Boys will be boys will
pine for lost dogs will
time travel in the space between soup scoop and spoon sup, will
knee-skid on dirt, moon-loop through tree tops, will
want friends who dream-share star sabres, infinity sugar, will
whisper in the dark at your door in pyjama-soft dread,
I just don’t know what to do
will curl atop you and suck muslin cloth, will
cry into the safe cave of your collar-bone, will
want your lipstick your eyeliner your skirts, will
sink silent into stories of orphans and cruel masters, will
dance with strange paper ziggurats calligraphed in cabalistic signs, will
want to be sheriff and diva, will
sketch doom castles in the sunpatch to piano sonatas, will
fight emperors with torch light, receive mortal wounds, will
find divine resurrection, because say that’s what happens?
And this time I’ve got the magic force?
So now the king-alien dies? Will
jump sofas and tables to thrash-metal drums, will
scuttle up the air’s skin like spiders, will
snout out the scent of your bed-musk for solace, will
sew purple felt flowers to clothing, thread clear-glass beads on blue string, will
sweat like ripe summer currants with rage at injustice
when boys will be boys who just misunderstood, will
punch you in the breasts for not listening, will
cry when they feel their own hard-ribbed shame, will
hold their galaxy-gasp fingers to a neonate’s knuckles
soft-soft as if to a pup’s wet nose, will
wear bruises like leopard skin they were born in, will
carry cuts like initiation rites into daylight, will
run to their fathers as if there were two words for mother, will
run to their mothers for skin-milk memory-shelter, or
boys will be boys as we all care to will.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones