20150409

Les Wicks


The Deal

I need a beach
& am one.

A common type of desperation, pains.
My teeth grind down to sand.

So thoroughly complete, worry & habit -
circles of the sun. Our orbit.

I dress in cancers, so Australian.
But am cured under that same adamance.

Eucalyptus trees chewing gum, the kiss.
She grows accustomed to complicated beards.

Weavers attend the afternoon.
I am caught up, the numinous cloth, the ease.

A young male king parrot returns,
profligate in its aspiring flames.

There is an exchange
down at the borders of our beast, our plenty.



In the Tribe

The Treaty of the Mothers
was a hardfought thing. It worries.
Combatants came together through frangible gateways,
surely talked but like always
left holding up
scratched old glass of the brittle worlds
they built on so much of their blood.

The Treaty of the Fathers rambled.
Peace breaks out when each loses interest,
a convalescent tranquillity - 10% alcohol
buckets of chicken & a ready-for-anything sunshine.
The grey-haired bucks nestle in their horns, the young
rut about the timber, their eyes spinning with dumb promise.

The Treaty of the Child has forgotten about falling.
It will need nothing over the next day that will not be provided.
Like territory, the learning will expand, flourish under the engines
of curiosity & wonder while their adults serve the laws
of flailing flaws. Parents are the compost of the kids’ carnival,
they take on everything that’s tossed.

The Law of Weeds is like a religion
that comfortably thrives in fallow. Our best leaders rule
because they give no rules to follow.
We aim to be free, wave about in air
while still rooted at the loam.
Garry in tears takes the hand
& Wanda can’t be trusted.
Nuclear families implode,
they were always a weapon.




Over 35 years Les Wicks has performed at festivals, schools, prison etc. Published in over 300 different magazines, anthologies & newspapers across 22 countries in 11 languages. Conducts workshops around Australia & runs Meuse Press which focuses on poetry outreach projects like poetry on buses & poetry published on the surface of a river. His 11th book of poetry is Sea of Heartbeak (Unexpected Resilience) (Puncher & Wattmann, 2013), his 12th (a Spanish selection) El Asombrado (Rochford St, 2015).

http://leswicks.tripod.com/lw.htm
 
 
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