#1932 - all my elephants in the one room

1932

6.106

16.iv.25

all my elephants in the one room

 

land whales!

soaking up drunk puddle

 

tortoise lumber, steroid scale

 

they’re all ears too

four knees, who knew?

 

can really gestate

when they get going

 

think back

think mastodon, think mammoth

(woolly thinking!)

 

notorious elephants

Kipling kind and tender too

 

see them sidle

 

idle chatter

stop off with a castle by tube

way to go

 

all that musth – a boy thing

here’s the trumpet call to

 

a little hindgut fermentation

 

an alphabet of heffalump

a stampede face-off on the spot

 

each blown to own bubble

now taken to tusk

 

amazing you could miss

bad pun

 

loom large in the experiment

tail a monkey swung

 

we’re building an extension for them

 

they seldom wipe their feet

 

grey as day

all nose to blow

 

skin so thick

you won’t make an impression

 

X factor

all of an imagination

 

suits and ties for a mingle

assemble on a graph

 

each has a story though life is larger

clouds weigh much much more to float

 

I go to them for what I’ve forgotten

because, well

tick them off a list

 

just in my case of course

o where would I be without

  

#1931 - I was on a rock

 

1931

6.105

15.iv.25

I was on a rock

 

sea midst, out of sight of land

dizzy bilious with looking

with head up

with flapping my wings

 

and which way was it?

 

the big wave coming

wave bigger than the world

 

all this for foretelling

 

then in a boat I woke

nudging shore

a kind of condo canal

now knowing how

but a hand up

and some conversation

 

cloud bright over

remembering last night

 

steady on

all four paws

 

#1930 - the mongrel pumpkins

 

1930

6.104

14.iv.25

the mongrel pumpkins

 

because I took your picture

 

having come through the dry time

dodged rot too

 

think this my possum lure

 

they scratch raw

        to spoil

 

put out of creature harm’s way

and where to catch the sun

so toughen

 

how thick’s a pumpkin’s skin?

 

all kin, the pedant’s instance – squash

we say pumpkin here

 

I cook

say soup

 

my mongrel pumpkin is become

with onion, spud, and sweet

 

by paprika or stock

with milk of coconut

and carraway’s my secret

 

there! and now I’ve told

 

no scone

but curry could

(I’ve been advised and so should try)

 

one called ‘Patch’

I name them as I name the clouds

 

these all my children here

 

#1929 - I am an open book

 

1929

6.103

13.iv.25

over and above

or

I was an open book

for wise surprise

 

and I am

 

chased a word

about a page

took my chances there

 

and here we make a garden round

 

I like my page unlined

 

one cannot help but

hear the echoes nag

 

they sing across

as bird to wing

or washing hung

 

see how a world lies under the word

another tucked

see where we fly

 

and lay them flat with the others

 

pride swallows whole

the fall’s before

 

we’ve got this in the bag

 

I was an open book

I am

the secret’s in the binding 

#1928 - I'll be nobody's ancestor

 

1928

6.102

12.iv.25

I’ll be nobody’s ancestor

 

this my scant trace

I draw the line

 

I defy the tribe commandment

nor murder will be mine

in time’s next face

 

from nowhere to nowhere the parting

 

obscurity the fate of stars

and I embrace

 

I’m holding my phone up high to send

because I’m nowhere now

#1927 - fled on foot

1927

6.101

11.iv.25

fled on foot

my escape from words

 

for wise surprise

 

 

from the day spin

into the picture

 

my escape

into the world

and from

 

grim pile

and tell

tiptoes too

 

into the wish of where I am

 

my work is to show so

 

it’s not by accident we’re here

 

under coin

beneath a note of promise

(cross cheque, make ache my own)

 

ready set

 

today

 

no munitions fall on me

life’s suffering, if you will

 

and see the ribs show through

we eat the others here

 

I know that I’m the damage

 

plant a flag to claim country

and sing into the dream wilds

just as if they were my own

#1926 - often touch

 

1926

6.100

10.iv.25

often touch

 

tangled on shoulder by kiss

snuggle in cuddle up

 

we are thousands of years before ourselves

imagining to this

concomitant of lust

 

who knows what monsters just beyond

wall we are

 

we are here now

in reach

and often touch

 

will they have called love

before words, after?

 

see itch and ache off on adventure

 

we are thousands of years to come

 

who knows what’s in the blood by then?

what implants

how much we know

how we’ll survive

how long can longing last

 

we’re all night travelling heads beside

 

in one another’s

on this pillow where we fly

 

who knows what we’re escaping from

but that by these such means before

 

go everywhere we’ve been

 

and what we are, passed down

and on

 

who knows

how often touch

and thus

there are no forevers

there’s just this moment now