The first day back
Breezed in just before nine
the parking guy was the same,
the front desk the same
the elevator rode up slowly
oily hydraulic towers of chrome
I think the MD might have been in there with me
But I wasn;t looking at him
Occurred to me later.
The office hadn’t changed
Perceptibly
Joel; was his usual A.D.D self
hopping from one thought to another
keeping me amused
He played some soundgarden track which he has sent me for ‘analaysis’
Thus far it seems to be 6/4 with a 12 bar chorus hmmmmmm
He announces to me later he is now a single man
What about the wedding
Nonchalantly he says she’s living with her brother
It’s happened before
Maybe it’ll come back together
Hope so, bit of a shock
Outwardly no sign of a reaction.
I shovelled emails out of the inbox like I’d been snowed in in a blizzard
Torched em
Burned em
Replied
Sat mystified at some of the responses and conversations.
The other demands flowed in
I felt sluggish
Moving with lead weight mind
Getting back into the zone of having to think fast
Act fast
Big picture.
No major achievements
No victories
Came home and cooked quietly
the remaindered chicken
Did it in a pastsa sauce
Same for tomorrow
Don’t have to think about dinner.
Then I was going to study and watched the voice
Marvelled at the contestants
Teared up a few times
Then got on with my new plan
Learn some jazz standards
Over the rainbow fluttered into my mind
So I spent an hour or more
Finding jazz charts
And eventually through listening to the Garland version
I put together something
I think could work
Could also just be instrumental- more work on the walking bass needed.

1030 now,
no home work done
Half a glass of wine
Next door they were making babies again
Can’t help but hear her
Screaming through the wall
Surely they hear me
Maybe they’re not bothered.
Good luck to ‘em

The glossy black door closes behind me, a car doing more than the requisite 40kmh collides with a sleeping policeman making a lumpy low frequency sound, succefully over the hump, it sails down Greville, past the thick red brick of ‘Sunrise Confectioners’. It used to be the home of the natural confectionary company who now are way to big for those boots. The big decision is what to have for lunch. Down at Chapel Street I could easily navigate my way to the N Tran bakery, order something completely normal; like the ham and salad roll, the condiments contained in a wafer thin French style roll. They always ask you things in high speed code- ‘sol, pepper, maynaise’? “No mayonaise thanks” I offer. I sit in the window and watch the flotsam and jetsam of humanity go past. An intersting mix of Prahran Chic meets housing commission dropout. N Tran is sandwiched between two ‘two dollar’ shops seems to attract the lesser end of the human scale. Down past the video store with the memory of ham hanging onto the follicles of my teeth I pass ‘Blockbuster’ and Dan Murphy’s. Someone just coming out and opening a tin of Johnny Walker and coke, at midday! Down to the Coles emporium, least that’s what it was once called. Rows and rows of carefully calculated consumer artifacts aligned to make your eye notice the bargains and specials, to make you hand move without will to secure them…

Number of lines: 6
Toggling pattern: E E I E E I
Rhyme scheme: XXAXXA
Lyric meter: 3 3 5 3 3 5

A tin of Johnny Walker
A sleeping policeman
toady I’m walking on ice that’s wafer thin
40 k’s per hour
I step in front of the car
Johnny Walker helped me make my the big decision

I buy a chicken
roasted from woolies
thinking it’s the easy dinner plan
do some study
get that all sorted
and then I find a message from my mate Mr Wes
I invite him over for mock roast dinner
the chicken all ready
vegetables to prepare
parsnips and brussels and zuccini slices
whipped up in a snap
with the tastiest choices
we catch up on things
how he’s looking for work
not worried right now
but doesn’t want to spend
too much time out of the loop
maybe there’s something for him overseas
feelers and tendrils being released
be nice if something came through soon.
Homework is listening to
‘hey Jude’
bloody nine bar sections- hoping I am right!
but it all comes back into balance by the end

Getting those lines right,
Slapping the brush on the sides of the tray
Letting the brush hold just the right amount of paint
Edging in
Letting the edge of the brush act like a razor between skirting board and wall
A tide of shining gloss white,
oozing like lava
The the filling in
Masking tape on the floorboards
Little spots missed,
Drips of paint – water based, thank god
Wiped from the boards with a damp cloth
Looks like something from ‘Susan’
a former white tank top tee
The smell of the paint, chemical, new
Though this one’s not oil based
- just washes out in water
The dog has been mad
Thinking I’m an intruder
Every box I lift it yaps its head off
Even launched at me with open jaw and bit
Just a slight puncture wound
Thank god there’s no venom.
Little Bertie, how could he be so vicious?
Don’t let him free near small children
The drive to Ringwood and back
Along the Eastern
Under the Mullulm mullum tunnel
Flicking lights on
Held up by a truck full of removals on the way out
Feeling the demands of the day catch up with me on the drive home
Weariness and yawning
My mouth a Rio Grande
Wide wide wide.
My weariness as wide as the pacific
And home I do lightweight things
Post some pictures
Cook steak and veg for dinner-
with some lovely home grown carrots from sister Glenis’s garden
some Cadbury’s and sauvignon blanc for company
I’ve talked to the girl
Thousands of miles away
She’ll be in tonight too.

I’d ordered the NASI Goreng seafood
And got my number six
I was waiting patiently
While the TV had on Nix
A man from DHL came in
Dressed in yellow cover
Asked about a package
That needed to be delivered
To be picked up from someone
Or another
Everybody seemed to be
Of Asian extraction
Though this might have been
Bejing meeting Hanoi
Different language.
It seemed that something out the back
Had to be picked up
The chef in white with half moon mo
Didn’t have the time
The man from DHL
Getting shirty by the minute
Made the half moon man
go out back to find it
The thing that was missing
The thing that was bound for somewhere
A lots of shouts and cajoling
To the old man picking up dishes
Who also seemed to be the chief cook and bottle washer
Did it all in a minute

My noodles came
I shoved about
Between the strands of wheat
Looking for something to eat that
had come from the sea
I found down there
In a locket
Three luscious juicy prawns
Some strips of calamari too
And that was about what I could
Seafood starter
Tofu logs
All done in some sauce
Adequate to fill my tum
But they won’t get my return.

It’s important that everyone knows
How every moment goes
How every eye-blink passes
It’s all got be broadcast
Update that
Update this
I’m connected to you all
What’s my status?

Who said the world of the internet
Was gonna make it easier
I’ll google that
They’ve got a lot to answer for
My eyes are turning into Pixels
My 3 d brain is supersized
But it just seems full of nothing
What do I learn from all this flipping
The internet is eating my brain

It’s important that everyone knows
How every moment goes
How every eye-blink passes
It’s all got be broadcast
Update that
Update this
I’m connected to you all
What’s my status?

Is there a cure on Google answers
links one to nine might be a chance
have I got time to upload a photo
no can’t do it now
got to go to work
think I ‘ll let everyone know

It’s important that everyone knows
How every moment goes
How every eye-blink passes
It’s all got be broadcast
Update that
Update this
I’m connected to you all
What’s my status?

.
You’re The last fish in the ocean
The last catch of the day
The last chance for the last chance
Might be the one, that gets away

Lookin’ in the rearview
And I saw you
In a bronze BMW
Puttin’ on your lipstick
At the change of the lights
Your lips shining with pink spotlights
And we got the go as things changed to green
And I lost that shade of pink
In the afternoon traffic

And I thought – yeah- I could go for something like that
yeah- I could go for something like that

You turned up again
pulled alongside At another set of lights
And I snuck a glance off to the side
You were talking on your phone
With a star wars ears piece on
Maybe working out some deal
That you needed to seal
pouring soothing oil
with those manicured lips
before the lights changed again

and I was thinking– yeah- I could go for something like that
yeah- I could go for something like that

I was following at a lazy distance
Wonderin’ where you might be going
On this sunny afternoon
I was wondering about the street you might live in

And when the traffic stood still
my mind began to dwell
On what it might be like
To live your kind of life
To be a big wheel
the one making the deal
And if you could be interested in
Someone like me
I wondered what might happen
If we were to meet

I was thinking yeah- I could go for something like that
yeah- I could go for something like that

Well hello great a uncle Harry
We haven’t met before …….you and I
So it’s a big how do you do
It’ll be nice to spend some time with you

I’m glad I’ve found you here
Got so many things I want to share
About what’s been happenin’ with everyone
Since you went missing

Sure is a nice place you got here

The sky seems a shade of brilliant blue
The wind is whispering in the pines
Let’s just spend some time together
Lets’ just spend this time
‘talking about the past
So glad that I found you

I’ve bought some photos with me
And a history of the family
Look here’s one of your sister
I bet you missed her
I’m her daughters daughter
She sure missed you all these years

The sky seems tinged with a soft grey hue
Pufffy clouds like puffy eyes
Let’s just spend some time together
Lets’ just spend this time
‘talking about the past
So glad that I found you

INST

You know it took me all morning
to read through all those names
Engraved in sandy stone
Maybe some of them were your comrades
Up there at Lone pine
I hope your taking it easy
In your bivouac there in heaven

Is the sky a brilliant white where you are now?
Is the wind whispering prayers
Let’s just spend this time together
Lets’ just spend this time
‘talking about the past
I’ll listen to the wind whispering through the pines
Let’s just spend this time
Lets’ just spend this time
Maybe I’ll hear your voice
Let’s just spend this time together

You’ve got worms
You’ve got worms
They’ll make my P.C writhe and squirm
It might have a fit
And stop working soon
If i take this any further
Yes, you’ve got worms

My dog was acting funny
Itching all the time
Yelping and whining in the middle of the night
Running round his basket
I thought he might have fleas
I took him to the vet to diagnose the disease
it Didn’t take a minute
For him to find the cause
It’s simple he said
You’ve got worms

You’ve got worms
You’ve got worms
Showing all of the classic symptoms
Here’s some tablets
to make them go away
You’ve got worms

Worms worms
They get into everything
Worms worms
They wriggle like jelly beans In a popcorn maker
Worms

Just came back from a trip to Africa
Saw some pretty horrid things over there
Tape worms coming out of people’s feet
all sorts of poverty and disease
Ain’t been feeling to flash lately
Looking up my symptoms on the internet
to see what it might be
hate to say it but one my conclusion
is that I might have worms

Worms worms
They get into everything
Worms worms
They wriggle like jelly beans In a popcorn maker
Worms

At them moment its not bad
but it  might get worse
Sure hope I ain’t got worms.

[This started from an article that said Cameron Diaz websites were the most heavily poluted sites for Viruses, Mallware, spyware and WORMS!]