Monday 19 June 2023

Five Poems by Terry Wheeler




earworms (kylie dub)

 

can’t get you out of my head

over you day and night

night and day you are the one

is the loneliest number

within you and without you

i can’t live i can’t give anymore

 

lucky lucky lucky i should be

and i love you so

ask me why i may be mad

sounds in your ears make

you feelin’ alright not feelin’

it’s all too much for me

 

do the loco-motion come on

in my kitchen it was

the way i made you feel

to be without a home

i still call australia

what a long strange trip it’s been


 

 

come on in my kitchen 

 

keith richards first

suspected another guitarist

 

in sonic mist

of crackling notes

 

a descending bass

line conjuring demons

 

big microphone and

hands on fire

 

the deal was

done for peanuts

 

in that dusty

texas hotel room

 

as blunt needle

scratched the grooves

 

a hole opened

in the universe

 

better come on

in my kitchen

 

it's goin' to

be rainin' outdoors


 

 

madame george

 

ram dass 

recommended 

 

treat everyone 

you meet like

 

god in drag

 

born again

each time

 

listening to

madame george

 

the back streets 

 

of saint lucia

penny dropped

 

another time

another place


 

 

lost highway

 

hitchhiking from

california to texas

 

to visit his 

sick mother 

 

leon payne

 

unable to thumb

a ride waiting

 

for help from

the salvos

 

started writing 

 

a rolling stone

all alone and lost

 

for a life of sin

have paid the cost


 

 

old treetops nocturne 

 

moment to listen

new symphonies beckon

 

with their stellar 

la la las

 

butterfly notes flutter

in looping combination

 

horny coucals' deep

whoop whoop whoop

 

fuck you bird's

eruptive tourette tic

 

against insect staccato

psycho shower strings

 

mosquito buzz keeping

the bottom end

 

humans humming happy
birthday to you





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.

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