Prelude: Instructions for Travel
When facing

a veritable quandary

insert hormone pellets
Gather the mob

at the bicycle

assembly point
Wish for a book at Powell’s

locate fancy beasts, a mosquito

cry hallelujah! then blackout
Imagine noir script starring

woman in red trench coat

coming in out of the rain
Take a pre-dawn taxi

to Central. Catch a country

train to Wagga Wagga 
Shuffle to the buffet

car like Cliff Young.

Another poet always ahead 
Play pool & the pokies

& belt out AC/DC karaoke

at the St. Mary’s leagues club 
Search Sorbonne bookstores

for an English translation

of Les Fleurs du Mal
Slip feet into shoes

like a character

in Murray Bail’s Homesickness
Check bags from DFW to PDX

return seats to upright positions

wash hands before everything
Eat pub grub with JJ. Bring

BC coffee. Share the means

of production with AA


Fugue: Second Western
the symmetry of action/inaction means that

a Portland Prius and a Fort Worth pickup

will cancel each other out, but you keep going
west young man, keep tightening the buckle

on your Bible belt ‘cause that thing’s gotta hold

against the breaking drought against the clean
air corridors that threaten to rupture and pour

across this continent. I can’t believe that yours

is the only house in the neighbourhood without
a gun. Here, I’ve added one to your basket

you can bumper sticker this moment later

after you ride the bull/drink the whiskey/ 
sing a national anthem (choose one). Even

with drilled oil you can’t always get where

you want. In this town there are bus timetables 
with holes so large that Lear jets are flying

through them. Lear Jets! Ave, Rex Caeli

And thank you sponsors for making every-
thing possible and also for the freedom

to choose unique flavours. Such as the Iraq.

Such as the Corona in best position i.e. inverted
and pouring itself into a margarita like a

clepsydrian apocalypse. You are personally

welcome, sir, but leave your constitutionally 
monarchic ideas back in your own country.

And don’t come crying to me if some

liberal NPR-loving shyster tells you off when 
your kids are noisy in a public place. Consider

this your first warning. There are people with

weird beliefs. There are decrees which we all
obey. There is a Segway like Apollo’s chariot

sliding across a white square, reminding you

to wear pants as the fountain shoots skywards.