For The Weekend

Shards From A Broken Engagement

For All The Old Bats Who Hover Around Here

OUT OF HELL
by Gwen Harwood
Collected Poems 1943 - 1995

One mornng when my brain was open
I heard the neurosurgeon say
" Mental events are physical events."
They showed me Pollock's Lucifer
I felt it as a linear headache.
Skeins of enamel clogged my frontal sinus.
"Nothing," the surgeon said. The students
dutifully echoed " Nothing ."
The pretty nurse said, " Not a trace."

They closed my head up again. Now I don't
speak, but fly at dawn and dusk
with webbing in my arms and high-
frequency shrieks. The surgeon says
" Cognitive dissonance ", and asks me:
" What is it like to be a bat? "

Mae Fy Hofrenfad Yn Llawn Llyswennod

There there Kev

Stop being a wimp

Show some Nye Bevan

flashing balls in this sort

of situation

Wear your axe in the back with pride

You asked for this

Speaking Mandarin Chinese

Speaking received English of

more than two syllables

What did you expect?

Get on down and grubby

Roll 'round tackle a few

football heroes in the change rooms

Get your hands dirty

Clean up some hairdressing sweeps

Get your kids to appear in slut magazines

I do

And look where it has got me

Everywhere

Take a tip

A large Dalai Lama T shirt

conceals knives well

Oh, and incidentally

Sorry, can't give you a ride

Mae fy hofrendad yn llawn llyswennod

Not your sort of place

I Want To Be Loved By You.. Just You

Pleeeze
Love Me
Love Me
Love Me
Otherwise
I will turn up
tattered torn desperate
and needy to all the events
anguishing breastbeating
moaning whining wailing
Only Me
Only Me
Only Me
And then there'll be two of us

FOR THE WEEKEND..Chris Botti and Lucia Micarelli

Thank you to J D Mackenzie for introducing me to this piece.

Primavera Music