Ideogram

 

[Ideogram]

 

“haiku ideogram june”

 

precious intermittent clear

rainwater

creases increases powers

 

powerful tile-filled guttered

underscores

suction fertilise cascade

 

cascading casement condo

horizon

glints reflects gleams surroundings

 

surround façade-ish symbolled

double-you

mirrors one amidst crowds thick

 

thickening thinning twinning

cumulus

darkens dins evaporates

 

elongated chubby sport

bicycles

wander wheelie wheel onward

 

earthward multitudinous

foliage

migrates colouring misting

 

misted chilled stilled embrowned bound

home river

burdens banks broods believes bushed

 

bushed remade driven relaid

thoroughfare

pushes lines propels destines

 

designed commedia joke

emojis

grin laugh scowl weep impromptu

 

impromptu handheld red neat

a love heart

touched screened messaged proliferates

 

prolific well-oiled fast-track 

turning lane

idles shifts peaks witchhatted

 

hardhatted scaffolded fresh

construction

redesigns signs off landscapes

 

landscaped walking-sticked wheelchaired

disabled

ramps closets spaces unstopped

 

uncapped untapped unsapped black

wine bottle

browns reddens greens empties grape

 

grapevine satnav roundabout  

circular

night for day info graphic

 

photographic negative

not full moon

whitening outlines precious

 

 

Jail

 

go to jail

go directly to facebook jail

do not pass go

 

community standards

broached you’re reproached

you are suspended

 

do not collect two hundred

no correspondence

will be entered into

 

jailbird you think about

community chest

facebook’s worst and best

 

or chance, the kind of card

that gets you out for free

or sends you alone to reminisce

 

long days on old kent road

the ads the threads the saids

you must unsaid delete

 

long the nights dreaming

of everyone’s lost opinions

being there trafalgar square

 

what did you say

what were you thinking, even

no one’s saying a thing

 

eternity at leicester square

logon for a chat jailbird

prove that you are human

 

suspended for saying what

you’ve weeks fresh faceban

to remember what it was not

 

all the banter on bow street

picking the rants on piccadilly

choosing emojis on mayfair

 

have you got your emoji back

the echo chamber of your cell

your voice in constant backchat

 

not so, neither is the future

a facebook crowd end to end

now you endure a mass unfriend

 

options are to confess

to a charge that has not been named

a guilt you are not guilty of

 

time will heal your enmity

until you think throw away the key

reconstruct your identity

 

adopt a separate reality

the one where the world is scented

before facebook was invented

 

where true friends look you in the eye

you’ve space to think about why

or simply gaze at the sky

 

where life is not 24-hour cycles

monopolised by random chaos and

you permanently stuck on strand

 

for once look yourself in the mirror

test your suspenders

take a weekend bender

 

and leave social media behind

drown your facebook

and turn a leaf, contemplate

 

Patience

 

[Patience]

 

“I still lack the patience to pass my time with flowers and to listen to music and to look at paintings and read the Bible.” (Etty Hillesum, April 1942)

 

magical handful of anemones

forget me nots

vase centred at the window

 

the time it took to take

the time to look

passes already to chat meals books

 

ocean of the great preludes

we comprehend hands

as seconds play over fast

 

and rush away to themes

memory is left alone with

in the time remaining

 

pierce of masterpiece

the colours of shadows

are momentary cheer

 

a weekday afternoon spent

before a genius image

that won’t change anything

 

proverbs eat into my skin

reading them over

hearing their hard edges

 

unbearable miracles

their pages close upon

as the future is faced up to

 

 

Circe

 Circe   “a Bloomsday fragment”

 

Image of Bloomsday in Melbourne 2025 by Jody Jane Stitt

 

in fact much excess recess impress

adventure in Joyce

is shed by the script

 

pared back to describe

choice actual exchanges

their first thoughts

 

Bloom’s pas de deux

with Bello his worst fear voiced

best guess realised

 

comes into some relief

hoists hiddens using this method

though no relief for Bloom

 

Stephen’s punch encounter

the drunken English boys

soldiers likewise I’m sure

 

takes on a menace not felt

so palpably in the book

poised with annotation

 

we witness moist eyes averted

the pretentious prat

his complete Shakespeare

 

completely out of his depth

before the noise violent intent

of these guardians of red empire

 

 

Incorrect

 

[Incorrect]

 

‘Prosecutor and Accused:

Unofficial Leftovers Transcript’

 

The fungi you did select

had the desired effect

-         Incorrect

 

The jury need to reflect

have they a hearing defect

-         Incorrect

 

Orange cake most delect

you did vomit to undetect

-         Incorrect

 

Cancer is not a prospect

nor have you something gastric

-         Incorrect

 

The argument you erect

flops upon close inspect

-         Incorrect

 

You are no forager elect

buzzing about like an insect

-         Is it correct …?

 

Don’t interject!

I ask the questions, direct

-         Um correct

 

Your stories are bedecked

with lies and decoys a train wreck

-         Incorrect

 

Computer records intersect

contrariwise to your recollect

-         Incorrect

 

Remorse is half-affect

care appears derelict

-         Incorrect

 

This dialogue is abject

it seems to have no object

-         Incorrect

 

Your versions don’t connect

they all just contradict

-         Incorrect

 

Mine mushroom, they are complex

they perfect what is imperfect

-         Incorrect

 

The jury must now reflect

on who gets it in the neck

-         Correct

Canary

 

[Canary]

 

“That lady of high nobility with the rich profusion of blond curls on her forehead sang like a Japanese canary in labour.” (Etty Hillesum, June 1942)

 

Of the starcrossed lovers she sings

in fallendown cities at evening

sharing last broken words

 

Of the faded glum surrealists

their prim disaster collages

ground by government jackboots

 

Of cocktail circuiteers

rounded into carriages

overcoats by house of forlorn

 

Her range has highpitched planes

incendiary no-name screams

the gap and the explosion

 

Not the composer’s precise intention

an unusual take on the words

forced or matter-of-fact

 

A yellow flame in a coalmine

she sings dressed for the occasion

a kamikaze aria in real time

 

Of sputtering in a coalmine

darkness verse seven all mine

a song in the mind long gone

 

Of a certainty it will end

the soiree of old school set pieces

pointing toward midnight

 

Of her no information available

she held the notes made the bow

and sat again to applause polite that

You

 

[You]

“Sometimes I try my hand at turning out small profundities and uncertain short stories, but I always end up with just one single word: God.” (Etty Hillesum, August 1943)

 

I haggled over existence

revelled in refutations

till the only one listening is you.

 

I was about me for too long

not seeing that everyone ever

even I belongs to you.

 

I rambled and ranted and right

when the words could not go on

come reminders of you.

 

I found myself through caring

days and weeks for others

to find myself staring at you.

 

I left hometown behind

never looking back

nowhere still there is you.

 

I had been torn in old ways

apart confused by new harms

forgetting that there is you.

 

I saw glimpses in leaves

indications in every eye

today’s small glories of you.

 

I counted every object in view

a universe of stun wonders

still alone my desire for you.

 

I wrote endlessly every minute

detail down to the minutest

to end up again with you.

 

I went for broke with words

breaking all the rules

to end up with nothing but you.