I too am old and feeling the pinch
Tyres of flab hang ungraciously
My fantasies are old memories
Of moments when I felt real and alive
I too feel the pain of loneliness
With desires and needs just like you
A carnal night in autumn a dangerous
Proposition I ripped off her shirt to devour
Her wild young breasts
I touched her wild young moan
I too am human don’t you see
And now my friend is dying of cancer
Withering away to a shell to the paleness
Of truth as I sleep on his bed while
He attempts to sleep on a chair
But I don’t sleep because I hear his moan
Of pain and they are not the moans
Of erotic torture
No
His moan is a runaway train of death
Can death be erotic?
Perhaps
Though for my friend a roomer
His savage dying his organs
Collapsing piranha like his face
An eaten skull
This land I knew voracious its appetites
Country of brag country of alcohol
Country of blood oh libidinous scream
Swagman of our neon streets
A wasteland with a smile and a dare
His cold grey city dying
There he goes shuffling along grey ghost
To be on Separation Street
Death is speaking him with a cigarette
Dangling from his mouth
He a wild angry light
And all along he is one step ahead of
Doctor Death as he says
I’ll take you to Western Australia
Maybe we’ll head to Broome’
Maybe
We’ll punch those stars right out of
The fucking sky and get drunk on old
Jack Daniels and say yeah
What a ride we had
I really stuck it up them didn’t I?
You sure did old friend old pal of mine
You were a real soldier tough as iron
I’ve seen plenty of death
Coffee granules spluttering up from
Demeter’s throat
My mother Jean
I cleaned the spittle from her mouth
Her eyes open in terror
Her body lying naked on a slab
Not even a sheet for her blue body
And the day we went to the cemetery
It rained an October storm
And my friend said
God is crying for your mother
And then you-
A spit in the eye of eternity
This lonely death it ends
Friend
I carry him his mouth and eyes
His big old belly and smile
That devilish laugh
Nothing is wasted or lost
There in my hand I hold this shoebox
Filled with ash that was once
A rage of wild winds and sun
And yes I loved him because he reminded
Me of my own savagery my own crying
Monster that stirs my wanderlust soul
But even though I loved my friend
It’s a woman’s touch I want
I miss that velvet kiss on my lips
The sweet balm of a woman’s skin
The take me whisper in the ear
To be inside a woman’s flesh
To explode your white hot jazz Into her scented room
To feel the juice of life
The electricity of being
Every hair bristling with excitement
To feel alive oh God
That’s what I wanted
I always wanted
I always wanted
To be loved.
for my friends.... 