eponymous

like a scrabble game you lose control of
and watch degenerate into a babelian
mess of obscure two-letter words

and the patois of language
resonating across the board is like an
exotic sea port two Friday afternoon drunks

know this watching the foxtel replay
hanging above the bar leaning into
each other as campese snatches an

unlikely intercept their body language
is like a theoretical snowflake
only time can create this

stirring from his haze the dog looks
out slowly over the roadworks towards
the shimmering blue city jerking his head

to the cranky rhythm of an insistent fly
they have seen each other here before
they have shared seasons downpours deluges

and droughts tomorrow somebody will depart
this misenscene but for the time being
being they remain unawares i know it

i am a painter a frustrated rockstar
an eye in some cities a spy through the
sound and the fury of jackhammers

and traffic it has come to this
it feels strange to stand in this place
that i have dreamed of for centuries

carved an infinity out of my finite desires
we have blasted rock and drained oceans
for this can i justify it can you?

piano to hip hop beats defines the
frame of reference minutes ago this had never
happened we have scored the surfaces

of history and the two drunks whose lives
shared the moral permanence of gold fade
into the shadows like a futures trader

disappearing after financial collapse or an
evil golem my precious my precious this has
all fallen out of the air i picked it up as it was

falling…

About the Poet
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Liam Ferney is an emerging Brisbane poet whose work has been widely published in both Australia and internationally in countries like Canada, the United States and New Zealand. His first collection of poetry, Popular Mechanics, is due to be published by Interactive Press in Autumn of 2004. His work was recently Highly Commended in the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for unpublished manuscripts and he is currently Poetry Editor at Voiceworks. In his spare time he writes short stories and journalism, works in media analysis and rallies against the Pax Americana.