#1320 - these scenes

 

1320

13.viii.23

4.226

these scenes

i.m. Rodriguez

with thanks

 

obscure, the Old Union

already could be forgotten

 

remembering the record stuck

 

a vinyl turning

like a path lost in woods

 

in those rooms

each world its own

and such that questions disappear

(because of victimless, did to ourselves

and with what gusto too!)

 

one was a letterbox forest

an Itchycoo Park indoors

 

one was needle and fuck

 

here again a crowd of friends

and curious

wolfing down these maps of the unknown

 

Julie and the Professor

and John would set alight

 

gladbags of trips, garbage bags green

something coal coloured back then too

sadly lacking since

 

it was lucky weather then

 

no one had scales,

you could see what was what

while it lasted

 

and as with any thought vanish

what was I thinking?

 

we made an undernight

the tune and gift still with

 

before all the pages of print would be

I recall a great debauch

 

all on a silver magic ship

where later we would wonder

 

how – against all rumour –

he had survived himself so far

 

but for us it was

these scenes

that was where the record stuck

and that was where we were

kind of dreaming together in colour

 

and someone would need to raise themselves

to walk all the way out to where the records were being played

to get attention there

to articulate – to fire up the vocal apparatus –  

it was a little desert cry

to say how we were

 

and could be lured with something sweet…

false friends!

 

we’d only just been in school

out of which stupid boys rolled mum’s car

now we had Honi Soit and demo and jam

there was the stink of Tony Abbott, the engineers and beer

apartheid, uranium, Bjelke Jo

so much to stir up song

 

most tribal of all – we had these scenes

 

what thought gave we then for essay or slide test?

 

to think that this all would be gown hire soon

that abomination unknown to us then

 

there would be Steve the Bikie

and the Joint Association of Youth

up in the Debating Rooms

with the Malcom Fraser Easter Island Bonghead

immediately preceding the ‘Poetry of Vision’

but that was all in the future then

 

I speak of the time of the Music Rooms

 

and after – still afternoon –

sneak up those endless stairs to Bugs Bunny

or the Beverly Hillbillies or it might have been

Dr Who and K9 off on such an adventure

 

we did not see as others saw

 

Rodriguez, you were a voice in my wilderness

I can still hear you now

esperanta serio #716 - se nur ĉi tiu mondo estus larĝigita

 

716

se nur ĉi tiu mondo estus larĝigita

 

ni vidus preter grejso en la dia okulo

ni scius kie kaj kial

se nur…

 

kiam la mondo estis vasta

kiel malvaste ni iris

 

kaj mallume vidis tra okulvitroj

antaŭ ol lenso estis muelita

 

ni okupiĝis pri niaj aferoj

kaŭris en mallarĝaj formoj

 

kiuj povus esti vortoj

aŭ korojn por flagi

en korakolo aŭ karavelo

 

ĝuste tiel la sango ĉirkaŭpumpis

 

estis devojiĝintuloj -

damnita por ĉiam

laŭ vojo, kiun ni neniam konis

 

amo?

tiam kiu povus pensi ĝin?

 

ĉapelo kaj hasto

baldaŭ foriri

 

nun ni scias, kiel malvasta ĉi tiu mondo

ni iras ĉien

kaj ni estas tiel malgrandaj

 

kiom malmulte ni scias

tamen ni estas malpli

 

kiel strikte

la infinito devas taŭgi

 

malestimita, ekscitita, tuta abomena

froti kontraŭ

pensante kio povus esti

 

konsternita

tagon por ĉiam

 

devas pensi preter tio, kion ni povas vidi

vidi preter tio, kion ni povas pensi

 

se nur

ni povus larĝigi la mondon

tiam ni povus foriri

 

 

 

 

 

if only this world were widened

 

we’d see past the god’s eye mote

we’d know where and why

if only…

 

when the world was wide

how narrowly we went

 

and saw through glasses darkly

before a lens was ground

 

we went about our business

crouched in narrow forms

 

which might be words

or hearts to flag

in coracle or caravel

 

that was just how the blood pumped round

 

there were ones strayed from –

damned forever

along a path we never knew

 

love?

then who could think it?

 

hat and hurry

soon be gone

 

now we know how narrow this world

go everywhere

and we’re so small

 

how little we know

yet we’re less

 

how tightly

the infinite must fit

 

despised, excited, all disgust

rub up against

thinking what could be

 

aghast

a day forever

 

must think past what we can see

see past what we can think

 

if only

we could widen the world

then we would get away

 

 

a little exhibition of recent work

 

#1319 - laughing at them

 

1319

12.viii.23

4.225

laughing at them

anger on World Elephant Day

 

perhaps you’ll think me rude

but I am in fact laughing at them

 

cruel, you’ll say

and where’s my compassion

for

all these fools who think they know

what they can’t possibly

who tell us how the world must be

who peddle their ‘common sense’?

 

I mean the planet fuckers

the instigators of extinction

champions of all injustice

the crowd of greed

mainly just head in trough, ears blocked

 

I mean though the worse than do-nothings

 

the gun lovers, the haters

anti-vaxers, Nazis, climate change deniers

oil- coal lovers

 

no, I don’t say they’re all the same

I say they’re all fucked up

 

Putins and Trumps and Netanyahu’s

ugly minded clowns the lot

 

look at their fucked-up antics

hear their filthy lies

the Bolsonaros, the Modis

 

and it’s all in the cause of nation

that’s their religion, that’s their excuse

 

bell them

so we can watch out

dress them up in motley

throw them into the filthiest gaol

any of them ever built

have them all in a big jagged ring together

let them test their boots, their weapons

each on the other

 

let them all go down in a screaming heap

 

I’m laughing at these fuckers

I’m weeping for the world