state library

By | 1 August 2015

I should be working
I’m reading
in the State Library instead
it’s close enough
though distant
like the skylight
in the State Library &
decibels heard but barely

the author
would rather drink
(as I would
if Sydney was
a liquid spectacle)
I’d fill myself with liquid
to drown decibels
until the cold freezes me
now ice
now partially in this poem
I guess but

for all that
I could still be less cold
& just for a moment
resist interpretation
& further definition

that’d help of course
I’m not still enough either
& that poem about saying
‘I love you’
how love is a word
stretched over definition
how it becomes
—no is
enormous
(too big for the poem at the time)
but I said it
& I wasn’t still then
nor my twitching mouth
& I said it then
& even as my eyes twist
lips move
time slips
goes
(all a first: ice
love)
the bed
wasn’t stuck in place
I wasn’t
you weren’t: ‘you love me
don’t you Dave?’
I did
I do
& I can’t say now still
at my desk
it was anything
that made me say it

maybe it is time
to adore reading again
(though I love clothes’
warmth more)
think of a red doona
where you’re awake
while I sleep

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