Magdalena Ball #6 To Prove I’m a Bastard in response to Nathan Curnow #1 Versing

To Prove I’m a Bastard 

in response to Nathan Curnow #1 Versing

 that’s it     there     the slippery dip your spine        

    in context

            where we met on the playground

signals into       stones

or sticks      but not broken bones     not then

 

now it’s all coffee         and barking dogs

        the wind turns   maybe a storm is brewing

while     you drive the colloquial

         create trends       speak in tongues

                  promise all the things  

         saliva slides down

                     the chin those

              lovely lies

 

            wishing on cigarette butts

      do people      really still

cellulose acetate damp with addiction

            sticky with it    almost sweet

like little pastries    like words    

              like discarded birds

 

it was all concrete   shuffling in an empty

                    school yard

leaning towards the idea of children playing

an abstraction   did someone 

         say sweet

 

           none of this feng shui

     snowflakes against eyelashes

everyone       has to be first in the queue 

so the rest of us can be last    

pretending to be

             the bastard

            cause who wants to be victim

 

once it was possible to be subversive

            who could guess

what we’d      become

reminiscing about greenery 

caching thoughts in     blood red ink

         don’t be goth it was just ink

tomorrow          is another newspaper