no more xs

no more dreams

sweetness stripped

and pushed to the corners

the streets drink the rain

suffocated in absent light

waiting for hope 

or a bomb

love is a grey dog

dying naked in a ditch

the moon falling

ambivalent and unashamed

without care but 

to give shape

and body

to our collective wound

to listen as we all pass

and to return when we do not

beeliar

drag heels of acacia bark
over the sun drenched bitumen
volatile organic compounds
emissions of history and dirt
arrayed in fine pycnantha
lying in ditches with Keates
speared to death
warriors and kids
arbor ripped from the soil
blades and caterpillars
short-billed black screaming
children and well-doers
terrified by the stillness
the fence line silent
permanence and progress
returning to the ground
terra firma / nullius
you cannot destroy
what you cannot hold

kitchen

legumes framing

weathered wooden bench

cream plastered

background day dreams

a picture within a picture


bronzed bodies alight

combine harvester

yellow tweed on blue sky

golden american fields


the stories of men

the wrath of industry and gods

projected between

the chickpeas and broad beans


exhaustion, love and want


the hardship of a world

far from this heatwave

humming melancholia


now fading

on my kitchen wall

flags like bombs
on white pixel faces
spectacle 
and status
bombs like flags
for the rest
falling in silence
our hearts made
of empire still

denim jacket come downs

longing for dishwashers

and escape

his baby face anxiety chatter

interrupted only by a weathered 

leering drunk's ever expansion of space

the body language of 

three young girls 

not obvious enough

my knuckles rolling knots 

around rings

the soft palms of african train cops

the weight of ancestral 

mountains once cut down 

now fists to enforce fines

capital and despair

two young queers 

new to worlds and roles

panting hot from bikes

in accentuated cadence

excited to be going somewhere

we sit mute

faces in screens

elsewhere 

the violence of the other

our bodies out of place

dormant and afraid

waiting to get off

i dreamt

of black dogs

flying over Hiroshima

and Nagasaki

applause

and cheer for

bombs falling

like gods to earth

empires of gold 

and death

memory and loss

there is no end 

in silence

only the absurd

a revolution
pissing hard
against the back
of toilet bowls
shit flaking down
porcelain washed white
remembering a new
personal identification number
and waiting for broken trains
a barricade dreaming of
five years passed
half cut mid stare
beer in hand
to a nervous friend
in joyful tongued
embrace on
dance floor
hoping for it to last
mostly her smile and
movements in half light
blurred gentle kisses
and wanting to do better
this time
cherish these
small victories
to carry us home

wrought iron
carcass
of harbored regrets
laying dormant under
turgid heavy swell
holding what
could of been
without air or fear
this skeleton of
wood, bone and dream
the canvas
a death blanket
where bodies
once joined
suffocated
and perished
with the tide
every wreck a scar
on our collective skin
treasures to hoard
and forget
all those ships
you once loved
left to rot
and decay
inside