Sian Vate



major vice


fairly hue. think about grey / green
pink / think about you – footscray’s a series
of frozen food drops
small business transactions
actual bbqs. neighbours’ yells
dodged neighbours’ gazes
the broken pot shop’s one
block from the creek. it’s not a creek
it’s a river. does your life have a season
does summer affect this / you got one
frozen peach on the tongue
                in maribyrnong the sun’s
convinced. it's willing. we’re
breathing rocks in the chips in the phone
you got one large hand on my cheek
press there. never speak ill
                of highpoint to me he said
i said i didn’t / i wouldn’t. i got pt options
a four letter body. shifts that move about
week to week. press there / you got
one soft hand on my cheek



illuminating dashes


there’s a certain squeaking coming south
down the phone. i wouldn’t mind the train
trip but these blokes & their smokes in
the cabin / one guy’s sleeping rough in the
restaurant dyu think that’s cos of the crisis
i think that’s cos of the heat / this train is
slaying these cliffs like a king. [am snaking a
passage through luggage to] front up & ask for
dolmades. am paying you no attention. woke
up in the luminous cliffs. we’re one long
cigarette rounding the jagged & luminous
cliffs. this air’s kind of perforated by cheese
sandwiches & the black holes of smokes
can look up & barely remember. [could reach
out & throttle or mack you] hey kid there’s
mt olympus [that’s me] but the kid isn’t here
for the view. i told you these families were
syrians & you didn’t believe me. why. some
people are too serious bout politics life &
things. asleep in
                               parental bed head. no one
wants to get to thessaloniki. no one should be
that drunk. raki is slick down the walls
one painter smacks a hole in the air. the
internet still & rising / stand stunned there



joe cocker

                       sweetly in the non-mackerel sky   
                salt fields are pepper sprayed nightly & crushed
                            the fields are cornish rebellions

            faded under sepia
                                  in your dream world train tracks make visions
                  in mountainous towns
                             the fields are draining you dry
                                        dragged sandals over 
                                                   crushed fields & remember
 
            whole mountains folded / the streets are grained tunnels
                                             in your sea world breathing
                             south toward the track
   
            wake up enamel in parked cars / bae                   
                                  the valleys point at you sideways 
                            always

                           locals make joe cocker gestures
                                  nightly 
                                           in parks          

Sian Vate's 2015 chapbook end motion/manifest can be sourced through bulky news press. Sian writes and works in Melbourne and is deputy editor of Overland magazine.
 
 
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