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from Karitane Postcards
2
If I catch myself staring at an object
I must decide what I will tell you.
Gertrude Stein struggled to get rid of nouns
- the nouns had to go
- I want history to go and politics and art
and images and symbols. I am looking at a plate
of shells named after Captain Cook
and I hear my boy sleeping in the bedroom
next door. I want description to go
I want the hoons revving up over the road to go
Captain Hook that’s what Richard calls him
and his breath is a small surf through the wall.
Karitane it breathes all around my body
and the stars of the visible universe
I want the past and future to go
and my single mindedness.
[Karitane Postcards, Hazard Press, 1991]
© Rob Allan 2004 |
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