Do you ever find

Do you ever find 

It’s so

meaningless

It’s so

cruel

I often 

dream 

of men 

Locked in basements

Their faces

beaten

black and blue

BLUNTS / POWER TOOLS

The song draws

A memory

A fake melody

A feeling

You believed

And can't forget

That wasn't real

The time

You

Left

And what

You gained

Untitled

When I lie in bed
I remember 
All the bad
Dreams
I had
The night
Before
And hope
I don’t
Dream
Them
This night 
Again

Cloudless night

A cloudless night
A sliver
of moon
A banking plane
flying low
blinking red light
Wing clips
the moon 
it tilts 
falls back
into place
The little boy
sees it
Never
will again 

Fingernails

Her fingernails
red nail polish
she’s always chewing
on her 
red nail polish
she had a tooth fixed
in her smile line
her smile line
the sky line
grey and cold
her skinny legs
the sky line
grey and cold

hel

Do you ever
walk
the suburbs
lonely 
late at night
Tune!
yr
digital radio

Black
the stars
an alien
ashtray 
They are 
lonely
just 
for 
you 

Rooster

I first met him

one early morning

at the front door to the apartment

above the corner café

He’d come around

to fuck Suzy

cuz he knew her boyfriend

PJ

wasn’t ‘round

 

He was the scariest man

I’d ever

met

He’d been 

in

and

out

of prison 

most his life

We were shocked

when he didn’t

go back 

 

The most recent

court case

he’d been hit

in the head

with a brick

and lifted the cocksucker’s leg up

broke the bone through skin

with his foot

 

He had a plate

in his jaw

from another 

fight

after Race’s Day

drunk

at a bus stop

 

He moved in

a week later

his clothes

in three plastic bags

and his pea green

old road bike

He had

his kid's names

tattooed

over his heart

 

He had the darkest eyes

Even browner than yours

“Sorry about this”

He’d say about the

lump on his arm

courtesy

the black box

 

He told me his nickname was Rooster

because once

as a child

he’d snapped off

the chicken’s heads

in the backyard

(Turns out the epithet

was his dad’s)

 

He was an

amazing cook

He sharpened 

the kitchen knives

and they were like bayonettes

Another time

he was shadow boxing

and punched Suzy

in the face

“You hit me in the fucking teeth!”

“Shut up cunt,

it’s over, it’s been done”

 

Quick before it rains

I’m robbing

this stage coach

A poet and don’t know it

Mussi, yarndi

You want to scalp me

The merlot started flowing

Things he used to say

He’d tell stories 

all the time

maybe like ex-cons do

Maybe because

he was always drunk

 

When he found out

my grandfather

used to be a steward

at the trots

He told me

we’d ring him up

drunk

on Melbourne Cup

and ask for his tips

Coast to coast

wild Kamilaroi

wild Scot

 

When I got over

worry

getting smashed

he told me

he was gunna

take me out

to the pub 

at ten am

and drink three

schooners

in twenty minutes

to start the day

But I never did

 

On my lunch break

from work

he was smoking hydro

and drinking port

I had a beer

but couldn’t do

the smoke

He could barely stand up

 

When he wasn’t drunk

he was quiet

We’d sit in the loungeroom

smoking White Ox

and Peter Stuys

He had an old,

wise laugh

We’d watch the Ashes

and he knew about the 

cricket

“He’ll bowl a cutter.

Next, 

he’ll bowl

off. OK,

boy,

now get this white cunt out!”

A mix cd

compiled 

by

his youngest

Favorite song

Archie Roach

‘Mission ration blues’

amazed,

“That’s all we ever had!”

It has a good riff

Another favourite 

Jimmy Cliff

Midnight 

Rooster

and James 

Drinking beer

drinking port

yarndi 

You can get it

if you 

really 

want it

I woke up drunk

to turn it down

“Not too soft!

we’ve gotta hear it cunt!”

Maybe the

last

time

I saw him

next morning

still awake

7 am

taxi outside

to drive them

to the train 

to Sydney

to score

a big rock of ice

I thought I’d

write

a story

using his lingo

But I keep

thinking about

him

still

all these years

I love him

So I’m glad

I didn’t do that

 

He ain’t ‘round

he’s out there

somewhere

He’s gone now

so I’ll stop

talking about him

Kamikaze heart

Late night walks

Though the city hellscape

Holdin’ hands

recalling a shit life

Broken glass in the gutter

car tyre pops real time

Did you just see that?

Kwinana freeway south 

Floating

twenty k’s 

under whisky and marijuana

sucked up a cigarette

Cop car 

rolls past

You won’t get caught

if they don’t call your bluff

Amplifier Bar

Everyone left except us

Dancing

at the stage 

In front of the monitors

Grab her handbag when we leave

But a girl stops us

they all look the same 

New Year’s Eve

at Happy Paul’s

Fifteen Smirnoff double blacks

Fake blood on her neck

Singin’ to Du Hast

blasting on the radio

“I can’t sell you this speed

it’s really shit”

When we met 

she was still

on ice

and inclined to shout

Another time

at Amplifier

she told us she was pregnant

and her new nipple ring

was coming out 

Outside her house

Good night

Her face foundation

cake white

Pimple on her skin

Stroke her face

Good night

Could you dream that

Roar

I thought

It was

The roar of 

The waves

Coming off 

The coast

But it

Was just

Another storm

Rolling in

Esther Tetris

Esther Tetris

The mersyndol kid

Wears a Singapore jacket

hidden seams

brand you’ve

never heard of

Late night drives

through the Perth 

urban sprawl

Chain smoking cigarettes

Autechre mix

on the car radio

Searching for wormholes

freeway underpasses

housing developments

derelict 

caves in a cliff

Searching for a passage

to a secret 

thirteenth story 

lift

Bobby O’Shea

Bobby O’Shea 

stuffed 

in the grave

Mouth and grenade 

Queen

And 

Her

Slave. 

Called fucken insane

Not 

dead 

yet

Not dead yet. 

Ringing in the clave

All 

the 

boys 

All the boys. 

Bobby O’Shea 

Rising 

up 

Whose round

Rising up. 

Pull the pin

In comes Slim

Forfeit on black

Too many eyes

We’re still going 

We 

Are 

still

Going

Scald in fire

Pills at the gate

Fifty makes you

Talk

Makes you

Up

Makes

you

Bobby O’Shea. 

Rising up

Stuffed 

In the grave. 

It was always you

it was always you

I got on the first morning bus 

to

leave this town

lights out

windows down

last chance to escape

the mouth breeders

and

ear dealers

in the 2am North Sydney

bars

fog rolling in

coming on strong 

it was always you

Thrum in the deep

And on the street corner

in your broke arse shoes

you ask,

'Why am I so nice?'

At the nightclub

behind the 

velvet rope

you say,

'Who is this guy?'

As your phone 

goes bong

and you're

deep in the thrum

you shout,

'I can't find my love!'

In the living room

beginning to swirl

you look at the pipe

drool,

'I gotta smoke this shit'

And you get

to the fifth

verse

fifth

to the,

'Nah forget it'

And a pit bull 

bites your leg

you can't calm it down

it's yours

on the end

of

a lead

Bukowski's blue bird

is singing

from his cage

he wants 

to

be freed

The broken face

in the mirror

is missing teeth

and hard,

'Gee is that me?'

One time

at a Berlin club

watching the ping pong club

I drank 14 becks

and a German said,

'Mein gott, you are so drunk!'

I went to the psych ward

to see a girl

who couldn't remember

my name

and I thought,

'This is probably my fault'

I always felt 

the stories were

good

but on repeat

it was the poems

where he truly shone

Kids are dreaming.

Kids are dreaming,

kids are screaming. 

Fleas are jumping

balls are smashed 

Another round,

who's got the cash?

Lock the doors 

keep on playing

wash the ash tray in the sink. 

Eat your souvlaki

blow a trumpet

cat-calls off the balcony

bar girl's upstairs

suns coming up

if you can't drive home–

sleep on the couch. 

Sweet dreams

nigh nigh—

Everybody's crying for you

Everybody’s crying for two,

everybody’s crying for you.

Everybody’s a streetwise motherfucker

so cynical, don’t know what to do

my heart was broken at the age of two

hoped it would mend, I laid eyes on you.

The streets outside were running with blood

at the drain hole, I fell through.

God please tell me what do,

or fix my car, I’ll drive far

from the human zoo.

The day she met

the father of her child,

she was rubbing and tugging for two

And when she left me; mind, mood

black and blue.

Everybody’s crying for two,

everybody’s crying for you.