she saw him

moving through the factories

hacking at the grasses

trailing the weary way

The Creature Would Look In

from the window sill

still and focussed
careful and clear

The creature would watch
and consider the scene

til a bell
told the end
of the day

When a little friend was absent

from school

a desk empty
chair forlorn

a strange grief would
descend on the room

an unconscious
mourning process

visions of their
head and hands

busy at a
muted learning

And a gentle
muted yearning

would stop
and stay
inside

Here (Harriet's Garden)

Here we have an
upturned bowl of
stars

The neighbour's tree
overseeing everything

Patient fences
lining our laughter

Here we have an
unplanned kind of
heaven

Here we have a
holy set of
hours

Middle Footscray

the Station
raises a red hand
to the blue night
closes its heart
to all cars
and lets
the Train
roll in

SLEPT IN (late for work)

You can't reason with your
sleeping self

The deals don't hold and the plans fold
like doonas

If only I'd learnt this simple truth
sooner

I'd have known not to trust me
again

In Footscray

there are warm
laundries that
hum with
jumpers

John's Son

stands long-armed
among the
traders

waiting
for orders
from Sue.

Teen in a Wheelchair

wrapped, swaddled,
rolled along
she slowly, slowly
lowers her head
inclines her mouth
to speak

breaks each word
like an egg
on her lip
lets the sentence
drip out of her
spouting

waits for the listeners
to fathom
her intent

then mother
mechanically
mops where
it went

LOWhigh!

-Medea disses Jason on Twitter (attaches photos of him with strippers)
-Oedipus posts an embarrassing video of his dad on Youtube (network execs sign the family up for a two-season reality TV show)
-Socrates' blog is flagged as offensive and taken down
-Iago hacks Desdemona and Casio's emails (rewrites and forwards them to Othello)
-Scheherazade Tweets 1000 tales about a high profile AFL agent (and is later interviewed on 60 Minutes)
-Hamlet's whistle-blowing site leaks embarrassing government files on world leaders (but incurs the ire of said governments, leaving Horatio in charge)
-Dido deletes her Facebook

Strange Evening

After a large-eyed
lady leaves the
shop, I half
expect to go
outside and
find the
world
is gone

What Music Do You Like the Most?

The ghosts of sound that crowded round my mother's huddled
womb

and I
the skin-swaddled mass

exact
within those looming premonitions of pleasures to come

yes I
as much a vessel as my swelling host of a mum

View Along Victoria Park Station

Melbourne sits, unsuspecting,
as the heat stumbles home
from a night of heavy drinking.

Flinders St Station

three boys balance a bench

On the Train 2.1.12

a still soft-bodied
almost post-pubescent
leans between
his grandparents