from The river is far behind us (parts 42 – 46)
paul hardacre
scratch lines or time by the river
the flashpoint town of samarra (dead koreans!
don’t stop for food he coffin films his head & waves
from a cot / i don’t know what to say or do
the chest re-opens his leg explodes i trip
on this the lego box the countless fragments
(paper & cloth
& naked with boots
(a secret some kind of mountain /
the battlestar galactica disaster scenes
did my head in
stole
everything & climbed down
a drain (pre-emptive cu-chi tunnel
lived in perth & drank ten beers a night
the leather skin of the 50s dragged across
the nullabor cluster dumped in a closet
pockets of quik-eze & U2 eyes
his christmas thinner
& rises old-fashioned, clawed
‘stepping from island to island’
napthalene legs
from kalka wave rock
holy west end he hosed in grey at PRB
jumped a fence on speed or wasted
under the william jolly an ex-skin boots
you freak in bed
& scratch for cigars
*
plague wind / dead underwater eyes
& crown hollywood skin
her net of sun-hair (lost cure
cans & weed the screams of pigs &
brown riders all kinds of stilts
a national geographic emergency
wallpaper: tonle sap carrion badge
look! a meat island pelican!
long river of sleep she floats
& clouds (her bright december paddy
all pineapple
chilli &
salt / duck removal & grass
sticky rice wine) her
coconut candy tits!
wooden cell & secret hole
night
angkor cock removal freaks the moto
rain in hoi an
(bone black heads,
the shattered exit-wound pillows
*
‘the poetry of poverty . . .
they feel fine, they feel fine’
(bran van 3000)
make him scream he
(‘magick’) spots & drags
on boundary / dew st lostway
far from runcorn midnight v.i.p.s
names
his demon his brass skin or armour
a.m. bus to the city the dark
is natural
& astounds
her voice
/ ‘the swamp perfume’
matter & blood she calls from the lounge used to be rain
then water river, etc. crouched under a tree
in autumn carry on / imagine drinking in L.A.
third face . . . day & night late
heat & seasons? these gifts?
baby terror data mining heavies dead skin mask) he notes
the fresh water never saw it & failed
‘nature herself . . . would never be found’
her secrets / had sailed right past it!
great thick mouth she cried &
seemed to
spread forever
the banks were covered in jungle
‘& under its thick foliage whole ecosystems
flourished’ (oxley)
huge white gums his axe or spear
he dislikes fish & stars
his love (kuril
her shadow-darkened umpi
finds charlie sexton / his cool hair
dream on vinyl that
spitfire head
he sold for jane’s
*
‘he moved often late at night,
either on foot, by small boat along
the tigris river, or along
backroads in old cars, taxis &
pick-up trucks’
(the courier mail, 23 december 2003)
*
shriker:
dog of death
(toohey forest acid night
gutter canals
beneath black mother
excavating collapsed
downstairs rooms . . . bigger dark & quiet kiss
& jawaharlal rd sweet shops
BBD bagh like nothing
from new york
conch shell) ‘the future of india’ / tori amos
grey with fires
from varanasi listening to french
radiohead
next door
‘inch-high upside down’
bad eggs mosquitoes don‘t mind
it’s true most wicked place (universe
think hellraiser plague children thar desert valley
smacky bullshit
tired & maybe acting angel dust /
a goldfish covered in ants gasping
heading east sick & can’t have
one-man jesus mountain song
the kinski-herzog steamship
akshobhya kalachakra samantabhadra
white rider (active female vs. blue long-ear daddy
ice carts
folding
paper bells