Kit Kelen #1424 - piano blues

1424

piano blues

to the memory of Bartolomeo Cristofori

pebbles in a stream

now done

a conjuring of skies

skulls full of spare teeth

police won’t find

I’ve hidden one foot of the well

in the drought

see the daylit stars

all twinkle

to find a tune

and in among the idea shining –

just a few bars –

this little thing I thought up

*

everyone’s getting rid of pianos

they’re breaking them up for firewood

they’re taking them to the tip

clearly a piano’s an embarrassment

who’d be caught with one?

crushed under, dusting?

the ivory, the ebony

hordes of crime stored in the keys

and all those strings – too many!

a piano’s overdone

everyone’s getting rid of pianos

they’re not turning them into rafts

or gardens

they’re not even letting them rot where they are

they’re tossing them over cliffs

will a piano dead-cat bounce?

who doesn’t need some tuning?

they’re burning pianos on a great pyre

stand clear when the strings go – tension released

around which once – Gershwin, Jerry Lee and Little Richard

piano smoke to cure a guitar

perverse the age we’re in

in a graveyard where pianos shift

some nights stuck on the black keys for soul

weeks alone with the white

Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Oscar Petersen

have helped us all from day to dream

Keith Jarrett on a loop

and echoing

now a coffin full of string

they’ve fallen far from concert pitch

but still hold a tune

or the promise

long neglected notes

so sombre shrill

down to the left

where nobody plays

or up in the clouds

dogs hear

Rachmaninoff is typing a memoir

Satie made a little pile in his flat

he died to break your heart  

absinthe!

leapt at it like a madman

the piano drove him to that

that long long smile – a taunt

can’t carry such things to the crossroads

the devil comes to you

it was an attack of the Stravinskies

they turn your lounge into a parlour

soon it will be salon

what when the music stops?

people have been killed by them falling

pianos have been played to death

and still they would not die

swansongs  

and terror

a bomb has been planted in the piano

imagine buying such a thing in parts

same as with your car

everyone’s getting rid of pianos

they’re breaking them up for firewood

they’re taking them to the tip

here’s the romance of the thing

I sleep on the lid of a baby grand

to keep the vampires in

pianolas just for tonnage, for hernia

it’s the whole day golden

Liberace, Chopin, moonlight, Fats

and Chico most of all

Chico points the way

mysteries in timber

did you notice

the piano’s been taken away?

here’s a Jimmy Durante smile

now we can vacuum that corner

see colour the carpet was

Rick Wakeman

and spooky in fugues

Bach’s at home

we’re still inventing

all the children play

on facebook see them every day

and not a note of tragedy

it’s all very matter-of-fact

‘plays well’ or ‘suit beginner’

everyone’s getting rid of pianos

they’re breaking them up for firewood

they’re taking them to the tip

in a few years they’ll be waking up

along with the tribes, tongues, all kinds of creature

say – where did that great axe go?

set a highball up on the 88

slide over to me in the polish

I slip

the past may be over

I don’t care

see all of heaven reflected

ghosts gather nowhere in the night

but here’s a little singalong

in winter a dram

here’s your fire

in a heatwave

fountain and stream

really, if I lived in the desert

I’d take them all in

little tinkle would do for my rain

*

thing I thought up

one foot well hidden

in the drought

pebbles in a stream gone

now a conjuring of skies

skulls full of spare teeth

detectives will never find

and in among the idea shining

look up

see the daylit stars

all twinkling for a tune

KA Rees #59 - A Bea a Beau a Bell

A Bea a Beau a Bell

Well, a girl’s gotta get even down

on Jubilee Street. Those fuckers 

they think they own my whole me, but I wrote

them into the margin, always thirsty 

they can’t do a single thing without

that thin skin, that purse-on, I’m an only

me armada, divide and conquer

dapper Joe, Doe Joe. One slice of

a gun silhouette. I am the bell. You, the shell.

I am the ringing bell, down on Jubilee street.

Kerri Shying R #594 -the perfect melon

The perfect melon

you fell and clear it comes
the fragile balance beam my ego
times the numbers in the bank equal
how much care accrues to love
that's there a given formula   how near
I come to save you you fall and lick at
wounds sing your special song

siren of the softest skin   in dirt
and blood under the porch

it isn't midnight   when the envying
of slashes   stitched     and simple
fixes wakes me and the world burns
and you're stoned

Kit Kelen #1423 - floral tribute

1423

floral tribute

vindication ballad (for human interest)

no one will notice a language gone, a people,

species, world about to drown

say murder

nail up

burn a witch

with flowers

poor poor

choke back tears

in fire

most foul

lovely spite

it might

as well

have been

of ourselves

we hold

such fears

hot out

but cool

in the shop

time slips

distracted

keep to the wound

kind, callous

get some sweets

for darling

littlies

now with

God

wouldn’t think

in this street

suspected all along

couldn’t guess

it would be your neighbour

knew the family too

say murder

nail up

burn a witch

here is retribution

guess out an instinct gone

bring flowers

known to the authorities

where was

the father then?

fetch the bouquets

garlands, wreaths

how never how never

tend the fresh wound

let her rot

let her rot in gaol

it’s of ourselves

we hold such fears

never and never again

for those whom we

never saw

but for the grace of

she was drunk

and stoned, so deep

in conversation

time slips out

of instinct

lost

those cherubim

the seraphim

it was airless there

nor howling

to which bottle led

hear them sing

see little wings

and flutter up

roses in their cheeks

make gossip

substances in her possession

and a chillum too

anthem chorus

burn the witch

or flay alive

draw, quarter, hang, garrotte

just one flower

take your shot

so they wouldn’t get away

is why she locked

the doors

lost among the flowers

all happy in heaven

up floating

on those bright dials

sun shines

no more

cause no one

in this world for them

so let her rot in gaol

a simple sombre silence tells

to be so holy holy

and holier than thou

though you

may only

whisper it

murder, nail up

burn a witch

have you laid your flowers?

all the while guessing

runs through these heads

say scorn with, cast first stone

and the last

it’s strangers build

the floral tribute

and soft toys too

keep to the wound

here’s a fester

of mourners

so everyday

and knit with

it’s as if

they had been

waiting

children will drown

in a silence like this

it’s just so

all the saints of heaven see

it wasn’t me

it wasn’t me 

Jeffree Skewes #138 Land signals

Mother overland
in your hand

looking out
everything we see

trees hills all creatures clouds

we are all country she cried

sing now
to any of those alive 

on one knee it's all the same

rise-up drag a comb across your head

work to shine
know what I mean

breath-in receive
thank someone 

pass it on and know the time is now

we come we stay we go - that's life on earth

living the dream and time
makes the world go round

say it matters air's clean
and water flows 

someones gonna drink it all
stealing ground diggin holes

someone always tries to block this message

who's gonna do wailing now she cried




image: Dreaming Walter Dreaming - detail / synthetic polymer & enamel paint / JMS

KA Rees #58 - Deficient

Deficient

Drug, drunk, dry, dye, dress, DREADFUL, drop, dram, drowse, disorder,

discolour, dissemble, door, double, double, dissidence, doubting, drag-net,

dramatic, drop-out, dyke, dynamite, dodger, display, disavow, domino,

dilapidated, deride, disagree, deign, deafness, defect, dawdle, dark, darkening,

dash, degrade, discriminate, disenfranchise, drama, disobedient, dismiss,

divorce, donate, divergent, doggerel, dragnet, delicate, dominate, donkey, dissolve,

domesticity, drown, dog, drier, dung, duffer, drought, dugout, duplicate,

dwarf, disgrace, discontent, discard, dispirit, disown, dwelling, drawing,

do, dizzy, dray, dream, drive-in, drowse, dun, dump, dip-shit, dynamite, daze,

damage, darkly, decrease, deliberate, drum, duress, deficient, disappear.

Rob Schackne #1031 - Where Did I

Where Did I

Where did I put it
or did I just throw it
to the wind, to water
the river takes away
fragments, but a piece
of memory stays, did I
forget so that I could see
tantamount to nothing
aslant of different light
after the forgetting
the cracks to spell
the names of things
the waves, the stars
inbetween of you & me
now where did I put it

Kit Kelen #1422 - everyday people

1422

everyday people

how to tell?

so gently softly catch them

always creeping up

you know them by ubiquity

wobble a bit on their way

do you suspect the ones next door?

unsure of opinion

mid-rant

mustn’t interrupt

be by being no one

they belong

so we are blessed

call them

common or garden Australians

wipe that’s-not-a-tear away

except you are a hermit

meet them every day

they come from nowhere

but can’t have been always

we must not mention that

take shots

say cheap

spare no expense

everyday people circulate

say silly things

can’t possibly mean

boy on a blue bike

girl in pink fits

there isn’t daylight in between

they don’t …

but the list’s too long

still, it’s how you’d tell them from

threw rubbish from the windows once

now they clean it up

no chamber pots

or explanation needed

man on the street

and woman in the kitchen

they salt the earth over shoulder

where angel devil are

on a bushfire breeze you find them

good eggs

caught in a rip

will sometimes drown

if Hughie deigns to send it down

do they have a colour these?

are we game to tell?

so quiet

whisper murder

no one would ever guess

everyday people

have survived so far

with pointless incivility

they finish sentences for you

watch them voting

won’t take long

they do it with their feet

they’re swingers

and must be marginal to care

unslick

everyday people won’t be gainsaid

they are passing through

ah memories!

Coles and Woollies, pepsi coke

you just cannot predict

everyday people camp out on the tiles

clutch tickets

do a bender

fight your fires

put out the trash

they could be American

who’d ever know?

quiet sly they are

like snipers

before you even notice

give you the shirt off your own back

wax from their ears

that’s to remind you

statistically they go to prison

only for a crime

many more for live export

hear them sing

see flags to wave

off in a van around the country

two chairs, four burners

it all folds away

put them on the map

still? they won’t sit still for a selfie

you can’t sign up for this

once they were unwashed

carried fleas as well

plague on both houses

set the street alight

with Christmas

it’s LED today

but my people right or wrong

unwitting always

or I mean forever and a day

they are

a journalist observes

how your politician bows

to make the graven

image in a mirror

everyday people

with us like the poor

and love a cash surprise

are fastened to the public teat

don’t you nanny everyday people

it’s what heaven’s for

how their wisdom falls in gems

like entrails of an oracle

they belong

so we are blessed

they are the unknown trick

cenotaph’s all over the shop

head on a penny

salute the king

love a way back when

everyday people are so quiet

you could hear the market drop

often invade other countries

but only when might is right

pay taxes once in a blue moon

grudgingly they take their gift

beyond entitled

it’s very quiet

they were never on the dole

not me

and never washed ashore

soon superannuated

that word’s much too long

can they spell?

do they know the wind blows?

not my cup of tea, some say

and so consign to hell

how they love to dig

they’re deep

close to God

do mysteries

dogs are walking them

tails wag the dogs

fleas with batons bounce along

everyone’s a microbe now

do laps with bat

and everyday people

because they can

always lick their balls

sniff yours

fences love good neighbours

don’t you call them bigots

how can the everyday be?

mustn’t take them for dummies

lob avacados at them

and everyday people explode

in a gender neutral way of course

the customer is always right

some tribes will have carried fire

others are pursued

KA Rees #57 - Rasping upwards

Rasping upwards

Could do with a bit of rain, the sky a broken crayon

the end of orange and black chewed through

heaven a bite of blue and heavy slate grey. A few specks

against the pane, washing hanging densely on

the line an imprint of falling dark, patch of tears—a pear

a peach, the wet tongue of a koala licking runnels from

the trunk. Rain falling; sleek wet, a dirt cigarette

ash under feet—this harsh embrace.

Rob Schackne #1030 - Hidden

Hidden


Large pink paving tile
surrounded by weeds
pushed up from below
different points of health
the wind gets stronger
why not blame me
ants are motoring
the eyes see more
because they're wider
forget the name of things 
birds know the score
how tender can you go
the game is always
forces no one sees
everything the same
please don't let me be
misunderstood again

Kit Kelen #1421 - orchestral

1421

orchestral

I dream the dizziness again

step up and here

a helping

steps in circles

like a club

it’s the smoke

various states of undress

there was colour can’t recall

breathless with waking again

lost the baton

of course must watch my head

feel the thousands pour from me

ping and ping and ping

that’s the world reversing

kind of a whoosh percussion

lost voices to a tune

open the big glass doors

the city’s all let in 

Jeffree Skewes #137 On message

They write love songs
long winding roads all in time

musically scoring spaced
a language notably marked

by codes designed to play
with minds and hearts a harmony

whatever else their stories written spoken
to audiences this art comes so close to life?

witness alone the intention calcination
time spent the negotiation listen we're in

a wild hoax of expression signaling
humanistic virtues not really attained

but for moments suspended animated
escaping from daily life the grinder

milling alchemy finer toward what's at the core
or perhaps the slag on the outer edges of sentences

rolled gold fantasy or thrilling excitement hardship
troved as mental lakes replayed reimagined retakes

by now this journey's pickin-up passengers
coast to coast and we're on board whizzing past

dressed-up it's so much fun committed
invested to a journey on a road to nowhere

another page one more versed situation
lying awake dreaming

our place in reading has its part to play too
and so happy to meet everyone how do you do

this being the alive business
unfolding as it were in stories

without ever leaving the space of our hearts
nothing can be retrieved or returned

so here in this moment at least
unlived life is started

KA Rees #56 - bit ordinary

bit ordinary

The electricity
                          has finally
                                             come back on

The house
                    across the
                                       road

musn't
            be
                   Rome,


for they
               built it
                            in one day.

Kit Kelen #1420 - in time beyond

1420

in time beyond

we ghost it

lap the track

all champagne shy

until the ink runs out

sun fades the words

to emptied air

still hallowed yet

you’re not

nor I

no one is

thing led to another

no longer

work memory off

by mere event  

apocryphal truth

Wizard of

MayDay from another side

Do you read me?

no longer this or that

just these

unknown initials

ambiguous date

(pick century)

whisper really

all it was

this scratch reads

‘I was there’

KA Rees #55 - morphology

morphology

MACARENA, malapropism, margin, mien, mission, middleman,

marry, marriageability, marrow, material, mascara, mate, mine, matter,

measure, mechanical, manual, millstone, metallurgic, meteor, Mercury,

military, militia, migraine, mark, magazine, mirror, mitigate, moat, misguide,

mordant, monogamy, monosyllable, mope, mire, misadventure, migrate,

meaningful, mundane, menu, morphology, messenger, missing, motive,

misfortune, mistake, multitude, motto, moss, misnomer, misuse, mutilate,

mortice, monopolise, murder, mutiny, mortuary, moribund, music, mystique,

multiplicity, monarch, moon, moonshine, mariner, map, moor, mahogany,

mouth, morose, mortar, mulch, mohair, model, mix, mishmash, molten.

Kit Kelen #1419 - sun tap

1419

sun tap

beam in  

little bird

hop

thing of childhood

as in the dream

tells nothing

cannot quite reach

white sails dot

blue for as far

have seen the harbour

dims to chug

and all these little lights were

vanish in

there was no writing then

take this

swallow

good for

arrows lean to show

yet there is a colour faded

there are these pale notes

truth to light

so fashioned

what’s that?

and why?

I hide a cloak

in mystery

when words were new

worlds inventing

cosy by

led from

dough stretch

and bake

let animals all in

we’re home

first of things

particular

give me smoke in winter when

beside a steaming cup

nothing to put away

KA Rees #54 - Ocular

Ocular

ORATION, ocular, optical, optics, ornithology, order,

ornate, ordinary, ordinariness, original, orthodox, ordain,

oscillate, octane, onion, off-hand, old, obligation,

obloquy, oblige, oblique, obey, obeisance, oaf, obdurate,

oblong, obscene, offer, occurrence, odd, oddity, odd-ball,

off-putting, ogre, obsequiousness, obsolete, obsess, obverse,

offer, operate, onslaught, opaque, onerous, once, opportunity,

optional, optimism, oral, orb, orbit, ordeal, order, obnoxious,

outweigh, occurrent, outskirt, outmoded, outlandish, outline,

outlaw, outcast, outcrop, outbreak, outcome, outsider, outpost, overrun.

Kit Kelen #1418 - underwriting

1418

underwriting

most of your houses won’t burn down

how long until there is intention?

some fall

and some are blown away

meaning

some are eaten

first sculpted by ants

light thrown down

again, again

would sinners lift their eyes to it

here’s age

and all the parts replaced –

the members of a house

a lounge of limbs

and lewd suggestions

not politely asked

most of your houses won’t burn down

but here’s a street alight

say alcohol has fuelled

all the violence of a home

won’t knock most houses down

were forest once

or mountain fast

have heft

are hewn

almost all change hands

or hand me down

let’s not forget flood

change of climate

continental drift

most houses won’t

some do

volcano and the quaking too

there’s electricity gathered

all fuels

what odds?

set actuaries on

many are so inhabited

one creature feeds upon the falling

some are simply bitten

plague till the place is condemned

a house may have been scrubbed to death

hoovered up and binned

wrapped in leaves

or a haunting dark

made dust

here’s fruit

say lemon gone bush

little wings attend

some were never on the map

or plan a subdivision

flat granny

little paws pass by

the guardian tree

and all the garden round

still there

say Sunday rubbernecks

ask how long will it stand

we’ve left it out in the weather

you memorize a shape – that’s it

rattles winded with the gate  

so secret to this having stood

and all these years to slam

there’s someone’s welcome in the walls

over we go

skitter

all the old ideas until

we’ve guessed home and here

think of a roof to catch

was someone else’s ground

forgive me

but I can’t go back

in moonlight

how the fires remind me

most houses won’t burn down

you room it

to contain an echo

walls divide the voice

come in out of

to the skin

and cosy up by

cup of it

much metabolized

long in digestion

taken for a smile

begins at a stretch

with a mouthful of nails

more hands and feet required

Jeffree Skewes #136 Sacred

Air grows acrid grey

throats are speaking less blue

spirits sniffed and tasted

if this breeze keeps up

tears may follow

right now blanket covers

smothering any way out

thoughts follow intuition

her power's in the moment

the land since before

the way way back

decides which way

mother the source and destination

nurturing the play-creation

respect is all we can do

smoking ceremony

clearing attention to 

who mother really is

welcome to country

image:     A Welcome to Country  / Invasion Day 2016 Aboriginal Embassy Canberra smoking ceremony  / JMS

KA Rees #53 - colonoscopy prep

colonoscopy prep

It may

be

said,

I’m mostly

full of shit.

In this

instance

that would

be

incorrect.

Kit Kelen #1417 - why must all this be taken from us?

1417

why must all this be taken from us?

for godsbother

others live with

crawl the walls

they climb, slide, hear them

we give where

all orchestras of leaflight

birds as they go to name

Marslanding, such rehearsals  

things, obviousness

the kisses descending

this touch – maybe

the blood, the bone

tiny pawprints

till love, the image reads

skies for praise

and creatures less departed

it’s appetite despatches

one day the weather will be ours

waking is a premonition

meanwhile attend to what will be taken

we will be gone by then

under these covers lie

half asleep with a question

tin, all array of shelter

heights, streets

and view from the saddle

downhill apace

days led away, names never knew

winds to which caution has thrown

lines echoing of all before

this word forever meaning gone

sweat of the job that it’s done

why must all this be taken?

and immortality goes on

having thought

a trill and trip the wire

go down

truth, the white lie

queue of abstraction

fact of I was and you

days of smoke see it so

hardness and shy cleft

breathless wonder

all such habits of the poem

old ideas and new

you know it to go

and with this last gasp

will have you noticed

there is no one to ask

why must a ghost give up

?