‘Hush at the moon’ (And other poems)

“Hush at the Moon”

(And other poems)

“Hush at the Moon”

 

 

Come back to fallen leaves sparkled with dew,

glinting like broken shards of glass on the night streets.

Come back to the same dark streets
and have the evening close in like vast depths around you.

Come back to the passageways and the back-yards and the front steps.
Come back to the waking place of architects.
Come back to blue eyes and silver change.
Come back to a dollar and an ended day.

Come over to the other side of the road
We’ll stand in the lamplight
In the shadows cast by streetlights
Steal kisses from the shadows in the halflight

and in the moonlight
I’ll make it back
to the other side of evening.

Come back to a whisper.
Come home to a dead man’s house.
Come and read the charges and the set-lists and the bill notices.
Come to the coffee table.
Come back when you’re able.
Summer here is a word on the wind that sounds like
“Soon, my love”
“Swoon, my last,
for my kisses, warm summer will find
and wash in warm rain”

Come back to your doubts.
Come back to the hours
spent in sleep.
Come back to your clocks.
Come back to your rocks.
Come back to the blood around us.
Come back to a sensation and susurrus.

Come back to the coastline.
Come back to your shore.

Come back to a straw broom
and a wood floor.

Come to the thunder.
And to the lightning, come
Come to the river
And through the river-city run,
Run on and shine. O-Glinted evening
Sharply we have spoken
And quickly I have woken
And looked on the time.

It always seems to be running
running out, running away
and I have come to find
day by day
that dreams are the one thing
you can’t get back to.

But come back to my kisses
And I’ll make it back to you
O song of nightfall
O tempered footfall
O beguiled dream of yesteryear we have named
‘romance’.

Come back and dance
through the halls of places the people gather.
Wash your face with rich lather.
And come! For the taxi is here.
And come! For we shan’t want to miss the fireworks.

Come back home.
And wipe your feet on the welcome mat.
Sit out on the porch by evening and watch the bats.
Come back- O warm blankets & warm embrace.
Come Winter we shall be warm.
Come back and be reborn.

Come back
O daggered stare
O foul moods
O poisoned words
O icy disposition.

 

Come back O infallible wisdom
We’re all sinners in the end.
I’m always the sinner in the end.

And I’ll repent.

 

Come back
regrets.

Come back
whiskey and cigarettes

Come back heartbreak,
come back rumor and whisper

Come back and remember.

Come back and linger
O talon finger

Come back O fangs and sickly gazes.
Come back and see my disgraces.

Come back fleshy flesh
Drop your disguises and speedily undress.
Come back to bed
Let’s spend the weekend in.
Come and put your skin, on my skin.

Come O-lonely tear
Come O- river muse.

Come and let’s hush at the moon.

 

 

 

 

 

“Otherside Road”

Down on Otherside Road
novelists sit
with all their big leather bound books
and typewriters
playing Russian checkers
and writing a hundred thousand words.

On Otherside Road
the bakery is puffing out

that delicious smell
of bread and pastries.

 

I buy one or two
small things
and eat them
on the footpath of Otherside Road.

On Otherside Road
a café does good business.

On Otherside Road
a few uni students have set up a stall.

On Otherside Road
two young women kiss
and blush as the cars blow their horns.

Down on Otherside Road
in the new apartments

a couple make love on Sunday morning

before their kid wakes up.

 

A dog barks
at the roaring yellow and blue bus that pulls into the stop with a squeal and hiss
and then pulls away.

It’s morning on Otherside Road
the postman does his rounds
a man pulls up his jeans
a tradesman’s Ute pulls out into the street.
A Mum with two kids in loose fitting school uniforms
one in a stroller
and one in her belly
climbs the whole lot into the four wheel drive
starts the engine
and starts the day.

Evening on Otherside Road
I take a bottle of champagne to the café

And listen to the jazz band play.

Sometimes
Girls in this city
are so bloody pretty.

It’s September
and they’re wearing evening dresses
they’ve dusted off the slinky dresses
the short, silky dresses
with the halter neck tops.

Little flecks of glitter twinkle in the candlelight
and the dull, orange gaslight
they’re jewelry sparkles on the dance floor
and tantalizes me.

I sip
at my glass
of champagne.

The jazz band plays
‘Summertime’
On Otherside Road.

I put my feet up
lean back.

Watch the girls dance and sway
the slinky dresses dance and sway
the twinkling glitter
and silver chains
dance and sway
On Otherside Road.

I buy a vodka lemon
in a highball glass
on Otherside Road.

The taxi cabs drive into Otherside Road.
House-keys make a jingle Otherside Road
The chilly, spring air tingles on Otherside Road
And the city lights shine so bright
not too far from Otherside Road.

And its morning again
on Otherside Road
The bakery is making that delicious smell

The sky above is that pale Queensland blue
and I buy some pastries
just one or two.

And a coffee to go on Otherside Road.
A coffee for my hangover on Otherside Road.
A testament to the last night I had on Otherside Road.

And a hope for what will be next time
On Otherside Road.

 

 

 

 

 

“Sexy”

Her black hair
is like the sky
in all the ways that makes me want to jump
from up high.

Her eyes
green
it’s always
been
a weakness of mine.

Her lips
taste like wine
and in so sublime a way
I think it was a night harvest
’cause I can taste the moon
I can taste the darkness
I can hush the moon.

She whispers
her lips to my ear
and we sway to and fro
we move
back and forward
and I hear every word.

She says
‘What a night’
She says

‘What a surprise’
‘What a nice surprise’

To the date
we have had so far.

Her heart
is against my chest.
Her moods are heavy in the lightness

Her lips pouty and serious
when I deny her a kiss.

But leave them waiting.
Always leave them waiting.
Never. Ever. Kiss on the first date.
Always flirt.

She flits
in my dreams.
Of the night
and on evening
in the days to come

I’ll call her
Of course I’ll call her
She’s sexy, Sexy, So damn sexy

I’ll call her

That’s what I’ll do.

 

 

 

“Savior”

 

His lips
on hers
breathing.

Her nipples
cold
exposed
to the warm breeze.

Her flesh
wet
she’s breathing,
he’s breathing,
they’re breathing together.

He pulled her from the surf
no movie
could write
a meet cute
like that.

So they’re seeing

One another
the knight in the red togs
and the princess
almost drowned
in the surf.

They’re out sharing a few laughs and a few words
and they’re laughing,
breathing,

Their falling,
no,
they’re just being,
being attracted,
a little turned on,
being flirty,
hard to get,
almost got,
not got yet.

They’re breathing in the air of being young
Out and linking arms
being there,
being here,
being fun,
almost one,
not one yet.

She calls him
her savior
and that she owes him
a favor
a debt paid
by a kiss
on the lips.

They’re kissing
breathing,
kissing together,
kissing, breathing, kissing together
breathing together,
kissing as long as they pleasure,
lingering,
making it last,
taking it slow,
not taking it fast.

They’re kissing
being here, being there
being where they are
together.

They’re being together.
They’re together.

She’s breathing, breathing, breathing him in
he’s kissing and being him for her,
she calls him her savior
for breathing kisses and life into her.

He’s breathing kisses and life into her.
Into her, onto her, over her
like warm blankets of morning
in all the coming days,
he’s breathing,
they’re breathing,

They’re kissing
She’s saved.

 

 

“Through my window”

(For Misbah – with many thanks)

Through her window she can see
whole spectrums of time and being
whole universes seen and unseen
through her window she can see,

The Cheshire cat grinning
and inviting
all the sinners to a party where the devil is the host
and Proust makes the toast
to his excellent health.
And all the poets there are selling their souls,
selling their souls, shedding their skin, shedding their clothes,
shedding their souls and showing themselves
and selling the souls for a song and a penny.

 

For a penny, I look out my window
And see smoke rising.
I see distant suns setting.
I see Virgo rising.
I see the world turning,
I see the pages flapping the wind and burning
with the breeze that bruises cheeks of lovers.

For a penny, through my window
I hang my secrets out to dry
Through telescopic lenses I spy
on distant beauties and nearby stars.

Through her window she can see
the days to come
and nights to follow.

Through my window
I can borrow
but a pinch of daybreak
and add it to my mixed up mind
and stormed tossed soul.

She says to me
We can sing of romance tomorrow
We can sing of heartbreak tomorrow.
For now look through the window.
Look through the window.
See what you can see.

Say I ‘The sea
and people moving
and loving on the wind
making plans, making troubles
scraping joy from the sorrow’

Says She ‘Sing of them tomorrow
Sing of all tomorrow

Sing to me tomorrow
But now look through the window
Look through the window

Look through the window
And dream, and dare to dream.’

 

 

“Toast”

Let’s all be upstanding for this one!
Ladies and Gents a bit of Hush to the Moon!
A bit of shush in the room!

To you and your muses
And for all the ends and uses
May you never need to justify
Here Here! Here Here!

To you and your beginnings
And mornings
That are breaking
See through the dawn that
shines on, shines over
and kisses us with tomorrow
Here Here! Here Here!

To you lovers
Never miss the lips
Never rush your kiss
And never forget to breathe,
to breathe, always to breathe and to live!
Here Here! Here Here!

To all circumstances that would threaten to knock our blocks off
Here are my words to blow your socks off
Whispered, each to each
And sung for you hear on the edge of daybreak.
To all our troubles and all the messes.
May they be shortened and lessened!
Here Here! Here Here!

To high places
and evening stars
Be long and warm so that we may revel within!
And may work be short so the reveling may begin
Here Here! Here Here!

To Mr. Speaker and the politicians

Try to make some good decisions
that reflect the needs of the people,
never forget your people,
you shouldn’t forget the people
who put you where you are.
Here Here! Here Here!

To the rich-give a little more.
To the poor- hold on a little more.
To the lonely may love come.
To the love may it be as strong as the river run
Here Here! Here Here!

To the moon and all the tides.
To the places inside
where we store the memories of yesterday
and the hope of tomorrow.
To our decisions
and conditions we find ourselves within
To the face above your chin
Lift your glass and whisper this prayer.

May life be long
And Spring winds be fair and strong
And may we all sing that song that
puts the whispers together.
May we link arms
in the arrival area of forever.

May we be and dream and dare to live inside a single moment
May we never be alone in it.

May we stand under the moon and laugh, laugh,
laugh together laugh,
Here Here! Ha HA! Here Here!

 

 

 

Fin.