(for Brett)
the baby breathes easily
the air in the glass box
he wants both nipples at once
but must come to rest with rubber
his brother also shares a little
in this taste of near-containment
somehow their mother has managed
to save them both for life
Matt Hetherington (Australia)
BECOMING OUR FATHER
ReplyDelete(Written for and inspired by Matt)
Yes, I am now attracted to the mute certainty
Of arms as oars
The sunstroke back too and the smell of Bruts
When you stammered for the right words you found
(when every little nail starts to grow inwards
and every little injustice is anticipated)
The foreskin of intent
Now spider web veins on cheeks, ingenious angina
Those rubber band calves, gorilla nipples
And a chip butty as the remedy
Wearing your mother’s shoes to school
And later a stick and a wheel
You hid from him
But I never tried to hide from you
That to me would have been badly
Inflammatory
We all remember that sticky billiard-table shame
Joins on the stairs and a dark glass around the ring
We have both stopped measuring the lid-fulls
On grim table nights when the teeth
Need picking long
I too
Am that other man
At the workplace with another greeting face
So your butter lives on bread, abatement of sadness
And the disregarded piano listens all night to the night
I see that painting you had is still hanging
The one with the landscape I used to run through
Every dinnertime
I recognize your temper, bent back
And sliced profile, sliced silence
The impulses of grabbing hands
From today’s hard-bellied words
Our identities are cast firm
So, this figure is figuring it out.
[http://www.bretthetherington.net/default.aspx?pageId=753]
thanks, brett...tis a good poem...and quite moving, for me...soonly, achi! ;)
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