RED MOVEMENT AGAINST GRAY

CLOUDS forming falling off the tablelands
more stormwork, the howling
scandal of wind
the stumbling vibes dancing while i try
to sleep beside your
exploding warmth

LAST NIGHT
"the last night"
you said/
getting quietly drunk, the brown
dog slept as the lashed exteriors
moved independently of us all.

SHE gets a name from deep inside her/she explains
that means paradox and
we can only smile

WAITING      hours move at metal pace
the afternoon bus in neither horizon, its
lateness shudders us with impotence.  you
almost speak three times. I have to
kiss your cheek, just where the tears
will fall. (and this is all fantasy).

YOU follow me out into the rain. wild gums
dancing & the diminished presence of
headlights. that bus crawling through a
landscape robbed of all hard edges, water blurred & WEAKENED.

WE both waiting for second thoughts but
there were none. I kissed your lips,
feeling only ice; the warmth beaten back
by the freezing rains

THE PICTURE remaining was red; the lips
i couldn't find in that
last electricity.

COLD & holy in my own small puddle
at the back seat.  the clouds are breaking
up & i sit miserable, shivering under a rainbow rising
out of the mountains.
the tablelands…

(1975)