The Best Australian Poems 2011 by John Tranter Page B

when the dream sweats me
    I love work making people happy making people forget me
    I love work right back to the seventies right back to the fifties right back
    I love work in deepest pleasures my mind bent to its inner curve
    I love work when night straightens its back and stands
    I love work filling the gaps of fallen teeth
    I love work seeding the future with an irretrievable me

The Red Gurnard
Louise Oxley
    Silence is argument carried on by other means
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â â€”Che Guevara
    Against an outgoing tide
    he comes up sluggish and sideways
    like a reluctant No ,
    Â 
    breaks the surface
    and spins under my arm,
    his shocked skin flashing orange.
    Â 
    There is only unhinged mouthing
    and raised hackles; his panic
    is a slow internal bleed.
    Â 
    I know who he is:
    shape-shifter from a life
    with other rules for beauty,
    Â 
    for movement and sensation;
    a wet and breathless life.
    We’re spellbound:
    Â 
    I only have eyes for his eyes,
    black from the grottos,
    his faltering fins,
    Â 
    his undersea sail in tatters,
    his sequined sides,
    his crown of spines.
    Â 
    Kiss me now , he says,
    his argument perfectly formed.

A Manual of Style
Geoff Page
    for Bernie McGann
    Â 
    Gruff at times but not ill-mannered
    Â 
    A hint of old-time dancing but
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the flattened fifths as well
    Â 
    Laconic, yes, but savage too
    Â 
    Angular, with no glass broken
    Â 
    Sad though far from sentimental
    Â 
    Aged but never out of date
    Â 
    Metallic but with friendly alloys
    Â 
    Unique but straight on down the strait
    Â 
    Legato, yes, for preference
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â but still there at the turns.
    Â 
    The low notes hoarse the high no less so
    Â 
    Harmony remembered and euphony forsworn
    Â 
    The late-night book of smoky clichés
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â always pushed away
    Â 
    Minor third without the third
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â as T. Monk used to say

‘This is the Only Place...’
Eddie Paterson
    THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE I’VE EVER HEARD ANYONE PLAY THE SOUNDTRACK FROM GHOSTBUSTERS sadly my dad is not rapping in hebrew with his rainstick, it just sits there next to the pile of newspapers we have … i spent good money on that thing, do you want bubblegum for your cough?is cute & we have fought twice, which isn’t bad. (both times about her mobile.) my results were ok, but not perfect. there is a castle here. grandma is convinced a MUSLIM woman is cutting the heads off her gardenias. she is covered in a layer of what appears to be fine dust. or ash. perhaps i’m a marxist? this is not likecoming out in one he was the bigfoot & he & neil diamond were selling an album they’ve made on garage band i went to see kevin johansen play for a second time. drunk a lot of mate. haven’t got a job. today i helped a man catch his runaway donkey. but i had better start from the start, everything else in tokyo seems to be just as good as

 
    their toilets, it’s weird to be in a place with no bogans tomorrow we’re going to disneyland! my boss watched centrestage … she tell me to write this movie … i want a nice bed linen … i loved so much to stay the wife … i want that here in japan i am an old man. & you are a beautiful chicken. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! this marks one week without an infection. no pus for you! we are professional blueberry pickers. we are now professional apple pickers. sorry for my lacadazeical approach & spelling of lackadazecal i am the quote dirty dirty child who doesn’t succeed & hasn’t made the movie of the year. love, john-hair-implants-didnt-work-galliano o i think i can be famous … but i feel tired … please lets go shopping i miss you like it is winter here.

Ripples under the Skin
Janette