Javant Biarujia



RED SAYLZ | RED SILK | RED BAUX

in memoriam David Bowie, upon viewing Red Sails, Audierne by Albert Marquet, in Matsue

blue water harbor gandarocyi China red sails
                red silk a weave of red box the ships
                silk tongue scudding on my red sails
                               far far farfalla Cho Cho san shipped
                               far far farfalla Cho Cho san red sails
                                              clipped tu tu tu turlute tu
                                              oh red sails upon the waters 1928
gandarocyi China red sails pure soil
terrestrial whispering red sails
                                                             red silk tongue scudding on mine
red ship sails for Matsue
                                                             Setsuko can t dance like you
                scudding into pearl seas
                               a ship gandarocyi China Osaka Shanghai
                                              gandarocyi China Belle de Jour (vedremo)
                                                             a gandarocyi chinese hopscotch
                               your red silk tongue scudding on my red sails
                               eating oysters under the sails on a moonlit deck
                oh entering tremulous ports sipping ocha
                far far farfalla Cho Cho san green
far far farfalla green sails
near the shore with wet sails
                wet from disyllabic raindrops on the tachistes
                surface red sails red silk red box
                               your red silk tongue scudding on my red sails
                               the seamless stream
                               the seamless stream of larches
                                              red ship gandarocyi to the winedark sea
                                                             far far farfalla Cho Cho san
your silk tongue scudding on my red sails



ENO (WITH SEMIOTICS)

16 June. Finished Sebastian Faulk’s Birdsong in the studio — sitting there in floods of tears when the doorbell rang — a handsome young black man in skintight fluorescent cycling gear delivering Iggy Pop’s 3-ft-long ‘Basic Party Penis Sheath’, which he had strapped across his handlebars. It’s from moments like this that accusations of eccentricity are born, I thought, as I watched a neighbour witness this bizarre scene through her lace curtain.
— Brian Eno, A Year with Swollen Appendices (diary)

Welcome to the abyss, you deceitful dog! Is he active/passive, I hear you ask? Band Aid & Live Aid have just suffered a minor tragedy. However, his aim was not flying in an airplane but recycling atom bombs for the Army. A briefcase containing an algorithm archive stolen from Laurie Anderson (or was it Ezra Pound?) cycled all the way to creative bliss (the Third World). Bicycle birdsong on his birthday isn’t so much an attitude as a style: blood on his books, a breath of fresh coffee in a café paid for by credit card, cat cemeteries, change, choice, the chaos of city living. It’s all very innocent, his insistence on class, clocks, Ground Zero, insomnia, musical inventions. Committing geometric coitus didn’t impress him at all. He let the doll explain everything to The Edge — the explosions, falling dreams, fountains, the future sending quivers up his spine. It’s justice at the library, making a list of things to take on a trip. He was working on a lower-case Pulp Fiction for the Museum of Notational Novels* at the time. Almost every night, he met Bob Geldof beneath the obelisk to discuss Uri Geller’s latest shoe performance, Julian Schnabel’s patterning or Sei Shônagon’s talent. (As she soldiered on, the stars took on a satyrical value, whereby the sun became a victim of active volcanoes, wasps, saké, words.…)

* Brian Eno’s idea for a novel was remarkably similar to the film The Truman Show, starring Jim Carey. Eno had read up on copyright law, so he would have known that ideas are not easily protected.

PSYCHOPOP IGGY

like A Clockwork Orange
or anal sex (see cucumber)
or anilingus (see Kierkegaard)
what other antimetabole
acts as a kind of aphrodisiac?
following the art/crime nexus
the convention is for blissful
bodies (see Beau Brummell) and breasts

that can be beautified (see Francis
Bacon) you go to a brothel
(see Buddha) smoke a cigarette
crush cockroaches underfoot (see
Billie Holiday) see other
cocksuckers scurry away (see Caravaggio)
a post-coitus reflection

(see Nicholas Copernicus) before
taking some cocaine you wonder
how can cows be sacred in India
when theres a crucifixion to consider (see Dalí)?
like a cuckoo (see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
what cunnilingus doesnt vary? you ask
each time a dandy is decapitated so
diamonds (see Mary Quant) or dildos (see Marc Bolan) drip

a dogs best friend is a dragqueen
Divine saying “dust” dyslexically
is as hilarious as electricity
or the end of the world (see Byron)
fellatios firing squad (see Paul Robeson)
glamor (see Quentin Crisp) a single
glove a good/evil life of possibilities

Michelangelos David is standing in the corner
milks mother wouldnt melt it (see The Sex Pistols)
reading Naked Lunch with a lot
of noise outside — opiums (see Baudelaire)
orange orgasm (see Rimbaud) squeezes
the perfume out: whos wearing the pink shoes now?
sleep has left the television on again
so you missed seeing Susannah Yorks velvet wound

TEN VILLAWOOD VILLANELLES

for Kent MacCarter

IKathy Acker draws on a cigarette
blinding sunlight to the sputniks gesture
after the collaboration — Thom Gunn

is that what they teach in lit class these days?
lsd versus astrology class
Kathy Acker draws on a cigarette

airplanes thread round fish and generation
y kiss substitutions and discuss words
after the collaboration — Thom Gunn

it started with the left but the right —
over a martini discuss Arkley
Kathy Acker draws on a cigarette

orchids for Ashbery or O’Hara
ordure for Oppenheimers atom bomb
after the collaboration — Thom Gunn

Harry Houdini and Arthur Miller
object as they turn over in their beds
Kathy Acker draws on a cigarette

AFTER THE COLLABORATION — THOM GUNN

for berni janssen

II“How can we make this inhuman?” they ask
like refusing to write Es or plurals
manusia is indonesian for human

being a typewriter giving it up
for lent or longer as a one off protest
“How can we make this inhuman?” they ask

perahu is another indonesian
word to which our word “prow” is related
manusia is indonesian for human

perfected it — let me detain you the
lyrics of a Sia song? Her wigs sigh
“How can we make this inhuman?” they ask

now ruminate our old men perfect-
ing it ecstatically falling down!
manusia is indonesian for human

possession is nine tenths of the law — the
banshees wigs are no more than a chador
“How can we make this inhuman?” they ask

MANUSIA IS INDONESIAN FOR HUMAN

in memoriam Gough Whitlam & Malcolm Fraser

IIIthe poets genius of consciousness
or politicians power to mimic
are left to justify their means to an end

it s metaphysics — the beauty of change
contemplating Mallarmé or Narcissus
the poets genius of consciousness

Heidegger with his taboos and terrors:
us ships carriers planes over Sydney
are left to justify their means to an end

politicians sing       our highest court says
papers lives revolutions nostalgia
the poets genius of consciousness

dance in the beds they have made up themselves!
off to lonely Canberra bells ringing
are left to justify their means to an end

politicians love the sound of their own
voice chattering champagne beer shunting off
the poets genius of consciousness

ARE LEFT TO JUSTIFY THEIR MEANS TO AN END

for Charles Strebor

IVa new life — execution
is off the menu Timothy Learys
dropped out by turning on and tuning in

from Africa to Atlantis peaceful
protest instead of being condemned to
a new life — execution

if you ve never been to America
throw a coin in the fountain i could ve
dropped out by turning on and tuning in

it s legal so it must be right okay
do you remember departure lounges?
a new life — execution

so my dear Charles one day we ll remember
child prodigies or collective madness
dropped out by turning on and tuning in

to flags: did you watch comic shorts in the
cinema of your cerebral bedroom?
a new life — execution

DROPPED OUT BY TURNING ON AND TUNING IN

for Francesca Jurate Sasnaitis & Alex Chapman

Voceans are a sizable proportion
australians hear “menace” island in the sun
how do the lyrics go? our heritage

sketches a chronology of monsters
politicians sing      our highest court says
oceans are a sizable proportion

liberally recitative gestures:
the underground contemplates continents
how do the lyrics go? our heritage

telling lies about helpers to further
blue hills in their affection for refuge
oceans are a sizable proportion

bullied victims inherit baffling brutes!
from virtue to dull terror: that s the way!
how do the lyrics go? our heritage

is an enormous “don t bust my balls!” rage
to analyse it is to embrace it
oceans are a sizable proportion

HOW DO THE LYRICS GO? OUR HERITAGE

for Michael Helsem
(& in memoriam Gore Vidal)

VIessence these needs rejected secreted
they re the centres ended blessèd events
except they ve never been the elected

they were selfless the best they seemed new per-
fect they felt they were nt selected elsewhere
essence these needs rejected secreted

even when bent secret herds descended:
these men were left rent kept perplexed cheerless?
except they ve never been the elected

push the barrel so it helps to keep it
gentle better pretended these webs seen
essence these needs rejected secreted

fresh green flesh free perfect eyes spheres restless
creeds belles lettres were the members pretence
except they ve never been the elected

went stressed served theses they d get there senseless
between the less the end reflects the news
essence these needs rejected secreted

EXCEPT THEY VE NEVER BEEN THE ELECTED

to Eva Orner, director of Chasing Asylum

VIIthe facts weighed down so no one waited for
providence tests margins on his orders
luminaries guided on the waters

souls deluded will mother earth perdure
Hercules — the chopper not the hero —
the facts weighed down so no one waited for

wilful contemplating television:
the facts never approximate the truth
luminaries guided on the waters

all opaque it doesn t matter what we
do — more perverse more desolate more spite
the facts weighed down so no one waited for

prosperity while others perished on
happy bribed islands and other passions
luminaries guided on the waters

ashamed but keeping secret obtrusions
the notation of Atlantean waves
the facts weighed down so no one waited for

LUMINARIES GUIDED ON THE WATERS

after Harold Stewart & James McAuley, as “Ern Malley”

VIIIJohn Keats associates a new angel
although Dürer may have struck diamonds
their gun misfires metaphorically

with images of avant iguanas
their guard darkens pelvic manifestos
John Keats associates a new angel

with chiaroscuro manifests camps
on islands where is the Weltanschauung?
their gun misfires metaphorically

think because you have decided for us —
Traumdeutung Hieronymus Bosch Lenin
John Keats associates a new angel

with mosquitoes an abattoir of birds
shark skull ectoplasm in the future
their gun misfires metaphorically

nostalgia for a hyphened disease grave
obscenities incestuous prophets
John Keats associates a new angel

THEIR GUN MISFIRES METAPHORICALLY

to Madeline Gleeson,
author of Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and Nauru,
& to Shen Narayanasamy, human rights lawyer

IXthe circumnavigation of the truth
philosophers of genius who say:
“we re saving lives” is an egregious lie

truth never aligns to reality —
concentration camps penal colonies
the circumnavigation of the truth

there are not even reticent judges who:
pass sentence      without legal precedent
“we re saving lives” is an egregious lie

but enough of us aren t hypocrites —
many of us are prepared to believe
the circumnavigation of the truth

tho with epithets of greed and projects!
such legal commentaries have collapsed!
“we re saving lives” is an egregious lie

with reconciliation on my mind
and modernist attitudinising
the circumnavigation of the truth

“WE RE SAVING LIVES” IS AN EGREGIOUS LIE

for Tracy Ryan, Tim Kinsella & John Kinsella

Xcome heresy come hide and seek come to
the underclass it s the other side of
ruination — fleeing not jetsetting

you just have to mention landscape to him
and conversation flows — anger shows too
come heresy come hide and seek come to

the art of singing heterodoxies
tisket a tasket metempsychosis
ruination — fleeing not jetsetting

this is not the Australia i signed up for
so maybe we need outside assistance?
come heresy come hide and seek come to

getting upset easily a dead bird
by the roadside gives me palpitations
ruination — fleeing not jetsetting

the fool is indignant estranged from truth
despondency s not an answer you say
come heresy come hide and seek come to

RUINATION — FLEEING NOT JETSETTING

(Editor's Note: The first three villawood villanelles appeared in Otoliths #41. They are included here so that the sequence can be presented complete.)

Javant Biarujia is represented in more than 20 anthologies including the recent Contemporary Australian Poetry, whilst Spelter to Pewter was published by Cordite books in 2016.
 
 
previous page     contents     next page