Monday, November 22, 2010

I want to scream and punch the pretty sky.

Sometimes I get so angry I want to shoot privelege in the face and starve with the rest of them.

There's a cost to these endless updates. What's an ipad when there's no food? What's a social vent when the real injustice sit's open mouthed and empty.

Sometimes all I feel is guilt and shame, when the western dream does nothing but lie.

How arrogant the artist becomes when he does not play voice for the child without one.

Tonight Simon I am a question mark.
And an exclamation mark ad infinitim.
Tonight Simon I cannot breathe this air.

I want to rip a hole right through.
I want to scream and punch the pretty sky.

The earth never changed direction,
but we somehow lost our way.

Friday, October 29, 2010

stupid thing I ever saw

Stupid thing I ever saw
that junkie fool
tying up for us
his audience.

thought he was the essence
of cool.

I wondered how close
the fear would be
if he needed it
close to hand.

We walked away
with him falling
into his murky nod.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Connecting...

I called a lady 'bro' the other day. She didn't seem to mind, she knew exactly what I meant. She was walking around a boy on the ground who'd come off his skateboard, and was swearing in his own very cute way. She acknowledged me, then kept texting. Nice to see a lady, seventy if a day, texting her way down the street. She was probably a hippie in the sixties. And now she can see the value in the new connections. She's in the ether with the rest of us. She'll be back home with her facebook shortly, just as soon as she's put the rose on Albert's grave.

Nobody joined my Men's Knitting Group though; bit disapppointing that. Maybe they thought I was kidding. But I see the profit in it. Men in a room....knitting....talking....eating scones. Maybe they'll turn up to the play.

I got a text; it said 'Hey'. That's all it said. It may have just been a hello, but I took it for challenge......and put the drink down.

The world is so full of connections right now. Redefintions at play. Never before have people kept so easy a score on friendship. Is there a generation in store who's self-worth depends on their friends and the click of a 'like'? Methinks maybe so. But me don't think Oh No......methinks change is good.

The young are becoming wiser......faster.

Friday, October 1, 2010

The Perfect Girl

You like to sleep in when it rains.
You know who William S Burroughs is.
You love the theatre.
You love art.
You love to paint but you do not paint very well.
You make your own clothes.
You like cafes on Sunday mornings.
You like watching the All Blacks win.
You cannot sleep content until the argument is over.
You like breakfast in bed but do not complain when the toats is burnt.
You love kids.
You love french cinema.
You do not think growing up and growing old have anything to do with each other.
You like the feel of grass between your toes, the smell of warm asphalt in the rain.
You know how to play the guitar, but not very well.
You are not about money or materialism.
You like David Lynch films and Bukowski's poetry.
You have read 'The Bone People'
You like to debate worldly issues.
You do not care what people think.
You care what people feel.
You are honest, empathic, loving and tender.
You are spiritual, not religious.
You like to laugh.
You like to make other's laugh.
You are a great friend to your friends because you know when 'challenge' is appropriate.
You love music and have eclectic tastes.
You like spice; in food and life.
You never say never and don't like should.
You know the meaning of altruism.
You know your neighbours, because community is important to you.
You are loyal and believe in monogamy.
You like home-made games at Christmas time.
You have optimism in your heart and think frowns are just hard work.
You love the works of Vincent Van Gogh.
You do not run when the fear takes hold and help when help is needed.
You think it's important to take a well-day every now and then.
You are a born romantic.
You have old-fashioned values and new-age philosophies.
You love to learn.
You share the things that you feel.
You feel things deeply.
You travel the unbeaten paths.
You make friends of strangers and have strange friends.
You always give a coin to a busker.
You don't get bored in museums because you always know how to have fun.
You stand up for what you believe in.
You like to stare at the stars on clear nights and think about infinity.
You know who you are.
You believe in love.
You are true.

Do you exist?

Monday, September 27, 2010

On the Make

Falling in love
is bad for the bones
badder than coming off
the methadone.

Love is full
of phantom limbs
leaving nothing to fill
your brand new Tim's.

Love may hurt,
but I wasn't born for singularity.

Love may desert,
but that would be no rarity.

Love can only bleed
when the cut's already made.

Love can only burn
when you've had a turn.

Love can only was
if love already has.

Love is a risk
I'm willing to make
so watch out girls
I'm on the make.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

the tear

the tear
slipped over
the lid of my eye
left a trail
down my cheek
and sits
in the corner
where lips meet

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Refuse of Modernity

we are the refuse of modernity

who leave you waiting at the door
while washing piles on the floor,
who bend to pick up ten cents
and know how to wait in a line

we are the refuse of modernity

whose houses rot around us
and kids run riot around you,
who know how to share a space
and the meaning of loyalty

we are the refuse of modernity

for whom art is another planet
and reading comes in weekly's,
who never have a dollar spare
but always have an open beer

we are the refuse of modernity

whose rent will be paid next week
after the tick is sorted,
who know how to play the angles
and tell the right lies.

We live in airless spaces
and the in-between places
you fear to tread.

We do not live in computers
but we are numbers just the same.

we are the refuse of modernity

whose food grows stale
in between old dishes
piled in the kitchen sink.

we don't know where the future is
because the past still clings,

inter-generational and cultural,
socio-economic and historic,
our grievances are many

we are the refuse of modernity

of no particular race or creed,
whose belief systems
centre around nothing
but the immediacy of survival.

We do not play golf or bowls,
drink chardonnay or bubbly,
our empties are ornamental collections,
we celebrate quantity, not quality.

we are the refuse of modernity

who've been left behind.

we don't have a face for books
or know a twit or blog.
we use cash, not plastic,
play guitars, not keyboards.

We are the people you label
to fit outside your world better.

we are the dispossessed,
disenfranchised, urban fringe,
who fill the burbs with old hulks.

we collect what you have thrown away,
buy food past use-by-dates.

We are the refuse of modernity

who cry from the gutter
but laugh from the gut.

We do not want your pity
and your empathy is misplaced.

We look after our own.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Senses...

the smell of warm asphalt steaming
after the rains done leaving

the crunch of cold powder snow
the clouds have thrown

the feel of milk
on the upper lip

the sound of rain on currugated iron
the way the baby laughs again

the scent of a new-born wick in flame
the look when you forget my name

a waft of bitter coffee
past a favourite cafe

an acoustic guitar finely tuned
voicing the heart's open wound

a man feeling fear leave
letting old tears breathe

the moment before you walk the board
to breathe new life in the bard

a smile that spreads
through other's heads

a sense that nothing can spoil
what is right in this world.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

firsts...

I wrote my first poem when I was seven:

Guess what I had for tea
Fish and chips with one pea
I ate too much
I've never had such
and I died with a belly-ache in me.

I wrote my first book around eight. It was called "Bad Jelly the Witch by Spike Milligan". It was a paperback. It was my favourite book. I copied the whole thing out in pencil in an exercise book. I thought that's what writing was: the act of writing. Of course my little naive self was correct, in a way.

I saved my first dollar in ones and twos. I danced and jumped through the hall in a fit of euphoric glee. I was rich.

My first bike was a 'conqueror'. Noone else had a 'conqueror'. I loved that bike. It was blue. My friends had bmx's. They were yellow. One bot had an hmx. It was green. I loved my bike. I never wanted a bmx. Everyone wanted to ride my bike.

My first kiss was behind the toilets at Cooks Gardens in Wanganui. It was organised the day before. It was a 'pash...with tongue'. It lasted eleven seconds. I know because we timed it.

My first copulation was with the same girl, three years later.

My first 'drink' was a big brown 'lion brown'. I stole it from the crate in the garage while mum and dad were hosting a party in the vale.

My first drug was a spot of oil. My sister showed me what to do. I was eighteen. I've always been a 'late bloomer'.

My first 'taste' was opium. I'd just been dumped over the phone. I left little piles of vomit in my room and walked into the lounge in our Dunedin flat. My flatmates were shooting up. I'd always said no to that shit. I said yes, and with the loss of an old love, found a new one.

My first drug withdrawal was three months later. It didn't take. My first drug treatment was three years later. It didn't take.

My first fight was with my best friend. I didn't know how to fight. I threw sand in his face. The kids cheered.

The first time I saw my dad cry, he told me his dad died.

My first performance was in "The Nobodies From Nowhere", at the 'Four Seasons Theatre'. I was not supposed to be in it. I was five. My mum took me as a treat. I had to be up there. I jumped onto the stage and would not leave. I remember the laughter.

My second treatment was at Odyssey, 2008-2010. It took a while, but it finally took.

This is my first blog.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Penis in Therapy

Counsellor- You can talk about anything. Anything at all. What did you have for breakfast?
Penis-I don't eat breakfast, I'm a penis. I discharge breakfast. But I think we had orange juice. And a vitamin b tablet. The urine was very yellow.
Counsellor- Right, and are you having any problems in that area?
Penis- What area?
Counsellor- The piddling.
Penis- No. I can honestly say I'm a very good pisser.
Counsellor- That's good. And it's healthy that you recognise that strength.
Penis- I'm not a very good 'fucker' though.
Counsellor- Would you like to talk about that?
Penis- Well...I love fucking. Absolutely love it. But I'm way too often with the whoops.
Counsellor- The whoops.
Penis- Yeah, it's doing my head in.
Counsellor- What are the whoops?
Penis- When I come too quick.
Counsellor- And what is it that makes you whoops?
Penis- Definitely it's the fucking.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Left Wondering

So, I'm sitting on the train right? I see her a few seats away. She's so damn cute. She looks up and our eyes meet. I look away, but not too quick. I try to re-focus on the Arcade Fire in my ears. I look up again. Eyes meet again. I look away, but not too quick. Again. I try to re-focus on the Arcade Fire in my ears. I stare at my shoes.

She's putting some make-up on now. She's so damn cute. She ties her curly black hair back. I'm trying to be inconspicuous. It's not working. I wonder if I should try a smile at her. I stare at my shoes, wondering how to go about smiling. My shoes could do with a clean.

I look up again. She's not there. My god, she's walking toward me. She sits down beside me. She's so damn cute. She says Hi. I say Hi with what must be the goofiest smile ever smiled. I feel my cheeks reddening. I can't believe she's sat there. And now we're talking. Except I can't hear very well because Arcade Fire are burning in my ears. I take out the plugs.

Okay, where were we? Where are we? What are we doing? These aren't the questions we're asking each other, but these are the questions I'm asking myself in my busy little head. We smile and nod and she laughs and I think, 'she's laughing'. I fall in love. Just like that. I think I fell in love with her the moment she sat down. But now I know I'm really in love, because she's laughing and I've stopped blushing and the talk is easy and my heart is Keith Moon's drumkit. But it's my stop next stop and I have to make a decision. I don't even know her name. So I ask what her name is as the train pulls in to Morningside. I shake her hand when she tells me, and I tell her mine. It could seem formal but it doesn't because I do it in such a way that makes a joke out of the formality of it. She tells me where I can find her at tech. The student union is where she hangs. She's a student rep. Gosh I'm learning so much about my new love, it's wonderful. I leave her there and exit the train.

I can't take the smile off my face. She's so damn cute. I can't take her face from out my brain. I don't want to. If I could, I would sit and replay that moment forever; the moment that so-damn-cute girl sat next to me on the train and laughed at my words. I wonder, as I walk with that stupid smile all over me, what our kids are going to look like? When I get home I write a song about her on my guitar. It's called Morningside. It's really good, if I don't mind saying so.

The next day I track her down. It takes a lot of repeating cycles through the student union, but I finally spot her sitting in the sun, smoking a cigarette. That's something she'll have to rethink when she gets pregnant with our first. I make my way toward her, nonchalant and indifferent, as if I'm just passing by.

We pick up where yesterday's conversation left off. I've made the decision I'm going to ask her out. Just a coffee. Something easy. I've never asked a girl out before. That's pretty sad for a thirty-eight year old man, there it is. Besides, it's not quantity, but quality that counts. She's so damn cute.

I lay it on her, as cool as I can....

It's the pause that lets me know I've made a mistake. It's the moment she takes before her eyes meet mine. I can almost hear the words inside her head before she says them. And then she says them. "I'm sorry but I'm actually seeing someone. Thank you so much though, I'm really flattered."

I try to make a cool, unconcerned departure, but I don't succeed. How could I have been so wrong? Why did she sit next to me? Why did she laugh? Why did she tell me where I could find her? And how can I be so emotionally involved? I almost had the kid's middle names sussed out. She was so damn cute. I've really got to stop falling in love like this.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

More Emotion

Sorry ladies, for reigning in on your parade, but can you stop reigning in on my parade please.

I may not be able to pay for the meal (which aint easy to cop to), but I still want to pull the chair out for you. I want to open the door for you and do the driving too. I think it should be my mouth that gets us to the movies, or puts us on the dance floor together; I just have to remember where my balls are first.

You ladies criticised the power we held over you and fair enough too, but in finding your voice you forgot what it was you were speaking up for, and you've put a whole bunch of the negative shit on your own curriculum vitae. Is that what you really wanted?

Just cos you can, doesn't mean you should. What's the male equivalent of a cougar? I can't identify a label but the descriptor's sound like 'sick' and 'shallow'. It's a shame because you jeapordise the best part of what makes you. Your objectivity. Your lack of bias. Your empathy. You've always been the better person. That's why you win all the arguments. Don't let the power besmirch your legacy.

Of course this is all so much generalisation, but I'm a man. And that's how we roll.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Man Cry ...

I came off the methadone over a year ago now. I can smell things. I can taste things. I have clarity. And I feel. Boy, I feel. I'm a thirty-eight year old man and my life is just beginning.

I've done a lot of talking in the past year so I don't carry the guilt and shame any longer. I'm making good clean, pro-social friends. I'm learning to be a counsellor now. And auditioning. I got me an agent. I was down to the final two for a family violence commercial but I didn't get it. I had a day on 'Shortland Street': "Dr Gary Watkins". Be nice if that would open up, but I won't hold my breath. It'll happen eventually; I'll get some work. And with two passions in my life, I'll stay clean too.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Man Cry

I started writing "Penis, a Dialogue". I had called it "Penis, the Musical", which sounds better, but I'm no Gershwin. "Why is it, 'penis' makes such a mess in a person's mouth?" That sort of thing. Cheap laughs on one level. But on another level, exploring the gender-role switch I see taking place in our world. "Men are the new women. Women are the new men."

It started in the garden of Eden. If Adam had pleasured Eve the way he found his own pleasure within her, then perhaps our world would be a different place. 'Dick' may have become a term of endearment instead of an insult. A counsellor counsels a penis down on himself for always "whoopsing". Boys in locker rooms comparing themselves and men who's wives are doing the career thing, enjoying a weekly 'playgroup'. Anyway, it's a work in progress and any feedback is welcome.