For Mat James

[Boss]

Mat,
Do you know Spinoza?
Who slay the dragon
in dank ol’ Wales?
That Satan is maya,
always was
That Gulliver was the
wrong height
That sometimes you
have knowledge
but it is lodged mute
until the sun ripens it
for everyone
to eat of it
That you are a strong man
with a good heart
That the 23rd Psalm
was written by
a desperate king
who didn’t want to die;
but see the sun in the morning
and a woman bathing
across the road
That Uluru surpasses Rialto
Opera House, Taj Mahal
It was built by the Hand of God
one Thursday afternoon
a day before the Koorie
planted his black
yellow and red flag
a bit before
the king of England
burnt it at Buckingham Palace
along with various artefacts
from around the world.
That Rudd is but another puppet
another tourist
in this endless game
they call ‘Progress’
That Hitler murdered
6 million relatives of yours
That mysticism can’t help me sleep
and cricket bores me
That the arms of a woman
are the only place
for a man
or a child
and that too many times
kings have been hoodwinked
by overindulgence in them
That we are all a little heliotropic
That Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh
echoes the same pain
oozing out of Beethoven’s 5th
That Caesar
would have barracked
for West Coast last year
and Geelong last September –
despots are like that.
That 10,000 years ago
there was no bible
No Shelley, Kerouac, Bukowski
No Jesaulenko or Meninga
Not one mobile phone

Why do you think we
have been given them?


Every heart
to love will come –
but like a refugee

LC ‘92

[mat james]

Heliotrope to lemon

the stammering of others
on the scent of a lemon
leaves one unsatisfied

to taste is to taste is to taste

to know that sweet citric rip and cut
of tongue and nose

frees desire
to tears

[lizzytysh]

Yep. Sure did. Responded physiologically as I read this, Mat. Very concise and lemon-y.

to taste is to taste is to taste

So true.


~ Lizzy