from ... MM

a slightly interesting bit cut from a great long horror shite wail that is otherwise remaining completely hidden

...

the apple sheets and the feds
the secrets and the lies
the things that you do not tell children
but carefully explain how they are
    too young to understand
and then forever leave it at that

assimilate and learn through childhood
one was pregnant with ideas but adulthood
became a desert where challenge
is craved but you no longer appreciate it
no longer needing to replicate self
no need to expand the empire

and then late in the day
when its dusky and things start to feel
still you jump up and decide to start
the wheel turning again
to make it rotate and burn again

making things

the very place that
the mice run

cooling wells of trait

making things

great things
we sing to each other
on the cooing nights

those paper umbrella'ed cups
fixing music together like vines

clasping to the side of the building
fixing it to the wall with fever

(before the chicken and eggs
arrived to consider, they had already invented philosophers)

I want to sing, sing, sing, sing
making things

golden bright things that children can pick from trees
that float in the sky

elephants and geese attending weddings
fish and dancing

The Other side

When it arrived in the post
he unwrapped it
held it up to the light
looked through it

it said in the ad that it would change his life

He shook it and tapped it with his finger
he took out a knife and scraped its surface
red spots appeared in that surface
red spots you could not see
he tapped it on a table and then
feeling terribly frustrated dropped it on the floor
and watched it bounce on the floor

scratching his head he picked it up
and placed it carefully into his eye socket

the lessons

peeking ahead, she shuddered
the hanging pendulum lamp
turned backward and fro
every slight descent
past layered obscurity

beyond knowledge
and ultimately buried
they burned books
after removing the people

to know wrong from
a hole in thinking
that missing generation replaced by
this greed

those needy grabbing torsos
garbed in pressed cloth
their right to own everything
to never leave humanity be
pounds of flesh fashioned
in quaint shapes
to amuse their endless
quest to improve
the children accumulating
in the corners of the nest

Dependance City

When he tried to hide his tears
after he lost the most valued toy in the world,
we tried to hide the fact it was so obvious.

When he lost his prime toy,
the teddy bear with loose skin,
we pretended he was brave and saluted at the burial.

When he privately lumbered about
and said he could not wait for the school ball,
we made provisions for failure,
but did not tell him.

When he did not find a date,
our rescue plan appeared to be an accident.

That job interview we prepared for him,
that examination we marked for him,
the years of protecting him from the world.

Of these we were proud.

We were selected as parents
in a radio competition.

We were toured around, grandmothers all over the suburbs of Adelaide
said "they are so wonderful with their poor kid".

And one night the brain bled
and Dad tumbled down two flights of stairs,
his brain stained half red,
the rest of his life confined to a bed.

And last week Mum's heart stopped.
It started again when they attached the great big machine.

And now it is all up to him to decide
the fate of his kin.

Anima

second version (edited)
Anima

a trail of fur lined escapades
little spikes in the sine waves
measure broken distance
over that horizon

eating out of the hand
the beginning of life
and the end of our time

do not gather around

silence grows from underground
all those years of living
not even a shred of memory
remains only your photograph
and the electrographic
traces in the mirror dust
static and misplaced

like wires that connect our shame
to the animal self

first version

a trail of dead foxes with hidden pieces
torn edges and mirror glass
hiding revelation and death
the loss of yesteryear
abandoned scars speak of
promises unreserved

a trail of fur lined escapades
little spikes in the sine waves
measure broken distance
over that horizon
eating out of the hand
the beginning of life
and the end of our time

give me a word
give me a sound
wear these gloves
and rip away
the sound of love

make it hurt
pull my hair
rub it in dirt
flames fill the air

take me from my mother's breast
lips and laughter
tortured skin
and the slaughter that follows after

does not gather around
silence grows from underground
all those years of living
not even a shred of memory
remains only your photographic
memory and the electrographic
traces on the mirror dust
static silence and misplaced
wires connect our shame
to the animal self

You said I would for ever regret
but when its gone, I may forget

Ultimatum

that old miss reliable should roll out of the bed
and land with a thump on the floor was not good enough
she had to roll out of the window, leave the entire
street gasping for air as her electric waves of
suffering were finally revealed and they closed their windows

it was a storm and the tea was all over the floor
pools of hot blood infected with anything the gang could
lay their hands on, and so tainted
it rests coagulating

hardened evidence of evil
the remains of three people
stricken, deserted and leathery

his thoughts were never his own
he walked down the alley
his arms flew back and fro as he walked
but out of synch with each other
his brow was covered with evaporating mist
cooling his head

and now storms of meteors rang out from the sky
he felt it was the future but in fact it was
a real meteor storm, and it was happening right here

hundreds of people lay on damp glass holding binoculars
on this cooling night on the heath
was it to be the end of the world?
or did he believe only in the things
that never mattered

the cool whistle of the cops shot
was the last thing he was to hear
the impact he was spared as
sound travels less quickly
than the hand of death
taking his harvest

Determinations

The laughing Jesus climbed up
into her eyes, her face inflates
like the money she watched all day
her arms no longer lie akimbo
they fall at angles that no longer fit
her clothes seem tired like a nuisance
stretched at wild angles upon her
attacking like mad animals last summer

The laughing Judas fought along
her border falling into silence
as four points of a compass changed
places the sky was green and angry
the storm was over in a flurry
the woman's face passes by the window
looking at the face of the other
now vast and saying too much

The laughing Midas gives her the fare
"take everything" he laughs and she did
so he pulls plugs and leaves a candle
burning under his house but the man
who wanted to go valiantly lies in
the daily headlines the last line
sticking on their lips
nothing they could do
except watch

The laughing cat nobody heard was seen
its tail was vapour around that corner
she walked and took mystery with her
all that junk she tugged with her
face fixed firmly at her feet
knowing only she went forward
knowing only that the future held
nothing for her
she plodded on anyway