Heat Horizon

there is heat
and desert clear clarity
somewhere
where blues and reds and greens grow out of the earth
sprout
from horizons that stretch out
and reach that forever away place
I endlessly chase
i spy
it's no coincidence i can see
that spot
that would be pale blue dot
from where I lie
foreign streets
where in my mind we meet
in the heat
desert clear clarity
that seeping creeping doubt fear tide
that drags me down,
wrung out
I can beat it in the heat
the childhood comfort of
crisp dry crackling skin
solar powered
i charge
at that horizon
which today is grey
and calls a strangers name.

Songbird

Eva's my morning songbird
she knows the score

it's simple

the chorus is just three chords
C, G and D
which is alright by me

still half asleep
unwashed in pjs

unable to leave the cave
today
I think I'll just play
and play
it's a solitary game
three chords
(unwashed in pjs)

These days are strange
too many tunes
but laughter heals and calms
and reassures
the best medicine

I'll take the strongest dose available

and sleep
til morning songbirds greet
with
C, G and D

they know the score;

"I love you like never before".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKjjRz0TEUk

Brave, That Way

Saturday sees me
sticking a safety pin through my nose
and screaming myself hoarse
in a strip club
in a black pvc catsuit
I wasn't sure was worth the $15 the op shop was charging
in 2006

but I'm just not brave
in this particular way
haven't got the words to say
whatever it is that fills me

two tenor saxophones said it instead
in a distinct harmony
that drew the salt tears
that I couldn't will
at the right time
rehearsing another's pain
on another day.

Language is so inadequate,
even melody is,
chords comes close
but it's so mercurial,
this meaning we chase
that slips and slides
and seemingly impossibly
freezes when we need it most.

If i could paint
perhaps colours could
fathom this
in layers and textures

I need to build something
big enough to show
this enormity

drain the ocean and make a stage of the sea floor
to play out this story

the one that comes in dreams
and day dreams
that seems right there
at my finger tips

but evaporates before I can catch it
and transpose it
into the right key
and sing it into the wind
to waft it's way
to wherever you are in the world.

I'm mute, today
not brave
that way.