Songlines is a poem about pain and how hard lessons can come around time and time again, until they don’t.
Sing the chorus again, follow the green songlines
at dawn and dusk
notwithstanding the nauseating notes, pauses, intermissions
piano, forte, staccato, legato /
spent cords, raw throat.
The lines
exhale a kiss, inhale bread, vomit words
before it comes around again /
the damned chorus
Sing the chorus again, follow the green songlines
at dawn and dusk
notwithstanding the nauseating notes, pauses, intermissions,
piano, forte, staccato, legato /
slid into the silken silence.
The skin burns through tunes, rhythms,
and gaping silences /
bang goes the drum
bang in the middle of the chorus / ever so cheery.
Sing the chorus again, follow the green songlines
at dawn and dusk
notwithstanding the nauseating notes, pauses, intermissions,
piano, forte, staccato, legato /
Songlines at last
he jives through the tantalising tango
two left feet
words wasted
voice lost.
Sing the chorus again, follow the green songlines
at dawn and dusk
notwithstanding the nauseating notes, pauses, intermissions,
piano, forte, staccato, legato /
ears bust, brow-beaten, heart harrassed.
Songlines don’t lift
tunes don’t raise
spent bodies caught in the spiralling rotation of
chorus and verse and chorus and verse and
sing the chorus again, follow the green songlines
at dawn and dusk
notwithstanding the nauseating notes, pauses, intermissions,
piano, forte, staccato, legato /
he gasps for breath and bread / tempting new tunes.
Burn the chorus
note by note
pause by pause
verse by verse / he screams
Silence the chorus, swallow it whole!
Who penned the hollow words /
who composed the silly tune
now etched into the skull /
shedding hair and skin?
Inescapable, entrapping songlines sound on
in search of new prey
sweet, sour, mellow melodies
merge into a symphony of songlines
green, blue, purple, orange,
red, yellow, grey, black,
white, pink, brown, transparent,
shimmering, sparkling, clear, and bright.
About Post Author
Leave a Reply