Two Poems by Terry Wheeler

 

in a gadda da vida

 

(1) ablutions

 

the rituals

of baths

 

being scrubbed 

washing of hair

 

eyes stinging 

 

don’t recall

the first shower

 

standing solo

taking the reins

 

all the rites

 

of passage

become a blur

 

suds swirling 

down a drain

 

(2) romper room

 

ready mister

music for 

 

ode to joy

sounds better

 

in german but

 

english will do

we’ll look again

 

into a magic 

mirror to see 

 

the boys and 

 

girls we were

those do bees

 

buzzing eager

to please

 

(3) in a gadda da vida

 

an overture

with sixties’

 

pastels before

colours turn

 

garish and

 

everyone takes

a virtuoso solo

 

childhood snaps

from pop song

 

simplicity into

 

puberty’s raw

complexity 

 

testing every

boundary

 

dracula 

 

(1)

 

no one 

thought bram

 

had it in him

grew up by

 

the sea 

 

at clontarf 

after trinity

 

worked for

dublin castle

 

in london

 

he kept

the lyceum 

 

afloat a very

dark horse

 

(2)

 

fin de siecle 

yellow cover

 

a victorian

appetite for

 

the gothic 

 

where jack

the ripper

 

was uncaught

blood lust in

 

newspapers

 

a jingoism

swaying to

 

the lilt of an

imperialist boot

 

(3)

 

sex was

the monster

 

that troubled

stoker most

 

on saint

 

george’s day

evil things

 

have their

sway big

 

and little

 

are mixed

a sign of 

 

the cross 

and crucifix

 

 

(4)

 

enter freely

and of your

 

own will

handshake 

 

more dead

 

than alive

the count

 

based on

theatrical 

 

henry irving 

 

who held 

bram in his

 

sway from 

a tender age

 

(5)

 

a sea of 

wonders

 

whitby where

he holidayed 

 

with his family 

 

esk river

the viaduct 

 

abbey ruins

on a schooner 

 

sway wooden 

 

boxes with 

mysterious 

 

soil from

transylvania

Terry Wheeler - After graduating from law school in the late 1980s Terry worked in the Australian public service for decades. He was inspired to write after seeing Michael Dransfield poems in The Australian newspaper when a teenager. Terry has been published in Australia and abroad since retiring. He lives in Brisbane when not travelling.