who is ever still? (2009)

crashed for couple
of months couldn’t
wear your purple shoes

daylight was as
a trap cold
shoulder offered

‘no one repeat
no one is watching’
‘pull plug’ ‘jack out’

did not travel
beyond forehead / for-
wardmost tip of nose

inhabited tight turn-
ing circle front
indicators inoperable

while languishing
pronounless even
quit talking in

metaphors a la
rudd much to the
nation’s relief (?)

once it becomes
clearer they don’t
dismiss you as

natural disaster
breathing improves
they even line you

up for things you
never thought you’d
do how nice though

at the restaurant
there’s nothing
you can eat &

so why bother
with principle why
risk the alien move

better to watch
others fail choke
on life so lifelike

many untouched
by history a real-
ity too far for

hopelessly punctual
lay-philosophical
skim ‘lit-i-ture’

like milk while
trees turn off
into winter have

a seed tattooed
on your hand
to remind you

to be mindful
not a backdrop
slow to update

in no state
to improvise
or soft return

disappearer of
dodgy dissolves
lobbing spoilers

toppling that glass-
half-full persona
of the worst kind

now too known
there checkout boy’s
recognition smile

compelled to shop
elsewhere we are
living in each other

you’re undetonated
huh? nothing
stays forbidden?

‘no one repeat
no one is watching’
unless they must the

board set for chess its
once-contested centre
harbours lit candle &

we are very
influenced
so edited out

where’s the healthy
snack we can
unite around?