatural disasters

like this government of ours

 

follow the money trail

but here we are

it’s the monkeys doing Shakespeare

won’t resile

not politic to

 

who has a hand in your pocket?

that’s swell

 

is/are

grammar

they want to make us speak right

onto logic next

blame the Chinese

blame the Greeks

 

there are no abstractions to trust  

 

take poverty

what was it Blake said

… ‘pity would be no more

…’

 

innocence robbed

smash clocks

kill time’s conspiracy

 

invention is the worst

and got us in this mess

ideas too big to contemplate

 

consider a stockpile of nuclear weapons

still here, there…

 

last chance to blow up the world?

never say never

not on your life

there’ll be so many more

 

forests

conspiracies of trees

and there’s life returning

as yet unrecorded

still making itself up

as we go

 

song of every bird that sings –

conspiring to survive

#329 - enough rope and hang

 

26.xi.20

329

enough rope and hang

 

meditation on the eachness of lives

for godbother

 

come from all directions

shine

 

more than grammatical

insect up and

shone beside

 

the great togethering

jaws and all

tooth, swat, spray

a guessing sky

 

let’s tentacle and touch

 

just take the everness of far

 

mended, task bent

(soul and after me an ever)

 

poem is wander

 

who’ll be dinner now?

 

mood shift

wall of the day

 

green in through all windows

 

will it matter who they were?

how they went?

 

take voyage in the words as given

or

life as a chore and one day done

 

there’s enough rope and hang alright

look at this way

 

an undervanish, say sea

 

air between the pages

inkling along

 

threw my life at the idea

 

frequently leave out the doing

 

sparse whiskered

long of fang

make vignette

tableau

polish

 

how we were

in what conceived

madness and whether

they call it love

 

sparse sparkle

 

the eachness!

all shone beside

and in real time

 

after –

no you

no remember

no won’t

just thing

 

memory

who has how much?

and mattering

a where when why

 

the here-ness nowish

 

dint of

tug on this little thread

and unravel

 

come lovely

all telling

 

heard in your head

a twinkle

and then

all gone

#328 - for the birds

25.xi.20

328

for the birds

 

a dance around the day

 

every morning

look at what’s lit

 

and paint it

rounds

so sing

keep up

and in the rhythm

frame, click

this here and who you are

 

called to account

note down

 

already among the gone

you’ll know

little gardens of my wilderness

 

time has left behind

and the opposite is true

 

the rolling made of wave – imagine!

 

every morning

look at the world

cloud in a pond gone smaller

than seeing

 

then in the blue blank

all for us to work

 

bird loud beginning

frogs gone to ground

no every-ness about but

everyone has a say

 

sometimes stillness

still here for them

 

jacaranda falls

yet on display

 

gnarl and grow over

clumsy bumble of flight

 

and ask

what colours will come in the firstness

blue above

green around

 

some to the lit world

 

for the birds!

and there’s no higher power

 

after the storm

among the fallen

some to their dream

and deeper than night

 

there’s no yesterday now 

 

#327 - our murderers

24.xi.20

327

our murderers

lest we forget  

 

brave boys

they did this in your name

my name

ours

and by the way we paid for it

top dollar too

we’re still paying some of them

they’re ‘serving’

they’re laying low

 

the medals shine!

 

we have worshipped them

lay a wreath for the living

 

here’s our Yasukuni

 

boys will be boys

what’s next?

 

our murderers!

 

lest we forget them

rough and rowdy when they let off steam

and what do you expect?

 

they love the word cunt

as in

‘should I drop this one?’

 

a blooding

has been sacred

call it a ‘culture’

 

it’s all cunt and kill with them

 

isn’t ‘unlawful killing’ weasely?

no, it wasn’t it, it wasn’t like that

no room on the chopper

and hard to make decisions like that

 

why should we not glory in

39 MURDERED BY OUR BEST

defenceless civilians!

our brave boys did that

 

there for us!

that was history’s stage

were we advancing?

turn the page

and past behind

 

will we be jasmined if we remember?

 

one of them with the double barrelled VC

for gallantry

kings queens graciously pleased

 

oh they were all under terrible strain

can you imagine the PTSD

for instance, of the killer?

some have topped themselves since

 

remind me who is it tells no tales

and

should we be perturbed?

 

questions to bother

cream of the cream

but

will they come for us in our beds

say cunt and kill?

 

no we are white and pay their wages

we are white and free

 

young and

one is a businessman

 

the valour must be conspicuous

the rising sun is brighter

 

one was father of the year

and later sweep under the carpet

 

not the first murderer awarded …

where do you think that empires come from?

 

but let’s not have trial by poetry

let’s do it properly

with a court in the village

come brothers and sisters

children, mums, dads

 

let’s have everyone tell who is gone

how it is

THIRTY NINE MURDERED

how many living deaths then?

hearts forever bung?

 

my father’s slouch hat’s decomposed now

 

who was it sent them off by the way?

who turned the blind eye

all up the chain?

for oil to heat the world

let’s not forget revenge

and valour

 

all for the sun still rising

and at the going down as well

sacred all along!

 

little Johnny gallipolized us

Murdoch made it happen

in between cooking a planet

 

it’s been a casual kind of hatred

holy, so to say

 

with monument and more to come

national soul is a flimsy fabric

out of harm’s way here

 

do you see a pattern?

does the flag rot through?

 

we have plausible denial

 

not human

that’s how

couldn’t matter

 

a blooding

with cunts

like shooting a dog

and over and over

 

why not?

we’re there

has to be a first

 

keep mum

they love their mummies, their wives

daughters

 

cunts

must not speak

 

and dead cunts tell no tales

 

they themselves have been sacred till now

 

and it’s all in our name

somewhere we must have signed for this

and now the goods are delivered  

 

it’s not a difficult conjugation –

sorry is not going to cut it…

we need a ‘never again’

 

I want to hear Smoko say it

‘I am

you are

we are

ashamed’ 

#326 - two poems for godsbother - spectacular to be & live until we don't

 

23.xi.20

326

two poems

 

spectacular to be

for godsbother

 

here now

alive and all perceiving

concerned for

someone else must care

 

the past from which we dream now

strange languages come by

 

see yourself at it

mirror or not

a sky edge to

 

future vanishing as fast

 

time took to us

alive, all perceiving

 

a garden in my wilderness

 

and it consists

from somewhere

 

gauge temperature, humidity

mood, a turn of stars

 

and really just us

all entities proceeding

 

the looking out

and after of me

own two feet and spring !

 

just ask

though habits form from

 

over the tripwire

and elsewhere meant

 

might think that you’ve imagined it

but I don’t buy that lark

 

feel one world

suspect the others

 

I’ll ink it out for you

just thus

 

no sure

no certain knowledge

but that we’re here for now

 

 

 

 

live until we don’t

for godsbother

 

come touch tell

it’s everybody’s story

look ahead back

go breathless

 

it’s once in a lifetime!

 

imagining the world stops

that’s just one habit of a clock

 

think of the flying islands

 

ropes and pulleys tear along

 

time in its polished glass and drip

below beyond a threshold

 

then leavings are taken to season

no need for concern about that

 

never from ashes or until dust

how long?

so close

death comes

never notice

 

is it the spiral decline

or come for revelation?

 

take light to the top

 

straight as a tree is not

 

but here’s the way we’re back

pain ends if we do

no god-floaties

 

a river to the sea

 

and after that

you wouldn’t know

you wouldn’t feel a thing