Dawn Stinks, Sined Nigel

for Karlos

Rage against the light or its dying
Or punt downstream in a pleasure craft for two
(Poop poop)
The foolish inventions of another time had their own uncharted value
Do not seek to know what Nigel can do for you:
Nigel is as Nigel does
Nigel is for the best in the best of Nigel possible worlds
So I did it Nigel’s way
For more years than I care to say to the likes of you.

Nigel helped me steer a course into myself
Nigel is a solid friend in times of trouble
(Even if you stink)
Because he helps you see
He is the one who would know where you’d be
When you fell
As you will
Because you do stink
You see.

So I’ll make my peace with Nigel
And the pile of steaming balderdash he stands for
And in. And something of his foolish luck
One foot on that cliff and one on cloud
One eye on the punchline and the other
For crying out loud it’s taking him to another trip
The pratfall to end them all.

We live in hope that something of his foolish luck will rub off
At least with a little elbow grease and Wonder Soap it might.

We know what stinks.
It’s okay, okay?
We know what stinks
It stinks
Okay.

Four Vessels

for Cathy, after seven years

My heart is full
Our pulse of days
Simply cupped both ends
By our hands knit
Shaping turning light
My heart is full

My head is light
We chase the wheel
Across the night we race
No dog at our heels
(Though it could be)
My head is light

My eyes are wide
To catch us growing
Enough to see what may turn
Out or up or turn about
Transformed inside this fire
My eyes are wide

My head is wide
My heart is light
My eyes are full
And bones are mineral ware
Of course
The other vessels loft them
Toward our sun

JOBS AND GROWTH: once more with feeling

(thanks to Oscar for the mans in road)

i Speeches
Jobs and growth
Blobs what float
Flubs and bloat
For rubes and oafs
Gets on goat
Grubs in brogues
Yards and strophe
Two-word pith
Absent oath
Grandstand wroth
Stabs my faith

ii Monies
Jobs and growth
Bobs and groats
Fads and totes
Pud’s plum duff
Analogue of tough
Squibs but throes
Lord’s new clothes
Sheds income trove
Cod grand farce
Ords go south

Judge my half
Stubbs and girth
Bearded louche
Wads of gelt
Bloods and Goths
Mads up north
Slobs down south
Babs and Judiths
Plebs and toffs

Lobes of worth
Minds make wealth
Needs fund prof
Chav shines forth

iii Positive Planetary
Jobs and growth
Labs got proof
Global warmth
We burned gross
Ice lands float

Breed the most
Scads and loaf
Feeds the earth
Robs it first

Greed and wrath
Grabs for turf
Flood sand epitaph
Crabs and crows
Gods and ghosts

iv Human Relations
Jobs and growth
Aid’s poor worth
Dogs cut fifth ¹
Mob sails forth
Babes in froth
Sobs shored off

Jubblies strewth
Club won’t morph
Boardroom blows
Head felt groped
Slap that mouth
Grab the roads

Subs say stealth
Pledge Yank troth
Just spend gobs
Hijabs and cloth
Hoods and coats
Dead in both

v Intern Ships
Jobs and growth
Mans in road
Slobs and sloth
Yobs and scrotes
Swab dat boat

vi Medicine
Jobs and growth
Open slather
Sads and meth
Carbs in teeth
Abs or sloth
Slabs and smokes
No jabs dopes
Dibs my death
Drugs end groans
Sods plan gulf
End free health

vii Culture and Myth
Jobs and growth
Boobs on toast
Snobs and poofs
Rebs and filth
Sobs and ruth
Lives and truth
Burbs and youth
Seeds inmost
Hubs of grace

Growth is no job
Growth is the lie
Growth is the little man that lives in the sky
Growth is no elbow
Growth is the limb
Growth is what stays on after sin after sin
Growth is no terror
Growth is the love
Growth is the searing pain not from above
Leave my growth alone
Talk to us of something else
Growth my eye.

—
1
According to calculations by the Development Policy Centre at ANU, the government’s budget cuts mark both the largest ever multi-year aid cuts (33%) and largest ever single year cut (20% and $1 billion in 2015-16). This will see Australian aid fall to 0.22% of Gross National Income (a global measure of donor generosity) in 2017-18, the lowest level in Australia’s history. http://www.lowyinstitute.org/issues/australian-foreign-aid