I The fascist weeds the garden Such love in pulling out, Care granted to save the soil and replenish With self made compost of previous remains. They should have known his bitter truth Of all he did for them unrequited; In gentle torture he weeps for his people, And how the day goes down so … Continue reading Pax Romanus (I, II, III) Spare Us, the Conquered

My neighbour died alone in a settler’s cottage on a hill with a dam that wouldn’t repair he went after her although for a while she moved the keys around with a silence that wouldn’t mend not that he minded her grace in easy tides had always knocked him sideways bent him like a conjurer’s … Continue reading They shoot airmen, sometimes

a starless sky changes to oiled boards island palms leak into the past iron at large in the sunsets of hatted faces the manacled lion knows the voice of restless pawing whether it’s by elephant man cripple dwarf two head or in the juggle of homesick blues wavy distance overwhelms the seas circus merry go … Continue reading The Lone of Jimmy Tambo

With two working around the spoiled wood wet rot shredding a soft sleeting acquaintance the largest cuts cedar board of the old forest East of my thoughts this remnant for the finest a breeze traffics by late Autumn warmth to land so without past or future’s want repairing a lapsing Federation window when the edge … Continue reading Four chisels

Have you used Viagra in the past 24 hours the paramedic asks slightly embarrassed I answer No but is there a box for I wish I had a reason to you can tick while something won’t dissolve under my tongue if death comes here more than an hour to the nearest hospital strapped down how … Continue reading Near Death (Experienced Applicants Only) Please Address the Selection Criteria

I’m not shaking to music or trying to dance my way out of the cup rolling in the saucer. There’s Blues in the shuffle allright; a soundtrack that blew the amp cut the circuit at the wrong wire – didn’t guess it right. Instead it went off all over me, the pulse misfiring. Translation’s lost … Continue reading Brunch with Parky

I think I finally see clearly out of those trespassed estate streets where the sounds of looking are dusted over by unmade roads like some early Drysdale, a veteran’s emphysema in a backyard shed skew whiff late afternoon shadows stretched children playing cricket the warty rabbitoh with all his skinned specials, next door’s son dying … Continue reading Boldrewood Parade

The cherry wood honour roll burns air gasping for lettering a toast for scalers who bathed at the source of the Ganges just so they could divine is Atman Brahman an answer reaching for those beads of months without footing while Bach parades Air on a G String amid foothills of ever decreasing amplitude the … Continue reading The I Know a Dead Mountaineer Society, Concedes : A new poem up at Bluepepper

A new poem at Birdsong Journal https://birdsongjournal.blogspot.com/2020/05/shoe-laces-and-dragon-flies-by-james.html

My sister found my father in his chair. A can of beer and the TV still going. Not like Shane or Pale Rider or Appaloosa. We don’t get to ride away the chances hanging. She asked me why he was floated like that. No song of farewell a crooning defiance. His old RAN tattoo keepsake … Continue reading Boot Hill, Vacancies