Thursday 30 August 2018

Good Bye My Lover

Sandy hair, blue eyes

Round face, school boy grace

We travelled New Zealand together

Were sitting next to one another

When it was announced

The king was dead,

I don't think either of us

Knew who he was in our head.



Craig's Hotel, Ballarat

We were choosing room buddies

Your voice came from the back,

When it was asked,

Who'd share with me,

"Me sir." I didn't have to turn

I knew it was you

And a flutter went through me.



School camp, in the dark,

What a lark, what goings on.

You had to battle for my attention

You could cut the tension

Between Craig and me,

And you did, cut through

Instead, and I was yours,

From that moment, it would seem.



Year 11, nearly men

In form assembly, in front of everyone

You said we should be lovers,

You just came out with it,

You wanted it, so should I?

You didn't believe me when I said no.

You do, you said,

You will, you said.



How could you have known?

All those years I'd been in love

with you, I tried not to shake,

I tried not to lose my mind,

Right there in front of you.

You stared at me, through me,

I stared back at you

Everything else just stopped.



A freeze, all faded away,

We both knew, despite denying it

My big, strapping footy player.

"Mr Robertson? Mr G?

"You with us today, or are you

Just making googly eyes at each other?"

That snapped us back to life.

You punched my arm and said,

Under your breath, "You will."



The next day, in the hallway,

All the boys were checking in,

What a din, the smell of testosterone

And the anticipation of success.

What a mess. Muscles and

Long hair, and cheap vinyl

school bags, and books,

I looked at you and said, "Yes."



You smiled that smile that

One day would make you

millions in real estate, tilted you head,

"Good," you said. "I hoped you would."

We were surrounded by boys

And none of them knew,

Lovers became lovers right there

In their view.



You headed off to class,

Just like that. Left me standing there,

Like I had nothing to wear.

Your head reappeared. Smile.

"Don't go home after school."

I must have been dumbfounded

By what I had just agreed to.

"Come on," you said, "Class is on."



And then it was on, like

Donkey Kong, sometimes in bed,

Sometimes standing on our heads.

Athletic and fearless, despite all

The queerness, sometimes tender,

Sometimes brutal, often tender

Romantic, funny, lovely, gentle, rough

The same gender suited us.



Sometimes with snot and shit as the result

Exhausted on the floor, and in pain

Sandy's mother's face cream took a battering,

Crushed velvet lounge suits getting scrubbed down,

Snatching every opportunity

Given to us by the universe,

School holidays, "The olds are

down the beach house, come over. NOW!"



Two years, and then some,

We were queers and nobody knew.

You were Vice Captain of the school,

And I got to fool around with you,

Between footy games for you

Hockey games for me, you watched

Me play, as I did you, and then we'd screw.

Trinity Grammar never had any queer kids

I heard one head master say.



Times were against us, and it was a bust

Our last day, you went away.

I got a girlfriend, and you got a wife,

Three boys you had, I wondered if

They looked like you? I thought I'd

See you again. One day we'd meet up.

"Remember the old days," I'd whisper

In your ear. Out of the blue, see that smile

One more time,



Then one day, unexpectedly, reading

the old boy's school magazine, in my kitchen,

coffee in hand, there you were, In Memoriam,

The words said people were shocked,

I was shocked, standing there alone

my coffee cup slid around my finger, nearly,

Bought me back to the day, catching it,

It didn't say how, I still don't know how.

 

Sunday 26 August 2018

A Moment In Time

Poems

Are ideas

I snatch

From the air

As they

Float by,

I don’t know why,

I just always

Have.

I don’t know

Where they

Come from,

And,

If I don’t

Grab them,

I don’t know

Where they go.

There is

Just a moment,

A brief,

Brief moment,

When

I can

Take them

As mine,

Or they

Are gone.


Saturday 25 August 2018

Elvis Presley

America

was once cool,

and handsome,

and swung its hips.

With Trump,

it fell off the toilet dead,

with the ugly turd of racism

poking from its arse.


Friday 24 August 2018

I Love Him, What Can I Say

He's only hit me once,

But, I said the wrong thing.

Oh yes, there was that other time,

But he'd just lost his job.

No, I wouldn't count that time,

He was drunk.

He loves me,

And he says he won't do it again.

I trust him.

He just gets so frustrated,

Times are tough,

It makes me cry for him.

I’ve got good with the concealer,

I've had a lot of practice, after all.

Maybe we'll have a baby,

That could fix things?

I love him,

What can I say?


Wednesday 22 August 2018

Tuesday 21 August 2018

The Same Old Story

The problem with lying,

Even when you are

Excellent at it, like myself,

Is that

Everyone else can’t

Be relied upon

To hold their nerve.



Monday 20 August 2018

Everyone

Our time upon this earth is short

Some of us are great,

And some of us are small,

But all of us are great.


Sunday 19 August 2018

Pray to be Gay

Religious types hate us

Because god made us so pretty,

Wealthy,

And happy without guilt.


Saturday 18 August 2018

A God-Awful Small Affair

Post Bowie,

now that he's passed,

there is no longer

any chance of finding

Life on Mars.


Friday 17 August 2018

Difficult Times Indeed

You think life is hard

In this 24 hour news cycle

Cynical world

Led by criminal politicians

Facilitating a morally bereft

Corporate world.

Imagine being a meth smoking,

Transgender, lesbian, Muslim, refugee,

Living in poverty,

Just for a minute?


Thursday 16 August 2018

Tongues Out Queers

8am, Queen Street,

fittingly – laugh.

This guy,

let me tell you,

what a nice piece of arse,

as they say,

in his white tracky pants,

shall we say,

hi-lighting his "charms,"

first thing in the morning,

at the lights,

waiting for the green man.

Peak hour,

who'd have thought?

God bless

early gym,

I say.

There he was,

"all there,"

if you know what I mean.

Where to look?

It is hard to know,

in times such as these.

You can't just stare,

that isn't polite,

not quite right,

but my eyes

had different ideas,

not really

a surprise.

You should have seen,

"the head on that beer,"

as they say.

And my mind

was thinking,

thoughts of its own,

like me too, and,

I'd willingly

go under that bus

with my tongue out

queers.


Wednesday 15 August 2018

Mind Control

People are anaesthetised by their mobile phones

The world passes them by and they don’t notice at all.

On the tram, everybody is glued to their glass screens.

Looking down, mesmerised, living the dream.


Tuesday 7 August 2018

Values

What are these Western Values

of which you speak?


I’ve looked for them

Universally across the people

But they change all the time

Depending on those with the purse strings

and those who just complain,

and those who want to drag us back in time

and there is still the steeple

and the constant talk of evil,

despite nobody believing any more.

So, then we’re left with,

Money and footy and shopping,

Wars and those who fight in them

Bigger cars, bigger houses, and social climbing,

And those who are famous we hang off,

While we’re blaming the government for everything we got wrong.


Sunday 5 August 2018

Western Values

In Western Society

The biggest sin

Is being old.

Or is that cold, or bold, or told, or goaled, or wack?

Or female, or gay, or dumb, or ugly, or black?


Friday 3 August 2018

Modern World

The world

Doesn’t want to think

About old men jerking off,

It only wants to think

About young bucks

With pretty cocks

and gorgeous feet.


Thursday 2 August 2018

A Sunbed Disaster, with Tiny Hands

I can’t care

About Trump

He’s just a cunt

That went bump

Into the world's sensibilities,

Before he gets dumped

Like shit being shunt

As his credibility slumps

And he’s relegated

To the setting sun.

Soon enough

It cannot come.


Wednesday 1 August 2018

Post Contemporary Millennials

Laugh,

Those riotous jokes

Irreverent and hilarious,

Broad smile

Happy and disrespectful and funny,

Good times.

All gone.