at dee’s we read dickinson

then do a sound meditation

then read her again

it puts me in my place

i needa brush my teeth

i bought greek biscuits and

kombucha in a wine bottle

labelled backyard bubblegum

sian brings geelong pinot

on the tram home my teeth hurt

dee’s friend has a well decorated

apartment hi res images he

prints at officeworks in expensive

frames— he works nights

i have work in the morning

i need to shower and rest

but i’m restless like a biscuit

dipped in chocolate then in nuts

for the taste i’m banking on the night

as usual to exist

a man on the tram says this

is us, right? i like to kiss your face

i like to ride in the night

under harsh fluorescents

i’m in a bay window in the front carriage

heat is publishing five of my

poems from brooklyn new york

to seddon melbourne— bernadette

mayer is from brooklyn

which i didn’t think of when i

was there or the other day

when she died—

i have not enough toothpaste

bought a tube at cheaper buy miles

flavour lemon myrtle

watched shawshank redemption

with melody— the prisoners found

freedom in music

passing naughtons one more

stop then walk to haines st

where i am still lucky enough

to be living

you calm me down but it’s

complicated— i’m a little

fiendish i want so badly

to be brushing my teeth and in bed

alone to think i love my phone

to type in as a treat channelling

bernadette as best i can midwinter

mid spring mid menagerie

i swig the wine in the safe neighbourhood

the school smells like flowers

do you like poetry well you like

me— suddenly ‘you’ i’m addressing,

is it? i told ‘them’ i’m

addressing ‘poetry’: o, POETRY

how are YOU going? walking alone

needing vaguely to shit and brush

my teeth shame is wasted time

i love my friends my two

strong legs the size of pictures

wall hanging pictures

i’m in a haze

haranguing myself into the picture

i too am a tree only little

only with fourteen branches

and one apparent centre

a playground passes me by

when i was a boy i wanted to

build playgrounds for a living

so that’s what i do with my life now

and i can hurt people too

and i try now to be good and real

o pavement pavarotti

doing a line of cocaine off nefertiti

o nefertiti i never knew thee

homegrown as i am an armchair

a daybed a snail a sticker on

a computer i channel a bridge

not whitmanian the moon is indifferent

a snooker team from queensland

mocks me it is almost cold i am

almost home the home of my

friends i’m sitting— the plants

are watered the carpets are vacuumed

i need coffee and dish soap i have

toothpaste and protein cookies

this is the future fourteen branches

like fourteen pub crawls are you with me

baby i see you in ohio and so

you see a car is nice to me so

is another car i’m typing writing

right into slumbering traffic

ahh be done with me

when you are done with me