Siân Vate


gabagool
it isn’t a ‘problem’ it was just weird we met
this kid called danny boy at the pub [‘danny’ 
& then ‘boy’] & sunk some rounds of pool 
with him & he said to us ‘why’d you call me 
‘danny boy’ & he was on the coast working 
sanitation in the dairy industry & ten minutes 
or eighteen hours or however long it was later 
parnell asked paul to play ‘danny boy’ on the 
piano on ‘anatomy of a murder’ & the same 
thing happened earlier that day on that show 
‘teen spirit’ / & that’s the nirvana reference 
although nirvana refs are everywhere / as in 
hole released one really good album & asap 
said ‘rihanna’s trippy like nirvana’ & we’d 
asap’d a heap of the highway home veering 
to the left of geelong / & after playing anti in 
full. & a night or two before that on the lappy 
paulie gualtieri had called a cop on the take 
‘danny boy’ & ‘danny boy’ also sounds like 
a flavoured milk made on the west coast at a 
cheese factory [actually bridie had spun out 
about what’s in the milk & i’d said ‘it’s just 
cream’] [actually shannen said that kurt & 
courtney both had obsessions with mothers’ 
milk & i said they were both under-mothered 
unuddered / no not that last part / yuk] & do 
you think that courtney & meghan markle’s 
fathers were similar / i mean what’s the link 
between splitting & that kind of… narcissism 
from above / actually that’s what was similar 
with livia & janice & how come barbara was 
spared. & is barbara beautiful because: no
storyline / & when tony says to christopher 
‘you’re either in or you’re out’ in that scene 
‘i’ll give you ten minutes to become loyal or 
to disappear forever’ is that what will said at 
sandringham / kidding / but is that what he 
would’ve liked to say / as in / the firm’s the 
family / family’s the stolenwealth etc & does 
that make william tony: no. & kate carmella: 
kinda [the fat blue sapphire ring] & meghan 
adriana: no. & harry’s no moltisanti – though 
with netflix deals – it was funny telling that 
30 rock joke about ‘defiling’ hillary’s bronx 
offices & the camera panned across to the 
portrait of bill – oh SHIT the portrait of bill 
– i’m actually freaking out now – but it was 
weird to tell that joke & five minutes later or 
so on the lappy christopher makes a ‘defiler’ 
joke / that’s when we all freaked out. actually 
we already did when parnell said ‘danny boy’ 
on anatomy of a suicide i’m KIDDING it’s 
anatomy of a MURDER & do you remember 
the wives on the sopranos / they were talking 
about hillary & angie bonpensiero said she 
didn’t like her [nodding] but then they agree 
she was strong for staying – god that story is 
old / who cares – & later on when carmella 
& tony are breaking up edie falco has hillary 
hair / it’s like diana hair but not nice & lamer 
is that a reference. & edie falco’s actually in 
that scene in the clinton offices on 30 rock / i 
mean / she & alec baldwin are the defilers. so 
shannen & i took a photo of the same corner 
of the room that night & that was weird cause 
she doesn’t take that many / & mercedes did
our tarot at the pub & gloria deals mercedes &
on that corner of the beach two tides of waves 
crash into each other & disappear / it’s special 
‘like a taco folding over’ & adam had made us 
tacos a few nights before that & james texted 
the taco emoji & anna khachiyan had insta’d 
the tacos / so what does a taco mean / i don’t 
know / but corey said he’d been playing this 
game ‘escape from tarkov’ & asked was that 
a real place in russia & i said yes / but no it’s 
a tarkovsky reference / kind of / like the film 
‘the mirror’ that feels like a dream or ‘stalker’ 
obviously & that was the other thing that we
flicked through on tv – ‘black mirror’ – the ep 
about mindreading leading to murder & also 
to finding the murderer out / kind of the same 
way that corey livestreamed our pool game on 
twitch / & i could see what the farmers were 
saying but only later when i watched it online

Siân Vate is author of the chapbooks end motion / manifest (bulky news press), and feels right (Slow Loris) from which the above poem is taken. Her work has appeared in Cordite, Otoliths, E•ratio and artiCHOKE (Berlin).

 
 

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