for Stoneking in Santa Cruz

for Stoneking - Woodstock - 1999

Mexico, 1998 - Memories of a Vegetarian (for Stoneking)

for Stoneking - Christmas Eve night - 1996

for Stoneking (born August 31, 1947) - 1994

for Stoneking (Melbourne, 1997)

Sydney, 1993

to Stoneking 1993

fox glove poem

last song

on melbourne cup day
old men
surge
down myrtle street

seduced 
by memory
I
bow
before restriction
study
cruelty
as I once studied thorns

familiarity
does not make
anguish
easier to bear

each morn I rise
early

in the courtyard
a golden crocus
shoots
out of dark earth

I once lived near a beloved
our streets
ran
parallel

from my balcony
I could see
the roof of his house

between a 6 foot cactus
and wooden teeth
I stared
a solitary prisoner

at night when sleep
did not take me
I ran
in bare feet
thru freshly washed streets
past his house

I never touched
his black fence
his
gate
his
frowning window
 
 

For Stoneking - Woodstock - 1999

now
spring
has
come
you do not
shout
as much

in winter
your shouts
shook
Love's cage
your 
shouts
echoed
in
Love's labyrinth
your 
shouts

you do not shout
as much
now spring has come

little yellow flowers
tremble
outside
my window

my daughters
always
wore rubber ear plugs
when they came to my house
they
stuffed them
in
their 
ears
don't talk anymore
christina
they shouted
 

 
Mexico, 1998 - Memories of a Vegetarian (for Stoneking)

in your roof top apartment
you
sit 
in lotus position
watching television

in an orange sarong
you wave a black
flicker

your blue eyes
behind glass

you call 
for
me
to go
to the chicken shop
you
want
2 chickens legs
4 chickens breasts

try to remember, christina
not
to tell people
that
i
eat
chickens breasts
that
i
eat 
chickens legs

that 

i
play
pinball
 

 
for Stoneking - Christmas Eve night - 1996

once i would've died
at the sight of wrapt presents
in wet hands
i ripped them open
fingered each fatal object
doll
snake
silver necklace
doll
with staring eyes
malicious smile
bright pink legs

snake shot up 
the stick
once
fell
in a heap of damp paper

i longed for a pedal car
red tin body

hanging over a gate
i knew a girl
thin as a sugar stick
said the devil was everywhere
she ate with her mouth closed
hair shaved up the back
lived at the home of compassion
i though it was where they kept
dried up passion fruit

starless
christmas eve night
materialism rages

in the polish house
great cakes are baked
iced in coffee & chocolate 
a black stove
with a guilty mouth
gapes
at white
mutinous
mushrooms

tender ears
drop
into blood red borsht

starless
christmas eve night
i call
i hear
the sound of your house
the gold hand from mexico
knocks

i have been
sweet

i have been
loving

i have been
hateful

i have been
starless

christmas eve night
materialism rages
you do not walk
over
the 
water

for Stoneking  (born august 31, 1947) - 1994

night before your birthday
night
without
stars

I have painted
the
box
box of life & death

the night before your birthday
the box
of life & death
is
open

you are afraid
in
your 
47th year
torn from waters
where
you sailed
in
your mother's high walled tomb
graven before spirit
Your eye magnified
trapped in a body
you were never sure was your's
she fixed a bonnet
on your head
you tore it off
she put it on

for Stoneking  (Melbourne, 1997)

early autumn
the deciduous leaves
have not yet
fallen

you write from mexico
you ask 
me 
for poems

not ones about me
christina
i do not want my friends
to think
you
have
a one track
mind

one track -
i howl
plummeting mind's mighty depth
these are the 
ones
the
ones
i erect
on dream's
frozen
lake
 
 

Sydney, 1993

when night falls
i wrap your bear
in
silk
he has accepted the harsh judgement of life
all morning i have fingered
his limbs
gently seeking places
worn by time
& the rigors of love
in reverence i stitch
head bowed
it could be your body i take
in my hands
my needle thrusts
in & out
banishing all memory 

 

to Stoneking 1993
 

in my 50th year
my teeth are still sharp
i
slowly devour
the flesh
of my heart

i was ill when i only ate pasta
it was so
white
under the hood
of 
a black dish
i
dreamed
all my teeth fell out

fox glove poem

it was last year
same time
same time as this
the sweet peas were black
by the side of the road
I did not know the fox gloves then

last year
same time
same time as this
I was hidden   hidden by the walls
dark red

a long road 
lay between us
the hills were burnt black
black the manuka trees
black black the sweet peas
by the side of the road

I did not know the fox gloves then

the throats of the fox gloves
are spotted   spotted inside
the black storm has passed
leaving the river yellow & swollen
at the foot of the house

the leaves of the fox gloves
are pale fur
between the hills

I shall never know the river
yet I bathe my head in its waters
walk on its smooth stones

I shall never know the trees
that stand on the other side
I know only the fox gloves
the fox gloves
 

 

last song

you come
you and your claustrophobia
to drop in my lap
you never thought
I could have changed
from a wooden martyr
in a bath of your blood
my feet
thorns

your moon is not in the same place as mine
the river flows fast
over smooth rock
where you lie
that red fish you catch with your hands
gapes from a bowl of rock

I never saw the snakes
that glide round you
your letter comes from a summer far away
you cannot feel the winter
that has come down on me