Author Archives: Damian Garside

SHOSHONE

SHOSHONE

you were so in
need of the fruit
from the tree of antithesis

when I came upon you
arrived on the scene
slithered amongst you
rattling my
     tail off to wake
you up

not much hope there
popping gobstopper-sized
pills to kill
your anxiety

already
you can see what
it has done to
your internal rhyme

scheme and system
pretty much shot to Hell

last to say this, for
obvious reasons, but
right now,
      at this juncture, need
to stand
outside yourself, commit
to alterity, flick
         switch to at least
semi-
    Slavoj

dialectic might be just
a pipe dream
   but what better
pipe
    conduit to great
spirit do we
full Shoshone have?
  
    

JOZIE

JOZIE

hours later
my eyes
still glued to the road

except
this is all afterburn
the road is inside my head

oh Jozie
flashiest of cities
will you
flash for me
as I flash by

naked on the hotel bed
I feel gravity, taste relativity

conjure you up
from every mixed memory
(and
   much mixed metaphor —
woefully so)

the mirror is like
the bottom of the sea

so far inland but
I can hear the waves in
False Bay roaring

but is this dream
trajectory
    or am I now, at last,
speeding homeward?

so many souls leaving
not staying, refusing
to stick around in case
of a grand finale

jaw-dropping twist
in the ending

     like when you
first confessed your nakedness

HERE!

HERE!

here’s my poem
do
   what you will
with it
have your wicked way with it

enquire, explore,
immerse
               yourself

see what you can fathom
look for what you can find

but
     what is this here

submarine-like, shark-
like
    meeting you as you
submerge

moving like
a machine

dreadnaught of the deep
words
       to probe you
as you sleep