there’s a bee sting that draws dave’s palm

back     he waves it out there in the open air and then

sucks on the puff of jelly skin though you know that’s

     not gonna help dave is

burly big his beard’s big

it’s a nest a nettle a smoked out mass

of comfort wood whisky oak and i

put my whole head in it when i was ten

big pat on the back big dave

now let’s get back

to the literature    revolution
dad dad revolution dad

wasn’t always so tatty but

it wasn’t a woman     mum

that made him come undone

it was just the passing of life yeah

just the waking up finally

just the finally seeing

he smelt

of sweat and skin but when

it’s your own blood it smells sweet

smells like heat like summer like here

they come again these men

and one of them’s holding court

always hoping hoping

for a change    for anything

don’t blame     the wrong thing

something’s changing that’s for sure      i’m sixteen
put on a tie

just to see them start

they’re too far gone

it’s the first-class stuff from mark

from his own

grown in his own back yard before the pigs got it

put my lips

thin pink twigs on suzie’s

twenty years older than me to the day

she doesn’t even laugh

guess i have an irish tongue

i’ve swallowed the pamphlets whole

and suzie’s dad was chilean

or so the rumour goes so

she’s really real   she knows her stuff   she’s conscious

we never speak again
i was moon-like then i was

pale and waiting

sat in the shade reading

they sat in the sun in the grass in the middle of the park

someone’s got a guitar nick

cave nick cave nick cave nick save

us     tufts of belly hair blooming out of shirts

these old men these pink and shiny sacks going way back when

getting closer every day

to the sum   to the truth   to every one

not coming undone

i take off at a run

i circle the path i pant

no one comes after me

i rake the bulbs and yell

     look at this fuckin fuckin

     look at this country

a pause
applause from the enclave

applause for the son

finally

a benediction howling his young lungs out

dad glows  they’re my

friends they’re my friends in arms for life

and another thing sorry

   the house is on wheels tonight
a roach steals into

the hollowed out shell of a snail

i lower my head to the floor

fresh grass outside

the door

there’s hope tonight

if i set this place on fire

there’s truth