Number Thirty

Remember that my
Courage comes from dark places 
My strength is hard won

Number Twenty Nine

We come together

Too late but at last

At last, at last we are

Here

Here in awkward love

Love older than us and used to comfort

We cling to one another

Another, another, just one minute

More

More affection than sex, sex evades us

Eclipsed by adulthood

Responsibilities more urgent than play

Play, play, play with me

Soon

Soon we will come together

Number Twenty Eight

Baby come back
Drop a needle into the track
Baby come home
Get away from all that chrome
Baby come to me
You've been too long at sea
Baby come back
Drop a needle into the track

Number Twenty Seven

She tasted like 
Mandarins 
She tasted like
Mandarins
Dipped in honey
She tasted like
Mandarins
Dipped in honey
Chased by espresso
She tasted like
Mandarins
Dipped in honey
Chased by espresso
Diluted by rain

Number Twenty Six

Creamy flesh-paper 
Hastily tattooed
By green ink
Inconsistent
Found object-pen
From the bottom of a bag
If I bury this now
Will it be unearthed
And marveled at later?

Number Twenty Five

Golden syrup scents
The air on Anzac Day
Baking while crying
For our medal-less
Mothers
Left alone at home
Brothers
Too young to fight
Watching the parade
In hand-me-downs
We will remember them
Too, quietly
While the kettle sings

Number Twenty Four

Scribbles in the margins
Were once upon a time
Illuminated
Gold leaf
Lapis lazuli
Liquid silver
Dancing together
Upon the fringes
Of the pages

Number Twenty Three

Book
Word keeper
Silent bedside companion
Touchstone of treasured times
Comfort

Number Twenty Two

Take meds twice a day
Remember you're damaged goods
Never stay out late

Number Twenty One

Tell me where you're from
Tell me how many tears
It took to get you here
Tell me how much 
You bled on broken
Promises to get here
Tell me where you want to go
Tell me where you're from
Tell me how many scars
You bear now that you're here
Tell me how much 
You sipped of overproof
Passions to get here
Tell me where you want to go
Tell me where you're from

Number Twenty

Red rover red rover
Send the clues on over
Playing bull rush
Sprinting dizzy lush
All over red rover
Send the clues on over

Number Nineteen

Created from desire
Born upon the pyre
This scholar's got stories
Not feeding on glory

She's humble

She's got time to tell
It's a practiced sell
Made from word gold
Pays her ten fold

She's solid

Number Eighteen

Uncomfortableness
Ambitions overtake
Susurrate new
Savage heathered
Hills of being

Number Seventeen

'Round midnight
The world is gentle
Fears chased away
By velvet breezes

Number Sixteen

Letter writing
Was still in vogue
So I sent lines
Back and forth
Girlish worries
Released with abandon
Secrets safe
Behind the stamps
And the stationery
And when correspondence
Stumbled and faltered
I wrote you books instead

Number Fifteen

Middle eight equidistant love
Swing through the double backbeat
Make me buckle at the sound, sweet
Do better than me

Middle eight common time love
Double down shift so damn easy
Make me smile again, peachy
Do better than me

Number Fourteen

Brittle boneless air
Porcelain dome set to crack
Still life reckoning

Number Thirteen

Wing clipped wanderer lost again
Floundering at the feet of middlemen

Time twisting veteran of the night
Hoarding memory scars from the fight
 
Surely you've surrendered to a trance
Hypnotised beyond the realms of chance

Meet me between the now and the here
Meet me where the blood runs clear

Let me put roots down in your heart
Bloom violet when you come apart



 

Number Twelve

Standout stagnant
Secretly sentenced
Silent sighs
Suspiciously sung

Number Eleven

Women aren't allowed
To have grey hair before fifty
Women aren't allowed
To have double chins
Women aren't allowed
To take up too much space

Guess we'll forfeit the human race

Women aren't expected
To be louder than the men
Women aren't allowed
To have once owned a dick
Women aren't allowed
To want more than the picket fence
Women aren't allowed
To have hair on their face

Guess we'll forfeit the human race

Number Ten

Lady Day moans blues
I type and pretend to be
More than just a joke

Number Nine

Let's talk, honey
I have questions
Like, is it just me?
Or am I suddenly surplus to requirements?
And, is it just me?
Or am I now just an optional fucking extra?
Let's talk, baby
I have questions
Like, what's the deal?

Number Eight

Trick me once
With those words
Trick me twice
With tenderness
Trick me thrice
With promises
Trick me forever
I'm a rube

Number Seven

I left my lipstick
On your passenger seat
While I was searching
For the treble clef earrings
Lost long ago
In a Kings Cross hotel room
Where I found a scarf
Autumn coloured and warmer
Than your touch

Number Six

Ways of looking at you
Innumerate themselves
Cloistered again
Subsisting on dreams
You are distant

Number Five

Eternal rhythm
Tidal heartsong beating low
Vast greyblue ocean

Number Four

Eucalypts in the night air
Dark mornings
Clear skies coldly burning
Teapots at twilight
And your promises

Number Three

His eyes were chocolate
His guitar was blue
He made me laugh
He saw straight through 
To my hidden heart
My secrets
And when he was gone
He went out to Joni
Just like he'd promised

Number Two

Flour feels like her hands
Silky and light upon the palms
Cold butter persuaded
Acquiescent
Grass green apple skins
Curling along tiles
Golden crystals sugaring
White pearls of flesh
Set to melt into mouths

Number One

Number one
The start of the road
Home to words
Back to curbs
Last seen
Through small toes
How could she know
The first
Would start a flood
Carry her 
Home to words