Tony I see you play
tired eyes and voice carry
the guitar away
Tony ragged hair falls from the brow
something in the cauldron of the heart
gaelic and bruised
Fingers wrap and strum
flick and pinch the strings
so that ears like these we wear
can get a burst
carrying that guitar away
Tony I see you play
tired face haunts hands grip
the hidden beauty of chords
some spell in the lyric order
the road was alive with electric ghosts
spinning out of control
hunted down like stray animals
Squeezed into the side table
focusing and compounding
silent prayers
now the object is still
yet brimming with energy
magnetic and vicious
holding up a table cloth
coughing sparks and electric arcs
burning the carpet
feels like an esoteric healing
a soul in a box
transforming the outer layers into human flesh
where the inner layers consume the prior inhabitants
silent prayers and overcharged stares
looking right through the neighborhood
building little boxes for each house
so they might come alive too
He was just a head on the table
chewing food and no body to injest it
what a lucky eater eating forever
satisfied look, asking for the next mouthful
huge panels hung up behind the party goers
exhibiting the hellish battles yet to come to pass
a few years from now
we all gather round the table
to convince the few how we might destroy
and yet survive
The head on the table just keeps eating
when the mouth is finally empty
the mouth is begging for the next mouthful
we all bring bowls of food
for this human head on the table
it's like a hobby
it was a promotion
a blindfold nice
paying far too much
they approach us cheerfully
the facilities are incredible
They had the most attractive girl
offer me the contract
smile and hand offered
Without a shadow or a flutter
the building flexed bulged and muttered
turning to grin at me and invite me in
The structures sound and spacious
these people persuasive and insistant
offering the world
then excluding it in the small print
feigning surprise
the streets are danced upon by denialists
with overpriced clothes and personal stylists
all signed over to the long shadows
of these boutique box like warehouses
Into the market
huge cask boxes full of wares and eats
gloomy corridors and halls strewn with semi interested
hopeful potential customers
the great market
a body spreading out over s district
walled in by fancy giftshops
fond hearts orbit
friends approach the main road
thick with traffic horns and bickering
as the bus leaves some panic
it has it's own lane
the car won't start
wishful thinking becomes abrasive
Handbrake and gear stick goat
heat inside the car sickly sweet
the dip in the road
both the slide down
the climb up
illusions of satisfaction
The stationary traffic
calms nerves as you crack the window
and glance over at the overloaded road
neither you nor those cars are moving
Waikanae
The child between the horror and hanger
The umu and the peka
The mungatooks and Hemi matenga
Elizabeth is her root
From ill attempts at competition
right betwen the hills of heaven
Trashy pine and eucalypt dance
embedded into the native expanse
summers mild short sweet like half gas on element
Nostalgia on sunday past screams to stay relevant
not quite loud enough to wake the inhabitants
grandchildren and grandparents peep out
smokey chilly early winter evergreen and moss
spring thaw still rehearsing for stubborn frost
Sun held back by the tall poppy fume exaust
franchise shops and salvation budget cost
sand too light brushes knees till sore
soil so fertile the greenery flaunts
The southerly taunts
encourages a saunter
sunset over kapiti provoking thoughts
each day waves and gale yet such a happy glare
on the beach how has the fisherman fared
in small boroughs well tuned lawnmowers blare
Dawn is breaking over the sky
night broken away and awry
The land frozen bare and empty
no longer flooded just devoid
air is heavy
Inside the weave of the forest brush work
a complex code surreptitiously lurks
activating life from whence none might grow
from the darkest holes with the faintest glows
we brought them in off the street
humans often seem sickly sweet
just watch how fast the dessert melt hones
We put in extra beds to put up these vagabonds
they made themelves at home in a split second
before long we were over run by their friends who beckoned
just getting them to leave seemed a professional undertaking
take courage until they are done invading
we made the beds and helped them prepare for sleep
Adult children overlap our own nauseating shortcoming vexations
From an epoch like a throne deflating oncoming generations
aggrandizers broke these little toys
These young with no vocation nor virtue
Who smirk darkly at their own weight in burden
knowingly aware of just how they occupy hinder and trouble
despite affluence these young ignore bricks and hug rubble
doubling down into their subtle self destruction
good cop bad cop parents ashamed reach for blackmail
The abundance didn't heal alas it maimed they flail
spindley youth unchallenged and pale
An incredible measuring stick for one's own patience
an extremely convincing smile camouflaged and fallacious
some bribables or considerable pocket change application
and skill at informal slang laced persuasion
The pariah wakes empty
as he slept dreamless
his face begs attention support
expecting the world offering his void
The line was taut
something was on the line
Rushing down the rod was given to me
I pulled it in with all my might
we believed it was a shark
as the fin protruded from the water
I reeled it in as fast as possible
excitement forearms
The sun was trapped in the bay
The fish surfaced yet not a shark
take care when you bring it in
short tailed mackarel
Muddy water fussing with the sun
rolling in the subtle saltwater rapids
tides slowly moving into the clefts in the land
My hands hold up the fish shaking in reverance
Taking the fish off the line
release the fish back into that muddy water
walls all covered in writing
a human wants to know themselves
in such a rush they throw meaningless graffiti
onto the walls and simplify the franchise
same homely colored appettite brick
same shape bench same logo tongue licks
just another take on a popular hamburger
and what's between your bread
as you take your paper bag back home
devouring some mince from a grill
slurping from some oversized sickly refill
Observe the car lot from the windowsill
oozing ketchup interrupts your speech
back you go hunger the hunger underneath
need for inclusion eroding your individuality
Lifes a queue a drive thru mediocracy
pushing open those thick doors
placing the order beside a quick interaction
is your identity here?
you check the room
neutral pulls off cool but its faking
you can't do it, this soup has cooled
noones eating it
they want burgers
energy drinks with bright happy brands
slogans piled up so high the volume
makes you really sit and thickly ponder
on the value for money is there a number
mouthwatering walls describe ingredients
inside the fastfood shop to the jingle tune
Your well decorated kindergarten classroom
doesn't a piece of you fall into the grinder
taken away to be consumed digested and excreted
I look up toward her from my place on the hill
she looks at me as if she doesn't even recognize
and thus far this has been the pedigree
never to give away grimace nor glee
Were I not even offspring in the brood
initiative absent my irregular way and mood
greatness latent to me so long after your death
yet here you stand afore me entire afresh
Tiny Tones of blue highlight her face almost unseen
Her laughter silent
And I an infant to witness
all of her privations
As midnight approaches
I can see her amply
the aura of a god or a queen
glorious on ths hill above me
were I not even part of this brood
so dedicated to all of you
Though I see myself a mere hatchling
lacking the vigor you so long to see in me
No hint of mercy
compassion has left her skin
abandoned her heart
restlessness has dimmed
Authority in her eyes
she has pointed us to the present day
like clumsy lost caravels
ridiculously clinging to the waves
I looked through the concrete
There it stood she stood Clear
her art outshone our perceptions
the cosmic chess player moving reality
In the basement
half filled with water
the figurines of superheroes
surged up like fizz
The Nanny lorded over these waters
and in the darkness she would wail
baby mice crawling up the walls
tickling themselves on the rough brick
she told those old legends
about the child eel that became an adult
growing wildly strong and massive
from feeding off the cattle
Then to avoid the ensuing storm
entered the ugly gash inside the building
to thresh about in the slowly rising waters
That would accumulate and become the nanny itself
The steps to the basement
were litttered with pets food bowls
Above a house full of roosters
bragging until the fire lit
Nanny controlled the whole mess
even the crytpic ghosts that surfaced from the water
ascended the stairs and traumatized the spoilt children
cloning itself and occupying several rooms simultaneously
Rumours and mysteries that the onlooker could not glean
even from looking under the cracked paint on the external walls
the soup forming its own acidic foam in the basement
the eery silence of the entire structure
only to burst into movement and sound as the living things came alive
from the sloppy pond inside the basement
