Five Poems by Mark Young

Language Gamelan

(A Tom Beckett Title)

 

I quickly get baffled by all the

dialects. Maybe it's those per-

cussive instruments interfering

with my mental processes, even

 

though there is a belief that the

sound & rhythm can put you

in touch with the universe. The

stars seem so far away. Not so

 

their music. When I Bluetooth

my cellphone to my earbuds,

some conversations seem to have

a separate sonic accompaniment.

 

People say it's static. I prefer to re-

gard it in Pythagorean terms, as

music of the spheres, played in a

way that brings Bach back to me.

 

The passing of time

 

Backing out at slow speed

I find this user has no pub-

lic photos, has even sold out

of life & limb & is no longer

available. You'd think that

nothing would be left, but

there's always something,

even if it's just green juice!

Causes chills in any genre,

even if it appears just once, &

that in the opening minutes.

 

Friday @ 3.45 p.m.

 

The moon comes up in the after-

noon. A solitary hawk silently

circles in the sky, in the same area

that thirteen black cockatoos squaw-

ked their way through yesterday. I

am taking the washing off the line,

standing in the shade that the house

casts at this time of day. It is 99°F so

I put the sprinkler on on the front

lawn once the washing's off, noting

that there's country music playing

once again from the house across

the road. It confirms my belief that

whilst country performers may not

be stupid, the people that listen to

it are. Noting also that the oxblood

lilies in the garden by the driveway

are all in flower with almost no help

from human hand. I take the washing

upstairs, bring the empty basket back

down. There are black cockatoos in

the same section of sky as yesterday,

a diminished flock, only three today.

I wonder where the others might be.

 

A line from Kurt Schwitters (4)

 

Inside the history & science of

cardiac disease, little is known

about the effects of macro- &

micronutrients apart from the

 

fact they are usually most effi-

cacious during a stressed state.

Confronted by a problem space

that just opened up & a constant

 

awareness of the situation's in-

herent instability, Ahab heard

these words, "The kiosk closes at

3pm," & remembered  how the

 

emotional side of history tended

to reverberate, like wood against

sackcloth, as the lens of cognitive

narratology isolated the heart.

 

Sonic Shadows

(A Tom Beckett Title)

 

An anthropomorphic black hedge-

hog with high specificity & sensitivity

explodes on stage declaiming "a posi-

tive is positive!" Really? So sure of

 

themselves? But then, I guess that's

what specificity means in a testing

environment. Another hedgehog e-

merges from the shadows, smiles at

 

the audience &, in a confidential tone,

says to them "I'm not that sensitive,

but all this talk of testing makes my

testes hurt. Oh boy, am I blue today." 

 

 

 

 

Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty-five years, & is the author of around eighty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, non-fiction, & art history. Recently published books include Balance, from Neo-Mimeo Editions, Nualláin House, Monte Rio, California & From the Cave’s jukebox, from Sandy Press, Santa Barbara, California.