Rob Schackne #663 - Another Visit

         Another Visit

       She comes into the back

       with her shopping cart
       that has no shopping
       and looks around her
       sees me sitting there again
       this time she smells pretty bad
       what you doing she says
       what you doing I say
       is it first things first       
       look it's a beautiful day
       she says others say different
       she says you know you're perfect
       no my dear I don't think I am
       she smiles at me and shouts
       you were always such an asshole!

Kit Kelen #877 - first-thing-iferous

877

first-thing-iferous

a song

say

voice

see the first thing birds

in a clear blue dewfall

first sun struck

first trees up

and I come after

stretch never as well

as them

they are mighty

high for me

then I begin

to trudge

my trudge

I do it in first steps

stand in a cloud of myself

come still

first webs

where someone

has been working

night scat left

first to find

moss lit

and we'll work up to it

then time has no idea

it's seasoned

we must wait for news

invent a radio for that

expect no plot

not motive, clue

there is a cosy firstness

tucked last into the dream that was

come to me world

and we're well met

in every miracle of sight

then I could be the camera

first thing before a shutter falls

in the pond a fine reflection

make first haiku there

like a landing

imagine first eyes saw this valley whole

firm forested, singed here, there

now first mist to lift

and all our days are tin about

paddocked pasture

see how the rambling

shack made home

of all we were first for

it's every day

this beginning again

the age of us is struck

and when we're gone we're here

the order of business is us

how we see it

breakfast is towards an ethic

everything to be done

Rob Schackne #662 - "There I was, ticket in hand"

      "There I was, ticket in hand"

                                      for J.B.

         There I was, ticket in hand

         when my hat blew away

         was it a sugar packet I held

         a day unfolding in the sun

         an orange peel in the bushes

         a snake wrapped around a stick

         did I just blow it all away

         where was my ticket going

         the years of the shopping carts

         down the creek in the water 

         in the grass the wire snares
         with the leaves and twigs
         and there was I, there I was

         where does autumn go
         

Kerri Shying R #461 - fucking lucky for J Garrido Salgado

fucking lucky

I haven’t done

the facebook tarot

in an age    too busy

listening to the cat  lap

the water from my drinking glass

on the windowsill   too

torn  by photo   all the upraised hands locked

impassive  on the island

where we put them    left

everyone to die    waiting  for the

next bill in the post

 thinking how to best

 satisfy the expectations

of everything

I forgot to

press the

button

fate

and

all

Kit Kelen #876 - rock

876

rock

I had a job as a rock

you wouldn't know me now and then

but often threw a rope around

rock's a kind of anchor

you'll say pebble if you're smooth

I couldn't line up to point by myself

I was just the one rock

how rare to me

the ear was

though often

given up

often mosses, sun shone, rain washed

some said build your house

on him

or could be her

who knows?

seed rolled until some spare bird bore

the speck

then I grew steadier unwatched

all sturdy

some would say a clod

far as the light of stars I settled

long way to measure back

you could say that I held time

another one determined pitch

you've never thought of me at rest

but what's a rock to do?

we go unsighted mostly

will that be yours inscrutable?

I watched the others dizzy, fall

lay low for the longest time

where no one knocked

then I was stage marked on the way

think of a regular interval

I could have been currency once

sort of a circle I made

spoilt for rhymes

I'd sometimes thought myself a clock

then I get on a roll

cliché! it's a way of life

-less

-ness

I think you must know

I was heaved aloft and tossed

and young again

by mountain flung

primordial for dice fling

hot

so soon cooled!

spun like a world I was

another!

how I yearned for soft!

my struggle being being itself

and grain against

I had the whole creek run for it

aware!

suspend the disbelief

otherwise how here?

I wasn't another one the same

though lined up with tautology

and taken for a nag

I was a rock and gathered to dust

I was leant on

kicked

someone once would knock to chime

or set a solstice by

it was I met the pumpkins

still shining

meant to be the last stone stood

but I was a rock after all

Kit Kelen #875 - for fallow

875

for fallow

and makes itself away

as if waited on

in mulch

and all ferment

like winter in pyjamas

like summer on too strong

so turn

so tumble with the year

to leaf

to yellow

gone

and then some sun

looked in in socks

and then the bucket fell

all sky supposed

from which yet green

a single tendril's rise

Kerri Shying R #460 - Petting Zoo

Petting Zoo

between   standing on me    to

make me fart     eating

my pens and pencils    this cat

is gunna get it up the bracket

and   soon

there is no tie like

the tie you have with pets

it doesn’t make them hate proof

I laughed when he ate

the lipstick     smiled at me

Dame Edna    with a slow beard

tooth marks

in the vibrator   not

so much

James Walton #99 Poor Man's Chicken

Of a mountain

you are a foot fall echo

the goat’s enquiry

for the definition of ice

loose change spent

there is no news of Spring

in this we are assuaged

no reconnaissance wings by

taste the butter and pepper

now here is a final crust

fresher than birth

splinters in toes

from a porch of strangers

a circle of amanuenses

to record the shorter straw.

Kerri Shying R # 459 - the steroid drops

the steroid drops

slopping weak tea 

each morning on winter grass

my salute to the sun

more the crazy wave

of the car yard sales 

balloon  powered by a blower

watching YouTubes  on crimes

where I know the killer

long before the re-enactment starts 

  my hobby horse

wrapped in the tight-taped bundle

of  bubble wrap  and fear

watch     a ticking clock

 so much alarm

Juan Garrido Salgado # 5 - How do you spell death in this place called Manus Island?

A fragment of a poem

How do you spell death in this place called Manus Island?

for Salim Kyawning, killed by Australia's cruel offshore detention policies:

1

If I die today at this moment

Who will bring a poem lit like a candle?

Who will bring a red carnation like my heart was?...

¿Cómo se deletrea la muerte en este lugar llamado Manus Island?

for Salim Kyawning, killed by Australia's cruel offshore detention policies:

1

Si muero hoy en este momento

¿Quién traerá un poema encendido como una vela?

¿Quién traerá un clavel rojo como fue mi corazón?

Y los podrá en la ventana de tus ojos sin lágrimas....

Kit Kelen #874 - in almost June

874

in almost June

cosy tucked

reluctant up

under a mountain near you

branches late to light

in a mistwalk morning

roses still come

more pumpkins to ripe

lemon makes yellow - a win

wash clothes first thing to catch all rays

fight the lyre for song

run other machines with the sun

be breakfasted with mandarin

then lemonade

give valencia a squeeze

take the pills

or else you're one

that same wren's at the window again

... and someday maybe in

there's more to the blue today

there's more up

mulberry can't know

does it come or go (?)

summer's in dust and done

yellow treasure now to be so shone

stretch to warm the limbs

keep some layers on

sneeze first

and blow horn later

crackle of music through

shows ways may be known

Rob Schackne #661 - "Railway sleepers"

Railway sleepers
it's sunny side up
that is the curved side
else the rain will rot them
you fill in the gaps
gravel contractors
political connections
the tracks of our tears

I can't share that with you
budget is a diminished crew
5mm there is 50mm here
up by the bridge near town
we remove some foliage
a horse is down at Kilmore
the track needs clearing
Lord help us all
that would be the train

Kristen de Kline #205 It makes no sense (2) - thanks Rob. S

1. It makes no sense

2. Lights swinging at the Old Duck

3. The rain trespassing across the highway

4. She said she was writing a thesis about longing

5. I watched the tower collapse

6. You wiped blood off a meat cleaver

7. And a second jet-plane fall out of the sky

8. The skies had been blue     then

9. Somebody destroyed the evidence

10. Then     you said we had been in love

11. 12. 13.
I don't know where they went

14. 
Can you feel my heart running away

Kit Kelen #873 - last drinks

873

last drinks

for Rob Schackne

we have to sue for a treaty with time

have to live with the thing

day in day out

we know this in our bones

know bones can travel on without

we have to be with the heavenly bodies

keep naming them at least

once money worried

death took a turn

now we have to end the war with time

promise a land of let live

it's like throwing stones at a wall

if one should hit, it catches

then the wall is more

old father of birth throes

won't throw in the towel

you can say river

you can say sea

time is the tree

climbed over the top

is deeper than first thirst

dust into bricks

bricks dust

up to our old tricks

always teaching new

worked years to have these years we're in

all hoping for forever

commands the whole economy

see in the glass

there's that much left

a little bird chimes

look into that sad face

clouds over like a world laid blank

out of the mouths of babes

what you'll get's endless puke

a slingshot could take out the clock

then you have spoilt time's flag for a trice

tick tock

you'll notice how we're gone

you won't

once it spread by poles and wire

or you could burn the stuff

it's one way all could haves

the other no ever or maybe not yet

nor need time ever spring to life

comes back?

do you think?

you can sleep through

if you don't love yourself, who will?

there's nothing we have to do

one moment in our heaven

a thousand years paid down