Monthly Archives: May 2012

by

Curtain Call

Anonymous faces
with transparent eyes
unrecognised by transients
passing by
as disappearing echoes
of another day.

Impassive masks
of fugitives
fleeing from obscurity
as variations floating
in a pale transparent pond.

Detours from distant places
dispassionate diversions
and imaginary moments
existing only
in a stranger’s eye.

Lights above begin to fade
into the silence
descending in anticipation
as the orchestra
begins the overture
that never ends.

From infancy
to maturity and old age
on a rotating stage
carrying the characters
around and around
towards the dimness
of the wings
until the final curtain call
in the darkness
of an empty hall.

by

Distractions

I was dwelling on abstractions
in the penumbra of my mind
fleeing yesterday’s woes
and the shadows outside.

Caroline cried
while fitfully sleeping
twitching
as I hurriedly dressed
then left the room.

The wind screeched
like a wounded bird
thunder rumbled
and the rain slashed
against the window panes.

After breakfast
the showers cleared
the wind sighed
and Caroline embraced a tree
instead of me.

We strolled
as the day began to break
despondently
to the echo of thunder
growling distantly.

Pale sunlight
flickered, filtering
through the leaves
onto the path and distant hills
which began to move.

Caroline screamed
as the path tilted
and opened like a gaping grin
into which she vanished
laughing like a loon.

by

Effigies of Heroes

The land is blessed
with wide open spaces
human kangaroos
buffoons, emus
bandicoots, galahs
and squawking coackatoos.

An imitation nation
creatively inept
vacuously homophobic
and racist
laconic and patronising
governed by sleazy politicians
solipsistic and sycophantic
deal makers
and opportunists
full of artifice and guile
without principles
policies or vision.

A nation obsessed
by sport
its iconic heroes
hard men
built like bulls
muscular metronomes
with fur-lined armpits
and iron balls.

Nothing flourishes
in a desert of fairy floss
on the TV screen
presented unctuously and loudly
with fake emotions
grimaces
and gesticulations
to viewers
complacent as cows.

The Anzac tradition
recurs annually
celebrating nightmares
of soldiers dying
for politicians
in Vietnam, Iraq
and Afghanistan.

Our craven government
looked away
when the Indonesian army
invaded East Timor
and casually murdered
Australian Journalists
at Balibo.

For twenty five years
of oppression
and genocide
successive
Australian governments
feted a monster in Jakarta
while foreign ministers
Ali Alitas
and Gareth Evans
toasted each other
in champagne
on an aeroplane.

The first Australians
live and die in squalor
from degradation and decay
because
of government incompetence
and inertia.

Behind the scenes
extremists
employ shock jocks
and deniers
as propaganda proxies
to distort the truth
vilify and defame
in the name
of free speech.

At schools
our children are taught
to memorise
the NAPLAN way
imported from the USA
and learn to be proud
and patriotic
every Anzac Day.

Governments
keep the truth at bay
by immortalising myths
of heroism
and sacrifice
while scurrying backwards
the traditional
hypocritical
Australian way.