my landlady had strange properties….

it was australia day
i was working on a picture of shakespeare in bondi
it was very very quiet
it was warm and overcast
special magic weather
it was dark in my house
i’d been stumbling along
in the hall
for hours and hours
somewhere up ahead
a door was open
and white light was streaming in
book shelves and toys went by
scooters guitars backpacks shoes
i stopped to rest by a forlorn suitcase
battered by a thousand trips
round and round the world
up n down the east coast
hey i left some of my inklings in here
a graveyard of half finished poems
and paintings that didnt work out
we need you too
they call out
as i fight n flail my way past
hoping desperately
to pick up some momentum
to achieve liftoff
a box of electric junk
cables levers buttons inputs
the debris from my mind
discarded worlds
used up love
you see
you think
that i could turn this off
like
ok i had enough now
but it doesnt stop
a verse of an old number
i whipped up in 1974
“god never looked so lovely
on such a moonlit day
all milky incandescence
all girlish gaunt and grey
the world below him trembled
and cried out in its awe
the rivers turned to silver
the silver turned to war”
all this old stuff hounding me
all the bits n pieces
i was trying so hard
just to move one inch towards that door
where that light shone so sweetly
calling me on through the molasses
of my memories
the syrup of my surplus
the cream of the rest
reminiscent backwater
dream cul de sac
a smoke dream
gone with the wind
after another thousand years
i reached the door
to the kitchen
and was surprised
by myself
hello how are you?
why ask me? you should know
the two of us shook out the drawers
and folded the plates
we rinsed off the goldfish
we polished the moon
we wrote a little song together
he came up with the music
and we did the words together
is this another red herring? i asked
for you maybe he said
but not for me
lets go and wake up the children
ssshhh i said
no dont
anyway theres no one home
all the rooms are empty? he said
i nodded miserably
man pull yerself together! i said to me
we decided to turn
and keep on trying for the door
he was no help
he had all my faults
but none of the strong points
what would they be? he asked smilingly
he dropped off somewhere back there
im better off without him
the hall was still dark
the light was still shining
i was still there/here
moving forward
inch over inch
degree on degree
song by song

see you real soon
sk