Ah, the red knickers - Whichever way turns you on. I'm not adverse to
dressing up for tittilation. In fact this somewhat small Aussie poet (pale
skin and slight belly) once wore a builder's labourer's type blue singlet to
bed and ripped it off in front of giggling naked wife ... Laughter is one of
lust's supportive elements I've found to my surprise.
My life is substantial and busy with family and academic/creative projects,
yet my sixty years hang behind me like a tattered tail - Tattered because
memory and history suffer slippage; 'tail' for the obvious play on words
(metonymic?); and 'holding on' for all its reverberations and its
syntactical rhyme with the lyric 'warning sign' ...
The mood? The black dog barks at shadows.
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "judy prince" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 11:18 PM
Subject: Re: snap
Andrew, re "Warning Signs": which one of you wore red knickers?
You brought a near-unbearable-mooded subject into compelling view. 'Tis a
WAY tough thing to do. Like tryna make a "depressed" character the novel's
fascinating protagonist (unless the readers are self-flagellant, they'll
consign the book to a thrift shop before reaching its tenth page).
I note, too, that you returned us, perhaps consciously, to the "flying
kite" metaphor (Ben Bellitt?) for the way we write poetry. Ben'd apparently
felt, as you'd paraphrased him in your days-ago explanation, "in the end the
kite was flying him---in his concentration, etc." Your (below) poem says,
beautifully, "the kite of all my days flies a tattered tail. I am holding
on"---and I'm fascinated with what that image might mean for the snapman.
Thanks!
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Burke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 12:02 AM
Subject: snap
> Warning Signs
>
>
> gourmet snails
> eat the chilli plant
> the flowering bush
> is a handful of sticks
> someone has put their butts
> in the geranium's pot
>
> today I bought
> Jill's the book of
> Possibilities
> for 50 cents
> of more delight than
> John's Peripheral Light
> (Harold left out the best of .)
>
> I sneeze and wheeze
> through coffee
> with my exwife
> and go through
> market shops with her
> like back when .
> only now its
> her money -
>
> at night between sets
> at Wimbleton
> I read Winton and Genette-
> forty / fifteen.
> Tim comes up to the net
> Gerard stays back of court ...
>
> Talking Heads are
> live in concert
> on the stained speakers
> 'warning sign of things to come -
> turn me over, turn me over'
> I go to bed
> and dream of fucking
> my ex-wife in red knickers
> 'warning sign, warning sign -
> look at my hair -
> like the design?'
>
> the kite of all my days
> flies a tattered tail .
> I'm holding on
> holding on
> snails at the chilli
> Talking Heads silent
>
>
> Andrew Burke
> Mt Lawley
> 23 June 2005
>
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